“You’ll forgive me if I don’t have much faith in you.”
“Yer not the only one who cares for her,” Ruairi said. “I will not let her down.”
* * *
Back at the castle, I found my brother where he usually was at this hour: lying abed in total darkness, drunk as a feckin’ lark. “Get out of bed, you sad sack of shite.” I threw open the curtains, letting sunlight burst into the room.
Tadhg wailed, gathering an armful of pillows to burrow beneath. “Go away. And close those feckin’ curtains.”
“I said get up.” Did he? No. I didn’t have time for his feckin’ wallowing. He could wallow tomorrow, after we saved Aveen. I stalked toward the door, where I’d left the pail of water I’d retrieved from the fountain.
“Close the feckin’—”
I yanked the pillows free and dumped the frigid water all over his haggard face.
“You have a death wish?” he snarled.
“I’d rather see you murderous than wallowing. You’ve had three weeks. That’s long enough.”
He stretched toward the liquor bottle on the bedside table. “Is it?”
No. Not today. Today, of all days, I needed him. I stole the bottle, launching it at the wall. Glass and liquor sprayed, covering the floor in glittering, wet shards. “The world is going to hell out there, and poor Tadhg is too busy feeling sorry for himself to give a shite.”
“And you think pointing out the obvious is going to get me out of bed?” He flopped back onto the soaked mattress.
One way or another, this bastard was going to get his arse out of that bed. I aimed my dagger at him, but for once, I didn’t want to actually kill him.
“Go ahead,” he taunted, ripping open his shirt and baring his tanned chest.
“I need your help,” I confessed, figuring it was worth a shot.
“Nothing you say could make me help you.”
“Aveen is in prison for murder.”
His mouth opened and closed; his face contorted as if he couldn’t understand the words I’d spoken. “YourAveen?”
I nodded.
“Feck. Right. What do . . .” He raked a hand through his sopping brown hair. “What do you need me to do?”
“Get her out of the jail.”
A nod. “What’s the plan?”
“The useless pooka is going to give her a change of clothes so that she can slip out of the jail unnoticed. I’ll be waiting to take her place. I need you to get her from the jail to Hollowshade.”
“Hollowshade?”
I nodded. “You know the cottage I bought a few months back?”
“The one in shite?”
“It’s not in shite anymore.” It was in less shite, anyway. “It’s hers. The deed is in the bedroom beneath a loose floorboard.”
Tadhg gripped both sides of his head as if trying to keep his skull from floating away. “Rían, I’m sorry—”
“I don’t want to talk about any of this. Wake up, stay sober, and get her out. That’s what I need from you. Not a feckin’ chat or an apology.”