“You are the only witness, Aveen. I need you to come with me,” he repeated, taking my trembling hand. “We will be with you the entire time.”
We will be with you.
Somehow, two princes and a pooka had become my family. As frightened as I was, I didn’t have to go on my own.
I nodded, and he eased the door aside.
Unlike the other times I’d seen it, the great hall was empty save two people: Tadhg and someone I couldn’t see from behind his broad shoulders.
He didn’t step aside until I reached the top of the dais.
And I saw the merrow from the fountain.
Her tail had been replaced by two long, narrow legs of skin and bone. She stared at me through bulbous black eyes. Blinked. And smiled a sharp, black-toothed smile.
Shadows leaked from beneath Tadhg’s shirt cuffs, twisting around her torso. She didn’t struggle or fight, just kept staring at me and smiling.
Rumbling laughter erupted from the hallway.
A man strolled in, tall and broad. Mousy brown hair and a sloping jaw. I knew him. He’d been the one to accuse Anwen.
When he saw the merrow, he stilled.
And then his eyes flew to me.
The color leached from his face, leaving him as white as his shirt. He whirled, but Ruairi blocked his exit, a twisted smile on his lips. The man flicked his wrist. Nothing happened.
“Ah, Madden. Muireann.” Rían clapped his hands beneath his chin, jogging down the dais steps. “Nice of you to join us.”
Madden jabbed a thick finger toward the merrow. “The bitch made me do it. She made me.”
Rían’s head tilted. I could hear the smile in his voice when he said, “Made you do what, Madden?”
“Take the human to the Forest.”
“Liar!” Muireann hissed, wriggling inside the bonds.
“And which human is that?” Rían asked.
Madden’s hand shook when he pointed to me. Tadhg gave me a reassuring smile. Ruairi winked at me from the door.
For some reason, I had assumed the man would try to deny his involvement. That he’d protest his innocence.
Then I remembered: Rían couldsmelllies.
So instead, Madden was blaming the merrow.
Rían folded his arms over his chest, looking and sounding like a stern father giving out to his son for being bold. “And how did she ‘make’ you, Madden?”
Madden’s mouth opened and closed, the skin around his loose jaw jiggling with the movement. “She . . . I . . . You see—”
Rían shook his head. “I don’t see.” He flicked his wrist, and a dagger appeared. Madden stumbled back, colliding with Ruairi. Rían raised his free hand. Madden’s right hand jerked into the air and slammed against the wall with asmack.
“I canmakeyou cut off your own fingers.” Rían forced the dagger into the giant’s left hand and flicked his wrist. Madden’s face turned a deep shade of red. A vein in his forehead bulged. He struggled and cursed, bringing the dagger to his smallest digit.
Then he sawed it clean off.
Madden’s broken cry reverberated off the high ceiling. The finger fell onto the floor next to Rían’s boot. I clutched my churning stomach. Bile forced its way up my throat.