“Oh. Well, I won’t bother her.”
“I’ll wager I can find what you want. What sort of pins are you after?”
“That’s all right. It’s not important. I was just …”
She trailed off because Bollocks had gone to the other door, and now began to whine.
“Come on, Bollocks, come away from there. Let’s go back and—”
But because he felt distress, she did. Because he scented blood, she did.
“Something’s wrong.” Stepping over, Breen didn’t bother to knock, but tried to turn the handle. “It’s locked, but something’s wrong,” she repeated as Bollocks let out a howl.
“Are you sure?” Brigid clasped her hands tight. “I can fetch a key from Tarryn if you’re sure. It’s just—”
“No time.” Using power, Breen turned the lock, then opened the door.
Kiara sprawled just inside, and Breen dropped down beside her.
“She’s hurt!” Brigid spun on her heel. “I’ll get help.”
“Wait.”
Slow, Breen reminded herself. Easy. She pulled back everything Aisling had taught her, then laid her hands on the wound seeping blood at the back of Kiara’s head.
“I can see it. I can feel it.”
Slow, easy, she brought the light.
“It’s not deep,” she murmured. “But there’ll be pain. So gently.” She breathed in, breathed out, closing the wound that ran long but shallow. Soothing, shrinking the ugly knot, and the bruising.
When Kiara moaned, stirred, Breen spoke softly. “Lie still a minute. I know it pounds, I feel it. You feel sick, but lie still, let me finish.”
“I can fetch a potion from one of the healers,” Brigid began.
Kiara moaned again, stirred again. “Shana.”
“It’s all right. Another minute.”
But eyes wheeling now, Kiara shoved up to her hands and knees. “Shana. The taoiseach!”
“What happened? Was it Odran or—”
“Oh gods.” Kiara grabbed Brigid’s arm, dragged on it so she could stand. “Where is the taoiseach?”
“In his chamber. I—”
“Get help. His mother, mine, send them to him. Hurry, hurry.”
As Brigid raced off, Kiara swayed.
“You’re dizzy, come sit. Let me finish.”
“There’s no time. We have to stop her. Help me. I can’t run.”
“All right. Lean on me. What happened?”
“She struck me.”
“Shana? She hit you?”
“She’s so angry, and I think she’s lost her mind. Oh gods. She’s brewed a love potion and means him to drink it. I have to stop her. Oh, she’s damned herself, my dearest friend, and I must be the one to accuse her.”
While Kiara had lain unconscious, Shana climbed the tower steps. She put on her most contrite expression and knocked on Keegan’s door.
“Come.”
She kept her expression in place even when irritation rose on seeing he wasn’t alone. And clearly didn’t look pleased to see her.
“I’m interrupting,” she said, and smiled at Flynn.
“A pretty woman is always a welcome interruption, and we were just finished. Aye, Keegan?”
“Aye. I’ll see you at the Welcome, and we’ll speak again tomorrow.”
“Save a dance for me, won’t you?” Flynn said to Shana.
She gave him a smile, a flutter of lashes. “I will, of course.”
When he went out, Shana put the sorrowful look in her eyes, folded her hands at her waist. “And again I must apologize. I don’t like making it a habit, I can tell you, so hope this is the last I must.”
“It’s not to me you owe one.”
She nodded, moved to the fire in the generous sitting room—one she intended to make her own. “I know you believe that, and so I will, as when I cooled my temper, I realized how what I said to Breen could be misunderstood. I never meant to insult her, Keegan, but I see now I did, and I was only joking, as women often do, about you—and us. She was so upset by it, and said hard things, so I said hard things.”
Shaking her head, she turned back to him and saw—on that face she knew so well—he’d had more than enough of the entire matter.
“Women can be foolish about men, and I confess I felt a bit of jealousy myself, as a woman does when she meets the lover of one she’s bedded herself. Silly and foolish, and I’ll apologize to her. When I leave, I’ll go straight to her chamber and do so. But I owe you one for how I spoke to you. I was embarrassed.”
She smiled again, lifted her hands. “As you know well, my pride runs wide and runs deep. Will you, again, forgive me?”
“I will, of course.”
But she heard, clearly, the stiffness in his voice. Saw, clearly, the coolness in his eyes.
“Will you have a cup of wine with me—a bit of courage for me before I face Breen—and so we put the matter behind us?”
“I’ve other matters to see to before—”
“One cup of wine,” she said as she walked to the table holding the decanter. “And behind us it goes for well and good.”
With her back to him, she poured the potion from vial to cup.
She handed him a cup, tapped hers to it. When she sipped and he didn’t, she tried again.
“And you can drink to me on my pledging with Loren, and wish me happy.”
He looked into her eyes. “I would drink to such news as that, and wish you happy.”
As he lifted the cup, Kiara stumbled in the door. “No, Taoiseach, no. Don’t drink it.”
When her knees buckled, Breen lowered her into a chair.
“She made a love potion,” Breen told him. “What terrible lie is this!
What have you done to Kiara, my friend? Why, there’s blood! Keegan, she’s—”
“Silence!” He set the cup down and, waving his hand over it, sealed the potion inside. “Did you think I wouldn’t sense it, couldn’t smell it? What do you take me for?”
He grabbed Shana’s arm before she could move, and, thrusting his hand into the pocket of her skirt, pulled out the vial.
“That you would do such a thing to another. Someone with all you have would do this to take more. You would break a sacred law, betray my trust, harm a friend, all for your pride.”
Her fury snapped so strong she couldn’t call the tears.
“I gave you what you asked for, what you wanted, and you spurned me.”
“We gave each other what we wanted, for a time, then it wasn’t enough, it seems, for either of us.”
“You would take her over me?”
He looked into her eyes, spoke the cruel truth. “I would never have taken you.”
“Bloody bastard, you’ll pay.” She jerked her arm free. “I swear you’ll pay. Your mongrel whore will know my wrath, as will you.”
With Kiara weeping, Shana blurred from the room.
“She won’t get far.” After pressing his fingers to his eyes, he walked over to crouch in front of Kiara. “There now, darling, where are you hurt?”
“She hit me. I think she hit me.”
As Kiara started to lift her hand to the back of her head, Breen took it, laid her other on Kiara’s head. “I know it hurts. Let me finish.”
“I saw—I saw on her dressing table, and I said no, she couldn’t. I said she had to give the potion to me, and I’d destroy it. I wouldn’t tell anyone. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. She’s my friend, and I wouldn’t have told anyone even though it’s law.”
“It’s all right now.” He shot a glance up at Breen, saw the flickers of pain, the concentrated focus as she worked. “Who wouldn’t do the same for a friend?”
Weeping, Kiara clung to Keegan’s hand. “But I think … After all, I think she was never my friend.”
“No, darling, but you were hers.”
Minga flew into the room with Tarryn right behind her. “Oh, my baby!”