I sighed and rubbed my temples, knowing that I was going to say yes to this preposterous proposal. It wasn’t her argument that had won me over but the desperation in her voice. She was scared of something, or someone, and she wanted to know she could defend herself. If the castle rejected her, which I suspected it very well might based on Cillian’s past brides, she’d be on her own again, and she deserved a fighting chance out there.
I just wished she would’ve gone to someone else, but she hadn’t, and I could stand to see her a few times a week. She’d be so busy training and fighting that she wouldn’t have time to talk.
“If I say yes,” I said, “will you leave?”
She clapped her hands together and then threw her arms around me. All her body weight pressed into me, and I stiffened, feeling all the soft parts of her. I hadn’t had physical contact with anyone in a long time, and it was doing things to me, like making my blood heat, that I didn’t like.
I pushed her away and coughed into my hand. “We start tomorrow. Meet here.”
“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” She jumped up, walking backward. “Thank you.” She stumbled, almost falling, but caught herself. “Thank you so much.”
“You can stop saying thank you. And turn around so you don’t fall flat on your face.”
“Right.” She turned and looked over her shoulder, green eyes twinkling.
I was already regretting this.
CHAPTER 14
Niamh
It had been surprisingly easy to find the high prince’s quarters. I still felt an uneasiness every time I descended the stairs of my tower, wondering if I’d be able to find my way back. But I’d never get to know the castle if I locked myself inside, and it was time to have a chat with Cillian about... well, everything.
I entered a long hallway covered in navy blue wallpaper with wispy white swirls, waiting for the corridor to shift, for a door to disappear or appear, or for the floor to just drop out from under me.
Instead, I walked to the end of the corridor and came to a bridge that I walked across. Then I entered a new hallway, this one with maroon wallpaper. It was all so bland and normal that I almost forgot it was a magical castle. Until I came to a set of double doors with the stone gargoyles on either side and a pair of eyeballs in the door that made me shriek.
One of the gargoyles stuck a finger in his ear. “That hurt, you know.”
“Oh, please, Barty. You shriek louder than that every time you see a spider,” the other gargoyle said.
“Do not!”
“Do too.”
“Do not!”
I watched them in fascination. “Aren’t you two the same gargoyles from outside?” They froze, slowly turning to stare at me like they’d forgotten I was there. “I thought you couldn’t move?” I asked, poking the one on the left in the stomach. “Solid stone,” I mused. “That has to be heavy.”
“Excuse you!” The gargoyle spread out its wings. “Do I go around poking you in the stomach?”
My face flushed. “Oh, sorry. That was inconsiderate of me.”
“Yes it was. And we’re very fit for gargoyles.”
“Oh no, I wasn’t criticizing?—”
“Did you just call my brother heavy?” the gargoyle on the right asked.
“No.” I paused. “Well, yes. But stone is heavy, technically.”
The gargoyle on the left—Tal, I believed?—broke out in sobs.
“Look what you did now,” the other gargoyle said, reaching out a hand to pat his brother. “There, there, Tal.”
Tal wailed. “She really hurt my feelings. Just because we’re stone doesn’t mean we’re so heavy we can’t move. We move just fine every time the prince is in his chambers.”
“Humans can be so rude,” Barty said.
