AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I am so sorry, Jace. For drugging you... for everything,” she whispered as her cousin pulled her into a tighter hug.
“I am so sorry I was angry at you for drugging me. You are my family, Bryn,” he whispered into her hair. “The last of who I can trust in this world, and I overreacted because I feel like I am losing someone. Someone I have thought of as a sister... and the drugging just pushed me over the edge. Please,please”—he stepped back to look at her, his eyes teary— “let me in. We’re all that’s left.”
Those words hung in the air between them as she took his hands with a nod.
His mother was so entrenched in the lie of who Balor was, they could not know if her love for Jace would be enough to walk away from the religion and life she’d made for herself.
Some people come to rely on the lies they’ve told themselves, even if its foundation was built on quicksand.
They’d happily sink beneath thinking it was an honor and a sacrifice, though it meant nothing to the world around them.
Clasping his hands in hers, she told him about her dream, holding to the promise she made to let him in. Bryn was going to keep to her vow of no longer keeping any secrets from him.
“Okay, so we talk to Danu and figure this out before the cold snap.” He nodded, and the light in his eyes, the pure appreciation that she had let him in, sent a fresh wave of guilt. A feeling she tamped down since it was not a necessary emotion at the time, and she found herself in wonder that she could do that. That she could calculate and disregard an emotion that she deemed unnecessary.
A very un-Bryn-like behavior. Perhaps there was more of the Morrigan coming to the surface than she thought.
“They are staying at Niamh’s as far as I know. Pretty sure Justin figured that was the safest place for Danu and Callum a while ago,” Jace told her what she already knew before giving her hands a squeeze and releasing her to grab his bag. Why did he need his bag to go to the Sanctuary?
Looking out the window, the sun was now up, and it suddenly made sense. He’d play off their being about the town and going to Niamh’s as being called to a bedside.
She was an absolute idiot to have kept anything from this man. Her life would have been so much easier with his quick-thinking and problem-solving abilities.
Also, she was off schedule. Again. Her days and nights were so mixed up along with everything else happening in Ifreann.
On a nod, they headed to the Sanctuary, the curtains closed in the windows of the building and the door shut tightly.
Giving a knock Bryn had never heard before, Jace waited until the door opened, nodding to a man she’d never seen before, but who obviously worked here.
“Nigel, this is my cousin Bryn. She is also a friend to Niamh.” Jace walked into the room, the introductions following, but not Bryn since the large man named Nigel was staring down at her with an expression that could make the strongest in nerves tuck tail and run.
“Bryn...” He chewed on her name before nodding and letting her through.
“What the hell is that about?” she asked, having never come to the Sanctuary during daylight, usually only at night when the doors were open, and the music was carrying into the street.
“He keeps the Sanctuary safe while the women and Caden sleep in after having been up all night. You don’t see him because he is only here during the day and never leaves,” Jace explained as they headed upstairs, him knowing the way better than she did since she didn’t feel like exploring while there at night. The moans and grunts of men who were at their crescendo for the evening being enough to make her feel like she needed a shower.
“If I am correct, the suite she’d use for our particular guests is this way.” Jace led the way to where she hoped Danu was with Callum so they were not running from room to room, seeing men who should be cuddled up to their wives wrapped around another woman.
A door opened, Jace freezing as Bryn ran into his back. Jace’s hand flung out to keep her from moving around him, but she pushed it away as she looked past his shoulder at what had made him halt so abruptly.
The sight of the man who was stepping out and closing the door of one of the rooms froze her heart.
“Declan?” she whispered, and his head snapped up to look at her, his eyes full of panic before turning to remorse.
Something physically cracked in her chest. While she hadn’t been in love with Declan like she once thought, they had been intimate and perhaps on the verge of establishing a new relationship that suited them both. One that worked with where they were in their lives now.
She’d been willing to try at least.
“Brynnie...” He reached out a hand, but not before a fist slammed into his jaw, knocking his head back.
At first she’d thought Jace had done it until she felt the throb of her knuckles.
Shock hit her like a horse’s rear kick. She’d never hit anyone before. Ever.
Holding his jaw, he didn’t curse her as she’d have liked, giving her a reason to see if she had a decent left-handed punch as well.
“Don’t ever call me that again,” she seethed, and Jace moved between her and Declan when the large man with a bruised jaw tried to step toward her again.
