“You don’t see the problem?”
I rolled my lips between my teeth and shook my head. “Nope.”
“You don’t see the problem with being in a city controlled by a powerful Fae whose daughter you helped kill.”
“No one knows about that.”
Or almost no one.
I was safe. They might have their suspicions, but that was all. Technically, I wasn’t even the one to wield the blade. That had been all the Fae I’d freed from her enchantment.
“Are you counting Arlan among that number?” Liam murmured.
His scalp massage had stopped, his body very still beside mine. A predator waiting for its prey to wander into its trap.
“He only guessed what I did. Nothing has ever been confirmed,” I defended stiffly.
The twins, on the other hand. They might be a problem.
They knew the truth of what and who I was. The fact I was a magic breaker. That I was the daughter of Noctessa’s former would-be king. All of it.
“Muiredach won’t wait for confirmation. His station will demand he make an example of you, and he won’t think twice.”
If Liam was hoping to scare me, he’d succeeded.
“If that’s the case, it won’t matter if I’m here or in Columbus,” I pointed out.
He’d already made it clear that Muiredach’s reach extended into our city. A word from him and it was goodbye Aileen. I didn’t think distance would make much of a difference.
“Besides, you’re assuming this is about his daughter. He’s had years to avenge her.”
Yet he’d waited to make his move.
Why?
Maybe because this wasn’t about Niamh at all.
“You’re thinking like a human again. A handful of years is a blink in time for them. Muiredach is nothing like Niamh. She was a weak shadow of his power. It’s the only reason she lived to adulthood when he’d slaughtered every other child of his that might hold the potential to threaten his hold on his throne.”
“Sounds like an awesome guy.”
“He’s cruel and sadistic. He is a monster in the truest sense of the word. If he ever finds out what you are, he won’t hesitate to break your mind and will with his power. He will turn you into something you don’t recognize.”
Great. Just when I thought I’d understood the danger I was in.
“If the barrow was attacked, I can guarantee it was under his orders,” Liam added, not taking his gaze off mine.
“Is he here? In Vegas?”
If so, Caroline and my plans might need to change. We’d been counting on getting to Brax and the rest of the pack before theycrossed into the Summer Lands, but that may no longer be a possibility.
That was with the assumption that I could convince Caroline to abandon them. I didn’t like my chances. If the situation was reversed, I’d no sooner be able to walk away from Liam and the enforcers than she could the pack.
“There’s been no sign of his presence,” Liam said, choosing his words carefully.
“Then there’s time.”
Liam bent an exasperated look on me. “Aileen.”
