Then there’s a hiss. And a thunk. And a shocked grunt as the man’s weight instantaneously lifts off me. Something wet coats the back of my head.
I turn over to find Lachlan pinning the man to the floor with a booted foot to the chest and a broadsword to the neck. The man’s wrapped a hand around Lachlan’s ankle in a futile attempt to free himself. Only one hand though because…
I gag, forcing myself to look away as I realize what the back of my head is covered in.
Lachlan sliced the man’s arm clean off.
I scurry for Vesper, who flies up into my arms and burrows herself against me.
“Who sent you?” Lachlan growls down at my assailant, whose laughter spurts blood down his chin.
His hood pulled back in the struggle, revealing cotton-pale hair above a gaunt face.
Lachlan bares his teeth, pressing his boot down harder. Something crunches, and the man chokes out a wheeze. “Who. Sent. You?”
“Just end me,SirCathal.” The man uses what little energy he’s got left to mock Lachlan’s title. “You celestial knights are skillful murderers, aren’t you? Crown-sponsored killers, the lot of you. And you’re the best of them all.”
Emotion flickers across Lachlan’s face—guilt?—gone in an instant before he fists the man’s cloak and slams him into the wall. The man barks a pained yelp, which turns into an anguished scream when Lachlan sinks his fangs into his throat. An attempt to form thediamhránand gain access to the secrets the man refuses to share.
This bite is a far cry from the gentle pinch Lachlan offered me last night. It’s messy and loud, flesh tearing and tendons crunching. I want to look away, but cannot tear my gaze from the spectacle.
Lachlan pulls back with a gasp and a final swallow, his lips and teeth coated with blood.
My assailant grins madly, pushing his tongue into the side of his mouth then biting down on something and swallowing. “She willneverbe queen.”
There’s a wet gurgle as the man’s mouth fills with pinkish foam and his eyes roll back into his head, exposing whites as his limbs convulse.
“Fuck,” Lachlan snarls as he drops the man to the floor.
“What happened?” I sway on my feet, trying not to faint. This is the goriest scene I’ve ever witnessed in my life; I’m proud I’m still standing.
“Poisoned himself before the connection could form.” Lachlan toes the man’s remaining arm. “I cannot read a dead man’s secrets.”
Vesper’s heart races against my palm; likely from excitement, not fear. I imagine she’d like to strip the corpse for leftovers.
Lachlan cleans his sword on the assailant’s cloak, then re-sheathes the blade down his back in a single movement. Seconds later, his hands are roaming over my body, close but not touching. He’s killing calm, but his jaw muscles are twitching. Like my mussed hair and the small cut on my chin are crimes for which he’d like to carve up the man all over again.
I know you’re not badly injured, Lachlan says.I would have been able to feel it here. But otherwise, are you alright? I’m sorry you had to see that.
Something is holding my shock at bay. Something that must be the reason I’m not scared of Lachlan after what he just did.
He butchered someone. For me.
On some level, I knew it was a possibility. He is my bodyguard, after all. But that knowledge alone cannot explainthis low, throbbing heat spreading through me. I dare not ponder the cause while thediamrhánis open.
“I’m fine,” I say out loud, willing him away from our connection. “But poor Vesper isn’t. That bastard broke her fingers trying to lure me out. Who was he?” I flick my chin toward the vial he tried to force me to drink from. “And what isthat?”
Lachlan picks it up, but most of its contents have spilled. “No idea,” he murmurs, studying the faint sliver of acid green liquid at the bottom. “Some kind of poison, perhaps?”
“Why would he try to poison me when he already had a knife at my throat? Seems like overkill.”
“Doesn’t look like any kind of poison I’ve ever seen, anyway.”
“That man … You didn’t know him, but he knew you.”
Lachlan shrugs, unimpressed by his own notoriety.
“That’s not what I … We can use that knowledge to narrow down our list of suspects. Only a handful of people know we’ve arrived in Tír na Lune.”
