Page 73 of Twisting Beauty

I stood between them and the world narrowed, their two scent-songs in my head at once, the weight of their presence pressing in from both sides.

Neither of them was looking at me anymore. They were glaring at each other, violence mirrored in their postures and in the way they held their fists at their sides.

A feeling came over me, a premonition.

In the end, it was going to come down to the three of us.

“He’s no one,” I said, taking a step between them. “He’s lost.”

Lorcan’s eyes dragged back to me. “Looks like he knows you.”

“Thank you for your directions, miss.” Deargán’s voice was perfectly pleasant and revealed nothing. He held Lorcan’s gaze for one terse moment before he turned.

Lorcan’s eyes narrowed at Deargán’s retreating figure, brows drawing down. “Wait. I know you.”

But Deargán didn’t stop. He didn’t even look back to acknowledge Lorcan. He stepped back through the drizzle and let the gap in the hedges swallow him.

Lorcan’s jaw tightened. He wasn’t used to being dismissed. He glared at the gap in the hedge, his body tense like a runner at a starting line. And for a second I thought he’d go after Deargán.

His jaw worked once. Then he nodded. “That doctor. At Magdalene.”

Oh, shite.

Lorcan had been to Magdalene. Cold rushed through me so fast my fingers went numb. What had he found there? How much had he seen? My cover felt suddenly paper-thin, ready to tear straight down the middle.

His attention snapped back to me. “Who is he?”

“No one. I told you.”

“Liar.” His voice dropped, the kind of quiet that had an edge to it. He stepped closer. “Your doctor? An old lover? Someone you’re working with?”

The last shred of my safety dissolved into absolute freefall.

Fuck. He’d aimed straight at the center of it and it struck. One more pull at that thread and the whole thing unraveled. Deargán. The plan. Dervla still rotting in that ward.

Panic climbed hard and hot.

I couldn’t deny too quickly. Couldn’t freeze. Either one would tell him he’d hit something real.

So I reached for the one button I knew I could press.

I tipped my chin up and said, “What’s this really about, Lorcan?”

His features hardened into stone. “I asked you a question.”

“And I think you hate that another man got my attention first.”

His stare hardened. “Don’t flatter yourself.”

“Then why do you care?” I asked.

His mouth flattened. “Because men like that don’t approach girls like you for nothing.”

“Girls like me?”

His gaze flicked toward the hedge, then back to me. “You know exactly what I mean.”

He stepped closer, crowding the space Deargán had just left behind.