Page 35 of A Dark and Lovely Devastation

The foreboding lingered in my gut.

I couldn’t…

I couldn’t tell him a damn thing.

I shut my eyes, my fingers digging into the blankets, fighting through my fuzzy head. “Go to hell, Dagda.”

“I shall…” He tugged open the door, glancing back at me. “If you will be there with me.”

Chapter 13

Istaggereddownthelong halls, on my way to see Illya, with Keelin trailing close behind. The old man insisted that we meet in a specific area of the castle, the Hall of Memories, or some such nonsense.

A line of about ten children came around a corner into the hallway. They paused, each bowing and saying, “Your Majesty.” Then they scurried ahead, away from us. This was the second time I’d seen a random line of kids wandering the castle’s halls. Was this a common thing? Was there a school inside the castle?

I pressed my hands to my temples, massaging them, my hangover from the day before lingering. I tried not to dwell on what took place between me and Dagda. What I’d said. What I’d done. What I would have allowed him to do if Roisin hadn’t interrupted us. A heat crept up my face.

I’d never drank so much before. I thought when you were that plastered, you didn’t remember what happened.

But I remembered every damn second.

Keelin lurked behind me, as silent as a ghost. As we walked, I thought of my vision, of Keelin lying dead on some battlefield, his throat ripped out. I shuddered, glad I didn’t have to look at him as he trailed my steps. Perhaps I could stop it all. Ornan’s wishes might do the trick, but I wanted more information. Luckily, before Macha took my balance and sanity from me, she’d had the sense to hide Ornan’s tokens under a pillow. After seeing that vision…the battlefield with demons among their dead and occurring so soon after Ornan offered me those wishes…

I chewed on my lower lip, my mind spiraling. There was so much about this world that I didn’t know. If I asked Dagda about demons in general would that be too obvious? Would he suspect Ornan and what he had offered me?

Ornan said Dagda would try to take the wishes from me. That wasn’t an option.

I’d considered asking someone else, Keelin or Roisin. But Keelin reported to Dagda, and after what happened the day before at the ceremony, even Roisin might report to the king if I started making strange inquiries.

“Do you guys have a library?” I already knew they did from what Roisin had told me, but I preferred to play ignorant. It was an innocent enough question. After all, I could be one of those girls that liked to read for pleasure.

I wasn’t.

Keelin nodded. “We have an extensive library that encompasses about a third of the second floor.”

“I’d like to see it. Soon.”

“I shall inform King Dagda of your wishes.”

Yep. Definitely wasn’t asking him my questions. “Don’t bother Dagda about my silly wishes. I was hoping you’d show me?”

He frowned. “I am the king’s faerie knight. Only he may determine how my time is to be spent.”

“When you are on duty, you mean.”

He stared straight ahead. “A faerie knight is always on duty.”

“Okay, yeah. But I mean, you have to take bathroom breaks sometime. Or like, to eat and sleep. You do sleep, right?”

His chin squared. “It is unwise for a faerie knight to divulge their schedule.”

I sighed. “Especially to someone who has conniving sisters who might use that information for their own twisted ends.”

Keelin grunted.

“Fair enough. But he does let you off, sometimes, to let loose. Relax. Spend time with a significant other?” I wiggled my eyebrows at him.

The muscles in his arms bunched, drawing my attention to his clenched fists, and the werewolf that I swear twitched on his bicep. “Faerie knights forswear any romantic attachment.”

---