A Cursed Kiss (Myths of Airren Book 1)

by Jenny Hickman

  “That was kind of him.” What did Tadhg stand to gain by helping Padraig? What game was he playing?

  Nudging some hay with his boot, Padraig mumbled, “Seems I may have misjudged him.”

  Tadhg may have taken care of Padraig in this instance, but that didn’t mean he was trustworthy. After all, he had been the one to break the carriage in the first place.

  The food could’ve been his way of making amends.

  Or it could have been an attempt to make me feel indebted to him. And in Tadhg’s debt was not a place I wanted to stay.

  I wished Padraig good night and made my way back to the inn.

  Tadhg would probably be up until all hours drinking, or he’d find some other woman who needed help with her stay. How he spent his nights didn’t matter. If he wanted to share beds with tarts or pass out on a drink-splattered table, that was his choice.

  But tonight, I would give him another option.

  Then we’d be even.

  I hurried across the pavement to the pub I’d seen him enter not too long ago. My blistered heels made each step a challenge. The words “The Black Rabbit” had been embossed onto a bronze plaque attached to the wall.

  Inside, one man with slicked back gray hair and a second with no hair at all hunkered over their pints at a low wooden table. A third, with a bushy black mustache concealing his upper lip, read behind the bar. The two lumps of coal burning in the fireplace barely warmed the candlelit room.

  I could have sworn Tadhg had come in here. Had he left while I was speaking to Padraig? If so, where had he gone?

  The bartender looked up from his book and clattered to his feet. “May I help you, milady?” he asked, smoothing a hand over his inky black hair.

  Was this pub like the Green Serpent? Was there a haven for creatures in the back?

  “This is going to sound strange, but is there another pub here?” I asked.

  The bartender’s mustache twitched with his frown. “The Starling would still be serving drinks at this hour. Or the inn across the way.” He indicated the direction I had come from with the spine of his book.

  “I meant in this building.” I nodded toward the far wall. “At the back.”

  The two men drinking looked up from their pints. The bald one lifted his thick eyebrows.

  “Only thing in the back is more storage,” the bartender said, shaking his head.

  “Yer not serving creatures again, are ye, Sean?” The gray-haired man rose to his feet and clutched his dagger’s hilt. “Ye know folks won’t be comin’ in if ye are.”

  “Didn’t ye hear what I told the lady? Those filthy monsters aren’t welcome here.”

  The gray-haired man didn’t look convinced, but he sat down. The bartender turned back to me, his eyebrows coming together in a silent plea. The last thing I wanted was to cause trouble, so I muttered an apology and retreated into the night.

  Going back to the inn at this stage felt like failing, and I had already failed enough.

  My fingertips brushed against the triskelion cufflink as I made my way past three houses to an alley. Flickering wall lanterns kept the narrow gap from being swallowed by darkness.

  A dull pain started in my chest, spreading to my core.

  How could I expect to defeat a monster if I couldn’t even go down a bloody alley on my own?

  I inhaled a deep breath and forced one foot in front of the other.

  Glowing eyes stared at me from a pile of crushed crates. Something scurried across my path. The beast pounced.

  A cat. It was only a cat.

  My heart pummeled against the heel of my hand as I massaged the pain away.

  The smell of magic grew harsher the closer I drew to the pub’s green door.

  All I needed to do was open it and find Tadhg.

  Assuming he was in there.

  It could be a room filled with unknown monsters waiting to murder me.

  The door flew open with a blast of sweet air.

  A bearded man stumbled out. When he saw me, his eyes widened. Was he . . . Was he human?

  If he was leaving the place alive, perhaps I would be all right.

  “Ye goin’ in, milady?” he slurred, catching the handle and holding the door.

  Barking laughter burst from inside the pub. Laughter was a good sign. I drew cool, magic-laced air into my lungs. “Yes, I am.”

  The pub was half the size of the Black Rabbit and twice as full. Two patrons seated next to the door had cloaks drawn over their faces. Their fur-covered hands were wrapped around steaming flagons, their fingers topped with claws.

  Pooka.

  A man no taller than a child sat next to the fire, a long pipe between his lips. Green smoke curled around his red-bearded chin. The gleaming gold buckles on his black shoes matched the buckle on his wide belt.

  Another man—or monster—in a gold cloak crossed to a door that I assumed connected to the Black Rabbit.

  Then I saw a familiar dark head buried in a busty barmaid’s bosom.

  One of the pooka shot to his feet, towering over me. Its wide yellow eyes glowed in the shadows of its hood.

  “Are ye lost, milady?” it asked in a hoarse voice.

  Am I lost? Did this monster just ask me if I needed directions? “No. I’m here for . . .” For what? Not a friend. “I’m here for someone.”

  If the beast knew I was planning to meet another person, perhaps he wouldn’t bother eating me.

  “Keelynn!” Hearing my name shouted in a high, happy tone was as unexpected as seeing Tadhg grinning. The barmaid remained on his lap, her chest painted with black streaks.

  For some reason, I wanted to shove her to the floor.

  Tadhg waved me over like I was a long-lost friend.

  The barmaid pursed her lips before whispering something that made him chuckle. Whatever he whispered back left her face flushed.

  “Have you come to join me for a drink?” Tadhg asked. The empty stool across from him rattled when he kicked it toward me.

  When the barmaid huffed and sauntered back to the bar, I felt an unexplainable sense of relief.

  Squinting, Tadhg reached an unsteady hand for a glass of clear liquid. Three more empty glasses littered the table.

  He was drunk.

  He swayed on the stool and had to catch himself on the table.

  Very drunk.

  “I’ve come to offer you a room,” I said, sitting and spreading my skirts around my ankles to keep out the draft.

  His grin turned wolfish. “Changed your mind about the laces?”

  The reminder made my stomach flutter. “Don’t be ridiculous. You’re not unlacing my stay.”

  “You just missed me, then? Is that why you sought me out?” The liquid swirled as Tadhg rotated the glass.

  “I sought you out to give you this.” I pulled the cufflink from my pocket and slid it across the table. “You helped Padraig. In return, I would like to offer you proper lodgings.”

  “I’m perfectly capable of acquiring proper lodgings without your assistance.” He shared a knowing smile with the barmaid. When he turned back to me, the smile faded. “Go back to your room before the scary creatures get you.”

  If only going back to my room would settle this debt between us.

  “Are you staying with her?” I nodded toward the barmaid, and the woman’s eyes narrowed into slits.

  “Does it matter?”

  It didn’t matter. Not at all. Not one bloody bit. “If you want to debase yourself, be my guest. But if you’d like a clean, comfortable room at the inn, it’s yours.”

  A bottle slammed against the bar and shattered. I almost smiled.

  Tadhg took another sip of his drink. “You want me . . . to come with you . . . to your inn?”

  “It’s the least I can do after you helped Padraig.”

  “The least you can do,” he muttered, the corner of his mouth lifting.

  Was that a yes or a no? I didn’t have all night to sit here and wait for an answer. “Well?”


  Using the drink spilled on the table, Tadhg drew consecutive circles on the worn wood. Silence stretched, and I was about to give up when he suddenly said, “How can I resist such a magnanimous offer from a generous human such as yourself?”

  His sarcasm was easy to ignore. I was being generous. “Wash the kohl from your eyes and fix”—I gestured to his clothes—“this, so we can be on our way.” Tadhg wouldn’t get in anywhere looking like a roguish pirate searching for maidens to plunder.

  He flipped the cufflink into the air. It spun and landed in his waistcoat pocket. “Wait for me outside. I’ve some business to attend to first.”

  The barmaid was smiling again.

  I didn’t care. Not one bloody bit. But for some reason, my hands wanted to clench into fists. The only reason I stomped to the door was because of the time I had to waste coming here. It had nothing to do with Tadhg gesturing toward a closed door and the barmaid running after him. Fear quickly replaced my irritation when I saw the pooka holding the main door open.

  What if it followed me into the alley? What if I became the beast’s dinner before Tadhg finished his “business”? Waiting inside was always an option, except I couldn’t stop staring at the door where they’d disappeared. I felt myself sinking lower, even as my irritation doubled and tripled, and suddenly the pooka at the door seemed the lesser of the two evils.

  I nodded my thanks to the towering beast, not trusting my voice to hide my terror. When the door closed behind me, I turned to find myself completely alone. Why hadn’t it attacked? Was it because there were witnesses? I filed away the information for a time when my brain wasn’t addled and exhausted.

  Waiting in the still night air, I kept one eye on the door as I marveled at the stars. Their lights were too weak to banish the darkness, but still they persisted, night after night. They gave me hope that if I, too, persisted, I really could resurrect my sister.

  Tonight was a monumental step.

  I had overcome my fear and entered a haven for creatures on my own. Tomorrow would bring me one step closer. All I had to do was keep Tadhg from sabotaging me again.

  It felt like mortal ages had passed by the time Tadhg emerged from the pub wearing a clean shirt and loosely looped dark green cravat. The enchanted kohl was gone.

  That nameless thing, whatever it was, stirred deep within the pit of my stomach.

  How could one person look so bloody perfect?

  Moonlight highlighted the tips of Tadhg’s ears peeking through his hair.

  Almost perfect.

  “You’ll need to cover those up,” I said, indicating his ears.

  He shook his head until his hair concealed them. “Am I human enough for you now, Maiden Death?”

  Tadhg’s face was too beautiful, his eyes too full of magic, his mouth far too sinful to ever pass for one of us. “I suppose you’ll have to do.”

  Back at the inn, we found a woman filing her nails behind a small wooden desk. The smell of cabbage still permeated the air. When she saw us, her eyes widened.

  “I need to purchase an additional room for the night,” I told her, reaching for my purse.

  “Fer yer friend ‘ere?” The woman poked Tadhg with the file. He grinned back.

  “Yes, please.”

  “Sure, ye dinna have to stand on pretense with me, milady.” Her smile shifted to a smirk as she glanced between us. The file tapped slowly against the edge of the desk. “I’ll turn a blind eye fer three coppers.”

  Turn a blind eye to what? “There is no pretense. I need a second room.”

  The tapping stopped. “Yer really not stayin’ together?” she asked, her eyebrows lifting toward her thick fringe.

  “Absolutely not.” The very idea sent shivers of revulsion down my spine.

  She dragged a nail along Tadhg’s forearm, leaving a light pink line on his skin. “Then save yer coins. I’ve a cold bed he can warm if yer not usin’ him.”

  The thing inside me surged, forcing a terrible shriek from my chest. “Don’t touch him.”

  My hand flew to cover the vicious words lodged in my throat. What the hell was happening? I didn’t care who touched Tadhg.

  The woman’s hand dropped.

  Tadhg’s head tilted as he watched me.

  My purse fell to the desk with a thunk. “As I said, he will have his own room.”

  “Not a bit fun, is she?” the woman grumbled to Tadhg, accepting the money I handed her and sliding it into the desk’s top drawer.

  “Not a bit,” Tadhg said with a wink.

  The woman handed over a small silver key with the number six stamped into the metal.

  I thanked her, collected my purse, and headed toward the staircase. Tadhg’s light footsteps followed behind. When we reached the long hallway at the top, I indicated the blue number painted on a door to my right. “Your room for the night, as promised. Now we’re even.”

  I turned, and my face met his chest.

  “That’s the second time you’ve tried to climb on top of me today,” Tadhg murmured.

  Cloying air glided over my skin like a whisper. I clamped my mouth shut and stepped back only to find myself pinned between the wall and Tadhg, struggling for breath.

  His glowing eyes dropped to my mouth. My lungs ached and throat constricted and heart hummed as he eased forward, resting a forearm on the wall above my head.

  “Keelynn?” His lips formed my name in a mesmerizing drawl. “Unless you need me to warm your cold bed . . .”

  I gasped, forgetting his magic. It tasted sweet, like sugar on my tongue, spreading and tingling through my blood.

  My bed would be cold.

  So, so cold.

  Tadhg’s warm breath tickled my jaw as he whispered into my ear, “I’m going to need my key.”

  Key? What key? I didn’t have a—

  I did. I had a key.

  A key in my hand that I shoved against his chest.

  He took it from me, his fingers brushing mine, leaving my skin buzzing.

  I ducked beneath his arm before his wicked magic consumed every rational thought in my traitorous mind. Tadhg’s laughter echoed through the empty hallway as I raced to my door and escaped inside.

  What had just happened, and how did I keep it from happening again?

  7

  There was a black dress draped over the chair, one on the rug in front of the fire, two more on the bed, and still more in my trunk. Three more months of black lay ahead of me.

  If I had been the one to die, Edward would have only been required to mourn for a month.

  One bloody month.

  I didn’t want to pretend to mourn. I wanted to save my sister and live.

  Only twelve more days and we would reach Tearmann.

  Twelve more days.

  No amount of glaring could change the fabric’s color, so I chose the most flattering clean dress. It also happened to be the only one with a neckline below my collarbone.

  Tightening the laces on my stay, I wondered if Tadhg was awake yet. Not that I had any desire to see him. I simply did not want another late start.

  The market below the window looked crowded. Assuming Tadhg would be on time, I had an hour to stretch my legs before the long day of travel ahead.

  After twisting and pinning my hair into a knot at the nape of my neck, I tucked away the emerald ring, strapped on the dagger, and packed the rest of my things into the trunk. When I passed room number six, the door was still closed.

  Good.

  The broad smile felt foreign on my lips. And then I ran into Tadhg on the stairs, and it disappeared completely. Tadhg’s hair was damp, his clothes free of stains and wrinkles, and he hadn’t replaced the kohl.

  I wanted to fill my lungs with his magical almondy scent, to inhale and keep it inside of me for all of eternity.

  What was wrong with me? No I didn’t. I didn’t even like the way he smelled. I was losing my bloody mind.

  “Good morning.” He rested an elbow against the banister and gave me a sm
army smile. “Did you sleep well?”

  “I did.” Not that it was any of his business. It had taken an hour for my pulse to stop racing, but when sleep found me, it was blessedly deep and dreamless.

  “Are you sure? Your face was awfully flushed when we parted.”

  If he hadn’t been blocking my path, I would’ve gone around him. How much trouble would it cause if I shoved him down the staircase?

  “I rather enjoyed seeing you flustered, Maiden Death,” he crooned.

  After hearing him use my given name last night, it was a relief to be back to this.

  “I wasn’t . . .” Say it. One white lie. I tried again but couldn’t finish without my head feeling like a blacksmith’s anvil.

  Tadhg had the gall to laugh. Bloody creature. I didn’t need this today. I pushed past him, clinging to the worn banister to keep from slipping and cracking my skull at the bottom.

  “Where are you off to?” he called, clambering down the stairs after me. The tables were being cleared from breakfast. Unfortunately, I’d slept in too late to make the meal.

  “That’s none of your business.”

  “Would you like to accompany me to the market?”

  “No.”

  “Then I’ll have to go on my own.”

  “Brilliant.” Only five more steps and I’d be out the door. Four more steps and I’d be free. Three more steps and—

  “What time were you hoping to leave again?”

  His words stopped me in my tracks. It wasn’t so much the question as the way he’d said it. Far too snide. Far too smirky.

  I whirled around.

  Tadhg was indeed smirking at me. He’d probably be late out of spite.

  Twelve days left.

  Only twelve days.

  “I’ll go to the market with you on one condition,” I ground out. “When I say it’s time to leave, you must agree to come with me without delay.”

  “I’ll come with you.” Tadhg’s grin flashed, sending a shudder through my bones. “All you have to do is say the word.”

  His eyes traveled down my body like an intimate caress, leaving my throat burning and heart pounding and core aching, and if I didn’t escape, the spell he cast simply by existing would drag me to a place of sin and shadows.