I was a true immortal. Death couldn’t keep me, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t destined to meet her time and again.
Aveen gaped at me for the longest time. When her jaw finally closed, she asked about my mother. How the hell had we gone from speaking of death to the subject of my feckin’ mother? Was it possible that Aveen knew who she was? No. Surely not. She wouldn’t be within arm’s reach of me if she knew.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. It wasn’t like the two would ever meet.
“Why won’t you tell me?” she pressed.
“Because it’s none of your damned business.” I shoved off the bed. This was a business arrangement, pure and simple. The less she knew about me, the better.
“You’re asking me to trust you with my life. I think the least you could do is show me a little trust in return.”
“You expect me to trust you? A feckin’ human? Not a hope.” If she knew how much power she held over me in this deal, she’d surely turn me in and request a better one. My mother would catch wind of this hair-brained plot and make Aveen suffer before dying a death from which she could never return. I glared at where Aveen twisted my ring around her finger, raging at myself for being such a sentimental fool. “That’s mine.” I gestured to the ring. “As soon as you’re dead, I’m taking it back.”
She huffed as she pulled the band from her finger. “You can have it back now if you wish. Here. Take it and go away.” She threw it at me, but I wasn’t expecting it, and the blasted thing fell to the floor.
“Fine. I will.” I’d go away and leave her to her fate. Let her marry Robert Trench for all I cared. I hoped he made her feckin’ miserable and that herprecioussister never spoke to her again. I shoved the blasted thing into my pocket.
“Fine.”
“Fine.” My magic swelled the moment I called it forth. But when I flicked my wrist to evanesce, nothing happened.What the hell?
“Why isn’t it working?” Aveen demanded.
“I don’t feckin’ know.” I’d been evanescing since I was ten years old. This should’ve been child’s play. Unless someone had warded the—Tadhg.
She stomped toward me with more demands, this time to fix it.
“If I don’t know what’s wrong, I don’t know how to fix it, now, do I?” I tried again and again. How strong were these feckin’ wards? Would I be able to leave the house at all?
When someone knocked on the door, Aveen’s panicked gaze swung to mine. “You have to disappear,” she hissed. “If anyone catches you in my bedroom, my life is over.”
“At least then we wouldn’t need my brother,” I muttered.
“Rían!” She kicked me in the feckin’ shin.
“Ow! All right, all right.” Where the hell was I going to hide?The curtains weren’t long enough to cover my boots, and I’d surely be seen behind the chaise and chair.
“Just climb out the window.”
“I’m not climbing out the feckin’ window.” I could snag my new breeches on the trellis. Besides, there was a good chance my dear brother had warded the place so that I couldn’t pass through at all. And if that were the case, I wasn’t getting caught red-handed with my arse half out the window.
The person in the hallway knocked again.
Aveen shoved me toward the bed. “Fine. Get under the bed.”
What was I? An old sock? “Is it clean? If there’s dust, I’ll sneeze.” So many people cleaned around beds but not underneath them, making it a breeding ground for dust.
“Get in the closet and stay quiet,” she hissed, giving me another shove.
“Aveen?” The husky feminine voice sounded familiar.Her sister. “Are you in there?”
“Just a moment. I’m . . . um . . . indisposed.”
Aveen shoved me again.
I ended up curled into the bottom of the closet with my legs tucked under my chin, which wouldn’t have been an issue if my thigh hadn’t started to cramp. The dresses on either side of me smelled like a rose garden.
My nose started to tingle.