Page 112 of Taken By the Vicious Highlander
Tristan’s hands curled into fists. “What happened?”
“It was Ariah who poisoned Lilith last week.”
“What? Surely nae me Ariah?—”
“She’s admitted it, man.” Damon fixed Tristan with a stern look over his glass before taking a swig.
Tristan hesitated. “Is she… alive?”
“Aye,” Damon said, watching him carefully. “For now.”
Tristan’s entire body sagged with relief.
Damon exhaled sharply before finishing the contents of his glass and setting it down next to him. “She’ll be exiled.”
Tristan’s head snapped up, his face contorting. “Exiled?”
Damon arched an eyebrow. “Would ye prefer her dead?”
Tristan gaped at him for a moment before snapping his mouth shut. His hands trembled—a Branloch boy who was madly in love with a criminal. “Please, there must be another way.”
Damon rolled his eyes and moved toward his desk, only to notice something he hadn’t seen before.
A letter.
The letter.
His stomach flipped. Somehow, it had made its way here.
Had she delivered it?
His fingers traced the edge of the parchment, his heart hammering as he unfolded it.
Furiously, his eyes scanned the words—words that changed absolutely everything.
Terrible mistake.
Magnus’s child.
The rightful heir to Clan McCallum.
Damon’s jaw tightened. Without hesitation, he tossed the letter into the fire.
Tristan has nay idea.
“Damon?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he called in Ryder. “Bring the prisoner.”
Tristan’s eyes darted between the closing door and Damon.
“And ye will wait in the Great Hall until I’ve called ye up. Go, now.”
The man hesitated for only a second, but the look on Damon’s face conveyed an unyielding danger, and he obeyed without argument.
“Thisis what she’s been keepin’ from me.” He plucked the glass from his desk and threw it into the hearth. It shattered into the flames. “Damn it!”
He glanced out the window to see that it was still quite dark out, the night keeping ahold of the sky for as long as it could. His eyes were still fixed on the dark sky as Ryder brought Ariah in, and he kept staring out the window until the door clicked shut and he knew they were alone.
