The line of people kept coming. It was my fault for neglecting my duty these past few weeks. People were understandably wary of Rían, preferring to meet with me instead.
More small squabbles were brought to the dais, along with requests to strengthen wards and invitations to yearly celebrations and the like. Then two men stomped forward, exchanging looks of unveiled hatred.
“Tis my fruit tree,” the tallest said.
“No, it’s not. Tis mine.”
As if he knew I was thinking of him, Rían turned to Keelynn and whispered, “This is going to take ages. You’re welcome to stay and watch the crowd fawn over my brother, or you can escape with me.”
As if she would ever want to go anywhere with—
“I’ll go with you,” Keelynn said.
What? Why? Where were they going? What were they going to do?
Rían stood, and Keelynn followed.
Heaven only knew the lies he’d tell her. Would he show her the bodies in the room? I needed a chance to explain.Dammit, Rían. I shouldn’t be angry with him. He’d all but ruled our country for the past few weeks and he deserved a break from all this, but why did he have to invite her?
I looked at the two glaring men, floundering for an answer. Fruit tree. Right. “Just split the yield fifty-fifty,” I told them, anxious to move on.
Although they grumbled, they lumbered out the door, leaving me with ten more people. Ten more. That was all. Ten more and I’d be free.
* * *
The moment the last person walked out of the great hall, I launched from my throne and hurtled past Oscar out into the hall. The door where we kept my victims remained closed, and I couldn’t hear anything down here except for Eava’s soft humming in the kitchens. Meaning my brother had either taken Keelynn outside or upstairs.
Keelynn would be anxious to see Aveen, so I ran up the stairs.
“What’re you doing? Let me go.”Rían.
I took the stairs two at a time.
“I said,look at me,” Keelynn demanded. She sounded upset.Dammit. If my brother had said anything to her, I’d kill him.
“Edward?”
I stopped dead in the doorway.Edward.
Keelynn’s face was white as a sheet, a trembling hand covering her open mouth. My brother’s eyes bulged as he twisted toward me.
“What do you mean,Edward?” Why was she looking at my brother and calling him by her husband’s name?
Rían shook his head. “I don’t know what she’s on about. You know humans and their fanciful notions.”
Liar. Liar. Liar.
He couldn’t tell the truth to save his feckin’ life. “Keelynn?” I stopped when I reached her. She didn’t look at me. She just kept looking athim. “Why did you call my brother by your husband’s name?”
“I recognize his eyes from the night we . . . from the ball.”
I didn’t need to hear the end of that sentence to understand. Padraig had told me all about what had happened betweenEdwardand Keelynn.
I focused every bit of magic still in me, wrapping it around my brother’s throat. He’d accosted her. Gotten caught. Been forced tomarry my feckin’ soulmate.
“It’s not what you think,” he insisted, his face turning the most satisfying shade of red. “I swear. We weren’t supposed to get caught, but her dress ripped, and her father found us, and it all went to shit.”
Feck it all. It was true. All of it. My brother had married Keelynn first. She couldn’t be mine when she washisfirst.