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“Alright.” He smiled at me. “Be safe. We’ll see you at home.”
“Don’t drink those all at once, Odran.” Gillie nodded towards the rock, where a collection of items he’d picked up for Odran rested at its base, including several bottles. “Don’t get too drunk and drown in your lake.”
As he snickered, Odran rolled his eyes and gracefully reclined at the edge of the lake, his pale calves submerged in the water as he leaned back on his elbows.
I flushed, waving at Nua and Gillie as they walked off back through the trees, before hesitantly making my way over. I sat down on the flat rock beside him, its surface sun warmed.
I looked at the water so I didn’t stare at his nude body stretched out beside me. It wasn’t that I necessarily wanted to fuck Odran, but… hewasbeautiful. And naked. And his black hair and black eyes were… They kept making false memories flash in my brain. Of black eyes wild with lust gazing down at me from above. Silky dark hair slipping over my skin as warm lips trailed down my stomach. A cheek resting on the centre of my chest, the weight of a body on top of me, keeping me warm.
My gut lurched with bewildering arousal and intense yearning, and I fidgeted uncomfortably on my rock.
“Did the book help?” Odran asked in his raspy voice, tilting his head back.
I looked over at him. His eyes were closed as he soaked up the sun dappling through the leaves, making his hair gleam iridescent green.
I chuckled, the sound hoarse. “Not really. Not at the time.”
“Mm.” Odran peeked one eye open to look up at me. “You were completely in the dark. Disjointed passages and cryptic notes couldn’t have been much help. But we tried.”
I nodded, looking down as my branch fingers picked at the edge of my boot. “I know. I appreciate it. But… why didn’t you just tell me? When you delivered the book?”
“Tell you what?”
“That I was the Brid’s son. The book was meant to help me work it out, but you could have just told me when you were there.”
“I was going to.” Odran was watching me carefully. “But I could sense… someone in your cottage. I didn’t think it was safe to say much at all.”
“What?” My brows pulled into a frown. “There wasn’t any—”
When my throat closed up, stopping me from saying the words, my heart leapt with panic.
Why was this happening? Therehadn’tbeen anyone in my cottage the morning Odran delivered the book. I’d woken up to his knocking and gone straight to the door. Balor had shown up after, but I’d been alone.
“There wasn’t—” I tried again, my heart giving a mighty thud when my throat closed up once more. But I wasn’t trying to lie. Iwasn’t. No one hadbeenthere.
What was happening to me?
“Why didn’t you come before that?” I asked, my voice small. “Why did it take you so long?”
“I couldn’t travel into unseelie land until Samhain.” Odran sounded remorseful. “I was in the forest when the Mild Months began, and the Carlin closes off her lakes to protect her court while it is most vulnerable. That was why I had to wait until Samhain—until the Bitter Months, when the Carlin’s frost creeps into the forest.”
“But you could have come back after that.” I clenched my jaw. “After you delivered the book. You were free to come and go then. It would have helped.”
Odran was silent for a minute.
“He was always there, Ash,” he said eventually. “Always.”
My brows pinched. “Who?”
“The prince.”
I stared at him hard. “What prince?”
“Prince Lonan.”
The name meant nothing to me. Suspicion rose, making me narrow my eyes at Odran. What game was he playing? I’d been alone in that cottage. I’d never had anyone there with me in all that time. Especially not a fucking prince.
“Gillie told me what the Carlin did to you,” Odran said when I stayed quiet. He closed his eyes, tilting his face back to the sun. “I’m sorry you went through it.”
