* * *
I wasn’t sure what day it was or how long I’d been laying on the settee. Could be Tuesday. Could be Sunday. Hard to tell. It definitely wasn’t Friday because no one was bothering us.
I heard Oscar’s voice in the hallway. Then came a feminine response.
I’d spoken too soon about being left alone. For once, I thought I was drunker than Tadhg. He didn’t seem to have any trouble getting up from the chair, while I, on the other hand, could barely sit up.
“Where’s yer brother? I’ve a message fer him,” the woman said.
Hold on. I knew that voice. I pulled myself upright to peer over the back of the settee. Meranda waited in the doorway, a black cloak draped over her shoulders and a hood pulled over her frizzy red hair. From inside the cloak, she withdrew a piece of paper.
“I don’t want it,” I told her. She could take her message and burn it for all I cared.
“I think ye do.”
If I hauled my arse off the settee and this wasn’t worth it, I’d have her head.
I must speak with you.
It’s urgent.
Who the hell needed to speak to—
From the corner of my eye, I saw Meranda’s scowl deepen.
It couldn’t be . . . Could it?
“What does it say?” Tadhg asked, topping up his glass.
I shifted him to the oubliette and summoned a tost. “Who is this from?”
“Ye know who it’s from. And I’ll tell ye right now, if ye think fer a moment that I’m going to let ye plague that good woman, ye had better set yer sights on someone else. She is one of the only humans in that wretched town that I can stand. Far too fine for ye.”
Aveen. The message was from Aveen.
My stomach fluttered.Actuallyfluttered, like a feckin’ butterfly. What the hell was wrong with me?
“Why is she looking for me? Did she say? How did she look?” Feckin’ drink had questions spilling from my tongue like some lovesick eejit.Reign it in, lad.
Meranda studied me for far too long before responding. “She seemed anxious. Worried. Upset.”
That couldn’t be right. Humans were only anxious, worried, and upset when I hung around. “Did she say anything else? Anything at all to indicate why she needed me?”
Meranda shook her head.
I shoved the note into my pocket and eliminated the tost just as my brother barreled into the room, a murderous gleam in his emerald eyes.“Try that again and see what happens to your—”
I held up a hand, too preoccupied to hear his baseless threats.
Tadhg turned to Meranda and smiled. “Tell me your message, and I’ll make it worth your while.”
I caught him by the collar, dragging him back. “Breathe a word of this, and your life is forfeit,” I warned the witch. Tadhg couldn’t know about Aveen. The thought of him turning his sights on her . . . I couldn’t cope.
Meranda’s lips curled into a wicked smile as her gaze bounced between the two of us. “I’d be more than willing to keep this information from your handsome brother . . . fer a price.”
“Name it.”
She tapped a pointed nail against her chin, still looking at Tadhg as if she wanted to eat him alive. “A chest of gold from yer coffers should suffice,” she finally said. “I’ve my eye on some Vellanian leather, and that shite doesn’t come cheap.”