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“We had a deal, outcast.” Domnu leveled Rian with a look.
“There’s … a few complications.” Rian stalled, unsure of how to proceed. What he did know was that he couldn’t give up the knife yet, at the same time, he had brokered a deal with the Goddess. Perhaps if he told her that he no longer sought revenge on the man who was responsible for his exile? If so, he could release her from her end of the bargain and he wouldn’t owe her anything. He opened his mouth to say as much when she lifted a hand to stop him from speaking.
“I keptmyend of the pact. You’re indebted to me now. Think long and hard about what you plan to do with the knife because the next time I return, I will only ask once for the amulet.” Goddess Domnu waved her hand and a man appeared out of thin air, his wrists bound behind his back, blood weeping from a wound at his forehead. Domnu’s grin widened, her eyes bright and interested, and she paused as she waited for Rian’s reaction. “Here is the man who is responsible for your exile. The true betrayer. He is yours to kill.”
Fury filled him, and Rian took an involuntary step toward the man, rage roaring its way through his body. He wanted nothing more than to destroy the man who knelt in front of him, his blood seeping into the Earth. Domnu smiled, her snakes slithering around her head, and crossed her arms to watch the show.
“You owe me, Rian.” Domnu reminded him, her voice joyful.
“Cormac.No.” The tremulous voice at his side had Rian whirling to where Terra stood, her face frozen in shock, her mouth gaping open.
Cormac? Rian’s thoughts took a minute to catch up.
Oh.ThatCormac.
This was Terra’s younger brother.
Which meant … dread filled him as he realized that the man he most wanted to destroy was the brother of the woman he’d most come to care for. Terra’s mouth worked, but no sound came out, and he realized she was also processing her brother’s lack of loyalty. What he wasn’t expecting was for Terra to turn her burning gaze on him.
“You,” Terra whispered. Jabbing a finger in the air at him, she advanced. “You did this. You knew it was Cormac, didn’t you?”
“I didn’t… Terra, I swear…” Rian held his hands up as she jabbed a finger into his chest in sharp little spikes.
“Well, now … this is amusing, isn’t it?” Goddess Domnu clapped her hands, like a child watching a puppet show, and almost danced in place as though she was having all the fun in the world.
“Away with you,” Terra hissed, turning so fast that the Goddess didn’t have time to react when Terra fired a wave of magick at her, pulling a shock of lightning from the sky to hit Domnu directly in the back. The Goddess stumbled forward, and Rian did all he could do in that moment — he joined Terra in attacking the Dark Goddess. Together, the group stepped forward, blasting Domnu with various magicks, until she winked from sight.
She wasn’t dead, oh no, as that wasn’t possible.
But she was gone for now.
“Terra.” Rian stepped forward, but she held a hand up, refusing to look at him as she dropped to her knees in front of her younger brother.
“Oh, Cormac. How could you?” Terra breathed. Cormac looked up at her through the blood in his eyes and promptly fainted.
Terra caught him as he fell.
14
What a fool she was.
Terra silently berated herself as she mopped the blood from Cormac’s brow. Seamus and Callahan had carried him into Terra’s cottage while Rian had given her one furious look and stormed away.
Hewas mad ather?
The gall of that man. If he thought for one moment that he would get to live out his revenge-seeking fantasy by killing her brother in front of her, he was going to learn just how powerful Terra really was. While she was furious with Cormac for the betrayal he’d wrought upon their brother — and their family — she also wasn’t ready to let him die for a mistake he’d made.
Rianmusthave known. There was no way he could have asked after her family and then listened to her go on and on about her family estrangement, without having some idea that Cormac was the one responsible for Rian’s exile. It was clear he’d made a pact with the Dark Fae, and the Goddess must have already had this knowledge.
Here she’d thought she’d been gaining some headway with Rian, and he’d been playing her all along. Fury at her blindness and stupidity filled her, not to mention shame for enjoying his touch so much last night. Had he been laughing at her the whole time? Silly Terra. Easy to manipulate and have his way with, all while keeping his end goal in sight.
“Terra?” Cormac’s voice rasped, drawing her attention from her thoughts. Bianca hurried to his side with a glass of water, and he eyed the stranger curiously. “Where am I? What happened?”
“Oh, Cormac.” Terra dropped onto the side of the bed and stared glumly at her younger brother. The cut on his forehead was deep, and it still wept openly, though they’d managed to stem the flow of blood a bit. Garish pink skin already turning to purple surrounded the wound, and his dark hair was matted with blood that had gone tacky. “What have you done?”
“Me? What do you mean?” Cormac’s gaze danced everywhere, confirming Terra’s suspicions.
“All this time…” Terra whispered, her heart breaking. He’d allowed her to become estranged from the family, handily sacrificing her in order to save his name. To protect his dirty little secret. Now, she was stuck in the position of having to protect her brother from her fated mate — who had an entirely valid reason for wanting to seek his revenge upon Cormac.
