I sat up too fast, scraping my back off the feckin’ stone. “Tell me.”
His black hair fluttered when the bastard shook his head. “And betray mynew friend’sconfidence? Not a hope, lad.”
“Please.” I had enough drink in me to beg.
Ruairi gave me a pitiful sidelong glance. “She wasn’t a bit impressed that ye went off with Áine,I’ll tell ye that much.”
Keelynn wouldn’t be impressed with a lot of things I’d done this week.
Ruairi collected a fresh bottle of wine from the other side of the stone, working the cork free with his fangs and spitting it toward the glowing logs. “I noticed something on her finger,” he muttered before taking a swig and handing the bottle to me.
I hid my grimace with the bottle.
“Care to tell me what’s really happening?”
It took a good deal of concentration, but I managed a tost to keep prying ears from overhearing. “She wants to kill the Gancanagh with an enchanted dagger to bring her sister back from the dead.”
Ruairi withdrew a stack of clothes and boots from the far side of the rock. “Wouldn’t happen to be this dagger, would it?”
The emerald in the hilt glowed when he handed it to me.
That woman. Did she realize how valuable this thing was? And she’d left it behind as if it were a piece of cutlery. Drunk Keelynn was more irresponsible than I thought. What was I going to do with her?
“She’s far too fine fer the likes of ye,” Ruairi said, passing me the bottle.
“You think I don’t know that?” Even at her most hateful, she was too good for someone like me.
“Here’s a mad idea. How about ye tell her the truth?”
I stopped drinking long enough to wipe dripping wine from my chin. The fire and faeries grew hazy, like staring through a thick fog.
The moment I told Keelynn the truth, she was either going to hate me or stab me. I scowled down at the cursed dagger glowing on the grass. “I know how . . . to deal withwomen.” Knew all about them.Alllllabout them.
Ruairi took the bottle, pointing at me with its green neck. “Seducing a woman’s not the same as loving one.”
“Ha! I don’t lo—” My head started pounding.No no no. “I don’t lov—”
Chuckling, Ruairi cupped a hand around his ear and leaned toward me. “What’s that now? I can’t hear when ye stutter.”
“Shit.” I ripped the bottle out of his hands, raising it to my lips and drinking until I couldn’t fit any more in my gullet. I did not love that infuriating woman. I barely knew her. I barelylikedher.
Pathetic.
That’s what I was.
The first woman in centuries I spent time getting to know, and my useless heart jumped right out of my chest and into her feckin’ pocket.
I’d be better off stabbing myself with that cursed dagger. I swiped for it. Ruairi, the bastard, was quicker. “Ah, ah, Princey. Yer not dyin’ on my watch.”
“That’sfiiiine. Keelynn can . . . killme tomorrow.” She’d be so happy if she did.Soooohappy. She’d have her sister, and Rían would have his soulmate, and I would be free. Didn’t sound so bad right about now.
Ruairi caught my hand, dragging me to my feet. With my arm braced across his hulking shoulders, we stumbled toward the tower. “If ye die and leave me on my own with Rían, I’ll never forgive ye.”
My legs were utterly useless. Couldn’t even lift them. They just dragged along, one after the other, catching on stones and tree roots.
“Quit movin’ about or I’ll drop ye on yer drunk arse and let the faeries have their way with ye.”
The bestpart . . . aboutbeing . . . drunk . . . was that my curse didn’tfeel . . . as . . .