Page 77 of A Celtic Vow
Which made him wonder if Constance didn't know the enemy might be able to control her somehow. As it were, her hatred for Siobhán hadn’t been strong at the beginning. He sensed she might go to her. Something he’d assumed she wouldn’t even consider now after everything they had learned. It was something he could not imagine her doing without being under the influence of enemy magic, even if diplomacy was her final goal.
“Fine.” He nodded at Ulrik and Tréan. “Go, but go fast, for I will not be able to hold my dragon back for long.” He shook his head. “Not from his dragon mate.”
Not from his human mate either, but he didn’t say that.
Rather he prayed they returned fast and with promising news. Otherwise, he would attack whether anyone liked it or not.
Chapter Twenty-Five
CONSTANCE HAD HATEDusing magic on Aodh but saw no other recourse than disarming him by making love. By wrapping his mind up in matters of the flesh so much, he wouldn’t sense what was coming. Would not know she was going to Siobhán on her own, just like she knew she had to from the very beginning.
Now she understood why. Understood the monumental sacrifice she would be making. The one Shannon had referred to when she touched the tree at King’s Fall. Only it wasn't something that happened in the past but something that would happen in the future.
When everything came back to her upon turning Siobhán’s soldiers, other tidbits surfaced as well. Things she was able to keep from everyone, including Aodh. Things she could hide because she was more connected to Siobhán than them. So connected, it didn’t surprise her when the enemy had finally been able to make contact with her via dreams shortly after Madison and Cian first came together.
Fortunately, Constance had been able to visit Madison in her dreams before that and had helped her along. After all, the moment her sister bought the colonial, Constance started remembering everything, but by the time she moved in, it was too late.
Siobhán had started sinking her claws into her.
More to the point, she had gotten her claws into Constance’s dragon.
It wasn’t all the time, but quite a bit as the tether between them grew. A never-ending mind struggle where she fought the enemy off when she could. Enough to urge Shannon to save Aodh. Enough to keep Zeke away because she now knew what lived inside her. How dangerous she might be.
Yet, at other times, the enemy had been in control.
Siobhán had used Constance to lure Aodh to Raghnall so he could possess him. Convinced her Aodh was the devil. Something that needed to be destroyed. Something Siobhán encouraged her to hate in her nightmares, so Constance railed against him while awake. Railed against him when his dragon was held captive by the enemy.
What better way to make sure his spirit was well and truly broken?
To drive them apart even more?
The plan, of course, had always been to bring Constance back to her side. To become allies like they should have been in their last life. That in mind, determined Constance would never step foot in Ulster again, Siobhán had unleashed Aodh on his own castle, convinced she would find a blade that had been evading her for years. Then she would possess not just the dagger but her Unnamed One’s dragon in one fell swoop. After that, they could easily defeat her flesh and blood sisters and force them to add their powers to the blade.
An extraordinary blade that would become very powerful.
Yet it all went wrong when she not only didn't find the blade but did not foresee Shannon and her family saving Aodh’s dragon.
