“I was saving you from yourself. You were distraught, and I was the last person you needed to—”
She held up a hand, green eyes glowing. “Let me stop you right there. The only way I would even consider helpingthat”—she gestured toward Keelynn—“is if she was Danú. So, unless you can use that magic of yours to make her into something besides a feckin’ human, you both can go straight to hell.”
The door slammed in my face, rattling the single-pane windows. All hope slipped from my chest, leaving me cold and bitter and hollow. No amount of magic could turn Keelynn into one of us.
Ruairi and Rían emerged from the darkness.
This couldn’t be happening.
I wasn’t supposed to lose her.
“I know a way to change Keelynn,” Rían said quietly.
“Please. I’ll do anything. Anything.”
His cerulean eyes gleamed. “You have to marry her.”
22
I had managedcenturies without being dragged to an altar. I wasn’t going to let Fiadh force me into doing something I didn’t want to do. And I couldn’t bind Keelynn to me that way. She’d never forgive me.
“I just need a minute to think.”
Keelynn groaned.
“You don’t have a feckin’ minute,” Rían growled. “Do you want to save her or not?”
Feck it all, I did want to save her, but not like this. Not by taking away her choices. Forcing her to be with me. “How will this change her?”
“You’re going to have to trust me.”
Trust my brother? I didn’t trust him as far as I could throw him. The only reason I’d gone to him at all was because of his connection with Aveen. He never did anything that wasn’t beneficial to him. Never. What other choice did I have? I couldn’t fathom the alternative, and I couldn’t even use the ring as an excuse anymore. This was purely a decision based on my unrequited feelings for a human.
“Do it quickly.” Before I talked myself out of it.
Rían shifted a length of ribbon. I gripped Keelynn’s icy fingers in mine, letting him bind our hands together. “To you, I pledge my body and soul . . .” he began.
I repeated the words through the thickness in my throat. The vows. The promises. Binding myself to this woman as a weight settled on my chest. I could hear the iron bars on an invisible cage slam closed and the lock click into place.
When it came time for Keelynn to say the vows, Rían used his magic to force them through her lips. It may have been her voice, but she wasn’t the one saying them.
This wasn’t real.
She didn’t want this.
I was taking away her free will the same way Fiadh had taken mine. But what other choice did I have? I couldn’t let her life end because of me and my selfishness. Surely, this was better. Women had wanted to marry me before.
It was only a handfasting.
It would be all right.
This could give me the time I needed to make her fall in love with me. She was attracted to me, that much I knew for sure. And she had to hold me in some regard. Marriages had been built on less.
I blinked and realized no one was speaking. Everyone was staring at me.
“What? What is it? Is it over?”
“Rían said to kiss the bride,” Ruairi murmured with an unsteady smile.