Bloody hell.
Rían was kissing me.
Why was he kissing me? Why did I like it so much? It had been one thing to kiss him in my room that first night. I knew better now. I should pull away. I shouldn’t close my eyes and let the slick heat of his tongue sliding across the seam of my lips convince me to open my mouth so he could slip inside.
Someone called for Edward. A woman.
All at once, the pressure in my mind eased. The stench and footsteps retreated.
Rían’s hands came around my ribs, skimming below my breast. I arched into his caress, loving the way it burned. His fingers constricted as they drifted higher. A low growl vibrated against my chest. I kissed him with every ounce of fear and terror, drinking in his magic, wishing I could feel it moving inside of me.Could feelhimmoving inside of me.
He tasted like the shadows. Overwhelmed like the sea. Consumed like an inferno.I didn’t know what caused this fire blazing through my veins or why it only happened with him, but I craved it.
To my detriment, I craved it.
Rían tore his mouth from mine and shoved me away. My hip collided with the bench just as a woman’s scream pierced the night.
“Get inside before I send you to the underworld myself,” he spat, gesturing toward the house, eyes narrowed and lips swollen.
My knees unlocked. I fled for the manor. A crowd of men flooded down the stairs, shouting and pointing. Women waited on the balcony, hands pressed to their chests, covering their lips, fanning themselves as they stared into the darkness. If anyone saw me now, they’d start asking questions. I found a familiar head of dark curls leaning over the railing. Keelynn was safe. Nothing else mattered.
I turned right, racing to the evergreens edging our property, following the trail to the other side of the house, praying the Dullahan was gone. In all the commotion, I slipped back in through the main doors unnoticed and raced to find an eerily empty ballroom. Keelynn stood on the stairs, calling my name. When she saw me, she collected me in a hug so fierce it felt as if my bones would shatter.
“What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”
“It’s Lady Eithne.” The fire in my blood turned to ice when Keelynn took my gloved hands in hers and said, “She’s dead.”
11
After what had happenedlast night, I expected to see Rían.
But Rían never showed.
12
It had beena week since my sister’s birthday ball, and I hadn’t seen or heard from Rían once. Lady Eithne’s funeral on Wednesday had been packed with false mourners more interested in gossiping about the deceased than shedding tears over her passing. There hadn’t been a damp eye in sight. Even her husband had seemed oddly relieved.
I couldn’t help thinking of Charlie as Keelynn and I huddled at the graveside beneath a shared umbrella, rain pummelling the mound of fresh earth next to the hole in the ground. Had there been a funeral for the grogoch? What about the witch? Did they have family back in Tearmann to mourn them? Or were their lives to be forgotten like smoke in the wind?
Eithne wouldn’t be forgotten. Her headstone was twice the size of the ones next to it.
The doctor had claimed Eithne died of an aneurysm.
I knew the truth: The Dullahan had claimed her life.
He’s not here for you, Rían had said only moments before he’d kissed me.
It had been his kiss, not the headless monster, that had plagued my dreams. The feel of him. The taste of him. The hunger and desperation. Our first kiss had been nothing more than a shocking brush. The way he’d kissed me in the garden . . .
There had been passion. But also despair.
So much despair.
Despair that now grew like a vicious weed inside my head and my heart. I shouldn’t want to see him again. I shouldn’t want anything to do with a man who would allow his lover to be murdered so viciously.
And yet, every time I came across a pair of blue eyes, my heart leapt.
As much as I wanted to stay hidden, there were things to be done. The ferns needed transplanted from the greenhouse to the raised bed near the pond, and the hazel needed to be thinned. Our gardeners could do it all, but they knew to wait for my permission before tackling any of the tasks in case I wanted to do them myself. And I did. Gardening had become the only distraction that kept my mind off ofhim.