Page 142 of Go Luck Yourself
Until we get to the landing, and Coal whirls to Wren as a door slams off the wall behind us.
“New security system my ass,” he hisses.
And then Loch’s voice rings out. “Kris?”
He’s here. In Christmas.
He’s standing in the foyer, his eyes immediately locking on the three of us at the top of the staircase.
“Oh, over my dead body,” Coal growls. “Kris—go. I’ll take care of this.”
But I stay rooted, staring down at Loch and the door open behind him, showing the entryway of Castle Patrick. He used magic to come here.
Christmas’smagic, that he stole for his uncle?
I look away, jaw setting, eyes burning.
“I’ll take your things to your room,” Wren whispers, and she glides away.
Coal hits the bottom of the staircase out of the corner of my vision. “You’ve got a helluva lot of nerve, asshole.”
“I know, I did na come here to—please,Coal—”
“Ohdo not address me like that,you son of a bitch, not like we’refriends.” Coal marches up to him and Loch takes a step back, handsup, and god, if Coal had a single violent bone in his body, I think he might hit Loch. “Get out of my palace before I freeze your ass into a snowman.”
“He deserves an explanation,” Loch says to him. To me. “Kris. You deserve an—”
“I saidget the fuck out.He’s not going to forgive you, you sorry—”
“I do na expect his forgiveness!” Loch shouts. “I said he deserves an explanation. You know he does.Please.Then I’ll leave. Kris—I’ll leave, I—”
“Fine.”
My voice cuts over the room from where I’m above them, near the top of the staircase.
Coal holds for a second. He steps back, but he doesn’t clear the way for Loch to come up the stairs.
Loch walks closer to the balcony so he’s almost under me, and I feel his gaze fixed on the side of my face.
“Do you remember”—he takes a quick, rattling breath—“how St. Patrick’s Day’s magic has its basis in luck? Formonths,Kris,months,it told me to go to that study room.”
That yanks my focus down to him before I look away again.
“So I went,” he says. “I went, and some arsehole kept swiping it from me—but I went back, and back, and then… you. And fuck me, I knew as soon as I opened that door and saw you.”
“You knew who I was even then?” I can’t help the question, chest caving in.
“No, no—I meant I knew that I—” Loch’s face reddens. “That you were what my magic was trying to get me to.You.And you were such an obstinate prick right from the gate, Christ, I could na help but fall for you.”
“Explanation,” Coal demands. “Now. You’ve got one minute, jackass.”
Loch winces and scrubs a hand down his face. “Malachy was furious about the joy I used last year. It did na matter that what I used it forincreasedour magic intake; he wanted me to pay that magic back.He’d toss us out, cut off Finn and Siobhán’s school, take everythingwe had left, if I did na get him more. We knew what had been happening in Christmas. Of any Holiday, you lot had joy to spare, and you would na miss a bit. He got the devices and I agreed. I’m sorry, Kris, and I was na lying—I will pay you back.”
I drop to sit on the top of the stairs, staring blankly at the step below me.
Loch moves closer, speaking up at me. “I did na know who you were until your assistant reached out about your apology. Malachy pushed for you to stay longer, to make me figure out what you knew about the theft. And when I started to realize what I had done—I did na stop it when I should have. I thought my magic had been wrong, that you were na meant for me like that. I did na turn off the device until the night I kissed you, in the kitchen. But I knew the damage had been done—the damage was done before you even set foot in my castle. And I got to know you, and I tried,tried so hard,not to fall for you, but Jesus Christ, Kris, I was na lying. You are my dream guy.”
“Stop,” I whisper. No one hears.
