Page 4 of Desire's Ransom
“One more thing,” she said gently. Her voice had grown eerily resigned. “Don’t look back. Promise me. Tonight. Or ever. Never look back. Do ye understand?”
Temair nodded. But she didn’t fully understand. Not yet.
Aillenn kissed her brow with lips as cold as the grave. “I love ye, sister,” she whispered. “Never forget that.”
Temair nodded.
Then Aillenn straightened with a faraway look in her eye. “Go now.”
With an irritated sigh, Temair summoned her hounds, bundled herbratabout her, and slipped out the stable door. She headed obediently toward the woods while her sister walked back to the tower house by the light of the rising moon.
Halfway to the trees, Temair suddenly remembered she’d left her dagger behind. Muttering a curse under her breath, she turned with the hounds to go back.
Her sister was nowhere in sight. Temair could have easily have slipped back into the stable and stayed there. Aillenn would never know. Indeed, as soon as they entered, Bran and Flann flopped onto the straw, expressing their preference to return to their warm bed.
But she’d given Aillenn her word. So after she retrieved her dagger, she clucked to the hounds to come with her and headed out again.
As she closed the stable door behind her, her glance caught on the moon. Against the dark purple sky, if she stood just so, the big pale orb appeared to perch on top of the tower house.
When she moved again, she saw a black figure suddenly eclipse the moon. She scowled. Someone was standing on top of the wall. The fool. It was five stories to the ground. A fall from that height would kill a man.
A breeze swept past, blowing Temair’s long black hair over her eyes. By the time she brushed it back, the wind had rushed onward and up, catching the clothing of the figure atop the tower. The instant Temair saw the flutteringléine, she knew who it was.
Before she could scream Aillenn’s name, her sister pitched forward with her arms outstretched. She looked as if she were diving into thelough, the way she and Temair always did on warm summer afternoons. But instead of splashing and sinking into cool waves, Aillenn dropped like a stone, hitting the sod with a dull thud.
