Key of Iron and Fate: (MM Spicy Romantasy) by Katherine A. Darling

Author:Katherine A. Darling [Darling, Katherine A.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-08-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

“Be careful, dear heir. For where your heart leans, your mind will follow, and where your mind goes, Sídhetír listens and responds.” – Lord Louis, Third Lord of Sídhetír.

When I arrived at the manor, I was besieged by people. Oren was in the front of the assault, his eyes wet and his hands hesitant, like he truly feared he would do further injury to me. I appeared far worse than I actually was. My bottom lip was split and a massive bruise decorated the side of my face, and those were the only visible injuries, but it was enough.

The brothers swarmed around me like bees, buzzing in a cloud of worry mixed with anger. The anger was directed at me, but the root of it nestled in fear, so their pinched expressions and tight voices didn’t stab deep.

I was hurt and had stayed out overnight with a dark fae; of course they were upset.

I stifled a laugh. If Cethin and I hadn’t already been engaged, Lord Byrne could’ve demanded he marry me because he’d “ruined” me when he took me away without a chaperone. I was over twenty, so an adult, but I hadn’t reached my majority of thirty. I required a chaperone, though my low birth helped shield me from scrutiny. Not that it mattered. Cethin was already tied to me.

Oren led the charge, insisting I get seen by the physician, Ilene Maher. I politely declined, but the Byrnes wouldn’t hear of it, even when I told them my fiancé had taken care of me. After a quick examination, where she tutted at me as much as Iris had and asked multiple questions about the deceased fae, I was planted in Lord Byrne’s bookroom.

This time Lord Byrne and I were not alone. Lady Hester and Oren hovered behind his shoulders while the rest of the brothers filled the space, making the air warm and stagnant. I wished this conversation had been held outside in the garden, but that wouldn’t have been private. Though the fae representatives could overhear us through the oak door, if they chose to eavesdrop.

A vision of the two austere fae pressed against the solid door in an attempt to catch the slightest word bloomed inside my mind’s eye. I stifled a chuckle, sensing my amusement wouldn’t be appreciated in the tense environment and would result in an even more severe scolding than I was about to receive.

Lord Byrne steepled his hands. His even breaths and the tightness of his shoulders spoke to the worry, if not anger, raging within him. During the thirteen years living in his household as a ward, then Oren’s aide, I could count on one hand—and have leftover fingers—the times I’d seen such an expression directed at me. Yet in the last two weeks, I’d seen it multiple times.

I’d never caused trouble before, though I didn’t regret my actions.

Something rumbled pleasantly deep within me. I didn’t know whence it came, but it was there all the same. An awareness of something with no words or thoughts was rooted within me, burrowing deep.

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