Sleep eluded Dubheasa. Ever since she’d seen her mother, a pervading doom destroyed her sense of well-being. As the evening progressed, that feeling had swelled, growing stronger and nearly suffocating her.
Ronan shifted and curled around her, draping an arm across her waist. “Can’t sleep?”
“No. Worry has dug its claws into me, and I can’t seem to shake it off.”
“Yeah. Me, too.” His arm tightened, and he kissed her shoulder.
“What do ya think it could be?”
“Damned if I know.” He sighed and rolled into a sitting position. “But mine started before your mam appeared. Though she didn’t do anything to ease my feckin’ nerves, mind ya.”
“Should we delay the mission?” Dubheasa sat up and curled her arms around her knees. “Wait for a time when we don’t feel the ghosts of our ancestors waiting to take our souls to the other side?”
Ronan’s sharp, searching look was off-putting.
“What?” she asked.
“Why did you phrase it like that?”
Why had she? No answer seemed to come, and she shrugged. “I’m not quite sure. But this entire fecking thing feels off to me. Like disaster is waiting just around the corner.”
“Fuck if I don’t feel it, too.” He ran a shaking hand through his mussed hair. “It’s been eating at my insides for days now.”
Placing her hand along his jaw, she turned his face to her. “Why didn’t you insist we find another way, then?”
“I didn’t want to put doubt in your mind if it was only fear of my da showing its ugly teeth,” he confessed with a rueful grin.
Yet his eyes were haunted, and Dubheasa hated the trepidation she saw there. Ronan O’Connor wasn’t afraid of much, and Loman had to be the Devil himself if he provoked that type of response in his son.
“What do we do?”
“Nothing for it. We’ve others relying on us to act,” Ronan said grimly. “If we don’t stop Da soon, he’ll grow too strong, and then we might not be able to.”
“And we can’t leave it to the others? To Damian and Trevor? Don’t they—”
The fierce denial in Ronan’s expression cut her off. No, he wouldn’t leave the dirty work to another. And if he was going to dive into the fray, Dubheasa intended to be by his side. They’d do it together.
“I fear for Bridget and my brothers.” She toyed with the corner of the sheet, folding the edge over on itself. “If we leave them here for the fake wedding and Loman strikes, I could lose one, or all, of them.”
“We’ve discussed this, Dove. The strongest Sentinels from the Authority will be here, prepared to protect them and any attending’ guests. Damian and Castor have covered all the contingencies with a Traveler, another Death Dealer, and another Guardian.” Ronan eased the sheet from her tight grip and tipped her chin up. “It’ll be all right, love. And didn’t I promise Loman O’Connor would die tomorrow?”
She forced a smile. “You did.”
“Then it will be done. Consider it an early wedding present, yeah?”
“Who says I agreed to marry you? That’s a bit presumptive.” With an arrogant sniff and a mock glare, she said, “You still haven’t proposed to me proper-like.”
In a move that shocked her speechless, Ronan grabbed her around the waist and stood her in the center of the bed as he knelt on the mattress, in front of her. “Dubheasa O’Malley, you are my sun on the most overcast of days, my stars in the inky night sky, my… Well, look, I’m no poet, but I love you, all the same. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife and making me the happiest man to ever live?”
Laughing, she crashed down on top of him and rained kisses all over his beloved face. “Yes, ya eejit. I’ll marry you.”
“Jaysus! I’ll take back my proposal if you’re going to insist on calling me names.”
She grabbed his ears in her fists and locked him in position as she ravished his mouth. Drawing back, she lifted a brow.
Ronan grinned and cupped the back of her neck, pulling her back down. “I don’t see the harm in you calling me an eejit. I don’t care, especially if you’re always going to be snogging me like that.” As he lifted his head the remaining distance to touch her lips, he met her amused gaze. “I’ll love you forever. I think I always have.”
All humor dropped away, and her heart melted into a puddle of goo. “You’re my forever love, Ronan Fucking O’Connor. Don’t muck it up.”
A brilliant smile transformed his face, and Dubheasa’s breath stalled in her lungs.
“I’ll never muck it up, Dove. Not in this life nor any after.”
* * *
“Are you ready?”
“To have my magic bound? No.” Ronan turned away from the window to see Dubheasa patiently waiting by the door with a look of quiet sympathy on her exquisite visage.
“I’ve only had mine for a few months, but I’m not thrilled to lose it either,” she commiserated.
He lifted his arms and stared at his open palms. “All my life, I’ve been the strongest of the O’Connors, with the exception of my da. I made my cousins fear me, like they did him, because it was the only way I could keep them in check. That changed when Damian removed my abilities to save me. And I fucking hated every bleedin’ minute of it.”
Dubheasa crossed to him and gripped his hands. “It’s only temporary, Ronan. Try to remember that.”
“If the fecking Seer hadn’t—”
She pressed her fingertips to his lips. “There’s no point in what-ifs. We have to do this.”
“Aye.”
They joined hands, and static snapped and popped as their palms met.
“When this is over, Damian will give back what you surrendered, and I’ll be supercharged. It’ll be grand,” she promised.
And Ronan wanted to believe her, but his unease had grown worse that morning, nearly crippling him. “I wish I had your optimism, Dove.”
“I have enough for both of us.”
As they descended the stairs, he couldn’t help feeling as if he were heading to the gallows, and he had a difficult time believing he’d come out of this rescue mission intact.
The other members of their team, with the exception of Draven, were all present. Some appeared as worried as Ronan was, while others had their game face on and seemed hyper focused on what needed to be done.
“Damian is waiting for you in the rose garden between his estate and Baz’s place,” Alastair said without preamble. “I’m to take you both there and bring you back when he’s done.”
Dubheasa spent a few precious minutes hugging her siblings and extracting their solemn vow to have a care. After she returned to Ronan’s side and laced her fingers with his, she nodded to Alastair. “We’re ready, Mr. Thorne.”
Rarely since they’d become better acquainted had Alastair been as solemn as he was at that moment, and Ronan was convinced the older man was privy to Damian’s knowledge of the future.
And he fucking hated it.
“If there’s something I should know, Thorne, come out with it already. This stiff upper lip shite everyone’s got going on has me on edge.”
The surprise on both Alastair’s and Dubheasa’s faces brought with it the realization Ronan had come across a bit too harsh.
“Feck. I’ll apologize now and be done with it.”
“You’re forgiven, son. I understand tough choices, and you’re wedged tightly between a rock and a hard place.” Alastair met his gaze with a direct look. “All I know is what Alex has told me. I didn’t ask, because I’d have been tempted to alter the situation to suit myself, and I’m trying to trust the process for once.”
“You—”
He held up a hand to silence Ronan. “I’m an empath, and the emotions in this room are overwhelming, to put it mildly. On top of that, I’m worried about the safety of everyone present. My son-in-law’s included.”
Once Alastair made it clear he didn’t have a hidden agenda, Ronan felt like a fool for his rare bout of temper. But the other man’s understanding smile said he was willing to forgive.
“Let’s not keep the Aether waiting,” Alastair suggested as he placed a hand on both his and Dubheasa’s shoulders.
They arrived in the rose garden seconds later.
With infinite patience, Damian gestured to a stone-slab bench. “Dubheasa, if you will.”
Casting one last glance toward Ronan, she smiled softly and complied.
“Don’t be alarmed by the next step. I need to raise the standing stones for this process,” the Aether explained.
Within seconds of him lifting his arms, palms up, the ground around them shook violently. One by one, pillars split the earth and rose until they encircled the altar, towering over their small group. Fourteen standing stones in all.
Walking to the closest, Damian traced the ancient symbols as he spoke the words to illuminate the etching. Latin, if Ronan had to guess, but unintelligible from this distance.
Joining Dubheasa in the center of the circle, he clasped her hand and gave it a squeeze. “Impressive, yeah?”
“I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The awe in her tone made him smile. “Prepare yourself, love. Our future holds a lot more of this type of excitement.”
As she soaked it all in, she laughed her delight, and Ronan logged another beautiful moment. “I have to admit it’s fascinating in a way computer science can never be,” she said.
“There’s a science to magic,” Alastair told her from the other side of her stone perch. “When all this is over, Damian can teach you, as he’s been teaching Ronan.”
“I’d like that, to be sure.”
The Aether joined them, and his expression was as severe as Ronan had ever witnessed.
“Is this too dangerous for her?” The question popped out before he could stop it, and the panicked quality in his tone caught Dubheasa’s attention.
She hadn’t let go of his hand, so she gave a little tug. “It’s going to be all right, Ronan. No matter the outcome, it’ll be okay.”
“I can’t lose you.” His voice was as rough and raw as his battered soul. “I’ll not survive it, Dove. I won’t want to.”
Her soft smile was full of love and understanding, and it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“You won’t get rid of me that easily, Ronan Fucking O’Connor.” Her dark brows shot up in challenge.
Her stubbornness alone almost made him believe, but the little voice in his head was screaming a warning on repeat. Some instinct had him turning to look at Damian. Guilt, or something similar, came and went so swiftly in his friend’s expression that Ronan wasn’t positive he’d witnessed it.
“Promise me, if this fucking mission goes sideways, you’ll get her out,” he ground out.
“I promise to get you both out,” Damian replied, and the sincerity in his voice struck a chord in Ronan. “We’re out of time. The stones are supercharged and ready to go. Decide now if you want to do this.”
Dubheasa spoke for them. “Do it.”