Page 15

Chapter fifteen

Brandon

“ D on’t worry about me,” I said. “I’ll be fine kicking my heels up relaxing in this fine castle.”

Roisin stared at me as though I had a neon sign on my head saying crazy. I might well be, but if this was her chance to escape, then I had to let her go. It was my duty to protect the Fae. My duty to put their lives before mine. I’d do even more to keep Roisin safe.

I didn’t believe a word the demons were saying. All humans grasped demons were liars. Cheaters. Soul stealers.

Get Roisin out of here. My family would be upset if I didn’t return.

“Can I talk to my guard for a minute first?” Roisin asked.

Tay snapped her fingers. “The servant will return you to your room. I’ll be along shortly to return you to Earth.”

I stood and walked with Roisin to the open doorway where the same servant demon who’d escorted us here waited to take us back .

Our trip back to the bedroom was stone quiet. I didn’t have it in me to tease Roisin, not with everything the demons had said to us. As soon as we were back in the bedroom, and the door locked behind us, I turned to her.

“Go.”

“I’m not leaving you here.”

“Roisin, go. This is your chance to escape. Your chance to return to your family.”

“But you should come with me.”

“It’s your chance to find your fated mate.”

She narrowed her eyes. “I can’t believe you’d stoop that low.”

“Why not? It’s what you keep harping on about.”

“I do not.” She threw her hands up in the air, sending a jolt of power into the ceiling and showering us with tiny snow particles.

“Look. You’ll survive outside if we try to escape. I won’t. If you go back now, then you can come back and get me out of here safely. Without me freezing to death.”

“You’re making entirely too much sense.”

I chuckled.

“You found a way here. You’ll find your way back.”

“But?”

“I must protect you. If me staying here does that, then you have to leave.”

“Oh, Brandon.” She sighed. “Your duty to the Fellowship shouldn’t put my life above yours.”

“Why?”

“Because all life is important, be that Fae or human, even demon. ”

“Roisin.” I sighed her name like a plea. “They won’t let me go with you, so stop arguing with me. I can study the demons while I’m here and find out if they’re lying to you.”

We stared at each other in a stalemate. The fire crackled as the flames danced around the room, bathing her in an ethereal glow. Even with her tiny tantrum, was she part rage demon? She was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

“If this is it for me, can you tell my mother and grandfather that I love them and that they shouldn’t mourn my loss because I died doing what the Fellowship trained me for?”

“You won’t give your life for mine.” She strode across the room. “I won’t allow it.”

“Hate to say it, Princess, but we don’t have a choice here.”

“There’s always a choice.”

Her gaze flickered from my eyes down to my mouth, back up to my eyes, down to my mouth. The ever-present tension between us thrummed as though magic itself.

“I suppose if you’re going to die, then I owe you a kiss.”

I wanted to cheer for victory. Instead, I slid my hand to the back of her head, reveling in the way she shivered from my touch. The air hung heavier still with the desire between us. I lowered my head slowly, wanting to remember this moment forever. She’d chosen me. Chosen to kiss me. Chosen me to be her first kiss. Well, I assumed her first kiss since she was a virgin and appeared to be saving herself for her fated mate.

Shoving that thought away, I took in the wide expanse of her eyes, staring at me with expectation and wonder. My gaze dropped to her lips. They parted as though pleading with me to take them. And I would. Lower my mouth moved until our lips hovered scant millimeters apart.

“You sense the connection too, don’t you?” I whispered.

I didn’t wait for her answer. My lips claimed hers. She gasped into my mouth, allowing me access to slip my tongue inside and coax hers into a melding of two souls.

This was no ordinary kiss.

It was claiming.

Demanding she was mine.

And be damned with her fated mate, wherever he might be.

Because Roisin was meant for me.