Chapter 33
The quiet in the room was so stark you could’ve heard a pin drop. The only sounds were the ragged breaths coming from Ronan and Declan as they struggled to get their rage and shock under control.
I should’ve moved, found some way to comfort them both, but I couldn’t. All I could hear were Cillian’s words circling around my brain.
Held a woman against her will.
Raped.
Slit her throat.
Bile surged up my throat, but I swallowed it down. I couldn’t lose it. Not right now. This wasn’t about me. This was about Ronan and Declan. Cillian.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered as I stepped into his line of sight again. It was the only thing I could think to say. It fell so pathetically short, but it was all I had to give.
Cillian gave no hint of gentling. No glimmer of acceptance of my words. His face remained hard. Cold. Blank.
“What did he do to you?” Ronan asked, his voice raspy.
Cillian’s gaze cut to him. “A guard got me out. He heard he was going to end me, too, and I guess there was a sliver of a conscience there.”
Saoirse’s face had gone pale. “I had no idea. I thought it was just an affair. A family he kept hidden.”
Cillian scoffed. “That monster doesn’t know what family is.”
“That’s for damn sure,” Declan muttered. He lifted his gaze to study his brother. “You should be next in line to rule.”
Those green irises flashed gold again. “The last thing I want is to be tied to that sham of a horde.”
A muscle ticked in Declan’s jaw. “There are good people in the horde. Those who would stand against Patrick and those who have just been taken in by his lies.”
“If they believe him, then they’re idiots. His cruelty is as obvious as the dawn.”
I took Declan’s hand, squeezing it, but he ripped it from my hold, stalking out of the kitchen.
Ronan cursed and took off after him.
I looked around the room, anxiety digging in deep.
Colt nodded. “Go after them. They need you right now.”
I didn’t wait for another word. I jogged after the twins, leaving the awkward get-to-know-you in the kitchen.
Footsteps sounded on the stairs, and I hurried in that direction. By the time I reached the entryway, Ronan and Declan were already on the second floor. Damn them and their long legs.
I took the stairs two at a time, my muscles burning by the time I reached the top. I moved in the direction of Declan’s room. It was the only place he could be going up here.
Raised voices told me I was heading in the right direction.
A crash sounded as I reached the doorway. Shards of ceramic and glass flew. A lamp, I realized, now in pieces on the floor.
“I should’ve seen it!” Declan roared, grabbing a vase and chucking it at the wall.
Ronan didn’t make a move to stop him, simply stood in the center of the room, a witness to his brother’s pain. “You couldn’t have known this. And you sure as hell couldn’t have stopped something that happened a decade before we were ever born.”
Declan whirled on him. “I knew he had evil in him. We both knew. Yet I fell for his lies time and time again. And people have paid with their lives because I haven’t stopped him.”
Ronan’s spine snapped straight, his eyes blazing.
“And what do you think would have happened if you’d tried to stop him, Dec?
You’d be fucking dead. He’s surrounded by guards twenty-four seven.
There’s not a moment you could’ve slipped a knife between his ribs.
Hell, he has people tasting his damned food. ”
Declan looked away and turned toward the windows that looked out at the swirling sea. “I didn’t do anything to help my people. That makes me worse than a coward.”
“You were biding your time, knowing that, in a few years, you’d take power and do things differently,” Ronan consoled.
“What good is that to the people he’s hurt or worse?” Declan asked, such pain in his voice.
I couldn’t stay away then. I ducked inside and made a beeline for Declan. Wrapping my arms around him from behind, I squeezed tight.
“You shouldn’t touch me,” he rasped.
“I’ll always want to touch you.”
“I’m a monster.”
I just gripped him tighter. “You’re nothing of the sort. You have one of the kindest hearts I’ve ever known. You do everything you can to help others. I don’t think there’s a person in this town that doesn’t like you.”
“I held a grudge there for a little while,” Ronan quipped.
I sent him a quelling look, but a slight chuckle left Declan. Just what Ronan had been going for.
Declan turned in my arms, brushing the hair away from my face. “How can you even bear to look at me?”
I lifted a hand to his cheek, feeling the stubble against my palm. “Because all I see is the man I love. The person who deserves all the love in the world back.”
Declan searched my eyes, looking for any hint of a lie there. He wouldn’t find one.
Ronan moved in behind me so that his front was to my back. His heat flared against me in a steady pulse. “She’s right. You somehow managed to fight Patrick’s pull. You stayed a good person despite all his efforts to turn you dark.”
Declan swallowed, emotions battling in his eyes. Still so much pain and self-hatred evident on his face.
I felt so powerless. He couldn’t hear me. Not truly. But he could feel me.
I stretched up on my tiptoes and took his mouth in a kiss. It wasn’t gentle. It was a demand for my mate to come back to me.
Declan didn’t respond at first.
I bit his lip. Harder than I ever would’ve dared before.
He let out a growl. And then he was on me.