“I know how it must sound.”
“It sounds what it is,” Cavan said. “A sadistic woman who will stoop at anything to have what she wants.”
“Or perhaps a woman who found a way to survive a sadistic father.”
“I find that difficult to swallow,” Cavan said.
“I thought the same at first. But then I got to know Carissa while stuck in that cottage. There were times I glimpsed a different side of her, a good side I never imagined possible. And I began to wonder if perhaps Carissa wasn’t who she appeared to be.”
“And what did coupling with her prove?”
Ronan winced.
“You brought this on yourself,” Cavan said. “When I left you, I felt assured that you would put to rest the last of the barbarians who owed us a debt. You and me. As I mentioned earlier, Carissa was cruel, and I for one didn’t intend on forgiving her. She is the last obstacle if we are ever to lay this all to rest and finally be free. I believed you felt the same.”
“I thought I had. But then I also wondered if I could ever come home again.”
“I understand. I thought the same myself,” Cavan said.
“You did?”
“I had been treated and lived like an animal for near a year, and I doubted I could ever be the man I was. I was bitter and angry and disappointed that I had failed you.”
“Me?” Ronan asked stunned. “But it was I who failed you.”
“You did nothing.”
“I cried out like a coward for you to save me,” Ronan said, and felt the pain of his spinelessness down to his soul.
“I didn’t hear you cry out,” Cavan said. “I saw that you were in trouble and rushed to help you. If I had been more attentive to the situation, I would have approached it differently and saved us both. But my only thought was to save my little brother.”
Ronan laughed bitterly. “And my only thought was to reach out to my big brother.”
“We both should have kept our wits about us,” Cavan said.
“It was a difficult battle.”
“It was a horrifying one,” Cavan admitted. “I still dream about it.”
“I do too,” Ronan admitted.
“She is the key to ending this,” Cavan said, looking to Carissa.
“What if it turns out that I truly love her?”
“She is our enemy,” Cavan advised. “Make certain how you truly feel before you invite the enemy to join our family.”
Carissa woke in bed with a start. An arm was draped over her waist as she lay on her side, and she smiled, causing a pain to shoot along her cheek, though she noticed her head didn’t throb any longer.
She rested her hand over his, placing her small fingers between his large ones. They were mismatched in more ways than one, and yet she thought them a perfect fit.
She snuggled her back closer to him, and his fingers instinctively locked with hers. She felt safe, then it came to her.
They weren’t in the cottage, and if they weren’t there, where was she? And how did she get here? The last thing she did recall was…
Dykar and her men.
She reluctantly eased out of bed and, finding her clothes, dressed and slipped out the door. She entered a narrow hallway and had no idea which way to go. Since it was quiet, she knew it had to be night; whether near dawn or not, she didn’t know. She only hoped she had sufficient time to scout the area and see where she was and if her men were nearby.
She finally made her way to the great hall and to the large front doors. With her cloak wrapped around her, she opened the doors and walked out into the night. Dawn had yet to appear on the horizon, and she was relieved, knowing that the darkness of night would afford her time to prowl.
She didn’t have to go far when she heard, “Rissa.”
She turn with a smile and hurried over to Dykar peeking from around the side of the keep.
“I knew if I waited long enough, you’d wake and come in search of me.”
“You are all right?” she asked anxiously, reaching out to gently touch the bruising around his eye.
“Do not worry about me,” he insisted. “It is you I’m concerned for.”
“I am fine,” she assured him, though eager to clear her foggy memory. “Was I taken from you and the men?”
“No, Cavan told you that I could accompany you here, but not the men—”
“Now I remember,” she said interrupting him. “I was going to ride with you when I—” She shook her head. “Damn, I fainted.”
“You reached out to Ronan, and he wouldn’t let anyone touch you after that. You rode with him on his horse, wrapped in his arms.”
“I did?” she asked with a sigh.