“For one, we don’t even like each other. And we’re from two different worlds.”
I liked her just fine when she wasn’t being a hateful wasp. And our worlds weren’tthatdifferent. Even as the thought crossed my mind, I almost laughed. What was I saying?
I was a murderous monster with a black soul, and she was an aspiring vigilante. Polar opposites if I’d ever seen them.
But after so many years, didn’t I deserve something good? Didn’t I deserve some light in my life? Why not with her?
Water splashed as she scrubbed at her hands. “Besides, you just want the ring so you can break your curse,” she muttered.
That may have been true at first.
Now . . . I wasn’t so sure.
After all, my ring was on her finger, not mine.
“The ring doesn’t break curses, it neutralizes them.” The only way to properly break a curse was with true love’s kiss. Since no one could kiss me without losing her life, I didn’t have a hope.
No one in their right mind would love someone like me.
She shook her hands, then wiped them against her black skirt. “If you want it so badly, why haven’t you tried to steal it?”
I had. Multiple times. “Enchanted objects cannot be shifted or stolen. They must be freely gifted.”
For some reason, my response made her frown. “I wish you would have told me about the ring.”
“I didn’t want you to lie to me.”
“Unless it’s to tell you that I love you.” She laughed.
At my weakness.
At my pathetic request.
Was it so bad to want sex to feel like something more than a transaction? To want to feel loved? “Yes. Well . . . not all of us have the luxury of love. Sometimes we monsters like to pretend we’re wanted for more than an escape or a distraction.”
That’s all I was. Something to numb the pain.
Now that she wore my ring, she could lie to me every single day, claiming to love me, but it would never be anything but a feckin’ lie. I shoved to my feet, needing space to breathe without her pitying looks. So much for my new plan. Best get back to the old one.
Get to the castle. Show her the truth. Get the ring. Send her on her merry way back to her own feckin’ world where she could find someone sheactuallyliked.
“Tadhg, wait.” The wasp got up too, kicking stones as she hurried after me. “I didn’t mean that the way it came out. I genuinely—”
“Genuinely what?Care?” What a load of bollocks. She didn’t care about me. She was just like every woman I’d been with for the last two hundred and fifty feckin’ years. Only interested in what I could do. How I could make her feel. “You’re such a shit liar, it’s a wonder Fiadh bothered cursing you at all.”
“Tadhg—”
“Let’s not pretend this is more than it is. Like you said, we don’t even like each other. You needed a distraction, and I was more than happy to oblige. That’s it. End of discussion.” And if she needed another one, I wouldn’t have a choice in the matter. “Get your boots on. We need to be on our way.”
How could I have thought for one second that this woman could be my soulmate?
I didn’t have a feckin’ soul.
* * *
Two feckin’ hours. That was how long we stomped through the forest. Another feckin’ hour. That was how long we traipsed through fields. I’d managed to go all day with only a minimal amount of talking. And the wasp hadn’t seemed to mind. For a woman with such long legs, you’d think she’d walk a lot faster than she did. It took us ages to reach the faeries.
It felt good to be back among my own, like coming home. Keelynn, with her pinched look of disapproval, didn’t seem to agree. Not that I cared what she thought. After all, she was only here to murder me.