Rían was either attending a trial or dealing with the Danú calling to the castle every other day, shifting cottages and livestock from one end of Tearmann to the other to help them escape the blight.
I spent what time I could with Keelynn as she and Tadhg wrestled with the sleepless reality of raising a child. With each passing day, the shadows beneath her eyes grew more pronounced, and I no longer saw her smile. Most of the wedding plans had already been put in place, which was a blessing, really, since my sister hadn’t spoken of the event since the arrival of her stepson.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure there wouldbea wedding on Saturday.
And then there was Leesha.
Brogan may have belonged to Tadhg, but from the way Leesha clung to the child, you’d swear she’d given birth to Tearmann’s heir. But I didn’t want to think about her anymore. About the way she hung on Rían’s arm every time he walked into a room.
My teeth ground together. How much more time did he need to tell her the truth?
With everyone so busy, Ruairi had been helping me with my glamour. And by helping, I meant he’d been trying to distract me so that I’d let my magical disguise drop.
I glared down at the cards fanned in my hands, trying to remember the rules of this game that Ruairi had explained at least three times.
“I’ll raise you one button and three marbles,” I said, sliding my “tokens” toward the pot in the center of the low table where we’d once played snapdragon and laughed like fools.
Laughter no longer graced these rooms.
Only silence and tears remained.
Ruairi watched me with a furrowed brow, his own cards clasped in one massive hand. “Yer nose.”
My hand flew to my face.Dammit. My nose did feel a good deal colder than the rest of me. The glamour must’ve slipped. With a bit of focus, I managed to fix it fairly quickly.
Smiling with his fangs on full display, Ruairi nodded in approval. “Yer getting better at it.”
“Thank you.” I wore my glamour all day, every day, imagining the magical layer as impenetrable armor between me and the world. Sometimes it worked. Most of the time, the pain still seeped in. “I was thinking we could go to the garden after lunch. You dig, I plant?” With so many Danú losing their homes and gardens, the castle’s stores had grown dangerously low. I’d decided to turn my flower beds into vegetable patches. Rían hadn’t bothered saying I wasn’t allowed outside. He was obviously too busy spending all his free time with his first love to care about my safety anymore.
“Sounds like a plan.” Ruairi matched my bet before laying down his cards.
I did the same, spreading them across the table. “I think three twos are good, right?”
Surprise flickered across his features. From the way Ruairi cursed, I knew I’d won.
I dragged my new buttons, cufflinks, and marbles across the table to add to the collection I’d amassed over the last few days. “You really do have the worst luck.”
Ruairi’s smile tightened. “Ye have no idea.”
“Would you like to play another hand before we head out?”
With a sigh, he straightened the cards into a pile next to the few buttons he still owned. “I’d rather not lose again, but if ye really want to, I will.”
“No, that’s all right.” I was bored of cards anyway. Everything bored me nowadays. Even gardening had lost its appeal.
Ruairi’s fang dragged along his lip as he returned the cards to the box. “Would ye like to practice evanescing?”
“Why not?” It wasn’t as if I had anything better to do. I still couldn’t figure out how to evanesce by myself, but Ruairi was kind enough to lend me his magic. Yesterday, we’d made it to the tallest tower three times in a row.
We stood and faced each other. He offered me his hands, dwarfing my own. I closed my eyes as our connection began to heat with the magic passing between us. I pictured the garden, where the sun beat mercilessly through the wards. The air sticky and sweet with the perfume of flowers, grass, and dirt. The silence around us thickened like a warm fog.
“What the hell is going on?”
Rían’s deep voice cut through the magical haze. I dropped Ruairi’s hands, my face igniting when I realized Rían wasn’t alone. Leesha stood at his side, Tadhg’s child on her hip, making them look like the perfect little family.
Tears pricked the backs of my eyes, but I refused to let them see me cry. My tears were reserved for the bath, where the evidence could easily be washed away.
Leesha nudged Rían with her shoulder before gesturing toward Ruairi and me. “See! I told you there were sparks between them.”