I tried to breathe through the rage, loosening my muscles one by one. Exhale anger, inhale peace. But every time I looked at his smug, smarmy face, it came back tenfold.
“His lips are cursed, not poisoned,” Tadhg went on, his gaze dropping to my mouth, “and he doesn’t go around kissing women unless they understand the consequences.”
Lies.
Lies.
Lies.
Aveen wouldn’t have jeopardized her life for a tryst with the Gancanagh. He must’ve put some sort of spell on her. Hidden his identity. Taken advantage of her innocence. Kissed her without revealing the consequences.
“You think you know everything, don’t you?” I spat, a tornado of fury swirling inside of me.
His smirk widened. “I know more than you.”
He thought he knew more than me?
I leaned forward, reveling in the confusion in his searching eyes when I smiled and said, “I watched your innocent Gancanagh murder my sister.”
Tadhg’s pupils blew out; blackness swallowed every last speck of green. He lunged, catching me by the shoulders, sending perfumed air crashing over me. “Tell me exactly what you saw.” Heat radiated from him like a bloody bonfire, scorching my skin through my dress.
“I’m not telling you a thing.” I knocked his hands away and scooted back to sitting, rubbing at my tingling arms. Why did it still feel like his hands were on me?
“If you don’t, I will get out of this carriage and leave you to fend for yourself.”
His hand fell to the latch on the door.
Would he do it?
One glance at his scowl answered that question.
I hated being powerless. I hated that Tadhg could walk all over me and demand whatever he wanted simply because I needed his help. But most of all, I hated him.
Seeing no other option, I told him what had happened, how she had kissed the monster and he had abandoned her like a bloody coward.
The pressure in my chest returned, more an ache than a sharp pain. I pressed a hand to my heart and massaged until it eased.
Tadhg swore; his heel cracked against the trunk. A powerful pulse vibrated through my body, tangible but invisible, making my heart race. I inched closer to the door, watching him wrestle his rage, waiting for him to lash out with writhing darkness.
Tadhg’s ragged breathing eventually steadied and the blackness in his eyes faded. “I’m sorry,” he said.
If I didn’t know better, I would’ve thought he sounded embarrassed.
His gaze shifted to the window. “When I get angry, it’s hard for me to—” His words trailed off and he flattened a hand against the glass. “This isn’t the right road.”
So much for this day going smoothly.
“There’s been a change of plans.” I straightened my shoulders, steeling myself for the inevitable argument. “We’re traveling to Buraos.”
His eyes snapped to mine. “We cannot stay in Buraos.”
“We will stay in Buraos.” Short of jumping from the moving carriage, there was nothing he could do about it.
Tadhg unfastened more buttons at his collar before retrieving his flask. He unscrewed the lid with jerking twists, mumbling the entire time. His throat bobbed as he drained what was left. I lifted my book and opened to a random page in the middle. Tadhg’s fingers tapped against his knees, making it impossible to focus on the printed words.
The air thickened. Magic swelled, leaking out of him, smelling faintly of almonds. “We’re not staying in Buraos,” he insisted.
I’d had enough of his help. Of his damned business. Looking up from my book, I smiled and said, “You. Don’t. Have. A. Choice.”
Tadhg sneered and flicked his wrist.
The carriage bucked forward, sending me flying across the aisle and onto his lap. My face struck the hard wall of his chest and strong arms closed around my back. Something stirred inside of me, deep, primal. Yearning.
The horses neighed.
A litany of gruff curses echoed through the forest.
“Let go!” I wriggled from Tadhg’s grasp and scrambled back to the bench. My entire body was on fire. Something was seriously wrong with me. Had he put me under a spell? A curse?
Tadhg stared at me through wide eyes, his eyebrows knit in confusion. Then he blinked and a smirk replaced the confusion. “You’re the one who climbed on top of me.”
“Like I would ever want to be near something like you on purpose.” I shoved stray hairs from my face and snagged my book from the floor. My hands trembled and I couldn’t catch my breath. If only there were a river or lake or sea for me to jump into and douse these flames.
“Lady Keelynn?” Padraig called. “Could ye come out fer a moment? I need a word with ye in private.”
I wrenched open the door and found my coachman standing next to the horses. The cool breeze swirling around us did little to staunch the flames. As much as I hated the delay, I was grateful for the interruption. There’s no telling what Tadhg would’ve done to me in that carriage.
“Doesn’t make a lick of sense.” Padraig bent his flat cap between his hands as he scanned the area. His short white hair stuck out in every direction. “The wheel’s just . . . disappeared. No sign of it anywhere.”
Sure enough, the front left wheel was gone. No broken spokes. No apparent damage to the axle. The muddy cap on the end was still in place.
How had it come loose?
There was no sign of the blasted thing on the road or the dyke either.
“I don’t mean to pry, milady,” he said, glancing at me from beneath his thin lashes, “but did anything happen inside the carriage just now?”
What sort of question was that? “Besides our escort being an insufferable ass, you mean?”
Tadhg slipped out of the carriage, slung his bag across his chest, and started walking away.
“Where do you think you’re going?” I shouted at his back.
“Away from you,” he replied, not bothering to turn around.
He couldn’t go away. We had a deal. He had promised to bring me to Tearmann. “But we need your help. We’re missing a wheel.”
“I know.”
Padraig’s eyes narrowed on Tadhg’s retreating form. His knuckles turned white where he strangled his cap.
Understanding hit me like a hammer to the head.
The anger.
The indignation.
The twitchy fingers.
The flick of Tadhg’s wrist right before the wheel vanished into thin air.
This was his fault.
I ran over the pitted road until I caught up and grabbed him by the arm. “You did this, didn’t you?”
His body stiffened and his gaze dropped to my hand. My fingers stung like I’d grabbed a fist full of nettles. I let him go and scrubbed my palm against my cloak.
Using magic to harm a human or their property was illegal, punishable by death.
“Careful now. That’s an awfully serious accusation.” Tadhg’s smirk returned.
It was him.
But there was no way to prove it.
“Well, Maiden Death,” Tadhg said, his eyes sparkling like emeralds, “it appears I had a choice after all.”
He turned and sauntered away.
Aveen had always said my temper would get me into trouble. I had never expected it to leave me stranded with darkness falling on a three-wheeled carriage, abandoned by my escort.
Something rattled the bushes across the road. The wind picked up, swirling my skirts and tearing at my pinned hair. Tree branches clawed the darkening sky.
The weight was back, threatening to crack my sternum. Making it difficult to breathe. Making it nearly impossible to shout, “Stop! Don’t leave us. Please don’t go.”
Tadhg’s shoulders stiffened. When he paused his confident strides, the weight eased a fraction. When he turned and stalked back, it eased a bit more.
I opened my mouth to thank him, but he continued past without acknowledging my existence and did not stop u
ntil he reached Padraig. Their exchange consisted of low, serious tones from Tadhg and a lot of nodding from my coachman.
Then Tadhg pressed something into Padraig’s palm.
“Go ahead with master Tadhg,” Padraig said, tucking whatever Tadhg had given him into the pocket where he kept his playing cards. “He promised the wheel will return soon.”
The wheel would return.
Like it was on a bloody holiday.
Tadhg swept past me, muttering, “Try to keep up.”
My boots remained rooted in the mud like the many stones littering the road. “I cannot leave Padraig behind.” His safety and wellbeing were my responsibility.
Tadhg stopped, and his head dropped as he exhaled a long sigh. “He will be fine.”
“You expect me to take your word for it?” What good was the word of a creature who had deliberately sabotaged the carriage? “This is your doing. Just flick your wrist and give back the bloody wheel.”
A muscle feathered in his jaw. “You have two choices: stay with him or come with me.”
“Go with him, milady.” Padraig patted one of the stomping horses. Its tack jingled when it shook its head. “All will be well.”
How could he possibly know that? He’d said himself Tadhg couldn’t be trusted and now Padraig wanted me to be on my own with him?
Padraig waved me away with his cap before rounding the back of the carriage. He truly didn’t seem concerned.
After one final glance, I fell into step behind Tadhg. Puddles filled the deeper pits in the road. I skirted around them, careful to keep my boots from getting too wet and ruining the leather. “Do you swear he will be all right?”
Tadhg kicked a loose stone into one of the puddles. “I already told you that he will be fine.”
How could he be so certain? “Nightfall is only an hour away.”
Tadhg stomped right through a puddle, soaking his tall black boots and splattering my skirt. Glaring at him would’ve been a waste of energy. He obviously didn’t give a damn about me or my clothes or my mission or my friend or anything but himself.
“You’re a bit old to be afraid of the dark, aren’t you?” he said with a laugh.
A veil of gray clouds obscured what remained of the waning sun. It wasn’t the dark I feared but the beings who haunted it.
Tadhg was one of them.
Even knowing this, I drew closer to his stomping frame, hoping that if we were attacked, he wouldn’t abandon me or use me as a human shield.
By the time we reached a village, my heels were blistered, my legs ached, and my face was sore from the wind whipping over the hillside.
“There’s an inn just there,” Tadhg said, pointing to a sign swinging above a red door down a side street. Behind the building was a substantial stable for my horses—if they arrived.
What if it was full? Where would I go?
“You must bring me to the door.” It seemed like the safest option.
His heel ground the stones beneath his boots. “Must I?”
Instead of thumping his insufferable head, I pinned on a smile. Twelve more days. I could do this. “I would appreciate it if you accompanied me the rest of the way,” I amended.
Twelve more days.
Twelve more days.
“What’s this?” His eyebrows flew up, and he pressed a hand to his chest. “Are you asking me to be near you on purpose?”
Flickers of embarrassment burned my cheeks. I should have been able to control my irritation, but everything about him made me feel out of control. “I shouldn’t have said that to you. It was awful, and I’m sorry.”
Tadhg mumbled something under his breath but walked me past darkened shops and modest plaster homes to a door made to look like a red portcullis.
“Your door, milady.” Tadhg gave a mocking bow. “Do you require additional assistance? I’m remarkably good at unlacing stays.”
As if I would ever let him near my stays with his long, tanned—and likely very nimble—fingers.
Humming laces slipping through eyelets whispered in my ears.
I swore I could feel my bodice loosening, urging me to take a freeing breath.
Invisible hands caught my shift. Grazed down my shoulders.
My breathing hitched.
I could taste Tadhg’s magic on my tongue, thick, like too-sweet icing with a hint of almonds.
“Stop.” I clutched my cloak closed over my heaving chest.
Tadhg’s blank expression gave no indication that he knew what had happened. “Stop what?”
The air I drew into my lungs tasted of woodsmoke, not magic.
“N-nothing.” I was exhausted. That’s what it was. Exhaustion. My tired mind must’ve been playing tricks on me. I escaped through the door and slammed it behind me.
Twelve more days.
I could do this.
Twelve more days.
6
The room I had rented at the front of the inn was modest but clean. The best part was the fire blazing in the hearth. If only its warmth could go deeper and return some of the fire to my soul.
I sipped my glass of wine slowly, needing to make it last. Why hadn’t I ordered a bottle instead? Alcohol brought sleep and silence—and with the chaotic thoughts buzzing in my mind, I had a sinking feeling both would elude me tonight.
All of those thoughts could be summed up in one word: Tadhg.
The instant I saw two gray geldings trotting toward the inn, I slipped my blistered feet into my boots and readied myself to go back outside.
Downstairs, the woman who had checked me in was busy serving plates of bacon and smelly cabbage to patrons sitting at the tables. When she bustled past, I asked if it would be possible to have a bath sent to my room.
“All the tubs are spoken for, milady.” She swiped a hand across her sweaty brow. Perspiration collected at the base of her throat like a necklace. “Although we should have a spare wash bucket around here somewhere.” She nodded toward a boy, no older than six or seven, scurrying between the tables with a brush and pan. “I’ll have one of the lads fetch it when we’re finished.”
“That will do. Thank you.”
The chilly night air sent me deeper into my cloak. Each hurried step on the way to the stables rubbed at my already raw heels. The hum of low conversation lifted through the double doors propped open with bales of hay. The air smelled of sweaty horses, hay, and leather.
Oh, how I missed riding. Ever since my sixteenth birthday, my father had insisted we take the carriage to appear more civilized. The moment I returned from this journey, I was going to sell the bloody thing and use the proceeds to buy a new horse.
A foal with a diamond of white hair above its eyes knickered at me as I passed. Padraig looked up from where he and a young teen in mucky boots were feeding our horses.
“Milady?” Padraig offered a tight bob of his head. When the teen didn’t acknowledge me, Padraig knocked him in the shoulder and glared. With his cheeks turning pink, the teen gave me an awkward bow.
“What brings ye here at such a god forsaken hour?” Padraig asked, a smile playing on his thin lips when the boy hurried on his way to the other side of the stable.
It was only half nine, but Padraig had always been more of a morning person, like myself. The night felt too restrictive. Darkness pressing in on all sides; monsters lurking in the shadows.
Daylight was safer.
Daylight was freedom.
“I couldn’t sleep until I checked on you.” I blinked away the tears welling in my eyes. If anything had happened to him, I would be lost. Padraig had always been there, a steady, solid presence when I’d needed one. His quiet strength had gotten me through the worst of the last four months.
Padraig was the only ally I had left.
“No trouble, I hope.” I hid my wringing hands behind my back. He’d give out if he knew how much I’d worried about him.
Padraig stepped away from the horses, scratching the short white whiskers covering his chin. “None to
speak of. Wheel showed up in the dyke not long after ye left. Took some time to get it back on”—his eyes darted to the teen plucking a coarse brush from a high shelf—“but I had help. Made it here not a bother.”
“Someone helped you?” Who would’ve been out on the roads this late at night?
Padraig’s white eyebrows knitted together. “Twasn’t a man.”
A lump formed in my throat. Padraig was safe. Padraig was here. There was no need to be frightened. “What was it?” I forced past the lump.
The stable hand brushed the gelding with long, smooth strokes but kept his head cocked toward us.
“He was short, not much taller than ‘im.” Padraig nodded toward the boy. “Arms covered in red hair. Voice of a man, strength of ten. Couldn’t see his face on account of the hood, but he smelled like a pig sty.”
The mysterious creature sounded like a grogoch. All I could recall of the half-faerie beings was that they despised members of the clergy and had fairly mild temperaments. As far as I knew, they didn’t eat people. “Were you frightened?”
“I’d be lyin’ if I said I wasn’t a mite fearful. Then I showed ‘im this like Master Tadhg told me to.” He dug into his pocket and handed me an expensive gold cufflink embossed with a triskelion. I traced the triple spirals to where they interlocked in the middle.
“And then yer man offered to help with the wheel,” Padraig finished.
I turned the cufflink over in my hand. Where had Tadhg gotten such a thing? That much gold could buy him a month’s worth of new clothes. And he had given it to Padraig without batting an eye.
“I’ll be sure to return it to him.” A veil of unease settled over me as I tucked the gold into my pocket. “Will I organize dinner for you inside? They’re serving your favorite. Bacon and cabbage.”
“There’s no need.” Padraig rubbed his swollen stomach where it tested the buttons on his waistcoat. “Yer man left more food than I’m used to eatin’ in a day.”
“And you ate it?” What had he been thinking? If the food had been enchanted, it could have killed him.
Padraig nodded. “Hope he doesn’t mind that I had every last bit of it. Told me to. Not sure he meant the wine.” Shaking his head, he rocked back on his heels and tucked his thumbs into his belt loops. “Tasted awful expensive.”
A Cursed Kiss (Myths of Airren Book 1) Page 6
