“Why does it matter to you?” Tadhg asked, scratching at a stain on his knee.
“I’m sure Aveen would like proof that you don’t have her locked in some cage to rot.”
Tadgh shoved to his feet, catching himself on the edge of the settee. When he straightened, his shin collided with the coffee table, rattling the glasses. “She is safe. I swear it.”
One prince was holding me hostage and the other was a legendary monster. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t take your word for it.” I’d learned Rían’s definition of “safe” the hard way.
Tadgh mumbled something under his breath but didn’t budge.
Rían shoved his shoulder, urging him toward the door. “If you hurry it on, I will ward the room in case any of your other ‘friends’ decide to make an appearance.”
Although Tadhg appeared skeptical, he nodded and started for the hallway.Why would Tadhg need Rían to create wards? Didn’t he have power of his own?When I asked, all I got from Rían was that his brother was pathetic and weak.
No surprise there. Rían thought everyone was pathetic and weak.
Tadhg had placed my sister’s body in a gold coffin in an otherwise empty room at the top of the castle’s tallest tower. Sunlight filtering through the window kissed her pale cheeks.
Rían remained by the entrance, arms crossed and boot braced against the wall. Tadhg sidled next to me, his almond scent almost nonexistent beneath the reek of booze.
“I know you won’t believe me, but I love your sister,” he confessed with a sigh, brushing a finger down the length of her pale hand.
He was right. I didn’t believe him. “Lust and love are two different things.”
His mouth flattened. “I am acutely aware of the difference.”
Tadhg’s false love didn’t matter—and it didn’t change the fact that he was wrong for her. I needed to save Keelynn before she ended up trapped in Tearmann like me. So, I would stay and bide my time.
In a year, this nightmare would be over.
I’d lasted almost twenty-one years under a man’s thumb. What was one more?
I brushed a glossy strand of dark hair back from Keelynn’s pale face, wishing I could talk to her. Wishing there was some way to bring her back . . .
Wait . . .
That was it.
Rían had said I couldn’t leave until Keelynnreturned from the underworld, not that I had to stay for the year.
Had he done that on purpose, or had he slipped up?
“Is the cursed dagger the only way to bring her back before the year is up?” I asked, needing to be sure there wasn’t an easier way.
Rían pushed off the wall, bracing his hands on his hips. “I’m afraid so.”
“And all I have to do is kill one of you with it?”
“You can kill me,” Tadhg said with a resolute nod.
Rían rolled his eyes. “If I have to listen to this martyr shite for the next year, I’m going to stab myself with the feckin’ thing.”
“Where’s the dagger now?” I asked.
Rían gave me a pat on the head. “That, murderous Aveen, is none of your business.”
My hands fisted at my sides. “What’s the matter? Afraid I’ll trade your life for Keelynn’s?” After all he’d done, I would. In a heartbeat.
Sneering, he took a menacing step forward. “You don’t have it in you.”