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And that’s when I let him have it.

I give a quick and brutal tug at the exact moment Niall starts to lean, the resulting force taking him off guard and throwing him off balance. The look on his face is priceless; shock and disbelief war together just before he comes crashing to the ground, and then he’s sprawled on his arse with a dazed expression as I let my rope drop to the grass.

The gathered crowd starts to cheer, but my blood is pulsing in my ears, and I’m already striding over to Key’s tower, ignoring the whistles and whoops as I start to climb the ladder. She’s waiting for me at the top; her grin wide and her cheeks flushed from the sun, rising from her makeshift throne to meet me as I step onto the platform with her.

“That was something,” she says. Her eyes rake down my bare chest. “Wow, I kind of like you all sweaty.”

“Do you?”

“Mhm.” She plucks at my kilt with her fingers, humming her approval. “And Ireallylike this.”

I wind an arm around her waist, pulling her against me. “I was promised a prize.”

“Well,” she hums, throwing her arms around my neck. “Come and get it, then.”

I cover her mouth with mine, kissing her in a way that is far from appropriate for the casual prize she was supposed to have given me, but finding I don’t care in the slightest. Adrenaline is coursing through me, so much so that I can almost feel myself giving in to my more beastly instincts—almost as if the idea of her touching someone else has the monster inside me needing to remind her who she belongs to.

Because she really does feel likemine.

I lick my tongue through her mouth and capture the tiny whimper that results because of it, knowing that after this, people will definitely have things to say. That rumors will be flying all over the place. I decide then that I don’t care about that either. Let them talk. As long as I’m the only one who gets to touch her like this. I mean, for fuck’s sake, I couldn’t even stand the idea of anyone else getting something as innocent as akissfrom her. Is that some possessive side effect of the curse? Some latent monsterly instinct that has me wanting to own all of her touches, her kisses, everything she’s willing to give?

Or is it just me?

One thing’s glaringly obvious. I’m obsessed with Keyanna MacKay. And given that my days could very well be numbered…I have no idea what to do with that information.

23

Keyanna

“It just felt like there was something there, you know?”

I lean back in the old metal chair stashed in the corner of the barn, letting my head rest against the inner wall. There’s no response, just like there hasn’t been for the last ten minutes I’ve been talking, but it doesn’t stop me from word-vomiting all my thoughts.

“I just heard about this journal, and it felt like one of those ‘this is it’ moments. Iknowmy dad didn’t have it back at our place in New York. I justknowit. So it has to be here, right?” More silence. “But…” I huff out a breath. “We’ve been searching all over the property for the last week, and there’s nothing. Not even a fucking stray letter stashed in a drawer. What in the world could he have done with it?”

Two eyes blink back at me lazily, her jaw working subtly as she stares at me with a bored expression. I blow out a breath, rising to my feet and crossing the distance between us so I can scratch at her jaw.

“You’re a good listener,” I tell Bethie, “but you smell terrible.”

She makes a lowmooing sound, huffing through her nostrils, which results in a spray of wet air that has me holding back a gag. “Seriously,” I groan. “Do you have to be so gross?”

“There you are,” I hear from the barn’s entrance behind me. Iglance over my shoulder, seeing Lachlan pushing off the doorframe and sidling up to where I’m still giving Bethie scritches. “I see you’ve finally decided the cows aren’t going to eat you.”

“Jury’s still out,” I tell him. “But she is weirdly cute. I guess.”

“You hear that, Bethie?” He runs his fingers along her cheek, scratching behind her ear as she tilts her head into his touch. “That’s a high compliment coming from this one.” I try to smile, but it doesn’t quite land. Lachlan doesn’t miss this. “Are you in here hiding so you can sulk?”

“I’m not…sulking,” I lie.

“Aye, you are.” He steps away from Bethie, wrapping his arm around my shoulders and pulling me in to press a kiss to my hair. “I told you. You can’t let this get to you. S’not your responsibility to solve everything.”

Then why does it feel like it is?

“I just thought we’d find it,” I admit, my voice soft. “Like at the castle.”

“That was a freak accident, Keyanna,” he says gently. “You’re not a bloody dowsing rod. And I don’t expect you to be, all right?”

I nod stiffly. “I guess.”