Kiss of the Goblin Prince (36 page)

He watched her walk away, giving him time alone with his brother. Eliza was the reason Roan was moving forward so easily, she was leading him, directing him. He didn’t have that help and he didn’t want to be leaning on Eliza and Roan. He’d do it himself or die trying. Living couldn’t be harder than surviving in the Shadowlands, or existing under the boot of Rome. Dai shut the front door and followed the fine string that joined him to his brother up the stairs. He could’ve just followed it to Roan, but arriving unannounced and magically wouldn’t have been the best start to an already awkward conversation.

Roan was happily rolling cream paint onto the bedroom walls. Was this the same man who only weeks before had been ready to die so he didn’t become goblin? It was hard to see him as a warrior when he looked like any other modern man. What did other people see when they looked at him?

“Hello.” Roan slipped back into Decangli. If they didn’t speak it, no one would and it was hard to let their language die. “Come to practice?”

Dai sat on the stepladder. “Language or swords?”

“We buried the swords.” Roan turned to face him, his face set in the familiar fierce scowl. The king lurked not far beneath the exterior.

“I know. Maybe we shouldn’t have.” Dai looked out the window hoping to find the right words written in the sky, but there was no easy way to say it. His gaze settled on the tree and the cubbyhouse. At the bottom was the memorial to the other men who’d been cursed. “You’re going to have to change the plaque.”

Roan blinked in surprise. “What do you mean?”

“Meryn is human again.”

Roan put down the roller in the paint tray, immediately ready to go on the rescue mission. “We can’t leave him in the Shadowlands.”

“I’ve brought him back.” Dai kept his answers short. Even though he wanted to give Roan all the details, it wasn’t the time. That would come later once Roan got over the shock.

“You went alone?” Roan crossed his arms; without armor and sword the stance lacked some of the menace Dai was used to.

“You just said we couldn’t leave him there.”

“Meryn was my second and my cousin too. You should have told me what you planned.”

“It doesn’t matter now. He’s back and I’m alive.”

Roan ran his hand over his close-cropped hair. “Where is he?”

Dai studied the paint-splattered drop sheet not sure how to break the news that he’d found Meryn and had lost him—well, not entirely lost him, but he was lost for the moment until he decided to be human and not goblin. “There was a complication. His mind is damaged.” Along with his heart, and probably his soul.

“But he’s here, in the Fixed Realm?”

“Yes.”

Roan uncrossed his arms and his shoulder relaxed. “You should bring him here. He should be with us.”

“He doesn’t know
us
. He didn’t remember me.”

“All the more reason—”

“Forcing him to remember will do more harm than good.” Dai stood facing off with his brother. For too long they’d shied away from an argument in case it brought the curse closer to claiming them. Now it didn’t matter.

“So you’re a medic as well as a magician?”

Downstairs the doorbell chimed. Both men looked up.

“This isn’t over,” Roan snapped.

“I will bring Meryn back to us. Have some faith.” He glared at Roan, daring him to admit he didn’t trust his brother.

“Fine. But I want to be kept informed this time.”

“I don’t answer to you. You aren’t king.”

“No, I’m family.”

Footsteps ran up the stairs and Eliza appeared in the doorway with a plate of sandwiches in her hand and worry on her face. She glanced between the men as if sensing the thick layer of tension blanketing the room. “Amanda is here for you.”

Dai sucked in a breath, then realized she wasn’t here to see him. She didn’t know he was here. She’d come to see Roan. His heart swelled with hope until he glanced at his brother and saw the hard line of his mouth. Would Roan lie to Amanda or answer truthfully?

Eliza handed him the plate but spoke to Roan. “You need to go down. She has questions.”

“I should leave.” Dai found a thread ready to disappear back to his home.

“Wait here,” Roan ordered as he stalked out of the bedroom, leaving Eliza to make sure Dai stayed put.

Dai sat back down on the stepladder and picked up one of the sandwiches that Eliza had made for Roan. He hoped Amanda was there to ask the questions he’d told her to ask. No doubt she’d realized that Brigit was healed. Was she happy or angry? Surely happy. Her daughter was mended and would never have trouble breathing again—in any life.

And when she knew he hadn’t lied and had lived ancient history? That should go about as well as the conversation he’d just had with Roan.

Eliza watched him as if she were waiting for an opening so she could ask her own questions. “The sandwiches okay?”

“Great, thanks.” He took another couple of bites then put her out of her misery. “What do you want to know?”

“Roan said you can do magic, real magic, not just knotting up my silverware kind.”

“I can unknot it.” But he knew that wasn’t what Eliza wanted.

She shook her head. “You’ll have to pry it out of Brigit’s hands first.”

Then she pulled up her sleeves. The pink new skin of fresh scars ran up her arms as if a large cat…or crow had attacked her. These were the marks left when the druid had tried to force Roan’s hand in the Shadowlands and make the curse take what was left of his soul. While Roan stopped the bleeding and saved her life, he hadn’t healed her properly and gotten rid of the scarring. Had he been that close to the edge?

“I know it’s vain, but can you make them go away? I don’t want to see them, and Roan blames himself.”

Dai finished the sandwich. He could’ve eaten another two. “I can. Are you sure you want them gone?”

She nodded.

“Is that all of them?”

“No, they’re on my back too.” She went to lift her shirt.

Dai waved his hand. “I don’t need to see.” Not like that anyway and he didn’t want his brother walking back in while Eliza had her shirt up.

He blinked and his vision became a mass of lines. The wounds showed up as tears that were almost healed, but where they had rejoined the surface was uneven. He began smoothing them out; fixing the rough surface required very little energy. Then he stopped.

In Eliza’s belly was a tiny bundle of new threads weaving together to make a new life. It drew on her and Roan. Lodged in her arm was a sliver of poison, leaching into her system, stretching toward the life trying to take hold. He knew which one would win. There wasn’t enough of the little one to put up a fight.

“What’s in your arm?”

“Birth control.”

That hadn’t worked so well. “You need to have it removed.”

“Why?” Eliza’s hand covered her stomach instinctively.

“Because it failed.” As an afterthought he added, “Congratulations.”

“Congratulations?” Her eyebrows lifted. “I’m pregnant?”

“With the first Decangli to be born in nineteen centuries.”

She threw her arms around him. “Are you sure?”

Dai removed her arms and stepped back. “Positive. And your scars are gone.”

“Thank you.” She smoothed her hand over her skin. “Can you take out the birth control?”

“Yeah.” With a pinch it was in his hand. He handed the thin tube to Eliza.

She stared at it for a moment as if not believing. “I didn’t know. How did you?”

“I saw it.”

“You saw the baby?”

“No. I saw a web made up of you and Roan. Give it a week to take hold, another to take shape…”

The smile slipped from her mouth. “It’s too soon to tell him. Too many things can go wrong.”

He sighed and closed his eyes. Eliza was asking him to keep a secret. “For how long?”

“A few weeks.”

“Okay, but you have to go and find out if Amanda hates me.”

“She doesn’t hate you. She doesn’t understand you. Roan made me promise not to tell her anything about the Shadowlands.” Eliza smiled. “He didn’t make me promise not to tell Brigit stories about a group of cursed men banished to the Shadowlands.”

Dai gave a low laugh. Eliza had his brother all figured out.

“Amanda knows now. I told her everything.” Another thing Roan wasn’t going to be happy about. Too bad, he’d get over it.

Eliza grinned at him with her hand on her stomach as if she still didn’t believe. “I’ll go see what’s happening.”

Chapter 22

Amanda rang the doorbell half expecting Eliza to be out, or not answering because she was busy with her mysterious new husband. It was a waste of time. What was she expecting Eliza to say? What did she want Eliza to say? That everything Dai had told her was true? It was so farfetched and yet when she thought of him it fit. He didn’t just know about history—he’d lived it. He didn’t just understand magic—he could use it. He’d saved Brigit even after she’d argued with him. She needed to at least thank him when…when he got back from the Shadowlands. Wherever that was, assuming it was real.

“Can we stay for dinner?” Brigit peered through the glass panel.

That depended on what kind of answer she got from Roan and Eliza. If it were all true, they had lied to her, and if Dai had lied, would they want to hear the truth? “Maybe.”

“Someone is coming.”

The door opened and Eliza stood there in a paint-covered T-shirt. “Come in.” She gave them both a hug.

“Can I see if the veggies have grown yet?” Brigit danced from one foot to the other.

“Yes,” said Amanda, eager for Brigit to be out of earshot. She watched as she ran through the house. In Amanda’s hand was Brigit’s bag. She opened her mouth to call out but then bit her tongue. The doctor said she didn’t need it. Even if she didn’t believe in magic, she had to believe the doctor.

“Eliza, I…” Her mouth felt like sand. She couldn’t pretend this was a social call. She wanted to learn the truth, even if she wasn’t sure that was what she wanted to hear. What if Dai was delusional, or what if she’d walked away from the only man since Matt who’d made her heart beat for more than survival? “I need to know how you met Roan.”

“We ran into each other…fate.” Eliza shrugged and smiled as she evaded the question.

Amanda shook her head. “The truth, Eliza.”

Eliza bit her lip and looked away. “Let me get Roan.” Then she turned and went up the stairs.

There was definitely something going on. She could almost taste it. Amanda walked out to the back patio so she could watch Brigit inspect Roan’s veggie patch for sprouting seeds. Brigit leaned over and carefully checked each section before moving on to the next. Her lips moved as she sounded out the names of each plant from the tag.

Amanda turned at the sound of heavy footsteps.

Roan stopped a few paces away and crossed his arms. His lips were pressed into a thin line. He didn’t look thrilled to be answering her questions. “I met Eliza when she summoned me from the Shadowlands. If you know of the Shadowlands, you know about goblins. Which means Dai has said more than he should have.”

“What has he said?” Had Dai mentioned her to Roan?

“My brother says little about his life to me. We rub along because we are blood, but he is cast from a different metal.”

An alloy no one had ever seen. If Roan didn’t like Dai talking about being goblin, she couldn’t mention Eliza’s bedtime story without creating trouble. So she focused on the things Dai had told her to ask. She had to ask all the questions, even if the answers didn’t make sense because she may not get another chance.

“Who’s Claudius?”

“He was the Roman general. He held Dai as a hostage for good behavior.” Roan sighed. “My good behavior.”

“Who were you?” But she already knew. Roan was the king from the fairy tale, saved by Eliza’s love.

“King of the Decangli.”

She looked at him blankly.

“We were Celtic.”

Which made Dai a Celtic prince. A royal hostage. She swallowed around the lump in her throat. Her history was good enough to know how cruel the Romans were to their slaves. Dai had paid dearly for his brother’s obedience and the safety of his people. Even as she understood, her mind rebelled at the sheer scope of time.

“You know how this sounds?”

“That’s why I told Dai not to talk about it. This is ancient history best left in the past.”

“Can I play in the cubbyhouse?” Brigit called.

“I’ve cleared out the spiders, it’s fine,” Roan called back.

Brigit ran over to the tree and paused at the base. She squatted down to read something. “Who are Brac, Fane, Anfri, and Meryn?” She looked over her shoulder back at the adults.

Amanda’s blood cooled. She knew those names, but she waited for Roan’s answer, dreading his words.

“They were friends,” he said, looking at Amanda. Then he lowered his voice. “They wore the curse with Dai and me.”