Rían blinked wide blue eyes, his jaw pulsing.
“Did you cross the river?” Tadhg pressed.
I shook my head.
Ruairi took a step toward me. My chest tightened. “Aveen? Is it all right if I come closer?”
Holding my breath, I nodded. He sniffed the air, my hair, my face, my dress, my hands. And then his wide yellow eyes flew to Rían.
Tadhg clapped the pooka on the shoulder. “We will handle it,” he vowed, voice low. Lethal.
All Rían did was nod and evanesce to his room. He set me down, keeping me steady with a gentle hand until I could hold my own weight.
With a flick of his wrist, a tub appeared, filled with steaming water.
I gripped the edge, staring down at my rippling reflection. The dirt on my face. The terror still in my wide eyes. The bits of leaves and twigs sticking out of my wild hair.
“I’m sorry,” I said
I’d been a fool. I should’ve checked the eyes. I knew the tricks Rían played. That he could impersonate anyone he wished. I should’ve known other Danú could have the same abilities.
He opened his mouth, then shook his head and motioned me forward. I stared down at the raw, red marks on my wrists as he unfastened the buttons on my dress and dragged it off, adding it to the fire along with my shift.
He didn’t turn around when I climbed into the hot bath and let the water close around me.
My wrists hit the water, burning like the fire Rían stared into. “Are you going to speak to me?”
He didn’t respond.
“I’m sorry that I—”
“Stop apologizing for something that is not your fault.”
It may not have been my fault, but, “I should’ve known better.”
His shoulders rose and fell. “No,Ishould’ve known better. This is my world, not yours. I never should’ve lifted those feckin’ wards.” He cursed.
“Where was Ruairi?” He should’ve been waiting for me instead of whoever had glamoured himself to look like my friend.
Rían’s head fell. “He said you left him a note to meet him in the kitchens.”
Someone had gone through the trouble of distracting Ruairi and impersonating him the a day Rían was out of town. They had planned this. And I’d fallen into their trap, all because I had forgotten to look at the man’s bloody eyes.
I scrubbed my skin and scalp until both were sore. Icy dread gathered like frost in my chest. How did we move past this?
Unsteadily, I rose to my feet. Water droplets rolled down my skin, making me shiver.
What if they didn’t catch the people responsible? What if they came back for me? What if they turned their sights on my sister?
Rían wrapped me in a towel, his movements warm and gentle, so at odds with the cold distance in his faraway eyes. A shift appeared on the end of the mattress. I didn’t have it in me to change. Instead, I went straight to the bed and curled up beneath the covers. The moment my head hit the pillow, my heavy eyelids closed. And I was back in the Forest, blind, running for my life.
The mattress dipped. Rían’s body molded to mine.
I never wanted to leave this castle. Never wanted to leave this room. This beautiful, wild land that had been my sanctuary had swiftly become my nightmare.
“I got a cat for my fifth birthday,” Rían said, his chin rubbing my temple when he spoke. “I named him Sir Fluffy Paws.”
I curled my cold hands into the collar of his shirt, needing his heat to warm my frigid fingers. “That’s a good name,” I whispered, tears pricking the backs of my eyes.