Page 123 of Brutal Birthright

“Your essence is here, in the in-between.”

That didn’t explain shit.

“Where the fuck is my body?” Gritting his teeth, he felt something in his jaw pop. But then it wasn’t actually his jaw, which left his mind reeling.

There wasn’t time to discern who he needed to murder for taking him away from Oriana, he just needed to get to her as fast as possible.

“Where?” His barely leashed fury bubbled inside.

“I’m not exactly sure, but last I could tell, you were being very well looked after. Lots of healers. Plenty of potions and magic to help contain the poison.”

She cocked her head to one side, and those bright blue eyes held his gaze. That’s when it all flooded back in.

All of it.

Fiadh striking out. Him covering Finnic and hoping he’d managed to save the foolish prick as he dragged him backwards into the portal.

Brigid closing the chasm between worlds behind them. Seemingly offering herself as a sacrifice in the process.

“How are you—you’re here?” He couldn’t fathom it. This was fucking confusing, and he only wanted one thing.

Oriana.

And to hold her as he tried to tell her exactly what she meant to him. He’d been a complete idiot not to tell her when he had the chance.

“I’m not the only one who walks in dreams, you know.” His sister claimed mock horror, with a hand plastered against her chest, that he could even dare insinuate that she wasn’t able to fuck with his head at all times.

“Has it been your doing all along? This endless fucking nightmare?”

He might just slit her throat for real if it was and he ever got the chance to see her in the flesh again.

She let out a tinkling laugh. “Goddesses, no.” She waved him off. “That’s something far beyond what I could ever dabble in. Call it a premonition or your own Sight that left you rolling around in that field of nightmares.”

“But you knew about my dreams? Saw what I did to you?” Rowan narrowed his gaze.

Her sleek black hair bobbed around her chin as she nodded. “Oh, the number of ways I’ve viewed my own potential death… the stories I could tell…”

She was officially mad. Of that, Rowan was certain.

But what came now? They’d abandoned her to a hellscape realm with a sister intent on destroying her.

“You can stop worrying about me, you big lump.”

He fixed her with a glare, then turned to look out over the desolate landscape they found themselves in. Reddish-tinged dirt stretched for miles but disappeared into a cloudless hazy horizon. A dreamscape he’d come to know so well.

“Besides. We’ve got more important things to discuss …. Like you telling Oriana you love her, no?”

Rowan’s head snapped back towards the impish smile written all over his sister’s face.

Scrubbing a hand over his mouth, he shook his head slowly.

“You can’t hide shit from me, and you know it.” The woman was nearly wriggling on the spot with glee, looking entirely too smug and satisfied with herself.

“Well, go on then… since you obviously know every fucking detail.” This wasn’t happening. Nothing could be less appealing than having a conversation about this with his own sister when they’d barely survived the madness of their other sibling.

“It’ll have to be a grand gesture…” she tapped her lip, staring somewhere far off in thought.

“No.”

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