“You mean by hiding your identity?”
“No. I mean by burning the bridge.” Conan clasped his hands together tightly, wringing his thoughts from his mind. “Even if she never connects us to it,Iwould know. I would know that I destroyed her business and kept it from her.”
Teague nodded. “So you want to be with her, but you must leave. Would she come with you if you asked?”
“Did you not hear what I just said?” Conan growled.
“Humor me. Prior to today, would she have come with you?”
Conan sighed. If only he knew. “I don’t know. She’s very close with her sister and protective of her. I don’t think it would’ve been an easy decision for her. Why could that possibly matter now?”
“There is a way you could make it right, but you’re not going to like it.”
“What, leave the Fianna and live in Ath Luain?”
“Side with her.”
Conan sat straighter, his energy returning. “Against the Fianna?”
Teague nodded. “I’m not saying it’s the wisest thing to do, but I do believe that would go a long way toward repairing your relationship with her. She’ll know what it cost you.”
Conan’s fingers went cold. He opened and closed his hands, breathing deeply. “I cannot betray them. I cannot abandon my oath.”
“Then don’t. You can move forward as though none of this happened. Or, you can change your entire life for this woman. The decision is yours. The only question is: Is she worth it to you?”
Conan shot Teague a sideways glance. He’d not expected anything close to good advice from his brother. Not only was it good advice, he’d brought to light the only question that really mattered.
Did he love her enough to break his oath for her?
Chapter Twenty-Eight
How had shelet herself fall for him? She knew better than that. Her gut had told her from the moment she met him that he wasn’t to be trusted, and yet she’d continued to throw herself at him. How could she have been so foolish? Shealwayschose the wrong man, and this time was no different.
Except that it was.
This time, she’d fallen even harder, even faster. She’d thought of asking him to stay. She’d even considered whether she would go with him if he asked her. Lord, how foolish she’d been.
She couldn’t go back into the inn in her current state. Emer would know something was wrong, and she’d just sworn not to tell anyone about the men’s true identities. Yet another item on her list of foolish decisions, though she didn’t have much choice in it. Instead of returning to her sister, Alannah headed out of Ath Luain.
Through a forest to the south lay another town, even smaller than Ath Luain. Alannah knew that some of the men in that village had gone north with her brothers as well, though she hadn’t traveled far enough to ask after them there yet. This seemed as good an opportunity as any.
She started walking south from The Hart’s Rest, the distant forest looming across the horizon on the far side of the scattered farms. Drawing closer, she saw the branches sway in a breeze that would normally have captivated her, tugging at her hairand billowing her loose tunic. But even the pleasantness of the weather could not rid her of the one torturous thought that shot through her mind again and again the entire time she walked: Why had she ever trusted Conan?
As she neared the edge of the forest, Alannah heard movement nearby. She stopped dead, praying it wasn’t a wolf or a boar. She’d brought her sword, but that wasn’t a battle she wanted to fight. Some of the best warriors she knew had been laid low by a wild boar in the chaos of the hunt.
Crouching amidst the brush, she held still, listening. Those were definitely footsteps—a lot of them. It couldn’t be just one boar, but it could be a pack of wolves. Swallowing hard, she waited a few moments longer before deciding on her next move. Whatever was in there hadn’t noticed her yet. If she moved carefully, she could sneak back the way she’d come.
The hair at the back of her neck stood on end when she heard a familiar voice.
“Grab that one, too,” Illadan ordered.
More shuffling and the sound of sticks knocking together followed. Curious, Alannah stood and veered off the path to the right, walking into the canopy of oak and ash and birch. She’d been trying to sneak, but her foot snapped a fallen branch. All five of the giant warriors turned toward her, eyes wide, arms full of sticks and branches.
“What are you doing?”
She thought they weren’t going to answer her. They stared, looking from one to another, before Dallan finally spoke.
“We were going to surprise you,” he said sheepishly. “As an apology for misleading you. We noticed you were getting low on fuel for your fire, so we collected some for you.”
