Chapter Seven
CONSTANCE HAD ENJOYEDher first day at Aodh’s castle, meeting his people, but could safely say it had also been the longest day of her life, then an even longer evening. Mostly because it was a constant internal battle trying to stay away from him. Keep her distance.
Especially when they returned to the great hall after being at the ruins.
She hadn’t expected to enjoy talking with him or even liking him. It seemed surreal, given she had hated him for so long. That she’d been determined to end him when she was by no means a killer. So it had been a strange transition seeing him as something other than the root of her hatred.
An emotion she’d only ever felt toward him.
To that end, despite being on borrowed time and knowing she would have to face Siobhán sooner rather than later, she wanted to take things slowly. Yet going slow was harder than she would have thought. Oddly, the more time she was here, the more she wanted to be around him. Continue talking. Get to know him. Simply be near him.
And that didn’t abate any when she finally made it back to her chamber.
“You did it, though,” she praised herself, almost wishing she hadn’t. That she had taken him up on his offer to show her around the rest of the castle. Spent the remainder of the day with him. While she suspected a part of it was her dragon’s draw to his, she knew it was more than that.
Far more.
She bit her lower lip as she got undressed and slid into the white nightgown that had been provided for her. It was sheerer than she would have expected but comfortable. Sumptuous almost. But then, that might just be her mood right now. A mood she had a feeling was going to make sleeping tough.
Nonetheless, she snuffed out the candles and listened to the rain. The sound of thunder rumbling in the distance. Tried to focus on anything that took her mind off how good Aodh felt earlier at her back. His masculine scent. Sort of a smoky cedar and pine aroma that seemed to fill her nostrils even now. She tried to forget how the hardness of his arousal pressing against her made every nerve ending inside her come alive. The way his warm breath felt against her neck.
What would have happened if things had played out differently? If Aodh’s lips had grazed her sensitive flesh? If she hadn’t turned in his arms in confrontation but curiosity? If he’d lowered his mouth to hers? What would kissing her monster have tasted like?
She tried to catch her breath, but it suddenly felt impossible.
“I can’t catch my breath,” a little girl exclaimed from outside her door as if echoing what Constance felt. “Why can’t I catch my breath?”
“Because ye’re holding it when ye do not need to,” a boy responded.
Constance sat up and frowned, confused. What were children doing running around the castle at this hour?
“Ye should not do what ye’re about to do,” the boy called out as the two raced down the hallway. “’Tis too soon, lassie!”
Concerned, Constance flew to the door and flung it open, only to see the flicker of a little girl racing toward the section of the castle Aodh’s dragon had destroyed.
“No,” she cried and raced after her, but thunder crashed and drowned out her voice. So she kept after her, praying she got there in time.
Instead of going the way Aodh had taken her earlier, the little girl turned down a small hallway that led to stairs. As luck would have it, hall torches still burned, or Constance would never have found her way.
“Stop,” she kept calling out. “This section of the castle is too dangerous!” If the girl heard her, she didn’t listen, so she kept following. Where had the boy gone? Did he know another way to intercept her before it was too late?
Only ever a wisp of skirts vanishing around a corner, the girl cut down another hallway at the bottom of the stairs. Lord, she was fast and clearly knew her way around. Constance kept calling out, but it did no good. The girl couldn’t hear her. Or perhaps she thought she was in trouble, so simply ran away in fear?
Either way, Constance didn’t stop. Not even when she raced out into the cold rain and pitch-black darkness broken only by flashes of lightning. She raced after the girl through the treacherous ruins, determined to save her. Chased after her as she ran straight for the edge with nothing but a long fall to the jagged ocean floor below.
“Stop!” she swore she heard the boy call from behind her before the cadence changed into that of a distraught man.
“No,” she cried, racing blindly after the girl now. She was close, so close.
Almost there.
Just a little bit faster.
Constance was so determined to save her that she thought nothing of diving off the edge after her, only for the little girl to vanish into thin air.
But by then, it was too late.
She was free falling to her own death.
