wished they hadn’t. He wished he couldn’t understand, so he didn’t have to converse with the bitch. Rolling his eyes, he turned to stare at the wall again, preferring the view.
“Funny that you killed the sister with the red hair and spared the dark-haired sister. According to their own reports, the dark-haired girl was the instigator.”
He felt her touch on his back, her finger trailing the pattern of an A on his skin. “You know why, sweet love. Must we verbalize it? It makes me seem so petty.”
“You killed her because she looked like Aoibhinn.”
Her touch disappeared and he heard her huff of annoyance. “Must you say that name?”
“I will never love you, Aine.” Fionn stood, whirling to face her, cold hatred like ice in his veins. “So why don’t you just kill me now?”
She smiled up him. A sweet, innocent smile that belied her wickedness. “Because I enjoy you. I enjoy the challenge of breaking you.”
“It’s been six years. If you haven’t broken me yet … you never will.”
Aine laughed, a delightful, airy, tinkling noise. Then she vanished before reappearing across the room where she kept a never-ending cup of pale golden liquid that bubbled on the tongue. As she took a sip, a golden dress, like liquid metal, covered her body. She eyed him with desire and malice. “Oh, Fionn, so naive. If it takes me centuries, so be it. But I will break you.”
“Never.”
She laughed again, throwing her head back so her hair shimmered like sunlit water down her back. Then she flicked out a hand and Lir, the captain of the guard, appeared.
Fionn tensed.
Lir was a sadistic fae who had a liking for rape. Man, woman, or child, the bastard didn’t seem to have a preference. Not only had he killed Conall’s wolf companion, he’d attempted to attack Fionn, only stopping because Aine appeared and brutally reprimanded him.
Had she changed her mind?
The Faerie Queen smirked, as if she could read his mind. “Not you, Fionn. I’d never hurt you that way. There are other ways to break you.”
His heart beat incredibly fast, as though it knew something he did not. A glove appeared in Lir’s hand, seconds before a pale silvery dagger rested in that glove.
An Breitheamh.
Fionn’s pure iron dagger. The one he’d killed the fae prince with. Fionn tried to make sense of it. Somewhere, deep in his subconscious, he knew this moment had started as a memory … But this, Lir being here with the dagger, that didn’t happen.
What was going on?
Aine flicked her hand again and Rose was in the room, naked, on her knees before Lir. The captain yanked her hair back with his ungloved fist, and as she cried out, Fionn lunged toward her.
“Uh-uh,” Lir taunted, resting the iron dagger at Rose’s throat. It touched her skin and she hissed in pain, tears filling her eyes.
“You bastard!” Fionn rushed toward Rose but Aine blocked his way.
He tried to push her aside but with fae strength, she held him back, laughing at his growing panic.
Fionn pushed and shoved and swung punches that she easily avoided, all the while keeping him from Rose as Lir cut her body all over with the iron dagger. Then his hand fell to the buttons on his leather trews, his cruel gaze fixed to Fionn. “I will rip her apart before I kill her and you will watch.”
Powerlessness burned like a hot brick in Fionn’s throat as he watched Rose.
Tears streamed from her eyes and she whispered to him, “Look away, mo chroí. Look away.”
Fionn panted, pushing himself up off the bed, and reality flooded in. Along with it came immediate relief.
Rose was okay. It was just a dream.
His hand trembled as he pushed his hair off his face and braced his elbows on his knees.
Fuck.
That dream had felt so real.
The need to find Rose, to feel her beneath his hands and know that she was alive and unhurt, was strong. Even more was the need to hold her, clinging to his need for vengeance at the same time wanting his mate in his arms.
Just a taste. Just a touch.
Something to take with him, hold to him, before the darkness welcomed him for good.
30
The castle library wasn’t an epic, vaulted, multilevel archive of books worthy of a Disney movie. In fact, the only high-ceilinged room in the building was the main hall.
Although larger than many of the other rooms, the library wasn’t huge. There was, however, a step ladder attached to a rail on the cases so