Niall caught her wrists and put his mouth to her ear. “How about next week? I want to make an honest woman of you.”
She pressed her face against his neck and breathed in his scent. When he wrapped his arms around her, the tension drained away and relief flooded the void. Her eyes watered with happiness. After a few minutes Niall took her hand and pulled her out of the kitchen and up the stairs.
“’Tis my turn now, lass.” He drew her into his bedroom, closed the door, and sat her on the end of his neatly made bed.
Rose glanced at the laptop and remembered the other time she’d been in his room. Was it only a week ago? It felt like a lifetime.
He sat beside her, opened the small wooden box bearing the O’Connor coat of arms, and lifted out his Magic Knot. He stared at the stones cradled in his palm, then unraveled the leather thong and put it over her head. “Now ’tis official. We hold each other’s fate by our hearts.”
When she touched the stones resting between her breasts, they throbbed against her fingers, sending pulses of longing through her. A few days ago the Magic Knots had been a mystery. Niall had been a mystery. Now she and Niall were joined by the stones in a mystical way she still didn’t understand.
He brushed the back of her hand, caressing her skin while his energy pulsed into the core of her being, sending spirals of heat radiating through her. A small, needy sound slipped from her lips, and she curled her hand into his.
He glanced over his shoulder at the bed. “Are you remembering the last time you were here?”
Memories of his body pressed against hers made her tremble. “Perhaps you should remind me.”
He closed his box and placed it on the desk. “Last time I told you a wee fib.”
“Did you now?”
“Aye.” He gave her a self-deprecating smile. “Me arousal was not caused by friction.”
Rose glanced down at his lap, her pulse skittering. “So friction had nothing to do with it, then?” She ran her palm up his thigh and rubbed the bulge beneath his zipper.
He sucked in a breath.
“I’d hazard a guess the friction helped.”
He cupped her cheek and nuzzled her ear. “A little friction down that way would not go amiss.”
Her blood sizzled as she sought his mouth. Kissing him in huge, greedy gulps, she pushed off his jacket, then broke away to tug the shirt over his head. With a shove she pushed him flat on the bed, then unfastened his pants, leaned back, and stripped off her dress. Niall gazed up at her, eyes dazed. “Crikey O’Reilly. Where’s the fire?”
Rose grinned and ripped away her underwear. He blinked slowly and opened his arms to her.
With a squeak of excitement she leaped on him. He tried to roll her underneath, but she grappled for superiority, and they wrangled around on the bed, laughing, kissing, and touching until they were both gasping and trembling.
Finally they paused, Niall on top, the ebb and flow of their breath as one. He stared down into her face, his pupils huge and dark. “Want you.”
A needy little sound escaped her as she pushed at the top of his pants with her feet, kicking them down his legs. Hot, silky flesh pressed between her thighs, blurring her mind. She grabbed at the firm muscles of his backside as her body bowed to meet his. Then he was inside her and moving. Niall’s presence surrounded her, filled her body and mind. Passion stripped away his protective layers, and the raw ache in his core squeezed her heart. Could he believe she loved him? Would Niall conquer his fears and stay with her this time?
Rose opened her mind and let him sense her acceptance and love. She turned her lips against the sinewy strength of his forearm and tasted his skin.
He licked her neck, nibbled her ear, stroked her lips with his silky, hot mouth. She grabbed Niall’s back, traced the length of muscle and strength of bone as he pressed her into the mattress. The stones around their necks tangled, pulsed as one. Rose sensed Niall sparking like electrical energy, ready to discharge. As he reached his peak, sensation blasted through her, a wild shock to the system that left her trembling and utterly complete. “God,” she croaked into Niall’s hair.
He lifted his head and smiled, eyes drugged with pleasure. “Fast and furious.”
She grinned and stroked the damp hair off his forehead. “I love seeing you smile. Yo u should do it more often.”
Niall rolled off her with a sigh, pulled the covers over them, and gathered her against his chest. “You make me forget me woes, beautiful Rose.”
“Did you sort things out with your father?”
With a shrug, he pulled her closer so she couldn’t see his face. “Aye. Much as they’ll ever be sorted. ’Tis you and me I be wanting to concentrate on now. We have to make plans to free the piskies.”
Although she wanted to think about the piskies, sleep dragged down her eyelids.
Niall stroked her hair. “Sleep now, a ghrá. I know what must be done. We’ll plan later.”
“Knock-knock—make yourselves decent.” Michael’s voice sounded through her sleepy haze. Rose forced her eyelids up as he opened the door and peered in. The frown on his face sent a bolt of warning up her spine, jolting her awake.
Pushing himself up on his elbow, Niall asked, “What’s the problem?”
“’Tis Ana. She’s gone.”
Niall sat up and tucked the cover around Rose to keep her decent. “What do you mean, gone?”
“Someone’s removed the wards. This here was nailed to the door.” He held out a piece of paper.
“Great Danu.” Niall jumped out of bed and grabbed the note. While Niall read, silent menace radiating from him in waves, Michael backed out the door. Niall balled up the paper and hurled it at the wall. “Tristan has her. He’s wanting to trade Ana for your Magic Knot tarot paintings,” he said as he yanked on his clothes. When he’d strapped on his knives, he glanced up at her expectantly. “How fast can you get the portraits shipped down?”
Rose swallowed and sat up, pulling the sheet beneath her arms. She couldn’t sacrifice her whole troop to Tristan before she’d even tried to release them from the paintings. She reached out to Niall with love, hoping he’d understand her predicament. “Believe me, I really want to help Ana, but I can’t give up the piskies.
I’m their queen. I have a duty to protect…” Her voice trailed away at the sheen of shock in Niall’s eyes.
He dropped his head and stared at the floor.
She extended her senses toward him, and found a dark abyss of agony. Panic squeezed the breath from her lungs. “Niall?”
“I thought you’ trust me,” he said so softly she had to strain to hear.
“I didn’t mean—”
“Aye, you did.” He raised cold, lifeless eyes to her. “You expected me to sacrifice the piskies.”
Tears burned in her throat. What could she say? He must have sensed her feelings.
“I’ll get the paintings sent down,” she blurted, desperate to placate him. She wanted to trust him, more than anything in the world, but the warning on the Ten of Swords loomed in her mind. She clutched the sheet to her chest. Surely he wouldn’t betray her after all they’ been through?
Unless he didn’t have a choice.
Rose longed to heal the hurt between them. She tried to banish the doubt from her mind and reached for him mentally, but he blocked her out. Wrapped in the sheet, she stumbled out of bed and tottered toward him.
“If the druid’s hurt me sister, I’ll skin him alive.” He cast her a sharp sideways glance as she approached, then turned his back on her. “You should have learned by now: I always look after me own.”
Chapter Sixteen
Two hours later, Niall waited for Nightshade beside the entrance to Trevelion Manor. Staring into the inky shadows beneath the huge rhododendron bushes, he imagined the terror Ana must be feeling. He tried to send her reassurance that he was on his way to rescue her. But he couldn’t sense his sister, because the second he relaxed the guard on his mind, Rose toppled in like a child leaning
against a door.
Niall closed his eyes as her love and reassurance pulsed through him. Now that he’d cooled down, he realized he’d overreacted to her doubts about his plan for the paintings. Rose had known him for only a week. It was natural that she’d be cautious. The bond gave them both access to each other’s thoughts and feelings, which could be a double-edged sword. Although now that he’d had a taste of her love, the idea of losing the connection was unbearable.
As soon as he returned to the Nest, he’d make up with her properly—all night. He smiled as his body tightened at the memory of Rose standing over him, eyes glittering with excitement as she ripped off her clothes. He couldn’t get enough of her.
Swiping a hand over his face, he suppressed a throb of regret as he eased her loving presence out of his mind. This evening his discussion with Nightshade must be kept private. Rose liked to take control of situations, yet her sheltered human life had not prepared her to deal with the likes of Ciar or Tristan Jago. And she still did not understand fairy ways. Her ignorance had nearly cost her life while in Ireland. His plan to rescue Ana and release the piskies was risky, and depended on deceiving Tristan. There was too much at stake to confide in Rose and then depend on her acting skills for success. Far better she be genuinely surprised by his actions. Once the operation was in progress, Nightshade could explain to her there’ been no other way to pretend to meet Tristan’s demands.
Branches rattled in a sudden gust of wind. The last dead leaves clinging to the surrounding trees fluttered loose and spiraled to the ground.
Niall glanced up as Nightshade descended out of the dark sky ten feet away. The stalker came a few strides closer and hesitated beneath a shaft of moonlight falling between the branches. “I had no control over your reaction to my bite, Irish.”
A flame of humiliation flickered inside Niall, and he stamped on it. “That subject is not open for discussion. Now where’s the bloody druid holding Ana?”
“Ana?” Surprise crossed Nightshade’s face.
Disquiet rippled through Niall. When he’d called Nightshade for a meeting, he’d assumed the stalker would know what Tristan was up to.
“Tristan took me sister and left a note on the cottage door. He’s wanting to trade her for the paintings.”
“Shit!” Nightshade looked away and snapped his wings against his back. “He’s said nothing. Maybe he no longer trusts me. One of the humans who sells him exotic animals to stuff could have fetched her. They’ do anything for money.”
“Do you have any idea where he’d be holding her?”
“Beneath the manor. But it’s strange I didn’t sense her.”
Niall shook his head. “’Tis unlikely you would, unless you were looking for her. Me sister is bound closely to the earth.”
“What are you going to do? Surely Rosenwyn won’t give Tristan the paintings after all she’s been through?”
Niall turned away and snatched a breath. Where did Nightshade’s loyalties lie? Niall was going to have to play this carefully to save the piskies and get his sister back safely.
“Somehow I must work out how to free Ana without relinquishing control of the paintings to Tristan.” he’d given the problem a lot of thought in the two hours he’d waited for Nightshade. “Me father told me the only way to rebind the piskies Magic Knots is with visceral blood from Rose.” Niall palmed one of his blades and turned it in his hand, the thought of stabbing Rose sending a chill through him. “We must get all three parts of the piskies together with the Magic Knots if it’s going to work.”
“Tristan keeps the glass globes containing their minds and spirits in his workroom.”
“And their Magic Knots?”
“They’re in the workroom as well.”
“The room where I found Rose?”
Nightshade nodded.
“Should have guessed. ’Tis a place of death, all right.” Niall stroked the handle of his knife. “Everything we need is here except their bodies. It makes sense to bring the portraits to Trevelion Manor. Do you know if the piskies will need help to re-form?”
The stalker’s eyes glowed in the moonlight. “When I leave my body and flit a long distance as a shade, I’m still aware of my heart beating and lungs breathing, and if I concentrate, I can see and hear what’s happening around my body. Would not be safe to leave it otherwise. I guess it’ll be the same for them. Although I doubt they’ve chosen to focus on their bodies while the portraits have been in storage. When the globes are broken, as long as their Magic Knots are then whole, I’m sure the piskies will find their bodies in the paintings.”
“After all this time?”
“Time has no meaning when I’m a shade. I expect it’s the same for them trapped between life and death. They won’t have forgotten anything.” Nightshade swallowed and rubbed his mouth.
A plan formed in Niall’s mind. “What’s Tristan planning to do with the paintings?”
“Arrange them around the walls of the great hall beneath the manor. The spirits in the globe can’t see him, but he hopes they’ll be able to watch from the paintings as he sacrifices Rosenwyn.”
“Great Danu!” Niall took a threatening step forward. “When were you planning to reveal this minor detail?”
Nightshade stood his ground. “I haven’t tried to hide anything. What do I have to do to make you trust me, Irish?”
Niall stared at the stalker. Although he’d carried Rose to safety, Niall still wasn’t sure of his loyalty.
“You’ll go and tell Tristan that I’m willing to trade. Tell him I’ve had enough of babysitting the pisky queen. I want to make another deal.”
Nightshade’s eyes widened, then narrowed dangerously.
“Wake up, laddie. ’Tis a ruse,” Niall said.
The grim expression on Nightshade’s face melted into a smile; then he laughed with relief and slapped Niall on the shoulder. Niall shook his head. How could anyone in his right mind believe he’d really betray Rose to Tristan?
Rose paced back and forth across the Elephant’s Nest kitchen.
Michael watched her from the table where he cradled his morning cup of coffee between his hands. “You’ll go wearing yourself out, darlin’.” He flashed her a mischievous grin. “After that busy night you had, I’m thinking to meself you should be resting.” When she cut him a sideways glance, he patted the wooden chair beside him. “Come sit yourself down and tell Uncle Michael what’s bothering you.”
She huffed in frustration. “I don’t know. That’s the problem.” Halting beside the window, she squinted into the morning sun. “What the hell’s Niall doing in the garden?” Kneeling in the backyard beneath the massive oak tree where they’ consulted the tree deva, Niall had buried both his crystal blades to the hilt in the earth and was waving his hands over them and chanting.
Michael shrugged and ambled across to stand beside her. “Who knows, darlin’? Niall was raised by leprechauns. The power of their earth magic is ancient as the dawn of time. Even the Tuatha Dé Danaan have never persuaded the wee folk to reveal their secrets.”
“I’ve got a really bad feeling about today.” Rose shivered, and Michael wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
“’Tis probably just nerves.”
Rose shook her head. “This plan Niall and Jacca have cooked up to rescue Ana and free the piskies is so naive, I can’t believe Niall thinks it’ll work.”
Michael frowned. “Don’t sound like me brother. He usually doesn’t miss a trick.”
Fiddling with Niall’s leather thong around her neck, she glanced at Michael. “He reckons all we need to do to raise the piskies is free their minds and spirits from the globes and hey, presto”—she snapped her fingers—“they’ll meld with their bodies in the paintings and come to life.”
Rose shrugged off Michael’s arm and paced to the table. “If it’s that easy, why didn’t he tell me before I traipsed over to Ireland and got fried by Ciar? And what about Tristan? If Niall thinks my father won’t notice us waking a tr
oop of piskies beneath his house, he’s got another think coming.”
Michael gripped her arms. “Listen, Rose, Niall can be a pain in the arse, right enough, but if there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, he always knows what he’s about.”
Although Michael’s faith in his brother reassured her, she wished she could sense Niall’s intentions. His thoughts and emotions were shadowed, as if he were hiding something. After his reaction last time she questioned his motives, she was reluctant to accuse him of keeping secrets.
A knock sounded on the kitchen door and the fair-haired barmaid popped her head in. “Delivery for Ms. Tremain, Mick.”
The Magic Knot Page 25