“Well, then. It appears as though this trip has been for naught. You see, I was told my useless son had smuggled his human fiancée into Tearmann and was hiding her inside this castle. Clearly, my source was mistaken.”
Clearly, her source was feckin’ dead. I would find out who had been the one to turn me in, and if it wasn’t Muireann, the person would pay. And this time, it wouldn’t be quick.
“Clearly,” I said.
The Queen’s nail clinked on her glass, picking up pace.
Tadhg practically slammed his wine glass down on the table. “Now that we have that cleared up, it’s getting quite late. I’m sure everyone is tired.”
Aveen’s eyes widened, and she looked beneath the table, a blush creeping up her throat. She let out a small whimper, her shoulders moving but the rest of her frozen. It wasn’t until her chair scraped across the stones that I realized what was happening. The Queen had her pinned to the feckin’ chair by magic. And I couldn’t do a feckin’ thing about it without giving myself away.
Ruairi tried to stop her, but the Queen sent him away. Tadhg tried as well, but he disappeared a second later. The Queen’s clinking came faster and faster, muffled by the pounding and shouting outside in the hallway.
Then it stopped.
My body felt as if it were vibrating as the Queen stretched a black-tipped nail toward Aveen’s throat, following the delicate edge of her gown to her breast. Her lips twisted into a mocking smile. “Do you care to explain this, Rían?”
My mark. How the hell did she know about my feckin’ mark?
Muireann.
Death had been too good for that feckin’ traitor. I swallowed my boiling rage. “If you’re asking if I fucked her, the answer is yes.” The way Aveen flinched left my stomach sinking lower. Surely, she understood this was the way it had to be. That if the Queen knew I held any affection for her, she’d be as dead as that rotting fish.
The Queen unsheathed her ceremonial dagger, one I’d seen her use on countless humans. My heartbeat couldn’t give me away, but I kept my breathing even, just in case.
The tip of the Queen’s blade ran along Aveen’s collarbone. I gripped the arms of my chair until the wood creaked.
“Are you truly so weak that you’d lift your skirts for a pretty face and a few whispered lies?” the Queen said. “You’d abandon your family and your people to live amongst us, where you are despised, all for a man who has more interest in his collection of waistcoats than he has in you.”
“I tell her all the time how pathetic she is,” I said, grabbing my wine glass, nearly dropping it when the Queen’s dagger stopped at Aveen’s heart.
“Pathetic enough to fall in love with you?”
“I’m not in love with him,” Aveen said with conviction. Conviction that didn’t make a blind bit of difference as the air turned syrupy sweet.
She loved me.
This beautiful, kind, good, human . . . lovedme.
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. We were meant to be together, our souls bound to collide, but love? I had never hoped for love.
And that foolish love had just sealed her fate.
“There’s no need to lie to me,girl.” The Queen adjusted her grip on the hilt, pressing it against Aveen’s skin until a drop of deep red blood oozed from the wound. Tears glistened in her eyes, and all I could do was sit there and watch. Making a move against the Queen would be suicide for us both. And I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I made my feelings clear, the witch wouldn’t hesitate to make me rip the heart from Aveen’s chest.
So I sat there like a coward and didnothing.
“You wouldn’t be the first human he’s played with,” the Queen yammered on, “and you certainly won’t be the last. He insists on these childish rebellions, rutting with chattel and the like. I’ve come to remind my son that he cannot afford such distractions from his duties.”
Even knowing she wouldn’t listen, I told the Queen to get out. The shadow guards closed ranks, flanking their master, as if we’d be foolish enough to attack.
“You think you can throw me out? You have no authority here.” She waved her dagger at me as I knew she would. She could point it at me all she wanted as long as she left Aveen alone. “This isn’t your castle. You’re a lodger—a leech aligning himself with true power because you havenone.”
“You’ve made your point.”
She cackled. “Oh, I don’t think I have.” She turned her blade over and slammed it into my thigh. Pain exploded from the wound. Her spell took hold, dragging away my control. Forcing me to stab myself over and over and over with her blade.
I screamed at the magical barrier keeping me hostage until my throat was raw. I’d been amassing power for centuries. I should have been able to break free. I should have been able to crack the barrier, and yet all I could do was stare as my hands didherbidding.