Page 233 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

But no one was going to waltz in and save her. Her friends who had always been at her side were gone. They’d been concerned about her, talking to others about her behind her back instead of bringing their concerns directly to her. They probably wanted this. Colette and Nate and Maura could do nothing to stop this. And Graves…there was no way to get to Graves.

The universe hated her enough to give her a mental connection with Lorcan and not the person that she loved. The technology that had linked them was nothing compared to this mental, emotional communion. Something she could never have with Graves.

It was truly over. She was finished. Lorcan had won.

A tear tracked down her cheek at that debilitating thought. She was a fighter at heart. She had always prided herself on her own self-reliance. On the ability to get herself out of sticky situations. But there was nothing she could do against what Lorcan was doing to her. Not when she was at her lowest. She would do anything to stop him. But what else did she have?

Her knees buckled, and she nearly collapsed as she hit peak overwhelm. Lorcan reached for her with his free hand, keeping her on her feet. He was saying something to her. Some pretentious bullshit about how this was good for her, how it would keep her mind intact. Hermagicwas what he really meant. The magic of his wife. The connection he’d lost nearly a century ago.

Lorcan wanted this. He wanted her to second-guess her friends and family. To second-guess Graves. He wanted her to have only him to turn to.

Maybe Graves was a villain, but if he was, then he was a villain of Lorcan’s making.

All of that shit about Graves infiltrating her mind and breaking it was bullshit. Lies and propaganda about the enemy Lorcan had created that he really believed. It wasn’t the Graves that she knew.

“No,” she whispered, more to herself than anyone else.

“No?” Lorcan asked.

But she didn’t elaborate. Everything was no.

She might not be able do it by herself, and she might not have anyone coming to save her—but if Graves had been in her mind, if their magic connecting during the solstice had changed his powers enough to send images into her mind, then maybe therewasa link.

In the end, she had to decide whether love was enough. Whether love meant trust. She’d met Graves where he was in the dark and let him see her own darkness in turn. They were one and the same. A mirror.

And now she needed to use that mirror to reach him. He’d touched her mind enough over the last couple months to have left an imprint. Even if he hadn’t done what Lorcan had said, she thought it was worth trying.

Her absorption was off. Her mind wide open. Anyone could have touched it and she had no defenses. It was now or never.

Graves, she cried in her mind.Graves, please, I’m in Brooklyn. Lorcan is going to force the binding, and I can’t do this alone. I can’t save myself this time. I…I need you.Graves, please.

She waited in the silence for a moment, but no answer came.

She tried again.

And again.

And again.

Crying out into her mind for just the bare hope that Graves would come and save her from this monster. But nothing changed. Nothing happened.

Their mental bond wasn’t real. It was just her last-ditch hope.

And she’d failed.

“Keep doing the spell,” Lorcan snapped at Niamh.

“Maybe we should wait,” Niamh said in the din of the whirlwind. “This is supposed to be voluntary.”

“Niamh, please,” Kierse said, feeling like a broken porcelain doll. The jagged edges of her fragile exterior detonating.

“Lorcan…”

“Would you rather seeherdead, too?” Lorcan asked.

“Of course not,” Niamh said.

“More people were dragged to the ceremony than volunteered. I was lucky. I had Saoirse. But we all agreed that being bound, increasing the magic, saving the Druids and wisps, was more important than what one person wanted. In the end, yes, the ends justified the means. We were stronger. Wearestronger. At the end of this, Kierse will understand.”

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