The merrow’s smile returned. As if all of this was some sort of twisted game.
“See there?” Rían drawled. “That’s memakingyou do something. Do you know what else I could do?”
“P-please . . .” Madden whimpered, tears streaming down his cheeks. He wouldn’t have spared me if I’d cried. If I’d begged.
Rían’s teeth flashed. “I could do it myself.”
Rían yanked the knife free and hacked off the man’s three remaining fingers.
Madden wailed, gripping his bloody stump at the wrist, trying to pull free from the blood-soaked wall.
“Now, Madden.” Rían caught the man’s chin, forcing him to look forward. Blood dripped down the blade in his other hand, splattering on his boots. “Did Muireannmakeyou take my hostage? Because I find it hard to believe a strapping lad such as yourself could be so easily coerced by a rotting fish.”
“No, no, Prince Rían. She—she told me if I helped her . . . I’d be gettin’ back at ye fer lettin’ that bitch off without so much as a feckin’ day in the dungeon.”
Chuckling, Tadhg muttered something under his breath. Beside him, Muireann’s smile faltered.
Rían brought the dagger to his own chest, pointing at himself with the bloody tip. Drops of red bloomed on his pristine white shirt. “So, this is aboutmethen. You thought it’d be a good idea to take something fromme?” Clicking his tongue, he shook his head. “That was a silly thing to do, wasn’t it?”
A choked sob broke from Madden’s chest. “I’m sorry—”
“Are you now? Brilliant. I suppose I should let you go then.”
The man sniveled and sniffed, scrubbing his nose on his shirtsleeve. His blood oozed down the wall. Pooled by his scuffed boots.
“Or I could bring you downstairs.”
“No. No.” Madden wailed. “P-please—”
Rían collected Madden’s bloody digits from the floor, tucking them into the man’s waistcoat pocket. He gave them a pat and said, “I’ll see you soon.”
With a flick of his wrist, Madden vanished.
And then Rían turned.
Lifting her chin, the merrow glared down her straight nose at the prince. “We both know it’s only a matter of time before she comes to take your plaything away,” she sneered. “Do you really think—”
Rían evanesced, raised his dagger, and sliced the merrow from ear to ear.
Blood sprayed. She collapsed with a choked gurgle.
My stomach lurched and twisted, but I didn’t have it in me to feel sorry for them.
I had donenothing. And yet they’d been willing to sacrifice me to get to Rían.
You are my only weakness . . .
The world had found out. And it had come for me.
Rían dropped to his knee next to Muireann, pressed a hand to her still chest, and inhaled a deep, slow breath. The merrow’s face wrinkled as the skin around her cheeks and eyes sank into her skull, aging the woman a hundred years.
Ruairi and Tadhg surrounded me, asking if I was all right, blocking my view of the body. Although I told them I was fine, I wasn’t sure how I felt.
Rían squeezed between them, bringing a hand to my cheek. Although he’d changed his clothes, I could still smell the blood. “Aveen, I’m so—”
“I do hope I’m not interrupting,” a woman’s pleasant voice called from the doorway.
Rían jerked back.