“We will keep the lass.” Raghnall swung Riona up onto his horse and tossed Cian a dark grin. “As well as the dragon.”
If Declán knew nothing else, it was that Raghnall underestimated how powerful Madison and Cian had grown for no other reason than he believed Siobhán’s poisoned words. Believed all the lies she had told him. She might have seemed defeated at Cian's castle, but it was all a means of testing the enemies’ defenses, she claimed. Of getting a feel for their combined power.
“Deal with it, Declán,” Raghnall said in regards to Aodh being held back by magic, but it was already too late. Much to Aodh’s roar of disapproval, Cian and Madison dragged him back onto Connacht territory.
Land they had banned not only Raghnall from but Declán.
Suspiciously enough, Raghnall was suddenly more concerned with Riona than a dragon king who had been nothing but a nuisance for days because he halted his warriors and shook his head. “Let him go. Yer lives are worth more than his.”
While that sounded compassionate, without doubt, said for Riona’s sake, Declán saw the tightening of Raghnall’s jaw. The way his eyes narrowed ever-so-slightly. Aodh had been evading him for days, and the enemy king wanted blood.
Right now, however, it seemed he wanted Riona more.
Declán did his best to remain relaxed when Raghnall wrapped his arm around her waist, inhaled the scent of her hair, and introduced her to him as they rode away from the border. “Though I suspect you already sensed us...that you were seeking us out every bit as much as we were you.”
He wasn’t sure what to make of Riona’s expression when she smiled and nodded his way other than she was caught somewhere in between, just like him. What hewassure of, on the other hand, was how her smile made him feel.
How it lit up a world that had felt more dark than light lately.
“Nice to meet you both,” Riona squeaked before she cleared her throat and sat up a little straighter, obviously trying to stay strong. Unafraid. “Very nice.”
“Is it?” Raghnall wondered, trailing his hand down her arm. “Why is that? Why would ye come to yer enemies so willingly?” His eyes narrowed. “’Twould seem, based on the past few days and your sister’s actions, that ye should be terrified of us. If anything, ‘twould make more sense for us to enjoy ye and kill ye than let ye continue on.”
Leave it to Raghnall to terrify her from the onset.
Yet she held her own.
“Itwouldmake more sense if I thought you meant me harm.” Tension vanished from her body. She melted back against Raghnall. “Yet I get the feeling neither of you does.” She glanced from Declán back to the forest ahead. “That we’re all...connected somehow. That I’m meant to be here with you both.”
“We feel the same,” Raghnall replied. “And we are glad for it.” He winked at Declán and murmured in her ear loud enough for him to hear, “Because yearehere for us,ta, lassie? The both of us?”
“So it seems.”
For a split second, Declán swore he saw fear in her eyes, but it vanished as soon as it appeared when she glanced from him to the woodland again.
“Do you know why that is?” she continued. “Why I’m drawn to you both?”
“Nay.” Raghnall fingered one of her curls, the desire in his eyes obvious. “But if ye are an Unnamed One, as Siobhán claims, then it can only mean good things.Powerfulthings.”
Declán gave Riona credit for keeping her soft smile in place. For not repelling away from Raghnall’s touch. Because most did. Feared him with good reason. Yet Riona, who rumor had it couldn’t lie because of the kind of druidess she was, seemed to respond genuinely to the rival king.
Which somehow seemed wrong.
She should be astride Declán’s horse. In his arms. It felt unnatural having her anywhere else. With good reason, too.
A reason he kept buried deep lest Raghnall somehow sense it.
“I look forward to discovering what connects us.” Though Riona’s eyes lingered on Declán, she leaned her head back into Raghnall’s touch. “Because there’s something we’re forgetting. Something important.”
He wondered if Raghnall felt the same rampant jealousy he did. If so, he showed no sign of it. Then again, he was the one with her betwixt his thighs at the moment. The one she touched. And while everything in him wanted to close the distance and rip her from his arms, something about the way Riona looked at him stopped him.
Did that look have to do with her secret?
It was impossible to know.
So rather than let his emotions get the better of him, he shut them down as always, and they continued on. As somewhat expected, Raghnall spent little time telling her about his land and people and more time asking about her life.
About the future and her sisters.
