Chapter 23
Ráth Finnéin, Ireland
“Please don’t do this,” Lasarín mumbled hollowly as she watched Shayne check his sword one last time before he sheathed it and slid it into the harness on his back.
“I don’t have a choice,” Shayne said, shifting his attention to his dagger.
“Then, bring me with ye,” Lasarín said, licking her lips nervously as she watched him slide the dagger into the sheath attached to his leg.
“No,” Shayne said with a firm shake of his head.
“Why not?” Lasarín demanded even as she grabbed the small packet she’d filled with oatcakes and shoved them into the satchel she’d packed for him.
“Because it’s not safe,” Shayne said as he made his way to their bed.
“Which is why I should be going with ye,” Lasarín pointed out as she watched him reach beneath the mattress and grab the small purse he kept hidden there and tossed it to Bécc, who didn’t look any happier about this than she was.
“That’s not an option, lass,” Shayne said, grabbing the satchel and threw it over his shoulder before he grabbed the other satchel and carefully pulled it over her shoulder, double-checking that she had everything that she was going to need.
“I need ye ta listen to me, lass,” Shayne said, cupping her face in his hands as he leaned down and kissed her forehead. “I need ye ta run and never look back.”
“No,” Lasarín said, her voice cracking as the first sob broke free. “I’m not leaving ye.”
“No matter what happens, I need ye ta promise me that ye won’t look for me,” Shayne said, pressing his lips against her forehead one last time before he stepped away. “I can’t do this unless I know yer safe, lass.”
“Please don’t do this!” Lasarín said, watching as his gaze flickered past her to Bécc and-
“This is for yer own good, lass,” Shayne said as she suddenly found herself pulled back against Bécc’s body as the large warrior placed a hand over her mouth and picked her up off the ground before she could do anything more than scream against his hand.
“Take good care of her,” Shayne told Bécc as his gaze lingered on her while she struggled to break free, twisting and kicking only to have Bécc tighten his hold on her.
“Give us enough time ta make it ta the woods and then take her north,” Shayne said as she struggled to break free to stop him before it was too late.
She couldn’t lose him.
Not now.
“I’ll keep her safe,” Bécc said, his voice grave as he tightened his hold on her, stopping her from doing anything more than kick him as she screamed against his hand, begging Shayne not to do this.
With a nod, Shayne looked away as frustrated tears streamed down her face while she was forced to watch him go. She wiggled, cursed, and screamed as she struggled to break free, desperate to go to him and stop him before it was too late.
He didn’t know what the king would do to him
She couldn’t let him end up like her mother.
She couldn’t let him die because of her.
She needed to tell him everything.
She needed to make him understand.
She needed to-
“Sorry, lass,” came the softly murmured words as she felt sharp metal slice through her side, tearing a surprised grunt from her lips only to tear a scream from her when she felt the blade pull free only to slide through her chest a moment later.
When he pulled the blade free, Ashlyn felt her body go limp as hot liquid quickly spread over her chest, but it wasn’t enough to chase away the cold suddenly enveloping her body. She opened her mouth to beg him to stop only to have blood pour over her lips and join the blood soaking into her tunic.
“Ye never should have come here, lass,” Bécc said with a heavy sigh as she found herself carried to the bed she’d shared with Shayne.
“If it helps, he’ll be joining ye soon,” Bécc said with a pitying look as he placed her on the bed, tearing a strangled whimper from her lips as she was forced to lie there as tears streamed down her face.
She couldn’t let him hurt Shayne, Lasarín thought, willing her body to move as every breath became more difficult than the last and black spots began dancing along her vision. She-
“Yer father didn’t want ye ta feel left out,” Bécc said as she watched him pull a black rock from his tunic and placed it in her hand as she began to drift off as everything slowly faded away.
The Three King’s Inn
Boston, MA
1695
Without a word, Aileen quickly made her way across the room, climbed onto the bed, quickly crawled beneath the covers, and-
“You’re too old to still be doing this,” came the painfully familiar greeting as Aileen pulled the covers over her shoulders even as she told herself not to do this.
“You won’t even know that I’m here,” Aileen absently murmured, repeating the same line that she’d been using every night since she was six and came to live with his family.
“I always know,” Thomas said as she reluctantly closed her eyes and focused on keeping her breaths even as she waited for him to make this easier.
“Aileen?” Thomas whispered softly a few minutes later.
When she didn’t say anything, he whispered her name again before she felt him shift on the bed seconds before she felt his arm wrap around her and pulled her closer.
As soon as she was in his arms, he released a soft sigh as she felt his body relax against hers.
“Aileen,” Thomas whispered one last time as she felt his lips press against the back of her neck and-
“I love you, Thomas,” Aileen whispered only to feel him go still against her seconds before she felt his arm pull free as he shifted away from her and just like that, she had her answer.
Swallowing hard, Aileen forced herself to push the covers away and climb off the bed only to feel her heart break when he didn’t try to stop her.
With every step she took towards his bedroom door, she willed him to say something, to stop her, to come after her, to do something that would make this pain slowly tearing through her chest and making it difficult to breathe to go away.
But he didn’t say anything.
He simply lay there and watched her go.
At least now she knew, Aileen told herself as she paused outside his bedroom door to grab the linen sack that she’d packed her clothes in before she released a shaky breath and forced herself to make her way downstairs.
She wouldn’t cry, not now, Aileen told herself as she thought about the deal that she’d made with herself, the one that was forcing her to finally walk away.
There would be plenty of time to cry later, Aileen promised herself even as she reached up and angrily wiped away the tears already starting to roll down her face. Right now, she needed to walk through that front door and-
“Hurry up!” came the hushed whisper that drew her attention to the bar, where she spotted two large men struggling to open something. When she reached the bottom step as a small creak tore through the room, drawing their attention and-
Watched in confusion as a small poof of fire suddenly exploded in front of the man, who’d begged her for an extra serving of stew earlier, as a deafening boom suddenly tore through the night, drowning out the sound of the bottom step groaning beneath her weight seconds before something hot tore through her chest.
For a moment, no one moved as they all stood there in shocked silence until the sound of liquid dripping on the floor had Aileen slowly looking down to numbly watch as blood soaked through the front of her dress just as her legs gave out, dropping her to the floor with a soft groan.
As she lay there, unable to do anything more than struggle to breathe, she watched helplessly as Thomas ran past her and tackled the man holding the smoking musket limply in his hand.
She watched him strike the man, who’d thanked her for the extra bowl of stew with a half-penny, over and over again. When she saw the other man raise his musket to stop Thomas from killing his friend, Aileen opened her mouth to scream only to manage a weakly whispered, “Thomas, run.”
Tears began to stream down her face and join the blood pooling beneath her as she watched Thomas stumble back as his hand went to his stomach.
She watched blood pour between his fingers and onto the floor, mixing with hers as the men scrambled to get to their feet and grabbed the empty lock box they’d lost the key for years ago before they ran out the door.
“Aileen,” Thomas whispered hollowly as he stumbled back to her and dropped by her side.
“They’ll be back,” Aileen whispered, knowing that they would come back as soon as they realized there was no money in the lock box.
“It doesn’t matter,” Thomas said with a sad smile as he dropped his hand away from his stomach and reached for her. He pulled her into his arms and-
“Why did you have to be such a cold bastard?” she found herself wondering, repeating the phrase that she’d heard so many people use to describe him over the years.
“I don’t know,” Thomas said, pulling her tightly against his chest as he leaned down and kissed her forehead.
“We could have been happy together,” Aileen mumbled sleepily against his chest as she felt herself drift off as everything slowly went black and-
“It was just a dream,” Ashlyn kept telling herself, somewhat frantically, as she stumbled into the bathroom only to find herself thinking about the moment the knife slid into her side and-
“It was just a dream,” Ashlyn whispered hoarsely as she struggled to unbutton the shirt that she’d helped herself to from Shayne’s bag only to have her fingers refuse to cooperate and settled for grabbing hold of the back of her shirt and frantically pulled it off, desperate to prove that it wasn’t real.
Once she managed to get the shirt off, Ashlyn dropped it on the floor and looked for blood only there was nothing there.
She could still feel the musket ball tearing through her chest, leaving agonizing pain in its wake, but no matter how many times she ran her fingers over her skin, she couldn’t find anything.
She just...
She couldn’t breathe, Ashlyn realized as she grabbed hold of the edge of the bathroom counter when her legs threatened to give out. God, there had been so much pain, she thought, closing her eyes as the first sob broke free, and once it started, she couldn’t stop crying.
It felt like her heart was breaking.
She’d never felt anything like this before.
It was too much, Ashlyn thought, struggling as the heartache currently tearing her apart threatened to swallow her whole.
God, it had to stop, she thought as her legs finally gave out and dropped her to the floor.
She didn’t fight it, couldn’t fight it, and all she wanted to do was to go to Shayne and crawl into his arms, but she couldn’t move.
She couldn’t stop thinking about the moment when she realized that she would never see either one of them again. It didn’t matter that it was just a dream and that Thomas was just a figment of her imagination, it felt real, and she couldn’t take it.
Christ, she never thought that it was possible to love someone this much or that anything could hurt this much, but she could still feel just how much it hurt knowing that she was about to lose both of them.
God, it hurt so much.
She wanted it to stop.
Needed it to stop.
She-
“Come here, lass,” Shayne said as she found herself pulled into his arms. She moved to push him away only to find herself fisting her hands in his shirt so that she could bury her face against his neck as the sobs continued to rack her body.
“Shhh, it’s okay, lass,” Shayne said soothingly as he held her, but it wasn’t okay and every time she tried to tell him that, she just ended up crying harder, so she stopped trying and just let him hold her.
He held her while she sobbed, while she struggled to deal with the pain of having her heart broken twice, leaving her unable to do anything more than cry. He held her long past the time when the tears stopped coming and the pain slowly faded away, leaving her feeling safe in his arms.
“Do ye want ta talk about it?” Shayne asked sometime later as he continued rubbing her back.
“It was just a bad dream,” Ashlyn said, knowing that she would never survive another dream like tonight.
“That was some dream,” Shayne said softly, kissing the top of her head as he adjusted her in his arms before he carefully stood up and carried her back into the bedroom.
“It felt so real,” Ashlyn mumbled as he lay her down on the bed before he joined her and pulled her back into his arms.
“What happened, lass?” Shayne asked as he wrapped his arm around her.
“I died twice tonight,” she said hollowly, barely aware that he’d stopped breathing. “The second dream was the most heartbreaking. Aileen told Thomas that she loved him and he just let her go.”
“And the second dream?” Shayne asked after a slight hesitation.
“You left me to go save your brother from the king,” Ashlyn said as she glanced back at him and-
“Yer Lasarín.”