She took something precious from me.
I remembered another day when we’d sat by another sea, speaking of wishes and dreams. How different Rían’s had been from my own. Even for all my despair, I had been able to find some peace and solace in my fantasy.
Rían had wished for murder and death because someone had taken something from him.
Not something.Someone.
“Your vengeance,” I whispered.
A nod.
And I’d dismissed his heartache as a waste of a wish. I was a fool. A bloody foolish fool.
Rían deserved his vengeance.
Rían deserved retribution for what the Queen had taken from him.
I reached for a hand that didn’t belong to him. “You have the dagger now. Why don’t you just kill her?”
His fingers tightened around mine. “If a true immortal cuts another using that cursed blade, the curse will claim them both.”
Stupid fae rules. What good was an invincible weapon no one could wield?
Except, Keelynn had used it to kill Tadhg and the witch who’d cursed him.
If a true immortal cuts another. . .
Keelynn wasn’t an immortal.
Keelynn was human.
“A human can use it.”
Rían nodded. “All it takes is a single cut for the curse to steal our life force. But since no human can enter the Forest without her permission . . .”
If no human could reach the Queen, then she could never be killed.
“You see the problem,” he finished, slipping a hand around my shoulder and drawing me into his embrace.
“What if the Queen leaves the Forest?”
“She doesn’t.”
“But what if you convinced her to? I’m human. And we both know I have it in me to stab someone.”
“You’re not human.”
What was he on about? Of course, I was a bloody human.
He pressed a tender kiss to my hair. “You’re mine.”
* * *
On my way to the dining room that evening, I caught Tadhg drinking alone in the parlor.
Again.
Curtains drawn, no fire in the hearth, drowning himself in drink and darkness.