Tears clouded my vision. Why was I crying? All of this was a ruse.
I just got caught up in the lie.
Perhaps I’d gotten caught up a little as well.
“What makes you say that?”I asked.
Tadhg shifted closer, his eyes widening. “Hasn’t he told you?”
I shook my head.
“Rían is convinced you’re his soulmate.”
Turns out, I didn’t need to kiss Tadhg to stop my heart.
Rían’ssoulmate?
Of all the insane, ludicrous notions.
Rían and I.
Soulmates.
Tadhg chuckled to himself, scrubbing a hand down his stubbled jaw. “The lad has harped on about soulmates for as long as I can remember. Used to love the old stories of two people made for each other by the fates, a perfect match in every way. I never believed in the shite myself. What are the odds that there really is one person in this world made just for you? And if there were such a person,” he said almost to himself, deep in thought, his teeth scraping his bottom lip, “what are the odds you’d meet?”
The odds were impossible.
Sighing, Tadhg shook his head and shrugged, bringing his gaze back to mine. “Anyway, Rían said you were his, and here we are. If anyone can love Rían as much as Rían loves Rían, it must be fate.”
My heart started beating again. Harder. Faster. “He actually said that? About me?” It must’ve been a lie—a part of the ruse.
Tadhg wrapped one of my curls around his finger, smoothing his thumb along the golden strands. “Mind you, it was after a considerable amount of liquor. Said kissing you was like being on fire. He talked of nothing else for hours. Wouldn’t shut up.” A chuckle. “He’s a terrible drunk.”
That made no sense.
“But Rían—” I caught myself before I could confess that he didn’t care for me.
He couldn’t.
Could he?
Tadhg’s finger slid along my lower lip. “He’d kill me if he found out I told you,” he said with a grin that turned my insides to mush.
I couldn’t handle this right now. Not with everything that had happened.
Not with the end so near.
Not when I had finally found my escape.
So, I screwed my eyes shut and kissed the Gancanagh.
Aching frostbite seeped into my bones. Froze my lungs. My heartbeat slowed. I could feel myself slipping away, heaviness settling into my limbs. Dizziness overwhelmed. Muscles seized. Easing me onto the bench, Tadhg pressed a kiss to my temple and whispered, “He doesn’t deserve you.”
His almond scent drifted away, replaced by the cloying stench of rotting roses.
21
Bloodcurdling screams pierced the silence.A flash of light tore through my cocoon of darkness. Everything hurt but nothing would move and there was nothing and then there was everything.