A Cursed Kiss (Myths of Airren Book 1)

by Jenny Hickman

  At least that was something. It would do no good to have her wake up in a few months and find herself six feet underground.

  “I want to see her.” I needed to know that she would be all right when she awoke.

  Tadhg nodded. “That’s why I was bringing you to Tearmann.”

  He had been trying to show me the truth all along, and I had been too stubborn to see it.

  Flames winked in the emerald ring on my left hand. A ring that shouldn’t be there. “You gave it back.” If all of this had been about the ring, why would he give it away so easily?

  Tadhg stood and averted his eyes. “The emerald is cursed to draw out a being’s life force and keep an immortal’s body from healing. If you had been wearing the ring when Fiadh stabbed you, there’s a chance you would’ve survived. But without it . . .” He cleared thickness from his throat and grimaced. “You were dying, Keelynn, and my magic was powerless to save you. I had to convince my friend Brigid to help.”

  The hairs at the nape of my neck prickled. “I take it your friend isn’t human.”

  His hair fell over his brow when he shook his head. “She’s a witch. And she hates your kind more than anyone I know. She refused to help, so I had to do something drastic.”

  “What did you do?” I clutched the edge of the sofa. Surely it couldn’t be as bad as what he’d already done.

  His gaze darted to me, then fell to his flexing fingers. “She said she wouldn’t help unless I could make you one of us, you see. So I . . . Um . . . I did.”

  Made me one of them? That wasn’t possible, was it? “How?” I didn’t feel any different. My ears were still rounded, and I didn’t have wings or magic or anything else that separated the Danú from humans.

  Tadhg’s eyes lifted, boring into me like he could see all the way to my tattered soul. “I married you.”

  I married you.

  “You married me?” Three simple words on their own. But when strung together in that order, they didn’t make sense. Tadhg and I weren’t married.

  When I pulled the emerald from my finger, a tattooed band branded the skin beneath.

  I married you.

  “No . . . No . . .” This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t be married to the Gancanagh. This had to be a mistake. A misunderstanding. A twisted joke.

  “There’s no need to panic. It’s only a handfasting,” he said with a dismissive wave. There was a black tattoo on his left ring finger as well. “After a year and a day, you’ll be free.”

  A year and a day.

  Did everything in his cursed world last a year and a bloody day?

  It didn’t matter if we were handfasted for an hour a week or a lifetime. We were still legally bound to one another, a marriage the same as any other according to the law.

  Another marriage I hadn’t consented to.

  Another man making my decisions.

  “Why would you do this to me?” I whispered, my voice and body trembling. Hadn’t he taken enough?

  Tadhg reached for my fingers to smooth his thumb over the tattoo. “Haven’t you been listening? It was either marry you or let you die.”

  I don’t know if it was the revelation or the brush with Fiadh or the exhaustion or whatever strange medicine Tadhg’s friend had given me, but at the moment, the idea of being married to another man who didn’t love me felt like a fate worse than death.

  I knocked his hand from mine, looked him in the eye, and said, “You should have let me die.”

  Tadhg’s mouth opened. Then closed. His brow furrowed and shoulders slumped and—

  Shit.

  Why had I said that to him? I hadn’t meant it. “I’m so—”

  “Do you think I wanted this?” he snarled, eyes flooding with black. “Do you think my people will accept you as my bride? To dally with humans is one thing, but to marry one? Not a feckin’ hope.” Magic leaked from his pores, flooding toward me like writhing shadows. His hands flexed as his sides over and over and over. The glass in the windows began to rattle. The books on the shelves vibrated toward the edge, some tumbling onto the floor. “I owed you for giving me the ring, so I saved your pathetic life. But don’t think for a second that it didn’t cost me dearly.”

  My life may have seemed pathetic to a powerful immortal, but it was mine. “At least you had a choice.” Tadhg had taken away the only thing I had left that was truly mine: my free will.

  His lips curled back from his teeth. “And I can see that I made the wrong one.”

  This was my punishment for putting my faith in someone like him. “I suppose now you expect a wedding night.” There was no way he had married me out of the goodness of his heart. He didn’t have one.

  Tadhg leaned so close the heat of his breath burned my cheek. “Why would I want something I’ve already had?”

  Numbness settled into my bones as I watched Tadhg stomp to the chaise and drag his overcoat from the back of it. With a flick of his wrist, my boots and cloak appeared beside me. “Get dressed. We’re leaving.”

  “I’m not going anywhere with you.”

  His posture went rigid, but instead of looking at me, he kept his gaze on the floorboards. “As my wife, you are my responsibility.”

  “I am not your wife.” If people found out, my reputation would never recover. “I want . . .” I wanted a bloody time machine so I could go back to the day Aveen had constructed this foolish plan and beg her to stop. But since that couldn’t happen . . . “I want an annulment.”

  “Brilliant idea. We’ll get one in Gaul,” Tadhg muttered, stalking to the door.

  On the other side, a man with flowing black hair and glowing yellow eyes waited with a broad shoulder propped against the doorframe. “How’s the happy couple?” Ruairi asked with a grin.

  “Feck off and shift. We’re going to Gaul.” Tadhg shoved past him and into the night.

  “That good, huh?” Ruairi said with a chuckle, giving me a wink. “Told ye she’d rather marry me,” he shouted over his shoulder.

  I slipped on my boots and stood to fasten my cloak.

  “Don’t ye want to ask your husband for a new dress, princess?”

  “Don’t call me that.”

  Ruairi shrugged. “Suit yerself, human.”

  I lifted the hood of my cloak and settled it over my matted hair. Hell would freeze over before I asked Tadhg for anything.

  Ruairi pushed away from the doorframe and followed me to where Tadhg waited at the start of a dark, barren road drenched in fog.

  With a flash of light, Ruairi shifted into the black stallion and stamped his hoof in the mud. I ignored the hand Tadhg offered and mounted on my own. The saddle was as fine as the one Ruairi had worn the last time, but it was meant for a man. Tadhg gripped the horn and slipped his foot into the stirrup. Before I could protest, he slid in behind me. Strong thighs held me in place, shifting and rubbing as he settled himself into the saddle. His chest molded to my back, unyielding and strong when he reached around me to grab the reins.

  “I thought you didn’t ride horses,” I choked, trying and failing to put distance between us.

  “Ruairi isn’t a horse,” he grumbled, giving Ruairi a kick.

  Ruairi galloped into the fog.

  Cool, damp air slid past my cheeks. Tadhg kept silent, leaving only my dismal thoughts to distract me.

  Married.

  To the Gancanagh.

  What were the odds? Of all the people in all the world, how had I stumbled upon the one I needed to kill on the very first day of this cursed mission? And now we were wed.

  The longer we rode, the more guilty I felt for my outburst. This wasn’t Tadhg’s fault, it was mine. I had been the one to bargain with a witch. All he’d done from the very first day was try to save me.

  Tadhg tugged the reins, slowing Ruairi to a canter. “When we reach Gaul, we can stay with one of my friends in the city. We should be safe there until I can find a magistrate willing to grant us an annulment.”

  Safe? What was he on about? �
�Why can’t I just stay at an inn?” Gaul was the third largest city in Airren; surely we could find a place to stay.

  He shifted on the saddle, his chest rubbing against my back. “The inns are the first places Fiadh will check.”

  “Fiadh is coming back?”

  “Fiadh never forgives or forgets. What do you think she’ll do to you if she finds you again?”

  So I was supposed to stay with Tadhg at his friend’s house and hope Fiadh didn’t find me? It sounded like the safest place to be was as far from his world as possible. “You can do what you want, but I’m not staying with your friend.” I had taken enough from Tadhg.

  “Have you been listening to a word I’ve said?” His hand fell to my shoulder, but I shrugged him off. “The inns aren’t safe,” he ground out.

  “I have friends too, you know. And it just so happens, one of them lives in Gaul.”

  What was I saying? This was a terrible idea.

  The only person I knew in Gaul was Robert.

  21

  Arched streetlamps cast golden light along the footpath leading to Robert’s townhouse. Tadhg’s footsteps were almost silent behind me. When I had suggested he go with Ruairi and meet me in the morning, he had claimed it would be safer for us to stay together. But I knew the truth. He didn’t want to lose sight of his precious ring. I had offered to give it back, but he insisted I needed it for my own protection. Why did he continue pretending to care? If I was dead, he wouldn’t be tied to me anymore.

  Arriving in a blood-stained gown with a man in tow wasn’t ideal, but I refused to ask Tadhg for a new dress. When I told him to remove the kohl and tie his cravat properly so he made a good first impression, Tadhg had agreed to do one or the other, not both. I had chosen the kohl.

  The line of brick townhouses continued on and on, each home a carbon copy of the one before it. The only differences were the brass numbers and the color of the doors.

  When we reached number thirty-six, I stopped outside the small iron gate. “You should wait out here. I’d like a chance to explain our situation without an audience.”

  He leaned his hip against the low brick wall and said, “You have three minutes.”

  Three minutes was better than nothing. I opened the gate and made my way along the tiled path, through a manicured garden, to a set of stairs in front of a cheerful red door. My heart clattered against my ribs as I climbed. Perhaps I should have taken my chances with the Danú.

  I filled my lungs with crisp autumn air, lifted the brass knocker, and let it fall.

  A moment later, the knob turned. The door opened, and—

  “Keelynn?” Robert grabbed me in a bone-crushing hug so unexpected, so unlike him, that it took me a moment before I wrapped my arms around his waist and returned the embrace. “I don’t believe this. What are you doing here?” He pressed kisses to my hair. My forehead. My cheeks. “I thought you never wanted to see me again.”

  His thumbs stroked my jaw, and when he smiled, the weight of everything that had happened felt no heavier than my own shadow. This was the power of love.

  He smelled the same, like leather and a sea breeze, comforting and familiar.

  “I never should’ve said that to you.” My voice trembled with unshed tears for what could’ve been. “I was just so angry.”

  “It’s all right, my darling. It’s all right. You’re here now. That’s all that matters.”

  A throat cleared behind us.

  Robert glanced over my shoulder and went rigid. “Get inside. Quickly.” He shoved me behind him and backed toward the door. “Leave us alone, you filthy monster. We want nothing to do with you.”

  I peered around his broad frame to find Tadhg smiling at us from the bottom of the stairs, his eyes faintly glowing.

  “He’s not going to hurt us. He’s here with me.” I skirted around him and motioned Tadhg closer. “Robert, this is Tadhg. He’s helping me get Aveen back.”

  Tadhg didn’t move.

  “What do you mean get Aveen back?” Robert stepped forward and tucked me beneath his arm. My hand slipped around his waist like it belonged there.

  “I have so much to tell you. Do you mind if we come inside?”

  Robert nudged the door wider with his free hand. “Of course. We can speak in the parlor.”

  He ushered me into a dimly lit hallway with black and white starburst tiles. When Tadhg started climbing the steps, Robert blocked the entrance with an arm across the threshold. “You will wait out here.”

  Tadhg’s hands stretched and flexed at his sides. Then he grinned. “I think that’s for the best.”

  Robert shut the door in his face.

  “That was terribly rude.” Tadhg and I weren’t on the best of terms, but he didn’t deserve to be treated like a nuisance.

  Grumbling under his breath, Robert stalked past and led me into a small parlor on the left side of the hall. There were no curtains on the rails above the wide bay windows. A thick silver nail protruded from the wood paneling over the fireplace. The marble mantlepiece and two bookshelves flanking it were empty as well.

  Robert yanked a poker from the coal bucket and stabbed at the burning red coals in the grate. “What are you doing walking around in public with that thing?”

  “That man—”

  “That was not a man. Did you see its ears and eyes?”

  “Are you quite finished?” I clipped, bracing my hands on my hips and reminding myself that I had treated Tadhg with the same contempt when we’d first met.

  Wincing, Robert knocked the poker against his boot. “My apologies. Continue.”

  “Thank you.” Now, where was I? I brushed my hair over my shoulders and took a deep breath. “I’ve hired Tadhg to bring me to Tearmann.”

  Robert jammed the poker into the bucket and closed the gap between us. “Have you lost your damn mind? Why are you going to Tearmann?”

  “Because the Gancanagh killed Aveen, and—”

  “Not this again,” he muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose and sinking onto the settee. “Darling, I know you’re still grieving over your sister, but this is nonsense. The physician said Aveen died of a failed heart.”

  A failed heart, my foot.

  I sat beside him and adjusted my cloak so he couldn’t see the bloodstains beneath. “No, that’s nonsense. Who ever heard of a failed heart turning someone’s lips black?” I had tried telling everyone what had happened that night, but no one believed me. The imbecile doctor had claimed the stress of losing Aveen had caused me to hallucinate.

  “And you think her black lips mean she kissed an immortal prince from Tearmann?”

  “I saw them together, Robert. He kissed her, and she fell under a terrible curse.”

  “Do you hear yourself right now?” Robert laughed. “That sounds like a bloomin’ fairy tale. Who told you this fantasy? Was it the creature outside?”

  “It’s the truth.”

  “Keelynn—”

  I narrowed my eyes. “Robert.”

  He groaned and threw himself back against the cushions. “Fine. Let’s say I believe this fantastical yarn.” He waved a hand in the air. “Aveen is under a terrible curse. I still fail to see why you’re traipsing across the country in search of the monster’s haven.”

  “The Gancanagh is keeping her body in his castle.”

  “So you’re just going to, what? Waltz in and ask for her back?”

  That was a good question. Was I going to ask for Aveen’s body? Where would I bring her? We couldn’t return to Graystones. What if someone found her and accused me of digging up her body? No one would believe Aveen was coming back from the dead until she actually did. I really needed to think this through.

  “I know it sounds mad, but Tadhg said—”

  “Whatever Tadhg said was obviously a lie. He’s probably only telling you what you want to hear so he can take advantage of you.”

  “He’s not lying.”

  Robert glanced over his shoulder to peer out the dark window. What
ever he saw made him frown. “How can you be so sure?”

  “I just know, all right?”

  “You just know,” Robert repeated, shaking his head. “Well then. I suppose I should thank you for taking time out of your journey to stop by and see me.” He threw a hand toward the entrance. “Best be going though, wouldn’t want to waste time on your way to visit a murderer.”

  I understood this sounded far-fetched, and if I hadn’t lived through the last few weeks, I wouldn’t have believed it either. “Before you kick me out, I need to ask for a favor.”

  Robert’s eyebrows arched when I stood and removed my cloak.

  “Bloody hell,” he gasped, shooting to his feet when he saw the bloodstains. “What happened? If that bastard hurt you, I’ll kill him.”

  Tadhg had hurt me, but those wounds hadn’t drawn blood. “I was stabbed by a witch and would’ve died if Tadhg hadn’t saved me.”

  The truth of those words rocked me to my core. Tadhg didn’t want to be married to me any more than I wanted to be married to him, and yet he had done it to save my life.

  Robert’s arms came around me. I buried my head in his chest and allowed my tears to fall. Tadhg hadn’t done anything wrong, and I had been treating him like a villain. Fiadh was the villain in this story, not Tadhg. If anything, Tadhg was the hero for saving me over and over and over and over again.

  “My darling, my darling.” The tender kiss he pressed to my hair made my heart swell. “What do you need from me? Just name it and it’s yours.”

  “It’s no longer safe for us at the inns. If the witch finds out I survived, she will come looking for me.”

  “And you want to stay here.” Again, he glanced toward the window. “Both of you.”

  “I can see it’s too much to ask.”

  “It’s not.” He sighed. “It’s not too much.”

  Hope warmed my chest. “You’ll let us stay?”

  A nod.

  I threw my arms around his neck, holding tight when he stumbled back. “Thank you, Robert. You have no idea how much this means to me.”

  “I would do anything for you, Keelynn.” He kissed my temple and slid his hands around my waist. “Anything.”