I felt the shift in the room as if they all seen it to. Fionn didn’t look at the others. But the faint curve of his mouth suggested he knew he had crossed the line.
When the music box wound down and the last note hung in the air, Cillian’s voice broke through the silence.
“Tilly.”
His chair screeched across the floor as he stood up and stepped forward, his hand closing around my wrist.
“There is no music playing.”
His eyes flicked to Fionn, burning with barely restrained anger.
“And you,” he snapped, turning his focus fully on Fionn.
“What the hell are you doing? Encouraging this?”
She’s hearing things that aren’t real, and you are playing along. Tormenting her with her own make-believe.”
Then his grip tugged on my wrist. It wasn’t only possessive, it felt violent. He yanked me toward him with a force that stole my breath, his fingers digging into my skin tearing me away from Fionn entirely. I stumbled, my shoulder slamming into his chest, and instinctively I pulled back, but his hold only tightened.
“Let go,” I gasped.
He didn’t. He couldn’t.
His eyes were no longer caramel with hints of green, they had turned black.
Fionn moved instantly, stepping between us, his expression darkening.
“Cillian,” he warned, his voice low and lethal.
“Enough. If you truly want her companionship, brother, try to hide the hunger in your eyes. You reek of desperation.”
I looked at him in confusion.
“The sound is coming from the music box. Can’t you hear it?”
Cillian glanced over to where I was looking. “Tilly, there is no music box there. It’s all a phantom in your mind.”
I turned back to Fionn. “You hear it, don’t you?”
We had danced together in time to the music. Yet I knew his answer before he gave it. For the first time, I saw the sadness in his eyes as he nodded in disbelief.
“The sky’s serpent is in you, Tilly. It doesn’t knock. It doesn’t ask to come in. It enters quiet and cruel, and then it slowly takes over from within stealing everything from your mind.”
Fionn’s expression hardened slightly.
“Now you understand.” He said quietly.
“Vareth’s curse is inside us all.”
The terrifying realization hit, I was dancing with my executioner and for a small quiet moment, I felt at peace.
The simmering music suddenly stopped, and I broke away, my movements fluid as I turned toward Cillian. His green eyes locked onto mine, anger simmering beneath the surface.
From the corner of the room, the sound of clapping broke through the silence.
“Bravo! A performance for Vareth himself!” Torin shouted, leaning back against the gilded mirror with an amusing grin.
“The human hears phantom music and the Commander dances to silence. I haven’t been this entertained since the other Orders of Elora were prophesised to suffer.”
