38. Lorcan
LORCAN
Guilt had clawed at me for every mile back from Northern Ireland even though Nuala had asked me to leave her there. Even though she’d looked me in the eye and chosen Bridgit.
My hands tightened around the steering wheel. Liath couldn’t hate me for that, could she?
The van crunched over the gravel behind Magdalene as I pulled up at the rear entrance.
Elias stirred from where he was dozing in the passenger seat.
A second van sat parked near the entrance.
I cut the engine and remained in my seat as an eerie silence came over me. Something didn’t feel right. No one else was around. But I felt… watched.
Muffled through the cab, I heard the van doors open.
Something in my gut went very still as an orderly dragged a struggling figure from the back of the van.
It was Liath.
A gag covered her mouth and her hands were restrained in front of her.
I didn’t think. I shoved the door open and sprinted toward her. “Liath!”
Her head snapped toward me, relief and horror crashing across her face at the same time. She drove her elbow backward into the orderly’s stomach.
The man folded with a grunt and Liath ripped the gag from her mouth. “It’s a trap! Run!”
Figures emerged from everywhere, orderlies pouring out from the buildings, boots pounding across the gravel. Too many. Far too many.
I wouldn’t run. I couldn’t. I understood Nuala’s decision to stay more than ever.
I could never leave Liath behind. Not even if she begged me. Not even if it cost me my own life.
I hit the first orderly hard enough to send him sprawling. A second grabbed for me and I drove an elbow into his jaw. Pain cracked through my healing ribs as another body slammed into my side.
Someone grabbed my arm and I tore free. Another grabbed my shoulder and I punched him. A fist connected with my face and my vision flashed white.
I kept fighting as Liath screamed my name.
But there were too many of them. Hands closed around my waist, my healing throat, my arms. A baton cracked across my back and my legs buckled.
My knees hit the gravel. Pain tore up both legs. I roared and tried to stand, but hands forced me back down, wrenching my arms behind my back and keeping me off-balance.
Expensive leather shoes appeared in front of me.
Alistair.
He tsked. “So disappointing.”
The delivery errand, leaving Liath unprotected, the timing of me arriving in time to see her being led away, my instinctive reaction blowing my cover clear apart.
He had planned every step of it.
“Let her go,” I growled. “I’ll do whatever you want.”
Alistair barely spared me a glance. His attention stayed fixed on Liath as the orderlies got her back under control. “I’m afraid someone will pay more for her and her sister than you ever could.”
Her eyes locked with mine, raw fear welling up in them. “Lorcan!”
“Liath!” I fought against the men holding me, my muscles straining, tendons burning as I tried to tear myself free. The orderlies tightened their grip until pain shot through my shoulders.
I’m sorry. I’ll come back for you. Just hang on.
Across the courtyard, Liath thrashed violently, twisting and kicking against the hands restraining her as they dragged her toward Magdalene. She dug her heels into the gravel and fought for every inch as she kept screaming my name.
The doors swallowed her whole, her screams swallowed to nothing.
“His hand,” Alistair commanded.
One of the orderlies wrenched my arm forward, holding out my hand to him by my wrist, the signet ring glinting in the watery dusk.
Alistair crouched in front of me, his cold stare on my face. Then he dropped his gaze to the ring.
“You never deserved this,” he hissed.
His fingers closed around the gold band and he pulled, the hidden thorns tearing at my flesh. I clenched my jaw as pain lanced through my hand and blood spilled between my fingers, dripping onto the gravel.
The ring ripped free.
I’d failed the Sons. Which meant, I was dead.
No. I could not die. I could not let him kill me. Liath was in danger. I had to stay alive long enough to come back for her.
My ma’s will.
I lifted my head and met his gaze. “You can’t kill me. Deargán gets everything if you do.”
Something resembling annoyance crossed his face. But it was quickly replaced with his usual cold mask.
“You’re right.” He stood, pocketing the ring as he loomed over me. “But I don’t need to kill you to control you.”
Elias stepped out from the line of orderlies holding a syringe, the sight of him landing in my chest like a stone. He crouched beside me, close enough that his reek of stale cigarettes and coffee reached me.
The men holding me tightened their grip.
“You lose, your highness.” He stuck the needle in my neck.
The world tilted and darkness crowded the edges of my vision fast.
He leaned down until his mouth was close to my ear. “You know, I think I will buy her. Think of me fucking her over and over, in her pussy, in her pretty little mouth, and in her tight little ass.”
I tried to launch myself at him. But my body refused.
The courtyard dissolved and everything went black.
Something hard slammed into my shoulder. Cold stone pressed against my cheek. My head throbbed and my stomach rolled. Voices drifted somewhere nearby, then receded.
I forced my eyes open, the room spinning before settling into something all too familiar.
Stone walls, the smell of peonies, and a small pillow with crooked letters written on it in my seven-year-old hand.
This was my ma’s tower room.
From this angle I could see a narrow gap beneath the door. Just wide enough for a food tray.
I went still.
My gaze moved upward to the three heavy iron locks on the outside of the door. Three locks.
Then to the center of the door where a small panel had been pushed aside to leave an observation window.
I’d never seen that before. Never noticed it. Never came up here as an adult apart from in the dead of the night.
The air stalled in my lungs.
My ma had been imprisoned in here before she was committed. For years. I’d thought she had been sick. Only allowed to visit her here under strict supervision.
I pushed myself upright, grabbing at the floor as my head spun.
Alistair waited in the doorway, orderlies behind him. A smile touched his mouth. “Isn’t it fitting that you’ll live and die in the same place she did.”
He stepped backward.
The door slammed shut and the locks clicked shut.
My ma’s cell was now mine.