Ceridwen stood between them, her body trembling with outrage.
“Are you two done?” Her voice was nothing short of venomous. “Can we stop this incessant fighting?”
Tiernan pointed at Rowan. “He started it.”
“Oh, real mature,” Rowan drawled, wiping the back of his hand across his bloodied mouth.
“Fuck off,” Tiernan spat.
“No more.” Ceridwen’s chest heaved with indignation. “I will tolerate no more of this.”
She strode over to Rowan, her dress of sapphire swirling around her, and for a moment, Tiernan thought she might slap him across the face. But the air shifted. Where it was once charged with loathing and frustration, there were now ripples of serenity, of calming tranquility. Rowan stiffened against the soothing touch of her magic.
“I am sorry you lost her, my lord. I am sorry you’ve been forced to sacrifice your love for her through the centuries. I am sorry for your suffering, for the depth of your despair.” Ceridwen reached up, and with almost painful tenderness, she cupped Rowan’s bruised cheek. “I amsorry.”
The apology hung between them, sucking the fight from Tiernan’s lungs.
Saoirse lowered her weapon, and Rowan slumped against the wall.
“It wasn’t my choice.” He was thoroughly defeated. “I never would have given her up if I had known…if I had known I’d lose her forever.”
Ceridwen’s magic swallowed them, drowned them in relentless waves of compassion.
Brynn stepped away from Tiernan, her eyes slowly returning to a warm gold.
Rowan pushed off the wall, then rolled his shoulders back. His gaze meeting Tiernan’s from across the verandah.
“I’m glad she chose you.” He swiped his thumb against the corner of his mouth, glancing pointedly at Tiernan’s wrist before looking back up at him. “I could never be the one to kill her.”
He crossed his arms over his chest, leaving Tiernan to field the stunned silence that followed.
“What?” Saoirse stared at Rowan, then spun around to face Tiernan. “What did he just say?”
“Exactly what it sounds like,” Tiernan murmured.
“Tiernan?” His name fell from his sister’s lips in a hoarse whisper.
“I took an oath.” He rolled the cuffs of his sleeve to display the rose gold tattoo marking his wrist. He swallowed the knot of trepidation clogging his throat. “Maeve made me vow that if Faeven falls, if it looks like all hope is lost and we stand no chance of winning, that I will take her life. To ensure Parisa cannot use her against us.”
Brynn gaped at him, her mouth falling open in shock. “You can’t be serious.”
He looked at her, lost for words.
“But you worded it differently, right?” There was a pang of desperation in Saoirse’s words. She plucked the flower that had fallen from behind her ear from off the ground and repositioned it. “I mean, you’re fae. That’s what you do to get out of something. You twist your words.”
Merrick clutched his heart, feigning hurt. “Ouch.”
But the look on Saoirse’s face, the pure grief, struck Tiernan in the heart.
“My oath to Maeve stands true.” He bowed his head. “I’m sorry for it.”
“How could you agree to such a thing?” Saoirse pressed her fingers to her temples, exasperated. “And you’re all just willing to sit here and wait for her to return just becausehethinks she can handle herself?”
She pointed an accusatory finger in Rowan’s direction.
“She’s capable,” he repeated, his resolve unwavering.
“We’re all capable,” Saoirse fired back. “Every one of us has fought and bled, but that doesn’t mean we should have to fight our battles alone. Maeve is stubborn. She has fire in her soul. But she grew up in the human lands, she was raised as a mortal.”
