I sank onto the cold stones, letting my head fall back against the wall. All of this had started with Aveen falling in love with my brother. Foolish, foolish human.
“Aveen is going to kill you.”
He dragged himself next to me, his shirt stained black from blood. “I know.”
I flicked my wrist. The air grew heavy from the tost. It’d do no good to have anyone overhear our conversation.
“How did you convince her to fall in love with you?” I asked, feeling like an eejit. How could anyone in her right mind fall for my brother? Still, someone had. If Aveen could fall for him, then perhaps there was hope for me as well.
The corner of his mouth lifted. “She doesn’t love me.”
“She died to be with you.”
He shook his head. “She died so she didn’t have to be withhim.”
Him.
Robert.
“All the other shite I told you was total bollocks,” he muttered, raking a hand through his hair. “If it weren’t for her betrothal, she never would’ve sought me out. She cares for me about as much as you do.”
“And when she wakes?”
“When she wakes and learns all I’ve done, she’ll want nothing to do with me.” Grimacing, Rían nudged a clump of hay with his boot. “It wasn’t as if I had a feckin’ hope anyway.”
“You love her though.” That part wasn’t a lie. Rían never did anything out of the goodness of his heart. Hehadno feckin’ heart. He never would’ve offered to help her if he hadn’t cared deeply. And I’d seen him after she’d died. He’d been a mess. Of course, knowing he’d been forced to marry her sister wouldn’t have helped.
“Aveen is . . .” A sigh. “She is everything.”
I understood the sentiment to my marrow. In only a few weeks, Keelynn had consumed my world. Rían had known Aveen for months before she’d died. I’d believed his lies because they weren’t complete lies. He loved her. Believed she was his soulmate.
Look at the two of us. Sitting in a feckin’ dungeon, whingeing over our sorry situations. I never thought I’d have so much in common with my brother. “We are pathetic.” No bones about it. Two pathetic males pining over women.
“I am pathetic,” he agreed with a nod. “You are pathetic andweak.”
With that, the bastard flicked his wrist, eliminating my tost, and evanesced out of the cell. I don’t know how long I sat there, trying to figure out what to do.
Rían had married Keelynn out of duty.
Keelynn had married Rían out of necessity.
Maybe we could find a way past this together. We’d been through worse betrayals, right? Maybe this wasn’t as hopeless as it had seemed.
* * *
Keelynn was wearing blue.
My wife entered the dining room on my brother’s arm, wearing his color, and I couldn’t even hear the words Shona and her companions were saying because all I could see was my wife in my brother’s color.
Our father used to have all our toys painted green or blue to keep us from fighting over them. AND MY WIFE WAS WEARING BLUE.
I should’ve known better than to believe that feckin’ sob story from my feckin’ brother.She is everything. He didn’t care about anyone but himself.
“If you’ll excuse me for just a moment,” I muttered to Shona, continuing to where my brother had claimed my wife.
The bastard had the gall to smile at me when I took Keelynn’s hand from his arm and brought her to the corner near the garden doors. I was going to kill him. I was. And then he’d have the right to kill me twice. And I didn’t even feckin’ care.
My hand tingled from her touch. Instead of making me feel warm, it left my stomach twisting. I told myself to calm down. This could’ve been a coincidence. “Where did you get that dress?”