Rían rolled his eyes, and Tadhg harrumphed. Ruairi sipped his whiskey from the other chair, his booted foot thrown over his knee. While the princes spent the day shifting cottages, Ruairi had spent the day digging graves.
I tapped my nail against my glass of water, wishing it were wine instead. If ever there was a time for wine, it was tonight. “Who’s going to stab her?”
The men exchanged looks. “We’ll have to find someone without immortal blood,” Tadhg said eventually.
My heartrate kicked up a notch. “You know,Idon’t have immortal blood.”
Tadhg’s head swung toward the settee, his face pale and eyes bulging. “In what world do you think I’ll let you near the battlefield?”
“In what world do you think you can stop me?” This was my home—he’d crowned me a princess of Tearmann—it was my right to defend this place however I could. If that meant stabbing another witch, then so be it.
Aveen patted my knee. “While I support your right to choose, the Queen would kill you before you got close.”
Rían straightened and tilted his glass toward his wife. “You’re not going near the Queen either.”
Aveen’s eyes narrowed into slits. “Excuse me?”
I leaned back against the cushion, flashing my sister a victorious smile. How quickly she’d forgotten how it felt to have someone else make her decisions.
“I am a true immortal,” Aveen insisted. “She cannot kill me.”
“And I don’t give a shite,” Rían said over the rim of his glass.
“You and I will discuss this in private.” Aveen’s mouth flattened when she turned back to me. “Keelynn, you’re too fragile—”
“I’m not fragile. Yes, I can die. But so can he.” I gestured toward Ruairi. “And I don’t hear anyone tellinghimto stay out of the fight.”
Tadhg shook his head with a groan. “You do realize you’re comparing yourself to a pooka who has lived and fought for centuries, right?”
Insignificant details. “The curse will kill any immortal who kills another immortal using that weapon. So, in this at least, I am the strongest one of us all.”
Rían tapped his lips as he stared at me. “She’s has a point, you know.”
Tadgh shoved himself upright and leveled his brother with a murderous glare. “You can feck right off with that shite. She’s not going near the Queen with that cursed dagger.”
“It’s not your choice. It’s mine.” And if this was the only way to keep my family and our people safe, I would do it.
Blackness bled into Tadhg’s green eyes. He could throw a strop all he wanted, but on this I refused to sway. I fixed him with my most bored expression. Apparently, the two of us were due a private discussion as well.
My husband had the good sense to look away first. “How do we even know the legends are true? That one of us will die if we use the dagger on another immortal? Do we know of anyone who has tried?”
The men exchanged glances and shrugs.
“How are we supposed to know?” Aveen asked. “It’s not like there’s a safe way to test it out.”
Rían’s eyes seemed to ignite, and he vanished without a word.
Aveen launched to her feet, her head whipping this way and that, searching the bedroom. “Where the hell did he go?” She balled up her fist and punched Tadhg in the arm. “Get off your backside and find him before he does something reckless.”
My poor husband cursed as he massaged his bicep. “Feckin’ hell, Aveen. Stop worrying. He’ll be fine.”
Rían reappeared a moment later and tossed something at the coffee table. The long object landed with a loudthud, rattling the empty bottles and glasses. Good god, was that anarm?
“What did I tell you about bringing severed limbs into the castle?” Tadhg muttered, not the least bit fazed by the fact that there was a bloodied arm lying across the remaining tea cakes. And not just any arm. One covered in dark hair, with blackened fingers and blackened veins leading to where the elbow would be if it were…attached.
Bile scorched the back of my throat. I’d seen blood and gore before, but there was something particularly gruesome about watching blood drip into white icing like strawberry sauce. None of the men batted an eye, like this was just another Tuesday in Tearmann.
“It’ll kill us,” Rían said mildly, sinking onto the arm of Tadhg’s chair and lifting his wine glass, leaving bloodied smudges against the stem.