No one? What did he mean I was “no one”?
The door eased open, and Rían slipped through the gap, closing it right behind him so I couldn’t get a peek inside. He looked strung tighter than a bloody bowstring, his smile forced and the skin beneath his eyes shadowed. “What are you doing here? I thought you were staying at Ruairi’s.”
“Seeing as it’s yourbirthday, I thought you’d like to celebrate with me.”
His eyes shuttered. “Aveen—”
The door flew open. A young woman with wavy hair the color of glowing embers stood on the other side. Impossibly dark lashes fringed a pair of deep-set green eyes. “Rían, can you help me with my—” The woman startled when she saw me. Her pale hand reached for Rían’s arm, her fingers encircling his wrist directly above my blue ribbon he still wore. “Who is this?”
Rían’s mouth opened and closed but no words emerged.
He had had another bloody woman in his bedchamber, and she wanted to know who I was? “My name is—”
“Rose,” Rían cut in. “This is my friend Rose.”
Hisfriend? Hold on one bloody minute…
The woman smiled. “It’s lovely to meet you, Rose. I’m Leesha. Rían’s fiancée.”
Leesha? As in…Rían’s first love? The woman the Queen had stolen from him centuries ago who was supposed to be dead? She didn’t look dead to me. Not only was she alive, she was here, in his castle. In hisroom. Clinging to his arm as if the two of them were—
I screwed my eyes shut and pinched my arm, praying all of this was some sort of terrible dream. When I opened them again, nothing had changed.
Rían was still there, and Leesha…her arms were wrapped around one of his, her cheek pressed to his shoulder.
Rían stepped forward, freeing himself from the woman’s embrace and holding his palms out to me. “Please don’t. Please.”
Don’t what? Panic? Curse? Cry? Scream at the top of my lungs? I retreated a step, then another, needing space and…and air. I needed air. There was never any air in this bloody castle.
I heard Rían mumble to Leesha that he would be back. His footsteps rang out as they closed the distance between us until his fingers circled my wrist and I was forced into a room that smelled of dust and mildew.
“Leesha?Leesha?” I gasped, the name burning my tongue. “As in, the woman you love?”
Rían’s eyes shuttered. Another barrier between us. “Hear me out—”
How could I hear him out when none of this made any bloody sense? “You said your mother killed her.”
He raked his fingers through his hair, his eyes hollow, haunted. “She did. At least, I thought she did.” His quiet curse lifted toward the dark ceiling. “I should’ve known better. That she’d been playing me for a feckin’ fool.” He shook his head, his shoulders deflating. “She took Leesha’s heart just as she took mine.”
The Queen had used a spell to keep control over Rían for centuries.Had she been doing the same to Leesha?
He pressed the heels of his palms to his eyes, his proud shoulders rounding as if he could curl in on himself and become invisible. “All this time,” he muttered. “She must’ve been in that castle all this time.”
“But she’s human.” Shouldn’t her body be dead by now?
His hands dropped, open and empty at his sides. “I know. I can’t explain it. But she’s here. And she’s a-a-choo.” Cursing, Rían shifted a handkerchief and rubbed his nose. “She’s alive. And she thinks it’s my—achoo—birthday.”
“Itisyour birthday.”
Dark hair fell across his brow when he shook his head. “No, I mean she thinks it’s my birthday two centuries ago. As far as I can tell, she believes no time has passed. She doesn’t even—achoo.Dammit. She doesn’t remember the Queen taking her heart.”
Then she still wanted to be with him. Did that mean…
Didhewant to be withher?
I shook my head against the foolish notion. He couldn’t want her. He and I were soulmates, a perfect match in every way. Right? That was what he had been saying since the day we met. Could he have been wrong?
One long look at his conflicted expression was all the confirmation I needed. He did love her.Oh god…Rían still loved her. Where did that leave me besides alone?