I’d woundedhimwithout meaning to.
I flew through the open door, dodging people, and then slowed my steps as that truth caught up to me. My chest burned, and I was shaking. The dress swept the ground, and from the torches that has been lit outside, I could make out the slightest smudges of blood on the hem. Even though it had been crusted to the floor, some of it had wiped off.
What had happened in there? I had no doubt someone had been killed. That amount of blood…it seemed like an entire body’s worth, or more.
Why was it still there?
Was Cian trying to preserve the pain and memories of it?
Why?
I realized I was walking too far away from the castle. The grounds were just as vast and almost like a labyrinth too. I’d never walked alone. I was always with Cian or someone else. I took a few deep breaths, then decided to turn back. I’d hurt Cian, and my heart felt unsettled because of it.
Whatever had happened in that room had wounded him deeply, and I didn’t want him to think I’d done it on purpose. Even though the scary part of him existed, I didn’t think it was the deepest part of him. It was a mask he wore to protect himself. And I was starting to wonder if it was from the memories created in that room.
Two men stepped out of the trees.
I jumped, almost falling over my heels.
“Don’t be frightened, Doe. We’re here to take you back to Boston. Your dad is waiting for you there, and so are the Craigs.”
My eyes darted around when five more men stepped out. These men were trying to get me to believe my dad was back in Boston. He’d only arrived an hour or so before the ceremony. Maybe they didn’t know he was gone yet. They were going to try to use him as leverage to get me moving.
“My dad?” I whispered, trying to buy some time. I assumed Cian had knives and weapons planted all over this property, but unless I noticed a handle sticking out of the ground some, I didn’t have anything to grab for.
One of the men nodded. “He’ll be happy to have you home. Mr. Craig and his son too. If you don’t cooperate…” He made a slicing motion across his throat. “I’m afraid that’s what’s going to happen to dear old dad Pauric.”
“We need to move,” one of the men in the back said, his eyes ten times more frantic than mine. “We get the girl and go.”
They were all keeping a hand underneath their coats.
“I agree,” another one of the men spoke up. “I don’t have a good feeling about this. It feels like ghosts are moving through the trees. It’s June, but it feels like February.”
At the exact moment the man said the words, the trees rustled. One of the men crossed himself. Another one took a step forward and took me by the arm. I tried to wrestle out of his grip, but it was too strong. It was like he’d cuffed my arm to his hand, but it was just his hold. I was going to have a bruise.
“Keep moving,” he said. “I’m not dying for this. I know the Beast is probably close.”
The Beast was tearing apart the ballroom, too lost in his memories to know I was gone. No one else saw me leave. These men were going to take me back to the Craigs.
Then what? Would I have to marry Dermot after I’d just married Cian? The thought sickened me. I’d refuse to do it, even if they threatened me with death.
We walked ahead, the cuff keeping me close, while everyone else created a circle around us.
One of the guys must have stepped on the train of my dress, and I stopped short.
He lifted his hands when I glared at him. “It’s hard to see in the dark.”
After a few more steps, the leader held his hand up and we all stopped. He put a hand to his mouth. I didn’t hear anything but the rustling of trees and grass. The weather was sweet, and so was the scent in the air.
It was turning out to be a gorgeous night—as beautiful as the day, if it hadn’t ended this way.
A whistle sounded through the air, then it sounded like a watermelon cracked, and the man next to me dropped like a sack. I could barely control the moan that came from my mouth when I realized his head had split in two from a sword impaling it. I looked up, expecting to see someone in the tree, but it was empty.
Everyone around me started to move closer. The guy holding me set me in front of him, holding my arm even tighter.
“Oh hell—” The guy’s words were cut off when his head was.
I couldn’t move my eyes away as it rolled, the eyes still open.
