up at him after his manipulative speech, and he’d caught her staring at his mouth several times over the last few hours.
Heat pooled in his groin. He stubbornly refused to acknowledge the reaction.
“Fionn.” Her voice curled around him, tugging on him, and although he didn’t want to look at her, he found he had to.
Then he tensed at her tight, worried expression.
He opened his mouth to ask her what was wrong, and that’s when he became cognizant that his racing heart wasn’t because Rose wanted him. A tingle down his spine and dread in his gut accompanied the fast heart rate. His mouth tightened. “They’ve found us,” he gritted out, staring at the crowds.
She searched with him. “What am I looking for?”
“Don’t just use your eyes, Rose. Use your senses. That racing heart, the dread … it will intensify when you find the source of the danger.”
“Would they attack here? In public?”
“Many a supernatural fight has been explained away as human in nature.”
“So that would be a yes.”
Her dry tone made him smile despite himself. “That would be a yes. Come, we don’t want them to know where we’re going. We’ll lead them into the restroom to deal with them.”
Rose followed him, keeping up despite her short stature. She was spry, fast, and a quick learner. All of this was good because he had no intention of seeing her dead before they arrived in Ireland. “I thought they could follow us anyway because they have my jacket?”
“Bran is taking care of that. For now, this is the last destination for these particular coven hunters.”
“Are we going to kill them?”
He caught her anxious expression. “If we have to.”
“Even so”—she looked up at him, determination blazing on her face—“let’s try not to.”
Impatience gnawed at him but his current strategy involved keeping her happy. “Fine.”
“Do you feel that?” she asked a few seconds later as they followed the signs for the restroom.
His pulse had escalated; he assumed that’s what she referred to. “They’re following us.” Fionn pushed Rose toward the men’s restroom and she barged inside ahead of him as he cut a quick glance over his shoulder.
He saw them.
A male and female. They were looking right at him.
Fionn disappeared inside the restroom after Rose who stared up at two humans glowering at her from the urinals. He closed in behind her, his upper body brushing the back of her head, and bent down to whisper in her ear, “Your thoughts are theirs. Like the telekinesis, communicate with your magic. Send the order into their minds and demand what you want. Tell them to leave.”
She’d stiffened against him, and he saw her flesh prickle with goose bumps where his breath fell upon it. Awareness shafted through him with hot suddenness and he stepped back.
“Do it. We don’t have time.”
“Then you do it.”
“Rose—”
She whirled around to glare at him. “I’m not ready to do that shit to anyone. Capisce?”
Capisce? What were they, the bloody Italian Mafia?
He rounded her and glanced from one man to the other. Without saying a word, he ordered them to zip up and get out. As they fled, he kicked in all the stall doors to make sure no one else was inside the room.
“Get behind me,” he ordered.
“Like hell.” Rose widened her stance beside him, facing the door. “I want to fight.”
The words were barely out of her mouth when the restroom door blew open and the witch and warlock strode inside. Energy crackled around them.
“There’s nothing natural in here for them to use,” Rose said, fisting her hands at her side.
“It need not be in here. If they use magic as a weapon, they draw that power from the nearest tree or animal outside.”
“There’s no use teaching her our ways, warlock,” the witch said, throwing her red hair over her shoulder with an arrogant smirk as the restroom door banged shut behind her and her companion. “She won’t be around long enough to use the information.”
Good. They still didn’t know what he was.
“What did you say?” Rose stepped toward the witch.
Fionn felt a stirring of pride inside him at her courage and forced himself to stand back to see what she could do. It wasn’t easy for him.
The warlock stepped forward. “No time for conversation. Rose O’Connor, you’ve been tried and sentenced to death by the high court of the O’Connor Coven of Dublin. I, Ethan Mulhern, Dark Witch Hunter of the O’Connor Coven, will serve as your executioner. Do you have any last words before I carry