Tadhg stood on the staircase, a piece of parchment clutched in his fist.
I pushed the door aside and stepped out. The two of them looked like children caught with their hands in the sugar cannister. “Who sent another what?” I asked.
Tadhg flicked his wrist, and the parchment vanished. “Nothing.”
I really missed the days when he couldn’t lie. “I am a Princess of Tearmann, and as such, I deserve to know what is happening in my country. What’s more, I am your wife and perfectly capable of withholding all carnal pleasures until you tell me the truth.”
“She sounds serious,” Ruairi muttered under his breath.
“I am serious.” I clicked my fingers and held out my hand.
Although he cursed, Tadhg shifted the parchment and placed it in my palm.
My stomach twisted as I read the letter twice, each ornately looped letter like a brand on my soul. “The Queen wants me in exchange for stopping the blight…”
Tadhg plucked the letter from my grasp and sent it away again. “And I have made it clear that she cannot have you.”
A mortal cannot sit on Tearmann’s throne…
A slap in the face to all who have lost their lives…
This wasn’t just a note. It was a bloody ransom letter.
“How many of those letters have you received?”
Tadhg’s jaw worked beneath his short stubble.
“Tadhg!”
“Just three.”
Three demands to denounce me as Princess of Tearmann—to end our “sham of a marriage.” My throat felt drier than the dead soil surrounding the castle. Soil that could once again be rich and fertile if I was willing to sacrifice the happiness I’d found and leave this place once and for all. Tadhg would keep his kingdom. Little Hagan could grow up in a safe land once more. The thought of leaving him, of not being present to witness his first words. First steps. Firstanything…
Somehow, I managed to swallow past the lump in my throat. “Shouldn’t we at least consider her proposal? She’s promised to stop the blight.”
Tadhg’s expression hardened. “I don’t care.”
“Well, I do.” As if the people didn’t already hate me enough. If news of this caveat spread, they’d despise me even more. And I couldn’t even blame them. Not when I could stop this once and for all. “If I leave, she’ll save your land. Your people.”
My happiness in exchange for so many lives seemed a low price to pay.
Ruairi vanished, no doubt wanting to be far away from this discussion.
Tadhg’s eyes shuttered, and he blew out a breath before taking my hand in his. “I don’t think you understand the vows we exchanged. The only way to end our marriage is for you to…” His Adam’s apple bobbed when he swallowed.
I didn’t need him to finish that statement. Unlike the other times we’d married, our recent vows were for eternity. The only way to break them was for me to die. “Oh…”
His grip tightened. “Now you understand.”
I didn’t want to die, but what was my life compared to all the souls trying to escape this blight? “I suppose I have some thinking to do.”
His fingers strangled mine. “There’s nothing to think about. We’re not giving in to her irrational demands.”
That was all well and good for him to say, but this wasn’t really his decision, was it? “If your death would save all your people, what would you do?”
His head shook. “That’s different. I can come back. You can’t.”
“It’s not all that different, Tadhg.” I slipped my hand from his, my head and heart at war between the duty I had promised to this land and my love for this man with devastation painting his face. “This is not your decision to make. It’s mine.”