Page 65 of The Mech Who Loved Me
"I can't." He stared at the roof, as if he could see straight through it. His uncle would be sleeping now. "How long... doeshe'ave?"
"The doctor says maybe a fewmonths."
Tears suddenly blurred his vision. "I shouldvisitmore."
"He knows why youdon't."
"Aye." Kincaid scraped them out of his eyes. "But what's that say for me? 'E deserves more. He practically fuckin' raised me." He had the sudden horrific thought of what it would feel like, trapped in a bed, with nothing to do, no one visiting. "I just can't bear it, Orla. All I see is Ian. All I see is my f-future. Allalone."
"Oh, Liam." Orla slid into his arms, resting her head on his shoulder. "You know I'll be thereforyou."
And maybe that was worse, because she'd already given up so much of her own life to care for Will, and her father. He squeezed her tight, his voice roughening, "I won't do thattoyou."
"It's not your choice," she said simply, and kissed his cheek. "Go to sleep. You're drunk and feelin' the weight of the world tonight. You should talk to Dad about it tomorrow. There's still hope for you, Li. You said yourself your pasty-faced duke asked the Royal College of physicians to look into your case, and threw funding at the place to do it. You're barely past the firstsymptoms."
He turned his face into her hair, those old nightmares flashing through his vision again: the horror he'd felt the first time his legs went out from under him. A muscle spasm. That was all, he'd told himself. But he'd known then it wasn't. "Aye," Kincaid said softly, still staring at the ceiling. "They'll find a cure," he whispered, though he silently vowed if there was no cure, then he'd never burden Orla with another body toslowlybury.
Just as he'd never condemn Ava to thesamefate.
Sixteen
WORD HAD GOTTEN round.Ava made sure of it, and when most of the Rogues were gathered in Malloryn's study the following afternoon, she handed out the small information leaflets she'd spent the night creating. The second the Duke of Malloryn arrived, she was starting thismeeting.
With or without LiamKincaid.
"Caterpillar mushroom?" Gemma asked, looking at Ava's neat notes with the expression of a woman who'd spent too many hours hearing about ferns and orchids. "This sounds fascinating, Ava. I canhardlywait."
Charlie nudged her. "Don't worry, the interesting part comes when Ava tells you what it does to a blueblood."
Suddenly Ava became the focus of every set of eyes in the room; Jack, the baroness, Herbert, and Gemma. Charlie shot herawink.
The baroness cleared her throat. She'd already turned over the page, and was miles ahead of the others. "Blood and ashes, Ava. Are youcertain?"
Ava shook her head. "Not until I get my hands upon some of the caterpillar mushroom and test it myself, but... fairly certain. We think it's poisonous to blue bloods anddhampir."
And just as she dropped that explosive revelation, the door burst open. Kincaid strode inside, scowling over the top of a good day's growth of black beard, his blue eyes bloodshot, and wincing at the afternoon light that filtered through the window. He saw them all and swayed. "Jaysus. Thought you wantedme,Ava?"
Truer words had never been spoken. Or at least they had, if he wasn't planning on murdering blue bloods, and reekingofale.
Where the hell has he been?She'd spent five minutes knocking on his bedroom door thismorning.
Had he even spent the night there? The argument echoed loudly in her ears, but she couldn't ask him what he'd done after shestormedoff.
What if he'd gone to another woman? He'd been so angry, and sohadshe.
"I thought we all needed an update," Ava said primly, pointing to a chair near the window. "How on earth did you manage to imbibe so much between now and lastnight?"
Kincaid sank into the chair, scrubbing his hands over his face. "I'm not drunk anymore, but could you keep that particularly strident note out of yourvoice?"
Strident?Her temperblazed.
"I believe this is the aftereffect of imbibing," Gemma noted, with no small amount of smugness. "I must note I've seen livelier-looking statues, Kincaid. You smell like a brewery—and a woman's perfume, if I dare to breathe a littledeeper."
A woman's perfume? Ava froze. She could only smellliquor.
Kincaid shot Gemma his darkest scowl. "Seem to recall a morning when Ididn'tmention what time you staggered in—considering it was well after dawn, and you were last seen in thecompanyof—"
"Truce?" Gemmabrokein.
