He could sling insults all he wanted. That wouldn’t deter me. “And surely someone as dense as you can see that making decisions for my sister instead of allowing her to make her own is the exact same thing our father did. Shall I remind you how that turned out?”
His eyes narrowed into slits.
“Father wanted her to marry Robert Trench, and she died to avoid that. You tried to keep her from returning to Tearmann, and yet she is right upstairs. She will find a way around this bargain of yours, and it could very well end up putting her in the danger you have been trying so desperately to avoid. You need to help her.”
The book slammed shut, and his hands landed on the desk with a loudslap. “Where do you get off, ordering me around, human?”
Don’t take the bait. Don’t do it.
I may have been human, but he was being ridiculous.“Shewillbe at my wedding.”
His lips twisted into a sneer.
I plowed on even though I imagined he was probably plotting my death at this very moment. “And since I, too, am concerned with her safety, I would like you to help her learn how to glamour herself.”
“If you were truly concerned, you’d tell her to skip the whole feckin’ thing.” He shoved to his feet, stalking around the desk and jabbing his finger in my face. “Just so we’re clear,ifI decide to do this, I’m not doing it for you. I’m doing this for her.”
“Thank you, Rían. You are most kind.”
My arms snapped to my sides, and a rope appeared out of thin air, wrapping around my torso and binding me to the chair so tightly, I could barely breathe.
“Joke’s on you,” I laughed. “I wasn’t planning on leaving.”
A piece of cloth stretched across my mouth.
That miserable pig. I glowered at Rían’s back as he sauntered out of the room and let the door fall closed behind him. If I had that cursed dagger, I’d have used it on him myself. The nerve, tying me up in here.
Now I had to wait until someone found me, or try to get to the hallway myself. Thankfully, he hadn’t tied my feet together. I managed to ease forward enough that the chair rocked and I was able to stand, the chair bound to my back like a turtle’s shell. I wobbled toward the door but quickly realized I wouldn’t be able to twist the knob.
Bloody Rían. Why must he ruin everything he touched?
I slammed the chair onto the stones and kicked my boot against the door. Once. Twice. A third time.
The door flew open, and Tadhg waited on the other side, his smile slipping into a scowl when he saw me. With a flick of his wrist, the bonds vanished. “Who did this to you?”
“Who do you think?” I stood on unsteady legs and straightened my skirt. Next time I saw that man, I was going to kick him in the shin.
“You are off limits. Rían should know that.”
“Yes, well, Rían doesn’t care.” Selfish codfish. How could someone as good and kind as Aveen love someone as twisted and wretched as him?
Tadhg’s head tilted, sending an unruly dark curl tumbling across his forehead. “Rían’s problem was never that he didn’t care,” he said softly. “It was that he cared too much.”
13
TADHG
As I slippedmy clammy hands into the pockets of my breeches, one thought swirled through my mind: I should’ve brought Rían. People loved nothing more than a juicy bit of gossip, and if this didn’t go as planned, it’d definitely get around. Yet the idea of having to rely on my brother’s power after mine had been returned galled me to no end. I’d leaned on him for far too long. It was time to stand on my own two feet.
So here I stood, on the edge of yet another blackened field, staring at three houses far larger than I remembered. A young lad leapt down the stoop of the first, crafted of gray limestone. They’d added a conservatory since I’d last been here. Looked feckin’ heavy.
When the young pooka saw me, he grinned, flashing a pair of elongated fangs far too large for his thin face. “Mammy! The prince is here!” he shouted back into the house. He continued to an abandoned skipping rope next to a broken hoop.
Oh, to be a child without a care in the world.
Right, so. No more waiting. Time to do this.
I withdrew my hands and gave them a good shake. Everything would be fine.