No Dogs. No Creatures.
Even feckin’ dogs had been given preference over the Danú.
“Ye can stay, milady, butthat”—again, he jerked his chin toward me—“can stay in the stable with the other filthy animals.”
I ought to rip his head from his stumpy neck to show him how much of a filthy animal I could be. Unfortunately, that wouldn’t earn me any points with the woman watching me through wide, worried eyes.
“I will meet you back here at noon tomorrow,” I told her, knowing a lost cause when I saw one. That should give me enough time to sleep off the hangover I planned on having after drinking in the castle.
Her pointed chin lifted. She turned back toward the toad. “Nonsense.”
I told her to leave it. And what did the woman do? She ignored me. Hadn’t she learned anything at the feckin’ lake?When I gave her an order, I expected her to listen.
“I want my keys,” she demanded.
“Did ye pay for the rooms?”the toad ground out.
“Not yet, but—”
“Then I’m afraid yer outta luck. I have no tolerance for monsters—or their whores. Get the hell out of here—bothof you.”
If she’d kept her damned mouth shut, she would’ve had a damned room. But no. She had to choose tonight of all feckin’ nights to stand up for me, and now she’d be the one sleeping in the damned stables.
“How dare you! I am a lady. You will not treat me as though I am some common—”
I caught Keelynn’s arm, hauling the scowling wasp back outside before she could make things worse. She scowled at me too, as if I was the one in the wrong.“What were you thinking?” I snarled. “You could’ve had a feckin’ room.”
“Me? I was defending myself! Defendingyou.”
I was perfectly capable of defending myself. I didn’t need some human to do it for me. “And I told you to let it be.”
Like a candle in the wind, the fire in her eyes snuffed out. Her head turned this way and that, eyes scanning the empty street. The tendrils of dark curls framing her face trembled in the breeze. “Where am I going to sleep?” She rubbed her chest with the heel of her hand, gasping the way she’d done after almost drowning in that lake.
Rían used to suffer from awful panic attacks when he first moved into the castle. He never told me the cause, but I knew the signs.
I offered Keelynn my hand. She stared at it as if she didn’t know what to do with the thing. “Come with me,” I coaxed.
“Come with you where?”
Where indeed? The lights in the inn were all off. No surprise there. It was late. Still, if that toad had planned on renting Keelynn a room, there must be something available inside. “I’m going to get you a room.” I couldn’t leave her here on the street. There was no telling who could be stumbling out of the pubs at this hour. As afraid as she was of the Danú, I knew monsters lived on both sides of the border.
I brought her to the side of the building, tucking her next to the chimney. “Wait here.”
“You’releaving?” Her hand flew to her chest the moment I let her go.
“Look at me.” The fear I’d come to expect in her gray eyes had been replaced by something else. Something that left my chest aching.
Trust.
Keelynn trusted me.
Me.
And I . . .
I . . .
I didn’t know what to do with it.