Page 15 of The Dark, Dead, Deep

Liam took us to the stables, through the back way around the side of the castle, on the treacherous path where one slip could throw us off the edge.

He waited until the sounds and the lights of the party were a distant hum before he spoke.

“I need to tell you something.” Liam pushed his fingers through his hair, unable to look me in the eyes.

“Okay.” I elongated the word, waiting for him to speak.

Liam glanced at my face once before looking away. He muttered a curse under his breath.

“Tomorrow, we’ll make the journey to the Frosted Sands,” Liam said ominously. “The gods will awaken our magic, and if we are lucky, they will show us our true mates. Our shíorghrá.”

I crossed my arms over my chest and sighed. “It seems that every word spoken these past few days are about our cursed journey to those bloody sands.”

Liam ignored my vitriol. “And, I’ll be off to the barracks for my training the moment I return home. I may be the ’king’s stepson, but all undine must serve. Even the children of the courtiers.”

“We’ll miss you,” I murmured, my heart aching with the knowledge that Liam would be front and center to the fighting. “But you’ll be back soon enough. If you’re careful. I can watch the waters and report back to Moira. No one sees combat the first time they go to the barracks. The training grounds aren’t anywhere near the front lines between the Reeds and Cruinn.”

Liam pushed his tongue against his eye tooth. “I wanted to ask if you would wait for me.”

I cocked my head to the side. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t think I’m going to be at the castle when you return. You live here, with your mother,” I said slowly.

Liam closed his eyes, pained. “No, Maeve,” he whispered, not opening his eyes. “I wanted you to wait for me. Regardless of what happens tomorrow, I know it in my marrow. We are to be shíorghrá. I would not feel this way if our bond was not one between souls.”

“Feel what way?” My lips had gone numb as I processed his words. I felt slow, like I was swimming through honey.

Liam was my friend. I didn’t think of him that way, and until that moment, I believed that he had felt the same.

Please please please don’t let him profess—

“I love you.” Liam gripped my biceps and forced my gaze to meet his with the force of his approach. “You will be my bride, and the king has assured me that if I were to marry you, then he would name me as heir. As you know, a woman cannot sit on the throne, even with Cruinn blood.”

I winced; the dryness in my mouth made my words a strangled croak. “Liam—”

“After I return from training, we can be together,” Liam rushed to say. “I love you beyond measure, Maeve.”

My heart ached.

He looked so earnest as he waited for my reply.

“Will you?” the hand on my bicep gave a gentle squeeze. “Will you wait for me, will you be mine?”

It took more strength than I thought possible, as I looked into the eyes of one of my best friends, but the word made it out, whether I wanted it to or not.

I thought of my future, of the pain of the High Throne. Of the complete and utter loneliness that I felt, haunting the walls of the castle, hearing the repeated whispers of my mother and how I compared to her in every single way.

I wasn’t sure that Liam did love me. He spent so much of his life telling me to stop, and to behave, at the behest of my uncle, that sometimes he felt more like a babysitter than a friend.

If Liam became mine, and I remained by his side at Cruinn Castle, I would be in the same situation I was in now—only it would be my mate forcing me into the tower instead of my uncle.

“No,” I said.

Liam left me alone on the single path that led to the stables, the darkness of the Abyss swallowing the light, save for the bridge leading to the courtyard in the distance.

He hadn’t wanted to hear an explanation. He didn’t even let me speak, before he had jutted his chin and marched away in anger.

I had no idea where any of this had come from. Everything I did seemed to anger Liam as we got closer to the migration—why would he have wanted me to become his if I annoyed him so much?

Liam and I had very different paths.

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