Riona’s jaw dropped, then snapped shut before she shook her head, and her eyes lit up. “I’m talking to Declán right away. We can’t miss whatever you’re meant to do, sis. This iswaytoo exciting.”
“What do you care about his mate’s birthing habits, Shannon?” Liam growled before he could stop himself. But hell, if anger didn’t roar up. Damn Aodh and his ability to enchant lasses even chained up in dragon form nearly a thousand years in the past.
“I care because unless I figure out exactly what Aodh is, I have no chance of helping him,” she snapped before she clearly saw an opportunity to resurrect what she had said before. She notched her chin in defiance and offered a little shrug. “Besides, Ididmention I might let others court me if I traveled back in time, didn’t I?”
He clenched his fists and kept his expression neutral. He had never hit a lass and didn’t intend to start now despite the uncharacteristic rage that roared up in him. Fury he had only ever felt when dealing with Siobhán.
“I heard you were considered a dark wizard,” Riona murmured, frowning at him. “But I didn’t believe it until now. Until what I just felt inside you, friend.”
“Now you know,” he ground out, not about to make apologies for a side of him that rarely surfaced. He went for the whiskey. “I need to get back to my kingdom.” He poured a small glass and downed it. “Whether I like it or not,weneed to, Shannon.”
“I don’t know,” she said vaguely, clearly going for his jugular now she better understood one of his weaknesses. “It sounds like I need to get back to Aodh’s kingdom.”
“A kingdom that at this very moment could be turning on not just my people but those of your sisters,” he reminded, only willing to let her bait him so much. She might very well be an Unnamed One, but he was still a king, and it was time to get back to that. Back to his people. “’Tis more than clear Constance has no intention of leaving right now, so you must come. Must show my people—”
“What exactly?” She stood and planted her hands on her hips. “Dark wizard aside, I know what kind of man you are, and I want none of it.” She shook her head. “I refuse to be paraded into a medieval Irish kingdom where I imagine you’ve slept with every damn woman there.”
Good. It was about time she started talking rather than being distant or, before that, disdainful.
“Ta,” he answered easily enough, not about to apologize for enjoying women when they were well worth enjoying. “Why wouldn’t I have bedded them? Lasses are a pleasure. Every last one of them.”
“Despite our shared dream?” she spat. While clearly frustrated she had brought that up, it seemed she couldn’t stop herself once she started. Either that or her blossoming magic wouldn’t let her. “What did you feel in that dream? Because you sounded insistent. Panicked. Like I was the only....”
She trailed off, shook her head again, and poured herself a glass of whiskey as well.
“The only what?” Riona prompted Shannon first before she looked his way expectantly. “What did you feel in your dream?”
He had felt just as insistent as Shannon had claimed. Panicked when he couldn’t stop her. When he tried to keep her away from whatever she ran toward.
He also felt aroused. Desperate to pull her close. Never let her go.
“It doesn't matter,” Shannon muttered when it became obvious he wasn't going to respond. She downed her whiskey, braced her hands on the counter, and stared out the window at the old oak. “Seriously doesn’t matter.”
When Riona arched her brows at him, hoping for more information, he offered nothing more than a shrug. It was safe to say he and Shannon hadn’t started out on the right foot when they met, and it had only gotten worse. He had tried. He’d left food and water outside her tent for days, hoping she would talk to him, but nothing. Silence.
And now this.
Something worse than silence, and he couldn’t quite figure out why.
“Really?”Riona said into his mind. They had tried speaking telepathically before she traveled back in time, but she never got the hang of it.“This is worse because your hearts are hurting now, and you have no clue why. Not really.”
“Not at all,”he clarified.“My heart doesn’t get involved when it comes to lasses.”
“Then explain Siobhán,”she countered.“And now this. My sister.”
“Siobhán was a mistake,”he bit back, in no mood to talk about her.“Shannon is...necessary.”
“Yeah, I think you’re going to wanna refrain from ever calling my sister that again,”Riona replied, though she looked at him kindly enough.“There’s clearly an attraction and a rough past behind you two that you need to figure out. Sooner rather than....”
Her words faded from his mind when her gaze fell to what she had been sketching. “Uh, oh.”
“Uh, oh, what?” Shannon joined her and frowned at what she had drawn. “Whose ship is that?”
Liam pulled the image close and ground his jaw at the flaming boat sinking into the ocean off his dock back home. “That's my best ship,” he manifested a cloak and swung it around his shoulders, “being destroyed by dragon fire.”
Or so he assumed.
“Aodh wouldn’t,” Shannon began. “Couldn’t if—”
