Prince of Passion (8 page)

Senga reached for the beautiful cup, but hesitated for just a second when she recalled the taste of Keiran’s kiss.
 
With one last glance at Keiran, Senga lifted the cup and drank. A strange sensation stole through her. It grew difficult, painful to breathe.
 

Her gaze rose to Saynarra as the silver cup fell from her hand. She could feel her heart slow and sleep pull at her down into a deep, dark fog.
 

“Don’t fight it, Senga,” the Fae urged as she wrapped an arm around her. “Let the poison take you. The more you fight, the more painful it will become.”
 

Keiran. Keiran, please help!
 

The last thing Senga saw before the darkness took her were the swirling blue eyes of Saynarra.
 

* * * *

Keiran woke slowly.
 
He was warm and rested and hated to leave the soft bed.
 
He rolled onto his back and slowly sat up to look around. Molly was nowhere in the cottage, but a fire roared and a loaf of bread with cheese sat on the table awaiting him.
 

He hurried from the loft and pulled on his now dry clothes. After a peek through the window to see the storm had indeed passed during the night, Keiran tore off a chunk of bread and ate it with the cheese.
 

Finally, he would return home this day.
 

Once he was finished with his morning meal, he called out for Molly. When she didn’t answer, he put on his cloak and went outside. The day dawned bright and clear, but still he couldn’t find Molly.
 

He wished to say farewell before he left. After another thirty minutes of looking, he gave up and started for the pass that would lead him home with long, determined strides.
 
At midday he stopped to eat the rest of the bread and cheese before continuing on, his excitement of seeing his family making him forget the cold.
 

Two hours later, the pass came into view. Keiran quickened his pace as he wrapped his cloak tighter around him when the snow began to fall once more. The sheer ice and snow walls of the pass rose up around him.
 
He glanced at the beauty of it.
 

The first time he had come through here it hadn’t been a place he enjoyed, but knowing that once he was out of the narrow space, he would see the gates of Drahcir, he pushed himself harder.
 

He was all but running the last few hundred yards of the pass when the gates of Drahcir came into view. A laugh bubbled inside of him.
 

“Mother! Father!” he yelled. “I’m home. Open the gates!”
 

As he neared, his people begin to line the streets their cheers deafening. And then, he saw his parents running toward him. His mother cried, and his father’s eyes swam with unshed tears. Behind his parents he saw his three brothers and their wives.
 

At long last he was home!
 

Keiran stepped through the gates and into his parents’ arms.
 

“I thought you would never return,” his mother said through her tears.
 

Keiran smiled at her before he turned to his father.
 

“Son, we’re so proud of you,” King Urises said.
 

He stepped around his parents to be enveloped in his brothers’ arms, their hugs and pounding of his back brought laughter to everyone.
 
He rejoiced in every second of it.
 
There had been a time he feared he’d never see any of them again, but that was in the past.
 
Now, he was home.

When he could finally stand again, he looked to the women next to his brother and for just a heartbeat, felt as though something was missing.
 

“Keiran, where is your mate?” Elric asked.
 

Keiran shrugged. “What are you talking about?”
 

“Your mate?” Sorin repeated, worry lines bracketing his mouth.
 
“Where is she? You are no’ supposed to return without her.”
 

“And yet here I am,” Keiran replied and tried to turn away, yet Sorin gripped his arm and kept him still.
 

Queen Morag clasped her hands in front of her. “This can’t be happening. Urises, the curse.”
 

Lucian shifted feet. “Did the Tnarg attack? Did it kill your mate?”
 

“Of course no’,” Keiran said, but once more that uneasy feeling stole over him.
 
Why was everyone asking about his mate? “I never found my mate, but it doesna matter. I’m here.”
 

Elric snorted. “Of course it matters, you dolt. Did you bang your head or something? You can no’ return without your mate or Drahcir and all its occupants will disappear.”
 

Keiran crossed his arms over his chest. “Least you forget, brother, I’m the eldest. I know more about the curse than any of you.”
 

“That’s debatable,” Lucian murmured.
 

Keiran slid his gaze to his brother. “I didna hit my head, and the Tnarg didna kill my mate.”
 

“Keiran.”
 

The deep voice behind him was familiar, the note of urgency and warning sending a ripple of apprehension down Keiran’s back. He turned and found Aimery standing just outside the gates.
 

“You’re wrong,” the Fae commander said softly.
 
“The Tnarg did take your mate.”
 

Chapter Eight

For several heartbeats all Keiran could do was stare at Aimery. Surely the Fae commander was wrong. Wouldn’t Keiran know if he lost his mate? He would be screaming in agony over the loss, dying himself.
 

All around him, the silence was deafening. He could feel the stares of his people, the unspoken questions of his family. And all Keiran could do was stand with his heart pounding in his chest.
 

No longer could he deny the unease that nudged at his brain.
 
He looked at his brothers’ wives and then down beside him.
 
Someone was supposed to be with him.

“There’s something wrong,” he murmured.
 

Aimery took a step toward him, the Fae’s swirling blue eyes intense as they regarded him. “More than you know. You’ve had a spell cast upon you. You did find your mate. You were both on your way to Drahcir when you encountered trouble.”
 

“Impossible.”
Is it?
 
“I’d know.
 
I’d know!”
 

“Listen to your heart,” Elric said from behind him.
 

Keiran ignored his brother and pushed his cloak away from him. He would be able to know who was lying if the tattoo was on his arm. With one vicious jerk, he yanked the sleeve of his tunic off.
 

To find his arm bare of any tattoo.
 

He raised his gaze to Aimery. “See? I never found her.
 
There’s no mark.”
 

“The mere fact you looked is because you know it was once there, right?” Aimery asked softly.
 

Keiran raked a hand through his hair, his frustration and confusion growing by the moment. He began to pace. “This doesna make sense.”
 

Every time he tried to think of the day before, his head began to pound. He gripped his head between his hands.
 

“That’s the spell keeping you from remembering,” Aimery said.
 

This couldn’t be happening.
This isn’t happening.
Keiran had waited too long to return home to discover he had failed.
 
He dropped his hands and turned to Aimery. “How am I able to step through the gates? If my mate isna with me, why is Drahcir still here?”
 

Aimery sighed, a look of utter sadness reflected in his swirling blue eyes. “Your mate ended the curse, releasing you and all future Sinclairs from it.”
 

Keiran’s knees threatened to buckle as Aimery’s words penetrated his mind. He felt as if someone had just kicked him in the bollocks.
 
A flash of a woman’s beautiful smile rushed through his brain. He closed his eyes as he saw another image, this one of long curls of honey gold wrapped around his fingers.
 

“Keiran
.”

Her voice was soft and sweet as wine, her hands tender as they caressed his back before she urged him over her.

And then he knew.
 

By the gods!
 

“Senga.”
 

Keiran fell to his knees, threw back his head, and bellowed.
 
A pain so intense, so violent ripped through him that he thought his abdomen had been ripped apart. He put his hand on his chest and closed his eyes as the ache tore through him, a vast hole of nothingness that consumed him.
 

“Keiran, your arm,” Lucian said from beside him.
 

He glanced to find the tattoo was once again visible. Where was Senga, and who had done this to him?
 
Senga had ended the curse, but that no longer mattered.
 
He’d walk the entire breadth and width of the Earth five times over if it meant he could hold her in his arms again.

“Aimery?” he asked, his jaw clenched as rage filled him.

The Fae held up a hand. “Before you demand revenge, understand what your mate did.”
 

“I do,” Keiran said.
All too well
. “Where is Senga?”
 

Aimery closed his eyes, his body suddenly stiff.
 
“Saynarra. Show yourself.”
 

Almost instantly there was a flash of light and another Fae, this one a stunning female, appeared. She glanced at Aimery, but her attention remained on Keiran.
 

“How does it feel?” she asked Keiran, her smile one of gloating. “Do you enjoy knowing you will have to live your life without the one you love? Had Aimery not interfered, you would’ve married in a few years to a nice Drahcir girl and had many babies.”
 

“I. Want. Senga,” Keiran ground out as he climbed to his feet.
 
His hands itched to wrap around the Fae’s neck and squeeze the life from her.
 

Saynarra shrugged a slim shoulder. “She made a deal. It cannot be broken, nor will I relinquish her unless you’d like the curse to once more enthrall Drahcir.”
 

Keiran could no more do that than he could forget Senga.
 

“You forget something, Saynarra,” Aimery said. “The deal you made with Senga is broken.”
 

The Fae woman rolled her eyes. “Nothing could break that pact.”
 

“You went back your word to Senga,” Aimery continued as if she hadn’t spoken. “You swore to her that Keiran would never remember a single thing about her.”
 

Keiran clenched his hands into fists. “I remember
everything
about my mate.”
 

Saynarra’s swirling blue eyes moved from Keiran to Aimery and back again. “You did this, Aimery!”
 

“You’ve had your revenge,” the Fae commander said. “For centuries you put the Sinclairs and their mates in danger.
 
Senga willingly gave her life for the curse to be broken. Lift your spell over Senga.”

“Never!”
 

Keiran could hear the murmurs of his people, but it was the sound of his brothers pulling their blades from their scabbards that had him reaching for his own sword. Humans couldn’t win a battle with a Fae, but the Sinclairs weren’t going to stand idly by while one held Keiran’s mate.
 

“Give me Senga,” he demanded.
 

Aimery smiled, his lips peeled menacingly over his teeth as he looked at the Fae. “She has no choice but to do it. Saynarra. Return Senga. Now.”
 

Keiran waited with bated breath for his beloved. Yet nothing happened. He glanced at Saynarra and found her beginning to laugh.
 

She threw back her flaxen head and cackled.
 
“You want Senga returned?” she asked Keiran. “Then you can have her.”
 

There was a blinding flash. Keiran looked at his feet to find Senga laying half on the snow and half on the blue stones of Drahcir.
 

He went to his knees instantly and dragged her to his chest. “Senga,” he called.
 
“Senga, I’m here, love.
 
Open your eyes for me.
 
You’re home now.
 
We’re home.”
 

But she didn’t stir.