“I am not leaving you,” Lily murmured, shaking her head. Her voice was lower than ever, her skin paler. “You cannot make me.”
“I will have some of my men escort ye out of here and take ye back home. I shall find my brother’s killer, and when I do, I will end him!”
“I want to help you… Killian, do not push me away, please.”
Her pleading tone softened him.
Killian wanted her here. Heneededher here.
But what difference do my wants and needs make? My people must come first.
In the end, she would leave anyway, and he could not make her stay.
“Well, I dinnae want yer help,” he snapped before releasing her with force. If he didn’t let go of her right then, he knew he would pull her closer. “I dinnae want ye here anymore… I want ye gone.”
“Liar!” Lily accused him hotly, and he turned to see the fire brimming in her eyes as she held her chin high. “You are only trying to get me to leave you, and it willnotwork. You cannot make me leave.”
His door burst open before he had the chance to argue with her again. Fletcher marched in looking panicked, his eyes wild, his chest heaving.
“We caught most of them,” Fletcher announced. “I have our men dragging them to the dungeons. We shall make them confess who sent them this time.”
Killian sprang into action immediately.
Fletcher bowed one more time, then left the study before Killian turned to Lily again. The only way to get her to leave was to rip his heart out of his chest.
This is for the best.
Killian drew in a deep breath to steady himself.
“I am coming with you,” Lily declared as he met her gaze and took her in one last time.
He would never see her again after he said these words. He needed her out of here, and the only way to make her leave was to make her believe he truly did not want her.
“Listen to me, Lily,” Killy said, hardening his jaw so his emotions did not get in the way.
When she met his gaze, unflinching, he forced the words out of his lips, ignoring the ache swallowing him whole.
“When I get back from the dungeons, I dinnae want to see ye here. I need ye to take whatever ye need and set out for McLennan Castle. There is naethin’ ye can do for me anymore. I dinnae need ye to stay here and try to make me feel better when it is yer friend who killed my brother and has killed so many of my people.”
Lily shook her head, and tears welled up in her eyes. “That is not true.”
“Laird McLennan did this,” Killian continued. “I let ye blind me from the truth, but that willnae happen again. By morning, ye should be gone, or else I will make ye my prisoner again, and this time, there will be no escape.”
Hoping he sounded threatening enough, Killian turned from her, ignoring her muffled sob, before he stormed out of his study.
At the dungeons, Fletcher and his men had begun the interrogations to find out who had sent their attackers. Killian pushed thoughts of Lily out of his mind as he interrogated the men brutally.
“Tell me,” he asked the man in front of him as he held his sword to his neck. “Who sent ye?”
He met the prisoner’s gaze with intent, his anger burning through him as he waited for a response.
“Laird McLennan,” the prisoner answered, coughing hard till his body shook with the convulsions. “He didnae come to us directly, but it was him. All we did was follow his orders.”
“M’laird,” Fletcher called as the prisoner’s words sank in.
Truth was, the confession left Killian’s heart more bereft than ever. He had hoped Lily was right, and her trust was not wrongly placed in a vile man. But every finger pointed at Laird McLennan, even up until now.
He did not want to start a war with the McLennans.
