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Ma’s gaze darts to mine through the cigarette smoke.

“Keira makes Saint less of a gobshite anyway,” I add, shrugging, and drive the shovel in so she can’t see my face.

She watches me for a beat before she lets it go.

“Why was Alasdair’s sister on the Heath?” I ask, changing the subject.

Ma’s brow creases.

“Why do ya care about her all of a sudden?” she says. “Her dying was nothing to do with us.”

“I just thought ya might know.”

“Sera.”

“Someone must know the truth.”

Ma puts her back against the wall and folds her arms. “All I know is they found her face down with a bullet in her back.”

I stare at her. “Who would do that to her?”

Her head turns to the shadows in the aisle, and her mouth presses into a tight line.

“I wasn’t there, Sera,” she says. “How would I know?”

“So, you expect me to believe that a Harrington and a Tallon were both killed out there and no one knows why?”

“Someone knows, Sera. But that someone isn’t me.”

Ma clamps the end of her cigarette between her lips, picks up the shovel, and drives it into a stray clump of bedding near the wall, ending the conversation with the scrape of metal against concrete.

All I can think about is Alasdair’s sister dying on Tallon land, my da’s coffin sitting in our front room, and the necklace around my throat.

“Did Eilish enjoy her birthday party?” Ma asks.

“I think so.”

“Why did Rafe pick you up early?” Ma glances at me then, brow furrowed. “Did something happen?”

My throat goes dry when flashes of Fionn spreads heat through me.

“I got bored. She was preoccupied most of the night.”

“With Fionn, I presume?”

I grab the wheelbarrow handles.

“With his cousin, Lorcan,” I announce over my shoulder. “She has her own mind. You know that. If anything, she’ll be our ally.”

Ma walks up behind me.

“She was with Lorcan Harrington?”

“Aye.” I push out into the evening air, thankful it’s not raining anymore. “He’s not Fionn.”

“No,” Ma says, her voice going flat enough to lift the hairs on my arms. “He’s a bastard child raised too close to power he’ll never be allowed to hold.”

I look over at her.