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Rion answered for her, his voice steady. “Brónach’s High Lord ordered her kidnapped for negotiation purposes. He wanted to force your hand with a difficult arrangement, but I never—”
Avalon slammed his fists on the table. “I saw you!” Saoirse held up one hand to steady her guards. “I was there that night and I saw you standing over her.”
“And yet my hands were clean,” Rion replied. “I wasn’t covered in her blood.”
Avalon scoffed. “With that magic of yours, what need do you have for a blade?”
“And I suppose you’ll say my magic can cut like a blade, too? I don’t think I need to remind you about the circumstances of her death. A shadow weaver from Fiadh took her from me. Had your mate remained at my side, she would have lived.”
Avalon snarled, his hands curling so tight that his fingernails bit into flesh. Rion had been right. Convincing the High Lord of his innocence was going to prove difficult, but she hoped not impossible. Avalon relaxed his hands, but his rage remained. “I’ll grant your alliance on one condition.” He inclined his head toward Rion. “You let us execute that demon, then we can discuss terms.”
“He’s innocent.”
“Innocent?” Avalon gave her an incredulous look. “What about the other mates he’s slaughtered? The comrades we’ve lost and innocents that fed his insatiable thirst? Don’t they deserve to be avenged?”
Saoirse stood. “This is ridiculous after he just sa—”
“Do you swear it?” Rion asked. All eyes turned to him. “You’ll make peace at the cost of my life?”
“Rion.”
Avalon’s eyes hardened. “You have my word.”
SAOIRSE GROWLED. As soon as Rion agreed, Avalon had him in chains, shackled at the wrists and ankles.
Saoirse followed the guards guiding her little brother to the dungeons and snarled at any who dared pull the chains too hard. “Rion, you don’t have to do this, there’s always another way.”
“Not for Avalon.”
“I’ll find something to offer him, you just have to give me time.” He didn’t respond, so she ran to his front, stopping both Rion and the guards eager to get him below the surface. “Tell me why,” she demanded. He’d been so adamant about finding this female and now, all of a sudden, he was willing to die?
“Because life isn’t worth living without her.”
The guards tried to push forward again, but she hissed at them. “What are you talking about? Just go talk to her, you have centuries to work things out. There’s always a—”
“No, Saoirse. There’s not a way. Not this time. She’s The Divine. She’s royalty and I’m,” he laughed to himself, “nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’ll always be nothing and I don’t have the strength to watch her from a distance.” His sorrowful gaze met hers. “I’m tired of fighting. So tired of fighting. It’s all my life has been, just one impossible battle after another.”
The guards started walking again and she stepped aside. “But there are other things worth living for.”
Rion didn’t look back. “Go home, Saoirse.”
She stood rooted to the spot, her heart breaking as it’d done when her mother had disappeared. As it’d done when she’d killed their father and for all the years she’d spent regretting the decision to hide behind her little brother.
Go home? Leave him to suffer again? How could she possibly do that now?
Chapter Forty-Six
Rion
His sister stopped following when the guards led him past the thick iron doors of Móirín’s underground dungeon. Braziers were lit every few feet. The sentinels sneered at him as his escort led Rion deeper and deeper into the cavern’s winding depths. Not many who ventured this far ever saw light again.
But Rion would. Because Avalon had plans for his execution. Plans, he was sure, would involve a very painful end.
Arianna…
He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when he’d come to need her so much. Maybe it was the first time she’d shown him an ounce of compassion. Maybe it was the moment she’d entered his cabin. Not that it mattered now. She’d run to someone else. Someone who wasn’t a monster. Someone she trusted to hold her bleeding heart.
She no longer needed him. Not in the same way he needed her.
