Business.
All this time, I had assumed Tadhg’s business had been conducted in the bedroom. He had been trying to rule a bloody kingdom, and I had expected him to escort me across the country so I could sacrifice him for my sister. I had never felt as foolish as I did standing there, watching Tadhg solve disputes between neighbors, collect taxes and rent, and give his blessing for upcoming nuptials.
Once upon a time, I had actually thought his business couldn’t possibly be as important as my mission to resurrect Aveen. A mission that had ended up being entirely and utterly pointless.
Rían glanced over his shoulder at me, and the fluttering in my stomach turned to dread.
“This is going to take ages,” he whispered. “You’re welcome to stay and watch the crowd fawn over my brother, or you can escape with me.” He nodded toward a door behind the dais.
I glanced at the door, then back at Tadhg, who was settling an argument over who owned a fruit tree that had sprouted between two cottages. As much as I didn’t want to go with Rían, my stomach was starting to ache from hunger.
“I’ll go with you.”
Tadhg’s shoulders seemed to stiffen, but it could’ve been my imagination.
Rían shoved himself from his chair and jogged down the stairs to the door. I followed him through a dark passageway into an office with floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and a wide mahogany desk in front of the biggest fireplace I’d ever seen.
“I hate Fridays,” Rían grumbled on his way out of the office and back into the tapestry-lined hallway. “They’re so exceedingly dull. Did you see that man try to hand me a feckin’ chicken?” He shuddered. “Livestock belongs in a field, not a castle.” He flicked his wrist, and a red apple appeared in his hand. “Do you want one?”
My stomach responded with a loud growl. Rían shoved the apple at me and shifted another. When my teeth pierced the crisp flesh, the juice tasted extra sweet, like it had been laced with sugar.
Rían stopped at the base of a staircase that curved along the wall to pull a knife from a sheath at his waist. He sliced off a thick chunk and popped it into his mouth. “Come on,” he said, gesturing toward the stairs with the dagger. Juice dripped down the blade and onto the stone floor. “Tadhg said you want to see Aveen. Although, I’m not sure why. She’s still dead.”
Rían strolled up the stairs, slicing and eating the apple like he hadn’t a care in the world.
On and on we climbed. By the time we reached the top floor, my legs ached, and the apple was nothing more than a core. Rían flicked his wrist and it disappeared, along with his own.
Colorful tapestries brightened the dark, narrow hallway leading to one of the castle’s turrets. Rían twisted the golden handle on a small, unassuming door, revealing a chamber with rounded walls. A crystal vase overflowing with pink and purple bell-shaped blossoms sat under a thin window. Sunlight streamed through the leaded glass pane, landing on a large wooden box with no lid.
The memory of Aveen’s body the night she’d died kept me rooted to the stones. Why had I insisted on coming to Tearmann to see her? I didn’t want to remember her like this. I didn’t want to be reminded that my sister was dead.
Rían walked over to the box and peered inside, a small smile lifting his lips. “She’s so beautiful when she’s not giving out,” he said with a soft chuckle.
The unease returned ten-fold. “Excuse me?” I took a halting step forward.
Blue eyes met mine. “Your sister is beautiful when she’s not giving out or ranting or ordering me around the place.”
“Ordering you around?”
His eyebrows came together. “Did Tadhg not tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
Rían’s head tilted as he tapped a nail against the edge of the box. “Your sister and I are engaged.”
“What do you mean you’re engaged?” My legs unlocked, and I rushed forward to catch Rían by the shoulders. “Aveen was betrothed to Robert.”
Rían’s nose scrunched as he slowly pried himself free. “She didn’t want to marry him. She wanted to marry me.”
How could Aveen have known Rían—loved him enough to want to marry him—and never tell me that he existed?
My eyes inadvertently fell to the box, and the air evaporated from my lungs.
My perfect sister’s golden hair cascaded down her slim shoulders, falling in soft curls around her icy blue gown. Her skin was as pale as the clouds in the sky. The only color in her face was the black stain on her lips. She’d been gone almost five months, and yet there were no signs of decay.
I sank onto the stool beside her coffin, my mind racing with questions.
“When did the two of you meet?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. Dust motes spun in the sunlight falling through the window.
“Ages ago, at the market in Graystones. We had planned on eloping, but then your father announced her betrothal to Robert.”
They were going to elope? Aveen had been planning on leaving me all along? Was she going to tell me or just disappear?
“She outright refused to call off the engagement for fear of how it would impact you,” Rían went on, eyes narrowed as his gaze raked from my disheveled hair, down my borrowed dress, to my muddy slippers. “If it weren’t for you, she would’ve left that very night. As the betrothal ball approached, it became clear that we needed to take drastic measures. I suggested my brother’s unique way of dealing with problems, and she agreed.”
This whole debacle was Rían’s fault. “So she’s dead because of you.” A year of her life snuffed out because this man suggested she kiss the Gancanagh.
Rían folded his arms over his chest and glared down at me. “No, she’s dead because of you. If you weren’t so head over heels in love with that wretched human, she would’ve told him to shove off, consequences be damned.”
I touched a lock of Aveen’s silky hair and let it slip through my fingers. A weaker woman would have given in and married Robert. A more obstinate woman would have refused outright. But my sister, my brilliant, strong sister, had sacrificed a year of her life so that I could get everything I had ever wanted.
And in the end, I hadn’t wanted it at all.
I braced my hands on either side of Aveen’s gilded coffin and pressed a kiss to her cold cheek. “When I see you again, you have a lot of explaining to do.” And I wouldn’t let her out of my sight until she answered every single question. I stood and smoothed an unsteady hand down my skirts. I missed her so much, it felt like someone had stabbed me in the chest and cut out my heart. Tears collected behind my lashes, but I refused to let them fall. This wasn’t a sad day. It was a happy one.
The soles of Rían’s polished boots scuffed against the stones when he shifted his weight. “We should get going. This place is depressing.” He pulled a pristine handkerchief from his breast pocket and held it awkwardly toward me.
“Thank you.” I dabbed at the corners of my eyes and offered Rían a watery smile, determined to give him a chance now that I knew Aveen cared for him. The light from the window highlighted the rich, reddish tones in his hair. The blue of his eyes was so unusual, the color of a crystal-clear sky. There was something so familiar, and yet I couldn’t place—
A chill shuddered through me. Rían started for the door, but I caught him by the sleeve. “Look at me,” I said, my voice faltering.
“What’re you doing? Let me go.” Rían tried brushing me off, but I held firm.
“I said, look at me.”
Blue eyes bore into mine. The sunlight made his pupil shrink, revealing a thin golden ring around the center.
No. It couldn’t be.
He was dead.
He.
Was.
Dead.
“Edward?”
31
There was a muffled choke from the doorway. I turned in time to catch the smile fading from Tadhg’s face. “What do you mean, Edward?”
Rían’s eyes widened, and he started shaking his head. “I don’t
know what she’s on about. You know humans and their fanciful notions.”
Tadhg stalked forward, his face a mask of lethal calm as an almond-scented breeze tickled my cheek. “Keelynn?” He stopped at my side. “Why did you call my brother by your husband’s name?”
I couldn’t tear my attention from Rían’s panicked gaze. This wasn’t some fanciful notion. It was him. I’d know those eyes anywhere. “I recognize his eyes from the night we . . . from the ball.” The only explanation was that he was a shifter like Tadhg and had concealed his identity. Why? For what purpose? Had he been hiding from Aveen? Had he been Edward all along, or was there another Edward out there, serving as an ambassador between Airren and Vellana?
Perspiration beaded on Rían’s brow; a vein in his forehead pulsed. “It’s not what you think,” he wheezed, arms hanging limp at his sides, face growing redder and redder. “I swear. We weren’t supposed to get caught, but her dress ripped, and her father found us, and it all went to shit.”
Tadhg’s hands squeezed into white-knuckled fists, and he slowly turned to me, hurt and rage swirling in his narrowed black eyes. “Is that true?”
I could only nod, unable to find my voice. It was true. All of it had gone to shit.
Rían swore and kicked frantically, his feet hovering above the ground. Tadhg ripped the dagger from his waist and drew it across Rían’s throat. Blood sprayed from the wound, showering us both. Rían’s head lolled forward, and when he fell, Tadhg let his body collapse to the stones in a growing pool of red.
“What have you done?” I cried, pressing a trembling hand to my chest. Rían was also immortal, but that didn’t change the fact that Tadhg had murdered his brother.
Tadhg cleaned the blade against his thigh and jammed the dagger back into its sheath. “Till death do us part.”
Till death do us part . . .
If Edward . . . Rían had never actually died, he would’ve been my husband this whole time. My stomach roiled, and I backed away from the body and the blood. But if we’d been married, I would’ve had a brand, like with Tadhg. I checked my finger beneath the emerald even though I knew there was nothing there. None of this made any sense.
“I am sorry my brother deceived you.” Tadhg’s frosty tone left me shivering. “He’s not known for his honesty.”
How far did Rían’s lies extend? “He told me he and Aveen were engaged.” Was that true or another lie?
Tadhg stepped over his brother’s legs, took my hand in his, and towed me toward the door. “I wouldn’t believe a word out of that lying bastard’s mouth.”
He brought me two floors down, to a beautiful bedroom overlooking the castle’s central courtyard.
A large four-poster bed with a flowing white canopy took up most of one wall, and a bench built beneath a wide window took up the wall next to it. Across from the bed was a fireplace, a rich mahogany armoire, and a matching dressing table.
“Stay here until someone comes to get you for dinner,” Tadhg clipped, letting me go and scrubbing his hand down his thigh like he wanted to rid himself of my touch. His gaze stayed on the stones beneath his scuffed boots. “There are a few matters I need to take care of, and I cannot leave you to wander about the castle on your own.”
He didn’t try to touch me again or leave me with a kiss or even a smile as he turned and closed the door with a quiet click.
I sank onto the downy mattress and tried to process the last twenty-four hours, starting with Rían. Err . . . Edward. My first husband. My second husband’s brother.
Why had he been at the betrothal ball?
Why had he asked me to meet him in the hall?
Why had he been sleeping with our maid if he loved Aveen?
Was it all a lie?
I laid there, staring at the fluttering curtains until the sunlight faded into shadows and someone knocked softly on the door. I expected a servant, not Rían wearing a dark blue shirt and black braces. His hair was damp at the temples like he’d recently bathed.
“May I come in for a moment?” he asked, keeping his eyes fixed on his polished boots and his hands shoved into his pockets.
“I don’t think that’s the best idea.” The little goodwill I’d been willing to spare him for being my sister’s fiancée was gone.
“Please? I owe you an explanation.”
The only person who truly knew the answers to all of my questions was standing right in front of me. It would be foolish not to hear him out, as long as I kept in mind that he was likely lying.
I opened the door wider and let him inside. He walked straight to the window and sank onto the bench. With a flick of his wrist, a fire appeared in the barren grate, instantly heating the room.
“First, I must apologize,” he said, leaning forward to brace his elbows on his knees. “You were never meant to be part of this mess.”
Tadhg had said the same thing, so I chose to believe him. I sank onto the end of the bed and hugged my knees to my chest, waiting for more.
“I had everything planned out that night. Aveen was to meet Tadhg in the garden, and I was in charge of distracting you, so you didn’t notice her leaving and try to follow. I thought we could share a glass of champagne, chat for a short while, then return to the ballroom unnoticed. Aveen said you were enamored with Robert, so the last thing I expected was for you to throw yourself at me and—”
“I didn’t throw myself at you.” At least, that’s not how the events had played out in my mind. I’d had a good deal to drink, sure. And I remembered going into the hallway and being so enraged at Robert that I couldn’t think straight.
Rían crossed his arms and leaned back against the wall. Moonlight highlighted his dark silhouette. “What would you call shoving me into an alcove and pinning me against the window?”
Had I shoved him?
Had I been the one to take advantage of him and not the other way around?
My face flushed with embarrassment. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
“Oh, please.” Rían waved away the broken apology with a tanned hand. “You’re hardly the first woman to lose her head over me.”
Lose my head? That was a little dramatic considering I had only been using him to make Robert jealous. “Someone’s awfully full of himself.”
Rían’s dark chuckle made me shudder. “For good reason.”
Rían was handsome, but not nearly as handsome as Tadhg. He was too refined, too clean. I loved Tadhg’s ruggedness, the way he constantly looked like he’d just returned from a tumble in a field. The way his stubble scratched my cheeks, my chin, my thighs—
No. Bad idea. Very bad idea. The last thing I needed was to let my mind go down that road. Tadhg didn’t seem to want anything to do with me now that he knew I’d accidentally married Rían.
“Anyway,” Rían said, drawing me back to the present, “you insisted on punching me while I was trying to extricate myself and then . . .” A shrug.
And then my father found us.
It could’ve been a lie, but I was fairly certain it wasn’t. “Why did you agree to marry me when you could’ve evanesced and disappeared forever?”
“What would’ve happened to you then?” he asked, massaging his throat and wincing as though he was in pain. Did wounds bother immortals even after they’d healed?
“Aveen was dead, and you were all but ruined,” he went on. “I figured being married to me for a short while would be the lesser of many evils, and as a widow, you’d have the freedom to do as you pleased.” He shook his head and gave a mirthless chuckle. “I never thought you’d use that freedom to track down my brother.”
I could’ve used my freedom for anything, and yet fate had led me here. To Tearmann. To Rían. To Tadhg.
Rían drew in a deep breath and sighed, rubbing a mark at the top of his boot. “I don’t suppose there’s any way I could convince you to keep this debacle between the three of us?”
“I’m not going to lie to my sister, if that’s what you’re asking.” Secrets were what
had caused these problems in the first place. If Aveen had told me her plan, none of this would’ve happened. Rían nodded and stood, smoothing his hands down his thighs to straighten his breeches. “However, I will give you the opportunity to explain yourself first.”
Nodding again, he offered me a sad smile. “That is most kind. Far kinder than I deserve. I can see why my brother is smitten with you.”
Perhaps before. But after this recent revelation, it was obvious Tadhg didn’t want anything to do with me.
Before he reached the door, Rían asked if I was coming to dinner.
“Tadhg said he’d send an escort.” Although part of me wished I could simply have a tray brought to the bedroom. Even my bones were weary.
Rían flicked his wrist, and a fabulous blue gown appeared on the bed. “Wear that. It’ll suit you.” With another flick, a hot tub of water appeared by the fireplace.
When was the last time I’d had a proper bath? It felt like forever.
“Where do you two get these tubs?” I asked, dipping my fingers into the hot water. I couldn’t wait to get in and scrub away the day.
Rían glanced toward the rising steam, a small smile playing on his lips. “Mostly from each other. It’s quite irritating to be looking forward to a bath only to have it evanesce right before your eyes.”
I could only imagine. If someone tried to take this bath from me, I think I’d cry.
“It’s a good thing no one was in it.”
“You can tell if it’s occupied—it gets too heavy to shift.” His lips lifted into a crooked grin. “The trick is snagging it at just the right time for maximum annoyance.”
As if on cue, Tadhg began roaring from somewhere down the hall.
“Better hurry and hop in before he steals it back,” Rían said with a wink, opening the door and letting it fall behind him.
I stripped quickly and jumped into the tub to clean the river sand from between my toes and the blood from beneath my nails. I scrubbed until my skin was pink and sore and my scalp ached. Inside the armoire, I found a pile of linen towels and a small hand mirror and brush. The tangles in my hair took forever to work out, but eventually the long, dark strands were tamed into soft waves. Instead of tying it up, I left it free.
A Cursed Kiss (Myths of Airren Book 1) Page 30
