“He’s going to be trouble,” Rían said under his breath. “Should I kill him?”
“If you killed everyone who is displeased with my rule, there’d be no one left—including you.” I asked Oscar to send in the next visitor.
He returned a moment later with his flat cap bent between his hands. “There are no others, sire.”
That couldn’t be right. With the way the blight was spreading, surely there should be more. “Are you certain?”
He nodded.
Rían dropped his head into his hands. “I never thought I’d say this, but I kind of miss the old days.”
So did I. Before this blight, all I had to do was collect taxes and settle the odd dispute between neighbors. Part of me wished someone would come in complaining about stolen chickens.
“Hello?” a soft voice called from the hallway. Anwen stepped through the door with a small bundle clutched to her chest. Unless she was here to apologize for being rude to Keelynn over the pies, she may as well turn right around.
The witch sauntered across the hall and didn’t spare Keelynn so much as a glance as she sank into a curtsey at the foot of the dais.
“Anwen. What can we help you with?”
She straightened, shooting me a narrowed-eyed glare so full of hatred, I felt frost settling in my bones. “I have something that belongs to ye.”
I leaned forward, trying to catch a glimpse of what she’d wrapped so carefully.
And then it made a noise.
Was that a…baby?
Anwen held the wriggling child toward me. My heart stalled. What game was she playing?
Rían’s jaw hit the ground, but it wasn’t his reaction I cared about. Keelynn had gone so still, like she wasn’t even breathing, her knuckles white as bone and face equally as pale as she stared down at the small bundle.
“It’s not…it can’t be…” I couldn’t bring myself to say the wordminebecause the moment I looked at the wriggling child, the truth was as clear as the pair of emerald-green eyes blinking up at me. The mop of chocolate-brown curls peeking from beneath the blanket didn’t help either.
Shit…
Shit.
Slowly, Keelynn’s head turned, her wide eyes glistening with tears.
I’d tried telling her what had happened while she’d been gone, but she’d insisted it didn’t matter. I’d been in a bad place. I’d been drunk. I’d beencursed.
The baby let out a pitiful cry. Keelynn’s hand flew to her quivering lips. I could feel her slipping through my trembling fingers, and there wasn’t a feckin’ thing I could do to keep her from drifting away.
22
KEELYNN
Anwen thrustthe child at Tadhg’s chest, forcing him to take hold of the baby.
Notthebaby.
Hisbaby.
Tadhg had a child.
With someone else.
I’d woken up so bloody nervous about meeting with his people, anticipating disaster. But nothing could’ve prepared me for this sort of betrayal. My heartbeat, which had stopped the moment I realized the truth, thundered through my ears like I’d been dropped into a churning sea with no land in sight.