Lorcan

I glared at Conall as he sat across from me, the faint gray of the early morning visible through the windows behind him.

My fingers curled around yet another glass of whiskey.

The acrid scent burned away what little patience I had left.

I emptied the glass and dropped it with a loud clunk on the table beside my chair.

Conall gave me a deadpan stare from the table in our suite before lifting his free hand and swiping his screen in an exaggerated motion.

I narrowed my eyes at him, the silence heavy.

My phone had rung at three in the morning.

Patricia had finally found the hotel Briar had stayed in while in Edinburgh.

Her team had also located the Waverley Station footage, confirming that she had boarded a train to Aberdeen.

I drummed my fingers on the arm of the chair, wanting to kick myself.

I had been there just yesterday. If I had only stayed, I might have found her today.

But no, I had to go running around like a fool.

I could still hear Conall’s words before he had acquiesced to us leaving Aberdeen and coming here.

“You’re tearing after her like a hound on a scent.

A stag that panics makes it that much easier to kill.

You need to think like the lynx, brother—watch, wait, and when you move, make damn sure it counts.

But keep running in circles if it makes you feel better. Zadie has the plans filed.”

He had disappeared an hour after we checked into the hotel, not returning until after the call, his sclera burning red, and his pupils ash.

He reeked of booze, sex, and death. “You really should find someone to eat, Lorcan,” he slurred with a smile after I explained we needed to leave.

“Until Patricia can give me an exact location, I’m staying right here. Now, if you’ll excuse me…”

He shut the door to his room in my face before he stumbled to the bed.

I swallowed my anger as my heart clenched.

I hadn’t been his big brother for one hundred and fifteen years, so demanding he treat me that way now would fall on deaf ears.

I had no choice but to wait. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t do anything.

I called Patricia back and directed her to pull all the videos from the ferry to Orkney, Kirkwall, and Tingwall.

I knew Briar was there. I poured myself a drink and sat in the chair I still sat in, waiting for the phone to ring.

“Brother,” I said, not bothering to mask the frustration in my voice, “when will we be able to leave? We both know where she’s headed.”

Conall let out a long sigh before sipping the tea in front of him. “We leave once Patricia confirms she’s there. I’m not running all over Great Britain. If you recall, we were just in Aberdeen twenty-four hours ago, and you insisted on coming here.”

I scoffed. “You could just say I told you so and stop trying to sound all proper about it.”

Conall smirked, his fingers drumming on his cup as if he were deciding how far to push me. “Or had you listened to your intuition and stuck with it.”

I shook my head. “You are quite the ass some days, you know that?”

He sat back, stretching his legs and crossing his arms and ankles. “As the youngest of four assholes, I’ll remind you—I learned it from all of you.”

I closed my eyes, shaking my head, a bitter chuckle escaping my lips. There was no arguing with that. In nine hundred years of existence, we had rarely embraced the good.

Conall took another sip of tea. “So I have a question for you. One you may not like.”

I sighed, weary after the past few days. “There are a lot of questions I don’t like, but something tells me you’re going to ask it anyway.”

He tilted his head. “Are you ever going to tell Briar the truth?”

I chuckled dryly. “You mean the truth that I am the same Lord Lorcan who got her ancestor transported to Australia?”

He nodded. “Yes, that truth.”

I dropped my voice, my fingers pinching and pulling at the arm of the chair as I stared at them. “I don’t see what good it’ll do. It’s not like there’s anything that can be done about it. And really, doesn’t this entire search show that Briar is safer without me?”

Conall leaned his arms on the table. “You know, Cormac felt that way not too long ago.” He twisted the cup on the saucer. “And now look at him.”

I pulled my hand back and clenched my jaw. “Yes, but that’s different. Fated mates have no choice but to be together. Leave it to him to be fated to someone.”

Conall smirked and picked up his tea as though he wanted to say something but was holding back.

I pressed my lips together as my throat tightened. “I don’t think the same applies to Briar and me. She isn’t magical, so what would fate want with her?”

Conall smiled. “Maybe it isn’t the magic. Or maybe love itself is a different kind of magic.”

I snorted, glancing at my glass, wondering if getting another glass of whiskey would be too conspicuous. “I think you’ve been hanging out with poets for too long.” I didn’t want to think about his words.

Conall lifted his cup, holding it between both hands.

“You know, it wasn’t too long ago I wasn’t the one hanging out with poets.

I had a brother who believed in love and magic, who saw it in the everyday cracks of the world, in humanity itself.

One who saw how the right music could shift the night, or a shared look could change the world.

Now all you want to look into is the bottom of that whiskey glass. ”

I narrowed my eyes, my voice low. “Yes, well, we saw where that got him, didn’t we? He shared his world with the wrong person and destroyed a woman’s life.”

Conall ran a finger around the rim of his cup. “You cannot continue to blame yourself for Ashdowne’s transgressions.”

The ghosts of my past were always there, lingering, waiting to come back to haunt me. It didn’t matter how many years went by. I couldn’t change it. I couldn’t right the wrong. And now the same thing was happening with Briar and me.

I traced the design etched into my glass. “I could have gotten Ashdowne out of there faster. I should have listened to my intuition then, just as I’m listening to it now.” The echo of Isobel’s strangled sobs as we took her to her fallen husband still rang in my ears, even after all these years.

Conall chuckled, though the sound was devoid of amusement. “Ashdowne was always going to be a danger to other people. Once you turned him, and he got a taste of blood? That was it for him. Isobel did us a favor.”

I exhaled sharply, glancing at the clock. The numbers blurred for a moment before I refocused. “Yes, well, it still destroyed her life,” I muttered before a stony silence fell over us.

My phone rang, the shrill sound cutting through the air like a knife. I answered on speaker. “Patricia, what have you found?”

Her voice was clear and professional, but I swore I could hear the faintest trace of satisfaction.

“Well, Lorcan, you were right. We found footage of Briar boarding the ferry in Aberdeen last night. She arrived in Kirkwall and spent the night at an inn. We just spoke with them, and they confirmed she was going to Tingwall to get the ferry to Wyre.”

I battled a smile, the tightness in my chest easing. We had finally found her. “Thank you, Patricia,” I said before hanging up, my tone measured. I looked at my brother, not wanting him to see the joy filling my heart. “Is that enough? Can we go back to Aberdeen now?”

Conall drained his cup with deliberate slowness, then nodded. “Absolutely. I’ll make sure the flight is ready. I’m sure Zadie will love it.”

I chuckled, shaking my head. “She enjoyed the propeller plane we took from Aberdeen.”

Conall groaned. “Yes, but she didn’t need to bank hard enough that I could see the ocean from my side of the plane.”

I clapped him on the shoulder, the tension between us finally lightening. “She simply called it a spirited ascent.”

“It still doesn’t mean I want to lose my lunch.”

I smirked. “Then don’t eat.”

Conall let out an exaggerated sigh as he stood, the legs of the chair scraping against the floor. He stretched and looked around. “I guess I’ll go gather my things. Are you going to shower?”

I shook my head. “I wasn’t the one running through the underbelly of the city last night.”

My brother smiled. “Yes, well… She tasted good.” He let the words hover in the air before heading to his room.

Within a few hours, we were back in the sky. Conall and I sat facing each other at the dining table, a flask resting between us. He took a sip, then extended it toward me. “You really ought to have some.”

I shook my head, the metallic scent curling to my nostrils, but I ignored it, my stomach bubbling. “I’m fine. I don’t need to eat nearly as often as you all think I do.”

Conall bit the inside of his cheek. “The last thing you want is for bloodlust to take over when you’re in the middle of searching for Briar,” he warned. “Or worse, when you find her.”

I wrinkled my forehead. “You seem to think something is going to go wrong.”

He shrugged. “I just want to make sure it doesn’t.”

I leaned forward, resting my elbow on my knee.

“I promise you, I will be fine. There’s no way I would ever hurt Briar.

I’ve controlled myself for the past nine hundred years.

Nothing about this will make me lose control.

” If only I believed that statement to be accurate, as the desire to be near her grew stronger by the hour.

How could I tell my brother the truth—the absolute truth?

Conall didn’t argue, but he didn’t look away either. We both sat back in silence. The sounds of his soft inhale as he prepared to speak broke the hush.

“You know,” he said, “since we know where Briar is now, and you’re not supposed to be in Orkney long, maybe I should stay in Aberdeen.”

I arched an eyebrow. “You just want to avoid the next puddle jumper with Zadie.”

He rolled his eyes. “If Aiden’s tracking Briar, he’ll realize she passed through here. I can coordinate with Joshua and Patricia from Aberdeen to review ferry manifests, flight logs, and CCTV footage. Hopefully, I’ll see him coming if he moves. And if he does, I’m better positioned to intercept.”

I sat back, turning the thought over in my mind. “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet. If he comes through here, I might need to stall him the hard way.”

I gave him a tight smile, one of the first that wasn’t forced. “Just make sure it’s him before you break his neck.”

“No promises.”

I smirked. “Cormac won’t be pleased if you don’t attempt to solve this with diplomacy.”

Conall rolled his eyes but stayed silent.

My smile grew. “It’s been much too long since I’ve teased you like this.”

“Well, whose fault is that?” He took another swig from the flask.

I folded my arms across my chest. “I know it’s my fault, Conall. And I’m sorry that I ran.”

He exhaled heavily, his gaze drifting toward the cabin window.

“I heard about what happened in Waterford,” I continued. “The way Aiden tricked you into being there when he beheaded Charles. Runa never should have gone after you for it.”

Conall screwed the cap onto his flask. “Yeah, well, nothing like running from your home to save your hide.”

I took a deep breath, clenching my fists as they sat on the table, focusing on them.

“I should have been there to help you. I should have been there, as I always had been. I just… I wanted nothing to do with him. I still want nothing to do with him. Or any of this. I want to live in peace and not worry that our power-hungry brother is going to destroy my life, my family, at any moment.”

Conall drew in a heavy breath. “Then why don’t you stay and help us now?” His voice didn’t waver in the slightest.

I sat back, shaking my head. “And what good would that do?”

“You saw what happened when you were here,” Conall pressed, exasperated. “The three of us working together, with Declan on our side, have a chance of stopping Aiden and finding the Cure.”

“We don’t even know how the Cure can help,” I countered.

“You’re right. We don’t,” he admitted. “But unless we try, we’ll never know.

The world is finally returning to how it’s supposed to be.

The Coven of the Blood remembers their place—what they’re supposed to be doing—the balance, the light and dark.

” He paused, watching me. “And we need to trust Rory and her magic. She’ll be able to see this through. ”

“It still doesn’t make sense—why Mother and Father kept everything about the Cure from us. Or why we’re even like this to begin with.” I paused, my mind drifting. “Do you remember how obsessed we were with finding another dhampir when we were younger?”

Conall’s eyes widened. “Don’t tell me you did.”

I nodded. “In South America. But he didn’t need blood like we did growing up. He didn’t need it until he died, and his vampire half still lived.”

“But did he walk in the sun?”

“Yes. He was more sensitive to it than when he was human. And his blood didn’t protect others.”

Conall’s face twisted. “Why all the differences?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps it is something you can ask the Cure when Cormac finds him.”

Conall sucked in his bottom lip for a beat before raising his gaze to mine. “You should ask him yourself, because we’ll only be strong enough to figure this out together.”

He hesitated, his following words soft but weighted.

“And maybe… it’ll bring our parents home.”

I looked out the plane window, the blue skies calling me like the ocean. I ignored the flicker in my chest, the flicker of hope. I swallowed hard and pushed it away—just as I always did. Hope, like love, was a dangerous thing to hold too close.