I jerked my chin down to my chest, unable to meet Corbin’s angry gaze. I glared at the floor, counting the threads of the fringe along the border of the carpet.One…two…three…
“We already discussed that, Rowan,” Corbin’s voice rasped with barely concealed annoyance. He hated that I was questioning him because I’d never done it before. I didn’t particularlywantto be questioning him now. Corbin was everything to me – the person who’d given me a real, wonderful life. I usually deferred to him for everything. But when I thought of Maeve’s stormy, beautiful face as she demanded a rational answer to all her questions, IknewI was right.
Lying to her now endangered her.
…ten…eleven…twelve…
“That was before the fae were coming after her,” I mumbled, still staring at the floor. “Daigh knows exactly who she is. He’s already tried to kill her once.”
“Walk the scenario through, Rowan. You’ve met Maeve now, so you see what she’s like. Analytical. Scientific. She’s having a hard time believing what she encounteredtonightwere actually fae, and she saw and touched them. If we tell her she’s a powerful witch who will lead our coven in a great battle against Daigh’s forces, what do you think she’ll do?” When I didn’t answer, Corbin filled in for me. “I think she’ll jump on the first plane back to Arizona and command us to never speak to her again. And that means she’s dead meat, and so are all of us.”
“I don’t like lying to her,” I murmured.Twenty-two…twenty-three…twenty-four…
“Neither do I, but it’s best for now. Are we in agreement?”
…twenty-seven…twenty-eight…
“I think it’s best, for now,” Arthur said.
“I agree with Aragorn,” Flynn added. Of course he did.
“Stop calling me that,” Arthur growled.
…thirty-two…thirty-three…
“Right, that’s settled.Again.” Corbin took my silence as agreement. Or perhaps he didn’t, because this wasn’t a democracy. A coven always had a leader, and for now – untilMaeve knew claimed the job – Corbin was ours. “Let’s move on to the fact that, for whatever reason, the fae have suddenly got a fuckton more powerful, and what we’re going to do about it.”
“We need to protect Maeve, at all costs,” Arthur said.
“Agreed. Flynn, we need more swords and daggers and iron objects. You should start with a charm to protect Maeve. Rowan, since that twig of yours worked pretty well, you can work up some more earth-based charms and spells. We should expect more of these attacks. And maybe we find a way to keep Maeve in the castle as much as possible. I don’t think she should go into the village without at least two of us with her at all times.”
“I’ll going to teach her to fight,” Arthur said, a hint of pride in his voice.
“Yes, you will.” Corbin’s tone said what he thought of that. “And I will hunt through every book in this library and try to figure out how the fae might be using the deaths from the fairground accident to break through our protective spells. If they can send that many warriors into this realm, it might not be long until they can get breach Briarwood’s wards.”
We broke up after that. No one really wanted to linger. Even Flynn had nothing to say. We each went our separate ways. My room was at the end of the hall, directly beneath Maeve’s. I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, counting the crossbeams and the stones around the window, as I always did, and imagining her up there, laying across the bed, her pixie hair splayed out around her face, that shot of pink bright against the pillow.
My whole body buzzed with want of her.
She hasn’t chosen. She kissed Arthur but she didn’t choose him.
Usually I was content to sit back and let the other guys make the decisions. On movie nights, no one asked me what I wanted to watch. When we ordered Indian food, I ate whatever the other guys chose. I was so happy to have an actual family – guys wholooked out for me and tolerated my quirks – that I didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize it.
But Maeve…
I wanted her to chooseme.
That meant I was going to compete against my friends, and the thought made me so stressed that I had to start counting all over again. I barely stood a chance, but for once in my life, I had to try.
Arthur had his intensity, Flynn would make her laugh, Corbin would protect her the way he protected all of us, but maybe there was something I could offer… something the other guys couldn’t give her.
Something she desperately needed.
If only I had a bloody clue what it was.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
MAEVE
