That gave me a handful of days to come up with a plan.
“And my friend?” What had he done with poor Ruairi?
Caden’s hand stilled on the doorknob. When he glanced back at me, his eyes sparkled with mischief. “Your friend is tied up in the shed.”
25
RÍAN
I pacedfrom the fireplace to the settee and back again, every curse I knew flooding my mind. I couldn’t leave, but how the hell was I supposed to stay?
“Are you sure you’re all right?” Leesha asked from her perch on my chair, a glass of wine clasped in her slender fingers.
No.“I’m fine.”
She smiled over the rim of her glass before taking a sip. “Then why are you wearing a hole in the floor?”
Because Ruairi had been gone for three feckin’ hours. Even with Aveen’s magic bound, returning hadn’t taken her as long. Had something happened? What if the magic coursing through her veins ran out and she couldn’t come back from the underworld? Had she considered the dangers before she killed herself?
The terror of watching her fall from those cliffs was nothing compared to the horror of seeing her take her own life so she could escape—not from a murderous witch but from me.
I couldn’t even blame her. I was supposed to love her more than anyone else in this world, and yet when she’d asked about Leesha, I hadn’t known what to say because I couldn’t lie. Not to Aveen.
Do you still love her?
Such a simple question, and yet the answer was anything but. I’d wanted to say no, that I felt nothing for the woman I’d loved so long ago, but my soulmate deserved the truth.
And the truth…
The truth was complicated.
Where the hell was that feckin’ dog? What if Leesha was right? What if their feelings for one another ran deeper? Was he there now, comforting her after I’d failed her so miserably? She wouldn’t let him do that…would she?
Fuuu—
Leesha peered up at me through wide, worried eyes. “Rían?”
“I’ll be back.” I needed…a feckin’ break. That’s what I needed. This last year had been one disaster after another, punctuated by sparks of hope and love. Without Aveen, there could be none of the latter.
Leesha asked where I was going, but I couldn’t answer because I didn’t know myself. All I knew was that I had to get away. Footsteps sounded at my back, but I ducked into the nearest closet before she could follow.
“Get out,” a deep voice hissed from the darkness.
I bit back my groan. So much for a feckin’ break. I could have evanesced, but the effort of calling on my magic felt like too much at present. Everything felt like too much. “What are you doing in here?” I whispered back. Granted, I’d found my brother in stranger places before.
“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m hiding.”
I inhaled a deep breath, finding no lie but a wealth of alcohol in the air. He smelled like a feckin’ brewery. “Find somewhere else to hide.”
“Youfind somewhere else to hide. I was here first.”
“Keep your voice down.” Was he trying to get us caught? He giggled, and that’s when I knew… “You’re drunk.” Tadhg always did sound like a giddy wench when he was sozzled.
Despite the darkness, I could make out his silhouette and what looked like a flask in his hand. He brought the flask to his mouth and muttered, “Not yet, but I’m working on it.”
The woman he loved was somewhere in this castle taking care of his child while he was in a closet drinking. This man was meant to save the Danú from extermination and he couldn’t even handle a bit of bad news. “You need to man up.” I was sick and tired of watching him throw himself away.
“Says the man who can’t bring himself to tell a woman how he feels. Or, rather, how hedoesn’tfeel.”