Page 92 of Bound By Deception

“No.”

Bree’s pulse took off, heat igniting in the pit of her belly. The dread and shame sloughed away, anger rising to replace them. His intractability vexed her. “I didn’t have to warn you.”

“No, but now that you have, you can go.”

“Cold bastard!” she snarled, stepping close. “Is that all you’ve got to say? Don’t you want to know how—”

“Enough,” he cut her off, the tattoos that snaked across his arms and up his neck pulsing pale silver now. “Walk back through the stones, you duplicitous Shee bitch.”

Bree’s lip curled, crimson dropping across her vision. Aye, here it was—the rage that had been smoldering within him ever since she told him the truth.

He was having trouble unleashing it though. She’d help him.

Whipping a knife from the belt across her chest, she lunged at him.

Cailean caught her wrist, squeezing so hard that her fingers turned numb, and the blade slid from her fingers, thudding on the dew-laden grass between them.

But she wasn’t beaten.

Bree swung her free fist, punching him in the stomach before following it up with a bruising blow to his jaw.

Fury pulsed within her. The last time she’d fought this man, they’d ended up naked. But not this time. If she couldn’t have his honesty, she’d have his anger. His violence. She’d make him bleed.

They tumbled to the ground, Bree’s fists and knees a blur as she sought to inflict harm. And in response, Cailean’s tattoos flashed in the murky predawn light. Aye, even in her Marav form, she was dangerous, and the enforcer called upon his druidic magic to fight her.

Landing a vicious blow just below his breastbone, Bree was rewarded with a grunt of pain. It wasn’t enough though. Suddenly, she hated him again. He was the brute chief-enforcer she’d been sent to deceive, not the man who’d made her betrayher own people. She forgot all of that, fury sweeping her up in its vortex.

Finally, he managed to quell her, his hands pinning her wrists to the ground, painfully, above her head, his heavy body crushing hers.

Bree snarled curses, squirming under his weight, until she lay there panting, her throat raw.

The red veil lifted then, and she stared up into his face.

Blood trickled down his chin from a cut to his lower lip, and a bruise was already blooming across his jaw. Yet Cailean didn’t pay his injuries any mind. Instead, he gazed down at her, and the rawness of his expression made an ache flower under Bree’s ribs.

The fury was gone, and the real man was unmasked before her. And the pain in those woad-blue eyes was unbearable.

Regret tore through her. “Cailean,” she croaked. “I don’t want to leave you … don’t make me.”

His gaze seared hers, even as his throat bobbed. “You must.”

Something deep within her chest twisted then. “Nothing I can say will change what has been done,” she whispered. “But I want you to know that Iamsorry.”

His eyes guttered, his lips parting as his breathing hitched. For an instant, Bree thought he might say something, but he didn’t. And then, to her disappointment, he pushed himself up, off her. “The sun is rising,” he said, his voice rough now. “It’s time to go.”

Indeed, the sky was starting to lighten. Dawn and sunset were always drawn out this time of year, yet the glow to the east warned her that their time was running out.

Bree rolled to her feet before she unstrapped her dagger and knife belt and handed them to him. To her consternation, her hands were unsteady. “Here … I can’t take iron blades with me.”

He nodded, his expression veiled. The air shivered between them now, heavy with so much unsaid.

Wretchedness twisted her insides in knots. She hadn’t lied. She didn’t want to go back there. Albia was cold, grey, and full of dangers, but in this realm, she’d discovered forgotten pieces of herself.

Nothing good waited for her in Sheehallion. Aye, she’d lie through her teeth when she went before Mor—she’d gotten good at that of late—but the thought made a lump of ice settle in the pit of her gut. Luckily, in her Shee form, she was stronger, more ruthless. She’d somehow survive. Her time in Albia had changed her, but maybe when she returned to her people, her heart would harden once more.

Maybe leaving Cailean wouldn’t hurt so much then.

And yet, when she looked up into her husband’s face, she almost crumbled.

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