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“That feeling. The one that makes you feel like every conversation we have is about to burst into flames. That if that tension between us finally burned to ash, we would have no option but to love each other.”
I tightened my fist around my fork. “If this is about the other day… I was drunk. It meant nothing.”
“This goes beyond that.”
The whispers pulled at me, rising, drawing me to my feet. “I’m leaving.”
“I did not mean to upset you. I simply wanted to point out—”
“You don’t own me!” I yelled at him.
Dagda looked stricken. “Chels, I—”
“We should spend less time together.” The chair’s legs grated across the marble floor as I shoved it out of my way. I headed for the door.
“If that is what you wish.” Dagda’s response floated on the air after me.
The whispers crowded my mind as I burst into my room.
Let us loose, Badb whispered.
You know you want to, Macha agreed.
I pressed my teeth. Their presence becoming so insistent, I knew it was only a matter of time. I fell to my knees with a groan, trembling from the effort of holding them back.
Time was up. I had to choose.
Let me out, Badb said.
“No,” I whispered. “Not you.”
Then me, Macha said.
Yes, Macha. She wasn’t a violent sociopath. I’d let Macha out. There was no other option.
Macha opened the bedchamber door a couple hours later and stared out into the hallway. Keelin and several other guards stood there, taking in her cloaked form.
“I would like to visit King Dagda.”
The sultriness of her voice made her intentions clear. The guards glanced at one another suggestively, but didn’t interfere when she reached for the latch to the king’s bedchamber.
“Wait.” Keelin’s palm landed on the wooden door. “I need to make sure you are safe.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You would like to see what pleasures await the king tonight?”
The guards suddenly gazed in different directions, but Keelin stared down at her. “You might be Badb. You might be Macha. I must ensure the safety of the king.”
A smile graced Macha’s lips. “If you wish.” She opened her cloak.
Keelin’s eyes traveled over her body. Macha tried not to shift under his gaze, reminding herself that he could not see the magically hidden dagger strapped to her thigh. She herself hadn’t known about it until Badb had directed her to retrieve the dagger that Badb had placed among a pile of things brought up from Morrigan’s old room.
Morrigan hadn’t known about the dagger, either. Macha sensed the tight hold Badb kept on their sister. Of the way Morrigan struggled within them.
One nick from that blade covered in manticore poison would spell Dagda’s doom.
“Enjoying the show?” she hissed to Keelin.
He swallowed, but his expression remained stony. Strange, she didn’t see desire in his eyes. No, the emotion she sensed from him was more…
