Keelynn’s cheeks pinkened. “I’m sorry for saying such awful things to you last night. They were spoken out of anger.”
“Save your worthless apologies for someone who cares,” I said, mimicking her words. “You are nothing to me, and I am nothing to you.”
“Tadhg . . .”
“No, no. It’s all right. I like knowing where I stand with people. Makes life easier.” Robert’s head bobbed among the others walking toward us. I tossed a sugar cube into my mouth and forced a smile. “I’ll meet you on Friday at half three in the Arches pub. Wear something nice.”
Then I got up and walked straight to the pub to drown my sorrows in something stiffer than cold tea.
Ruairi was already sitting at the bar, hunched over a pint. The moment he saw me walk through the door, the smile fell from his lips. “Lorcan!” He gestured toward the black-haired barman. Lorcan took one look at me and nodded. Two minutes later, I found myself staring into a pint of amber cider, wishing it was Friday.
Every minute brought the world that bit closer to nightfall. That bit closer to bedtime.
Robert would try and sleep with Keelynn.
It felt like someone had stabbed me repeatedly with an iron sword and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do to stop it.
Ruairi clapped me on the shoulder, nearly knocking me off the feckin’ stool. “Yer proper miserable, aren’t ye?”
There was no point denying it anymore. “You don’t know what it’s like to have the only person you want choose someone else.”
“Do I not? My best mate and his brother are two fae feckin’ princes. Yer literally cursed to look like a woman’s fantasy. The only reason a woman wants to be with me is to get to ye.”
“That’s not—”
He held up a hand. “It is. It’s true. I’ve accepted it. Yer problem is that yer never this invested. Ye never cared enough. Havin’ her choose him is shite. But there’s nothing ye can do to change it.”
Ruairi was right.
Dammit.
Why did he have to be right?
“I love that infuriating woman.” This was my punishment. Not the churning guilt from the lives I’d taken. Not the bound magic or cursed kiss. My punishment was finally finding the one woman I was meant to be with only to have her love someone else. “How am I supposed to survive this?”
Ruairi gave my shoulder a squeeze. “The same way ye survived everything else, lad. She’s not the only bird out there. That muck Rían spits about soulmates is pure and utter shite.”
It wasn’t though.
I knew Keelynn had been made for me.
Yet she wanted to be with feckin’Robert.
25
“It’s a pretty name,isn’t it? Keelynn.Keeeelynnnn.” The pint I stared into had no comment.
My best mate sitting next to me, though, he nodded and said, “Tis a pretty name, lad.”
A pretty name for a pretty woman.
Rolled off the tongue.
Speaking of tongues, mine felt swollen and sluggish. I stuck it out and tried to check but could only see the tip. I swung on the stool toward Ruairi. “Doesthislookstrangetoyou?”
“Get yer tongue back in yer head and speak properly.”
“Never mind,” I muttered, dropping my head onto the drink-splattered bar and running my tongue along the back of my teeth to get some feeling into it.