I knocked Rían aside and had every intention of bowling over anyone else who got in my way, but then I saw Keelynn and my body turned to stone. Glossy chocolate waves fell over her pale, slender shoulders. With Aveen hugging her, I couldn’t see her face. All I wanted was to see her face. For her eyes to give me answers to questions my cursed mouth didn’t want to utter.
When I cleared my throat, Aveen finally shifted out of the way, her hands falling as she released Keelynn.
How I’d missed the spark in those steely gray eyes. The world that had seemed so dark only yesterday now brightened. Like spring finally emerging from the frozen confines of an eternal winter.
Aveen whispered something that sounded an awful lot like, “good luck” and gave me a watery smile on her way out, following my brother down the hallway toward the staircase. The two of them had issues of their own to sort out. Hopefully sooner rather than later, because Rían had become even more of a miserable bastard.
I closed the door, wishing there was some way to close off the butterflies crowding my chest as well. So much had happened this year, between Aveen and the Queen and my feckin’ curse, I didn’t know where to begin.
My tongue swelled so thick, I could barely swallow.Speak, you gowl. “I see you’re alive again.”
Keelynn’s lips flattened. “Yes. I’m alive again.”
Why did this feel so feckin’ difficult? I loved this woman, having a conversation with her should not have been this difficult.
I needed to say something better. Something poignant. “Death isn’t a very pleasant experience, is it?”
“No. It’s not.”
“Can you walk yet?”Another winning linefrom the Prince of Seduction himself. It was a miracle I’d won this woman over in the first place.
“No.”
“Right. Um . . . Well . . .”Just say it. “You’d think I’d be ready for this. I’ve had a feckin’ eternity to prepare.” For some reason, all the speeches I’d written in my head fell short of what I truly wanted to say to her.I love you. Please forgive me. If you take me back, I will never let you down again. “Right, so. First and foremost, I would like to apologize. I should have revealed who I was the moment we met and let you run the cursed dagger through my black heart outside the Green Serpent.”
Since I’d met Keelynn, her life had gone from bad to worse.
“If I’d accepted my sentence, Fiadh wouldn’t have tried to kill you twice, and you wouldn’t have been forced to marry me, and you could’ve gotten Aveen back right away and . . .” Padraig wouldn’t be gone. She wouldn’t be in Tearmann. Robert wouldn’t have assaulted her in Gaul. The list of offenses went on and on. “I’m so sorry.”
She flattened her palms over her quilt-covered thighs, her expression softening. “Tadhg, I’m the one who’s sorry. If I hadn’t made that bargain with Fiadh, none of this would’ve happened.”
“If you hadn’t made that bargain, we never would’ve met. And that is the one part of this mess that I do not regret.” Before Keelynn, I’d been living half a life, searching for freedom and fulfilment in places where no such happiness could be found.Even if she told me she never wanted to see me again, I would forever be grateful for the few fleeting moments of joy her presence had brought me.
Her head dropped, but not before I caught a glimpse of silver tears lining her thick lashes. “How can you say that after I killed you?” she whispered.
She could kill me a thousand times over, and I still wouldn’t regret it. “I killed you too, so I suppose that makes us even.”
A small smile tugged at her lips but vanished just as quickly, making me wonder if it was even there. “What do we do now?” she asked.
“That’s up to you.” She’d been told what to do her entire life. If she wanted me, I was hers. If she didn’t…
I’d still be hers but from afar.
She nodded as if to herself before raising her piercing gaze to mine. “If you wouldn’t mind me staying a week or so, until all my faculties have returned and I’ve had a chance to catch up with Aveen, then I will leave.”
“Is that what you want?” I forced past the swelling lump in my throat.
“Y—” She licked her lips and tried a second time. “Y—” She sighedand her shoulders curled in on themselves. “No. It’s not what I want.”
Talk about relief. I swiped my clammy palms down my breeches.Here goes nothing. “Then stay with me.”
Luxurious waves spilled over her shoulders when her head tilted. “How can you stand being near me after all that’s happened?”
“Because I love you.”
Her gaze fell to the emerald ring on my little finger. “Liar.”
I removed the small band and threw the thing onto the mattress. It belonged to her now, after all. “I love you, Keelynn.” Always would. My heart was hers, even if she didn’t want it.