One smiles, serene and cruel, lips curled in quiet triumph.
At her feet, a flock of ravens, wings frozen mid-flight, beaks open in silent caws.
The plaque at the base reads:
THE MORRÍGAN – WAR, PROPHECY, AND SOVEREIGNTY
My lungs seize. I stumble back a step, slamming into Octavian's chest. His arm immediately comes around me.
I take a step forward, acting like I didn't just lose my balance.
I'm lost for words. I can't speak.
Elizabeth turns slowly toward us, smiling like she's just revealed a priceless gift. "Beautiful, isn't she?" she says. "The goddess of war. Of death. Of fate. She sees everything," Elizabeth continues, her gaze fixed on me. "And she remembers every betrayal. Every broken oath. Every stolen crown."
The room blurs at the edges, like I'm looking at her through water. The Morrígan. The Phantom King. It's all…
My hands start to shake.
I press them together, willing them to stop, but they won't.
The room goes silent.
Even the other guests seem to pause, heads turning slightly, ears pricking.
Something's wrong. The air is too still. This isn't a celebration of Irish history.
It's my curse, and I wasn't brought here to admire her, I was brought here to be seen by her.
And something's about to happen to me.
33
OCTAVIAN
This Elizabeth Carter woman puts me on edge.
Her walk is too perfect. Her smile too still. Every word she speaks is rehearsed. But it's not just that, it's the way she looks at Keira. Like she's marking her. Like she already knows where the knife is going to go in.
I follow a half-step behind them and slide my phone from my pocket as we walk. I swipe my thumb across the screen and the tracking app loads, and there it is, moving on the map as we go, a small green dot.
Keira's bracelet.
Working perfectly.
I slip the phone back into my jacket, my jaw tense.
Nicolae's voice echoes in my skull: Let them take her. You track. You wait for confirmation. Only then do you extract.
It still makes me want to put my fist through a wall.
I've been preparing for this to some degree since the moment I accepted the assignment.
While I confidently told her brothers there wouldn't be anything like a bomb here, I figured the gala was always the likely strike point to kidnap Keira.
It's public, high-profile, with just enough chaos to create opportunity for Keira to drop her guard.
And while I had to spend the day away from her, it was for a good reason.
