Page 128 of First Light

They were face-to-angry-face.

“He wants you on the side.” Duncan gritted his teeth. “Because hewillmarry again, Carys. You know that, don’t you? He’ll have to. Robb isn’t going to leave that political opportunity in the dirt.” Duncan shook his head. “Lachlan will take another bride, and it’s not going to be you.”

The truth of it hit her like a punch in the gut. “Fuck you. I may not know how I feel about your brother right now, but?—”

“So why did you sleep with him?” Duncan yelled. “After everything he’s put you through! After all the lies he told you. Lachlan—” He bit back the words.

Carys blinked. “How did you…” She frowned. “Are youjealous? You don’t even like me.”

“Fuck you.” He laughed a little. “Fuckyoufor being so damn blind, Carys. Just…” He let out a growl of frustration and lifted his arms, gripping his neck.

Carys could see his knuckles were bruised and bloody. Part of her wanted to hold them because she couldn’t imagine the pain, but she was so angry it burned in her chest.

“What?” She scoffed. “You think because Lachlan and Seren loved each other in this world that I owe you?—”

“You owe menothing.” He drilled his brilliant green gaze into hers. “You owe neither of us a damn thing.” He stepped closer, his broad shoulders blocking the cold wind that swept up the mountain path. “But… yes. How could I not wonder?” Duncan lifted his hand and his cold, bruised fingers hovered over her cheek. “All the years seeing them together, seeing how much theylovedeach other. I wanted…”

“You wanted?” Carys’s mind went blank. She wanted to feel his fingers on her face. They would be callused and rough, and a deep, yearning part of her wanted to know the scrape of those calluses on her skin.

“Souls are drawn together,” he said softly, “in this place.” He searched her eyes. “Call it fate or destiny or?—”

“You’re saying…” She felt a strange tug in her gut. “You’re saying that you and me? You thinkweshould havebeen?—”

“It doesn’t matter what I thought.” He shook his head. “It doesn’t matter.”

But something very deep in Carys’s soul told her it did matter. Very much.

“Do you feel it?” His words were slow and halting. He held his hands back, not quite touching her face as he leaned closer. “Here. Now. Even a little?”

His lips hovered an inch from hers, their breath frosting out and mingling with the dense fog that blanketed the forest. They were lost in the woods, strangers in the shadows, and he felt solid and real like nothing else did.

“Yes.” She spoke the word, and a moment later Duncan’s lips were on hers, his hands still holding back. His mouth was bruised and bloody, but that didn’t stop him from commanding the kiss from the moment their lips met.

She put her hands on his warm neck, and his skin was so hot she nearly felt her fingers burn. He flinched at the contact but pressed harder into the kiss, opening his mouth to deepen his taste. When their tongues touched, she tasted his blood.

“No.” Carys drew back and closed her eyes. “You’re hurt and we can’t do this.”

Duncan’s dark eyebrows drew together. “You owe himnothing. He lied to you in so many ways.”

She took a step back and put a fist over her chest. “But he’s stillhere.”

Duncan took another step back, and his smile was bitter. “In all the years Lachlan and Seren were together, I never went looking for you.” Duncan swallowed hard. “I thought if it was meant, you would find me.” He lifted his hand and looked at it, frowning at the blood and the dirt that caked his knuckles. “But he found you first.”

Carys was confused, and part of her was still angry. Angry with Lachlan for the lies, angry with Duncan for… she wasn’t quite sure what. Angry with herself for being some kind of prize between two competing brothers.

“I’m not doing this.” She stepped back and shook her head. “Yell at me some more if you want, but um…” She swallowed hard. “I did what I had to do to find my sister’s journal.” She stepped past him and walked down the path, her broad strides eating up the distance to the bottom of the hill. “And I’m not going to apologize.”

The moment she crossed the fae wards, Cadell swooped down and plucked her up in the grip of his massive claws.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Riding in the claws of a giant dragon over the highlands of Alba was as absolutely frigid and terrifying as Carys had thought it would be. She was clutched in the open-air cage of Cadell’s massive talons, secure from falling but not at all shielded from the wind. She glanced below once, but luckily the clouds covered the landscape.

He won’t drop you. He won’t drop you.

The dragon gave a giant heave of his wings, and they rose higher in the air.

The cross human has upset you, Cadell said in her mind.

---