I could do nothing but stare, my heart stalled in my chest. “Is she—?”
“Roseis fine,” Ruairi said. His good eye flew to where Leesha clutched her hands to her chest before returning to me. “But you and I need to talk in private.”
Leesha pressed a kiss to my cheek and gave my arm a reassuring squeeze before quitting the room.
I summoned a tost, drowning out the sounds of her footsteps in the hallway. “What the hell happened?”
“I brought Aveen’s body to the cottage, settled her in bed…”
My hands balled into fists.
Do not murder him. Donotmurder him.
“But when I went to collect water from the well, there was someone waiting.”
“Who?”
“Don’t know. Black hair, dark eyes. No whiskers. Tall, but not as tall as me. I asked if he needed help, thinking maybe he’d come to the wrong house by accident. The fecker hit me in the face and used magic to hogtie me in the damned shed.”
“And you left Aveen there on her own?” Honestly, did no one on this cursed island have a lick of sense?
If the stranger had magic, he almost certainly would’ve been wearing a glamour when he encountered the pooka, so the description Ruairi had given was useless.
Although I’d deny it until my dying day, Ruairi was one of the strongest men I’d ever met. Even with the element of surprise, it would’ve taken an exorbitant amount of magic to subdue him. This mysterious stranger was either incredibly powerful…or desperate.
“Unlike ye, I respect a woman’s wishes, and when she asked me to leave, I did.”
I didn’t care about Aveen’s wishes when her wellbeing was at stake.
“She seemed genuinely shocked to find me in the shed and asked what had happened. Either she was lying about not seeing anyone else or the man never went inside.”
“I don’t give a shite whether she saw the man or not.” Which wasn’t entirely true, but the point was, “Yousaw him. Heattackedyou. And yet you left her alone in that cottage, unable to defend herself! I should tear out your feckin’ gullet, you worthless piece of—”
“For feck’s sake, lad. She’s not alone.”
“Who is there with her?”
“Meranda.”
Not who I thought he’d say. I would’ve expected her crotchety neighbor Marcus, maybe. But not Meranda. “Why?”
His mammoth shoulders lifted and fell in a shrug. “Don’t know. Didn’t ask.”
“You really are useless.”
“And yer a fool.”
My hand snapped out, catching his unbuttoned collar. “Say that again. I dare you.” This dog’s death had been a long time coming.
He bared his teeth like the animal he was, fangs flashing in the dim light. “Aveen loves ye, and yet yer here with another, acting like ye haven’t got the most precious woman in the world pining fer ye. What’re ye playin’ at?”
My grip loosened, but only a fraction. “What am I supposed to do? Cast Leesha aside as if she means nothing? All of this is my fault. If it weren’t for my mother, we would be together.”
Ruairi unhooked my fingers from his collar and shoved me back. My arse collided with the settee. “If it weren’t for yer mother, she’d be dead.”
That may be true, but—
“Do ye really think there’s only one person out there for each of us? If ye had spent a life with Leesha, she would’ve succumbed to old age or some other human malady centuries ago. And yer immortal arse would still be right here, except maybe ye’d be a little less of a prick because the Queen never would’ve stolen yer heart.”