Page 145 of Blood & Claw

Niall’s expression chilled. “And why not?”

“You committed treason against the High Queen.”

His brother sighed. “Sanctimonious to the end.” He paused then. “Look beyond all that, Darach. Look at what I’ve achieved. Soon, all of Albia will answer to me.”

Darach snorted. “You’ll take on the Shee?”

“Aye.” His tone hardened. “I’ll make the Elk King kneel to me before I cut off his head … and then I’ll chase the rest of those goat-eyed fuckers back into their barrows.”

“No, you won’t.”

“You’re wrong, Darach … just like you’ve been wrong about everything.” Anger roughened his brother’s voice now. Goading him wasn’t a good idea, but Darach hadn’t been able to help himself. Niall was his flesh and blood, yet he hated him.

He wanted to unleash the beast right now.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t. Not while he was wearing this iron collar. Even if he could find a way out of this pit, he’d be of little good to Ailsa and Kayla.

Fuck, he’d let Ailsa down.

Her face flashed through his mind as he’d demanded, “Have you been manipulating me?”

Why had he said that? He’d done more than let her down on this mission; he’d accused her of deceiving him.

For a few moments in that shieling, he’d been sure she’d seduced him deliberately. Wasn’t that what bavaans excelled at—using their wiles to draw in lonely, desperate men?

However, later he’d realized his mistake.

He’d seen the horror on her face, the trembling in her hands as she’d stared down at her nails.

She hadn’t manipulated him.

He should have said something, should have reassured her. But he hadn’t.

Instead, he’d pulled away, treated her like the thing she feared becoming.

And now, it was too late to take any of it back.

“You’re different, you know?” Niall’s voice dragged him back to the present. “The way you resisted my warriors … you fought like an animal.”

Darach remained silent. He wouldn’t give his brother anything else.

“I should take your head off with an axe at dawn … but it seems a shame to waste such raw aggression.” Niall paused, his gaze raking over Darach’s face. “I could do with you at my side in the war to come.”

“I’ll never fight for you.” The words, hot and rash, were out before he could choke them back.

Niall huffed a laugh, although there was little humor in it. “Never is a long time … but I’ve got patience. We have until late winter … and you’ll break before then.”

Darach snarled up at his brother. “I won’t.”

Niall laughed and rose to his feet, bringing the torchlight with him. “We’ll see.”

“Is King Niall mad?” Ailsa dragged her hands along the edges of the iron door, her sharp nails scraping for purchase, for weakness. Anything that might give.

Kayla snorted behind her, and Ailsa glanced over her shoulder. Her mentor sat cross-legged on a pile of furs in her sleeping nook, watching her apprentice’s exploration. “No … he’s ambitious and looking for revenge.”

“Revenge? What for?”

Kayla pulled a face. “You remember the rumors? He asked for Queen Lara’s hand. She refused him.”