Page 81 of A Celtic Secret
Letting it go when she could save it.
So rather than turn away from him coldly, she held his hand and kept her eyes with his as the great and mighty King of Munster took his last breath, and his gaze went vacant.
When that happened, she knew with certainty they had never been married. He had manipulated her, and through her Declán, into believing it because of the magical fire they shared. It was also the reason Liam and Shannon had felt darkness in her at the beginning. Her feeling of love and hate toward Declán when it had only ever been love.
It had all been Raghnall’s influence.
All because of a fiery ending that had not belonged to him.
She closed his eyes to death, hung her head, and murmured a prayer that his soul find its way to redemption. That the gods punish him for his crimes, then somehow find forgiveness as she hoped in time to forgive him as well.
“And ye will,mo chroí.” A warm cloak came around her shoulders. “As will I if ‘tis what ye feel is right.”
Just like she had in another life, she looked up into Declán’s pale blue eyes. Only this time, she grew teary. This time she trembled as he pulled her into his arms and held her while she wept against what she realized were robes rather than his usual clothing.
“You do have wizard robes,” she murmured. “White ones.”
“So it seems.”
“They suit you.” They really did. Because there was nothing but white light and good energy about him as she rested her cheek against his chest and continued crying.
Wept for what she had just done.
For all she remembered of her last life.
“’Tis all right.” He stroked her hair. “’Tis over now.”
“Is it?” she murmured before she remembered a battle was still raging and pulled back. “We need to get back! We need to—”
“Take a moment,”Caith said, standing nearby. He lowered his head when she looked his way as though bowing.“Ye have pleased yer gods and ancestors and fulfilled yer part of the prophecy by ending King Raghnall. For he pushed himself into something in which he did not belong. Changed things in ways yet to be seen. Yer ancestors wish ye well in the coming days as ye continue to navigate all that threatens our beloved Éire.”
“But we still need to get back to—”
“Nay, ‘tis all right.” Declán tilted her chin until she had no choice but to look at him. “You are fully into your powers now, Riona. Feel that. Feel our people. See what happened the moment you ended he who possessed so many.”
She blinked away the last of what had been a terrifying situation and finally saw clearly as the curtain of darkness that had been Raghnall fell away. While confused at first when their possession ended, warriors from all three kingdoms turned on those from the Kingdom of Munster.
When that happened, their outnumbered rival fled.
“What of Aodh, though?” she asked as they made their way back through King’s Echo. “I don’t sense him or Siobhán.”
“Because sadly, there is nothing to sense,”Madison said into their minds.“Siobhán or as many a captured soldier calls her, Queen of Munster now, retreated with a good deal of her army intact. The last we saw of Aodh, he was still very much a dragon and covering their retreat.”
“Oh, no.”Riona frowned.“How is that possible when he was only stuck as a dragon because of Raghnall’s possession? Only acted that way because of being possessed?”
“We don’t know.”The distress in Cian's inner voice was unmistakable.“Other than to speculate, Siobhán figured out a way to possess him as well or....”
“Or,”Declán finished darkly, following his brother’s line of thinking.“He once again fell under her spell.”
Cian never responded, but he didn’t need to. He was, however, standing on the wall walk above the main gate with Madison when countless warriors eventually escorted them over the drawbridge to hundreds if not thousands of cheers.
It seemed word about what Riona had done spread fast. She had single-handedly felled the Great King of the South. The new Queen of Leinster and their beloved Unnamed One had freed them from someone who had long been a tyrant.
“I feel like I should smile and wave,”she said into Declán’s mind,“but the truth is, it took a whole lot more than me to get to this point. To be in a position to take Raghnall down to begin with. All the people who labored to build this castle over the years. All the warriors who fought to defend them before me. The wives and children that worried over them.”
“’Tis why you will make a wonderful queen,” he murmured in her ear. “And a wonderful wife to your king.”
She smiled at that, which gave the people what they wanted to see because cheers turned to celebration as they made their way into an evening that was more memorable than any before. While the curtain walls had been damaged and the totem wiped out entirely, the castle was still intact.
