Page 38 of Highballs & Hexes

He met her gaze, and his was so damned tortured that her heart spasmed.

“How does a mere mortal win against someone who possesses unimaginable power? Against a fucking evil so great they can’t comprehend the depths of depravity their enemy will sink to?”

“He sounds horrible.”

“Aye. He was. And my youngest has tied her future to the man’s son.” Patrick balled his fists. “Sure, and you say I’ve a beautiful soul, but I’d rip him from her life if I could. He’ll destroy her one day. Like his father did Rose.”

“Rose?”

“Loman sought to tempt her away, and he succeeded.” He scoffed and shook his head. “One more strike against the hated O’Malleys.”

“But surely she had to know he was using her? How does a woman fall for her husband’s sworn enemy?”

“The sworn enemy pretends to be someone he’s not to gain her trust.” Patrick scrubbed a hand over the back of his head asif to rub away his frustration. “Ronan did the same to Dubheasa. The man has a greater power than his father, and he lives amongst us. If he stays true to the O’Connor form, he’ll take down the entire O’Malley clan.”

Faced with such a dilemma as his, Fi could well understand why Patrick was distrustful.

“Tadhg told me Ronan was the one to stop his da. That he, along with a Traveler and two Death Dealers, finally ended his reign of terror for good.” Fi rubbed Patrick’s back, hoping to reassure him. “Maybe he’s the opposite of Loman. He’s got to be good if your daughter sees something in him, yeah?”

“I don’t know.”

“The O’Malley family members I’ve met don’t suffer fools. I think they haveyouto thank for that, Paddy O.”

He snorted at her new nickname for him.

“I’m trying endearments on for size,” she said with a grin.

His impossibly green eyes burned bright as he locked gazes with her. “Endearments are for lovers who have strong emotions for one another. Are you telling me you’ve developed feelings for me, Fionola Bohannon?”

Never breaking eye contact, she rose to her knees and clasped his face between her hands. “And what if I am?”

“I’d say you could do far better than the likes of me, love.”

“And what is ‘love’ if not an endearment?”

His lips twitched an instant before his knee-weakening grin broke free. “Oh, aye, it’s an endearment, to be sure.”

“What if I said you could do far better than the likes of me?” she returned.

“I’d tell ya true it will never happen. Not in this lifetime or the next.” He reached for her, tumbling her back onto the bed and triggering her happy laughter. For one heart-stopping, poignant moment, he stared down at her, and Fi was able to see his naked longing. It called to her soul, leaving it raw and aching tobond with his. To become true soulmates. She was beginning to suspect Patrick O’Malley was her twin flame.

“This is real,” she assured him, remembering his comment about never being certain if his situation was made up or if it was reality.

“I’d like to think so, or I’m going to wake up and find a helluva sticky mess coating the sheets.”

CHAPTER 18

“She’s not dead.”

Noah jerked at the sound of Damian’s voice from behind him. He’d been so lost in the wonder of seeing the Enchantress’s final resting place that he didn’t hear anyone approach.

Isolde de Thorne.

Also known as Isolde Dethridge and defeated only a few years after Noah’s birth by a goddess, gods, and what constituted as the Six—the original magical families from both sides of the veil.

“So she’s sleeping in there, then? All these centuries later?” The idea of being entombed was enough to give a man claustrophobia. Part of him wanted to rip the cracked marble lid off with his bare hands.

That’s when what he was seeing actually sank in.

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