“Donotmistake an invitation for you to speak freely tomeas an excuse to speak harshly toher,” I warned.
Ciaran merely raised his brows and looked…amused. The expression was so unexpected that it made me stop and frown at him in sudden suspicion.
“Why are you so calm?” I asked, which only made him tilt his head back and laugh at me.
“You really are a stubborn prick sometimes, Rian. I bet shedidtell you, but you continue to ignore the fact she is obviously your mate.”
His words took me so off guard that I nearly tripped over my own feet when I tried to step backward.
“That is absurd,” I said dismissively once I’d regained my composure. I wanted to glance over at Nuala to see her reaction to this ludicrous claim, but I refrained.
“What is absurd is the fact that you have not figured this out for yourself yet,” Ciaran insisted. “Or she’s right, and you have been intentionally obtuse about it.”
“I thought she must be casting some kind of a spell to syphon his power,” Ornella offered an alternative.
“That was also my first fear,” Ciaran admitted with a glance at where Nuala still stood silently behind me.
“But?” Ornella prompted him.
Ciaran was too shrewd not to require absolute proof before he decided something was the truth; so I knew he would have already compiled evidence of his suspicions. Evidence that I suddenly found myself very disinterested in hearing about.
“Can we discuss this—” I tried to intervene.
“It was Darragh who first suspected it,” Ciaran spoke over me easily.
“Of course it was,” I muttered, disheartened by the fact that even the demidragon had come to this conclusion.
“He suggested the possibility after your shields were obliterated by a mere kiss,” he finished.
There was stunned silence during which I glowered at him in disbelief that he would reveal that moment of my weakness to the females.
“Wow! Must have been a good kiss!” Ornella smirked after a moment.
“Our suspicions were confirmed when she produced your shadows,” Ciaran declared as if resting his case.
“Youknowit is impossible. Nuala is mortal. We could not possibly have shared our first breath,” I repeated the logic that had been keeping me sane ever since the dream when I first laid eyes on Nuala. I tried to speak calmly, but my voice still betrayed a hint of frantic denial.
“She is unharmed by your shadows, she can borrow your strength, and she uses your magic,” Ciaran listed. “Not to mention the fact that you asked her permission before you allowed Ornella to touch you. Or the irrational way that you defendher—”
“So I will not permit anyone to speak to her unkindly, therefore she must be my mate?” I scoffed.
“You just allowed her to kill Geera simply because the female dared totouchyou. In a room full of witnesses! Then you nearly took Oícher’s head off for looking at her too much. You do not let anyone who is not a rider close to you, Rian, not even after years of service, and yet you have not thoughttwiceabout keeping her in your yurt. You have trusted her from the very beginning.Innately. Sweet Elements! I cannot really be the only one who has realized that she must bedreíocha!” he exclaimed finally, losing his patience. “Are you not?” he added more calmly as he turned to look at Nuala.
Dreíocha. No. No, no, no, no…
I finally forced myself to turn and look at Nuala with a desperate hope that she would dispel his theory, but she merely stared back at me. Her eyes darted between mine as if she were reading my emotions or perhaps sensing what would happen next. And then I watched her heart shatter across her face as she perceived something of my impending rejection. Tears seeped into her lower lashes, and her chin quivered slightly before she lifted it with as much dignity as she could muster before me.
“I am,” she finally confirmed.
I am,she said so simply, as if she had not shattered my entire world. She wasdreíocha…
My heart seemed to sink into my stomach. I felt sick as the reality that I had done my best to ignore and repress crashed over me ruthlessly.
“What isdreíocha?” asked Ornella in confusion.
“Descendants of Inanna,” Ciaran clarified.
“You meanDowrra? I heard of those in Uile Breithà!” Ornella informed us with astonishment. “Sothatis why you said you two were inevitable,” she added to Nuala.
