I laughed at him. And myself.
“Sorry for unloading on you. But Brigid was right. Even in bear form, you’re a really good listen?—”
“Sadie? Sadie? Where are you?!”
Tadhg’s voice in the distance cut me off.
“I guess that’s my cue to go.” I looked over my shoulder, where I could hear but not see Tadhg calling for me. “Thanks for listening.”
The bear just blinked at me.
But that was okay.
“Believe it or not, you helped me make my decision,” I let him know. “Now all I have to do is tell Tadhg.”
I gave him a little wave before hustling back through the hedge woods toward the palace’s front lawn.
Tadhg wasn’t going to like what I had to say, but I was done with being walked all over. I’d made up my mind, and I was prepared to stand firm in my decision—even if it meant losing my first and maybe only opportunity to become a wife and mother.
Conditions
Cian
MK: Palace
The one-word messagefrom the Mountain King made me suspect that the negotiations with Sadie hadn’t gone well, even before I arrived in the gallery hallway to find Tadhg pounding on Declan’s black glass door with the side of his hammy fist.
“Don’t be such a dryshite, sulking in your room like some kind of feckingcladharaire.” The rough Mountain King accent that Dublin had civilized out of Tadhg was back in full force as he banged on the door. “Have ye not a care about our future happiness? She’s so upset about ye not showing up for her, it might tank the entire deal. All I’m asking is that ye talk to her. If ye’re going to resist, let her see ye actively resist—Oh good, ye’re here, Shadow King. Can you sci-fi this door open, then, so I can beat some sense into the High King?”
I set the black leather duffel bag I’d packed for my hopeful stay at the palace down on the floor.
I doubted he was serious about beating Declan. One of his ancestors had tried that, and doing so had invited sanctions and led to several generations of second-in-command Shadow Kings.
And yes, I could override the lock on the god-tech door, but…
I glanced at the room next door—Sadie’s. Technically, the suites were soundproofed in ways no human tech could replicate. But she didn’t need to come out to hear Tadhg shouting.
I thought of our future queen, awkward and shy like me, but with a much prettier smile. I’d known her less than a day, and already my internal code had rewritten itself with a new root-level priority: protect(Sadie).
Instead of pulling out my phone to punch in the override codes on Declan’s locked door, I flipped the sign I’d made when I passed the empty portico:Sadie where?
Tadhg froze, fist halfway to banging on Declan’s door again. “She’s not out on the portico where I left her?”
I shook my head, chest clenching. He’d left her on the portico?
The one that sat only a few meters away from the tower that transported anyone who wished to go to the Wicklow Gate to The Above in the blink of an eye.
I’d sent out a kingdom-wide announcement that the gate was closed until further notice. But Sadie didn’t have access to our kingdom net.
And the mansion that housed our stone circle entrance was designed to keep people out. Not in.
She hadn’t screamed.
But she might have run.
Tadhg must have thought the same thing. With a curse, he took off toward the portico door, employing the speed that had made him such a quality asset when he played for Trinity’s rugby team.
I followed after him, hating that my gut feeling had been wrong. I’d thought her bewilderment would turn into understanding once she talked to Tadhg.
