My head swam. I couldn’t think why Rowan was being even more weird than usual, but it had been a long, weird night. And it wasn’t over yet.
I hauled my weary body off the sofa, flicking off the lights in the hall. I crept up the staircase and around the covered walkway, pausing in front of Blake’s doorway. In between Blake’s door and Flynn’s, a couple of outdoor wooden chairs leaned up against the wall.
So tired. So very tired.
There was probably only a couple of hours until sunrise, and I hadn’t slept since I’d been knocked out by that draught the fae forced down me. My whole body begged for rest.
But my work wasn’t done. Not while Blake was in our house and there was a chance he was a double agent or had some agenda we hadn’t foreseen.
That dark voice thundered in my head. “You will lose them all, and it will be your fault.”
Damn you, voice in the darkness. You don’t know shit.
I pulled one of the chairs from the wall, and sat it across from Blake’s door. I sat down, resting my head against the hard back. I folded my arms over my chest, relishing the breeze that funneled up from the courtyard below. The cold would keep me awake.
If Blake went anywhere, I would know.
… bang bang bang!
I opened one eye, expecting to see a stack of books in front of my nose, the walls of the library bending in around me – the usual place I woke up in the morning.
Instead, the back of my head slid off something hard and wooden. My arse ached from sitting on something hard and uncomfortable. My face stung from a cold bite in the air. And I faced one of the wooden doors that surrounded the covered walkway on the second story of the castle.
Why am I here? What’s all that banging about? What…
I remembered. I was slumped in a chair outside Blake’s room, making sure he didn’t get up in the middle of the night and murder us all or?—
Shite.I’d drifted off to sleep. I rubbed my eyes, trying to force my aching body to stand up. I had to check on everyone. Blake could have got up to anything while I snored like a wanker. That banging could be him slamming Arthur’s head through a wall.
A cramp arced down my leg. I groaned as my foot collapsed underneath me and I lurched toward Blake’s door. From inside, the banging increased, shaking the door on its hinges. Fury rose in me as I thought of what he might be doing.
My fingers closed around the door handle, but before I turned it I realized the banging wasn’t even coming from the room.
My brain woke up. It recognized that I was too tired and sore and bollocksed up to think or hear or see straight. The door wasn’t shaking, and the banging came from downstairs, from the courtyard.
From someone slamming their fist against the Great Hall’s door.
“Hey!” A girl’s voice yelled up from the shadows. “Let me in!”
CHAPTER EIGHT
MAEVE
Corbin’s yelling pulled me out of a deep sleep far too early. I picked up my phone and groaned as I read the time on the screen. 5:28 am. The moon teased me from outside the window. After the intensity of yesterday, I was pretty sure I hadn’t been dreaming, which was just as well. I wasn’t sure what Corbin would do if he ended up being dragged into one of my sexy dreams alongside Blake…
Blake…Corbin…oh no.
Horror clenched my heart. What had Corbin done to Blake?
I flung the sheets off my body, grabbed a shirtdress from the hamper beside my screen, and pulled it over my head as I scrambled down the spiral stairs of the tower.
I met Flynn in the hall. He rubbed his eyes. “Who the feck is trying to sell us vacuum cleaners at this time of night?”
“I think Corbin might have attacked Blake?—”
Flynn’s eyes widened. He leaned over the rampart and peered down into the courtyard. “Corbin, what the bloody hell’s going on?”
“Don’t yell,” Corbin called back. “You’ll scare Connor.”
