“Whose arm is that?” Aveen hissed.
That was a question I never thought I’d hear coming from my sister’s mouth.
Rían took a slow sip before smirking over the rim of his glass. “One of the prisoners from downstairs.”
Aveen’s lips pursed. “Is he dead?”
Rían’s teeth gleamed when he grinned. “He is quite dead.”
No one in his right mind would’ve used that dagger to kill someone else if he knew the consequences. “How did you convince him to use the dagger?”
Rían’s head tilted toward me, a maniacal gleam in his too-blue eyes. “I told him that if he stabbed his cell mate, I’d let him go free. He did, and now they’re both out of my hair.”
My stomach churned. Terrible, but effective. Those should have been Rían’s middle names.
Rían leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “So, that brings us back to the question: How do we kill the Queen when none of us can use the dagger? We have no army and cannot hope to win against a legion of shadow guards. And you know I want the Queen dead more than anyone in this world, but she cannot be killed unless we use that dagger. So unless you’re willing to let Keelynn wield it—”
I opened my mouth to volunteer once more, but Tadhg got there first.
“Keelynn isn’t getting near the Queen,” he said.
I rammed the toe of my boot into his shin. The irritating man didn’t even budge.When I went to kick him a second time, he caught my ankle and lifted my foot onto his knee.
“What about paying someone?” Tadhg suggested.
Ruairi rubbed his hand along his bearded chin. “That seems a mite deceitful, doesn’t it?”
At least there was one moral man in the lot.
“Too bad ye killed yer last prisoners,” Ruairi added.
Never mind. None of these men had a drop of morality between them.
“Too bad someone let the others go.” Rían gave me a pointed look.
Brilliant. Now I was the bad guy for doing what was right. Honestly, I couldn’t win.
My brother-in-law swirled what remained in his glass before finishing the deep red liquid in one final gulp. “I think we can all agree that anyone we could convince to do this will end up running scared in the other direction.”
Aveen’s palm slapped against her thigh. “I’ve got it! What if we cut out someone’s heart?”
Slowly, I turned to my sister. Had she just said she wanted to cut out someone’s heart?Bloody hell.What had happened to the person who used to spend countless hours tending flowers in the garden? When had she gone from pulling weeds to carving out organs?
Our father would be so disappointed if he knew how our lives had ended up.
“Hear me out,” Aveen went on, setting her own glass next to the bloody arm. “If we take someone’s heart, we can control that person the way the Queen controls her guards, correct?” Her questioning gaze flicked between Tadhg and Rían. “Do you know the spell she uses to remove a heart or just the one to restore it?”
Rían’s eyes darkened as he stared down at the goblet in his hand, as if the empty glass held all the answers. Why was he hesitating? Hadn’t he just professed to wanting the Queen dead more than anyone? After a few more beats of silence, he let out a heavy sigh. “I know the spell.”
Tadhg eased back against his chair, a pensive expression on his handsome face as he looked up at his brother. “It’s settled, then. All we have to do is decide whose heart to take.” He rolled his glass of water between his hands, his brow furrowing. “I really wish Robert were alive.”
Rían sighed wistfully. “Yes. This would’ve been the perfect task for dear Robert.”
I raised my hand once more. “I’ll do it.” Tadhg could glower all he wanted. This was an excellent idea. “If I don’t have a heart, I can’t die, right?” Unless someone took my head.
Tadhg squeezed my foot still resting on his knee. “I love you, Keelynn. But I really wish you’d get it through your beautiful skull that you arenotgetting involved. No one is taking your heart. You aren’t stabbing the Queen. The only reason you’re in this room is because I cannot bear to be apart from you. But if you don’t stop volunteering to be a martyr, I will lock you in our room.”
“I bet Ned has someone we could use,” Rían offered.