Chapter 31
KORMAC
Valance collapsed into sleep in my arms, curling up against me on my friend’s floor.
She filled her tankard again. “Want some more?”
I shook from telling the story, from Valance’s anguish. “Please.”
She handed me the mead. “An interesting evening.”
I gulped back half the liquid. “I… I…”
“This is insane.”
“I know.”
“You know what else is insane?”
“What?”
“I kind of feel sorry for him.” She snarled. “Your soul bond must be infectious.”
I laughed at her joke. It felt good against the painful memory and the rest of this nightmare.
“Look at you,” she said, Thunder now draped across the back of her chair.
“What?”
“The way you stroke his hair. The way you care for him.”
“Because—”
“There’s more, isn’t there?”
“I… I…” I couldn’t lie. “I don’t know. Truthfully, I’m confused.”
“Explain?”
I drank the rest of the mead first.
“I…” Avoiding certain details wasn’t lying but keeping her in the dark for a good reason. Namely the healing, the dark caress. But I told her about the sex.
“Twice?” she said.
“Twice.”
“Was it good?”
“Amazing. But…”
“Wrong?”
“Maybe the first time. The second not so much.”
Róisín sighed. “Shit.”
“I know.”
She finished her drink. “I’ll help you. I’ll give you the horses. Send them back, though.”
“I-I will. Thank you so much.”
“What about the trenches? How are you going to cross them?”
“We’ll figure it out.”
“Don’t fall in.”
“We won’t.”
She nodded. “I have some clothes that might fit him. He looks about the same size as me.”
“Thank you.”
“Lucky.”
“It is.”
“Rest for a while. Leave before the sun comes up.”
“Thank you.”
She stood. “I don’t want to see your face here again.”
I didn’t know how to answer.
“I mean it, Kormac. This is it for us. You brought him into my house. You considered stealing from me. You’ve put me at risk. That’s a shit thing to do to a friend.”
Losing another friend… “I’m sorry.”
“I know you are. But we’re done.”
“Róisín…”
“Before sunrise.”
“I’m so sorry. I don’t want to lose your friendship.”
She came over, placed her hand on my cheek. “The world is changing, Kormac. Things will never be as they were again.”
“But can’t we be as we were?”
Róisín shook her head and left the room.
I cried again, head bowed. My tears dropped onto the face of this fae who’d upturned everything. I wiped the drops, stroked that soft skin. Cleaned a smudge of dirt under his right eye with my little finger.
“My prince,” I whispered. “My fucking curse.”
I’m sorry… the soul bond made me think at him.