Better at every discipline, she thought dryly.
And also so compassionate, despite all that he’d seen in the world. When her cousin had called her nervously, begging her to come to Ireland, Rocky had been quick to tell Devin that yes, naturally, Adam Harrison and Jackson Crow—the founder and Director Special Agent of their unit, respectively—would give them leave to do so. And it had all worked out well, really, because they’d toyed with the idea of a wedding—neither wanted anything traditional, large, or extravagant—and they’d made some tentative plans, thinking they’d take time after and head for a destination like Bermuda.
They chose not to put off the wedding; in fact, they pushed it up a bit. And instead of Bermuda or the Caribbean, they headed to Ireland.
A working honeymoon might not be ideal. Still, they’d been living together for six months before they married, so it wasn’t really what some saw as a traditional honeymoon anyway. And, St. Patrick’s Day was March 17th, just three days away from their landing on the Emerald Isle that noon. Her cousin, Kelly Karney, had promised amazing festivities, despite the recent death of Kelly’s uncle, Collum Karney—the real reason they had come.
A heart attack, plain and simple.
Then why was Collum discovered after the screeching, terrible howl of the banshee with the look of horror upon his face described by Brendan?
“They say,” Gary the Ghost intoned, his voice rich and carrying across the fire, and yet low and husky as well, “that Castle Karney carries within her very stone the heart and blood of a people, the cries of their battles, the lament of those lost, indeed, the cry of dead and dying…and the banshee come to greet them. Ah, yes, she’s proven herself secure. ‘Castle Karney in Karney hands shall lie, ’til the moon goes dark by night and the banshee wails her last lament!’ So said the brave Declan Karney, just as the steel of his enemy’s blade struck his flesh!”
Devin turned to look up at the castle walls.
Castle Karney.
Covered in time, rugged as the cliffs she hugged, and… Even as Devin looked at the great walls, it seemed that a shadow fell over them to embrace them, embrace Karney. A chill settled over her as she looked into the night, blinking. The shadow as dark and forbidding as the…
As the grave.
As Gary said, as old as time, and the caress of the banshee herself.
Chapter 2
“Devin?”
The grip of cold that had settled over Devin immediately broke; she felt Rocky’s warmth and turned back to him.
“Hey, my love, forget me already?” Rocky asked softly. “Any ghosts yet?” His eyes, as darkly green as a forest in the campfire light, held concern.
“No,” she whispered back and forced a smile. “But, of course, I have heard the story about Brianna and Declan before.”
“No self-respecting castle would be complete without a tragic love story,” Rocky said softly. “You’re worried. It may all be fancy. Collum, from what I understand, was a very big man who loved red meat and ale and might well have been a prime candidate for a heart attack,” he said gently.
She nodded, squeezing his hand. “We’ll find out, won’t we?”
She meant her words to be a statement. There was a question in them instead.
Rocky pulled her back against him. “We’ll find the truth,” he said with assurance. “And we’ll see that Kelly is fine.”
She nodded.
Tragically, Kelly’s mother—Devin’s Aunt April—had been killed in a car crash when Kelly had been ten and Devin just nine, but Seamus and Kelly and Devin’s family had maintained a close and caring relationship, despite her death, and despite the fact that Seamus wasn’t actually Devin’s mother’s brother but her brother-in-law.
Devin and Kelly had both been way too young to understand the difference in how a person was an aunt or an uncle—they just were.
Devin had always adored her uncle Seamus and even when she’d been older and known the difference, he’d been just as good as any blood relation as far as she was concerned. Seamus kept their young lives filled with wonderful tales at all times, many of them, naturally, about Castle Karney.
Devin’s family had joined Seamus and Kelly once, when the girls had been young teens. Devin had met the two older Karney brothers, Collum and Brendan, at that time.
Collum, the oldest, had inherited the castle. He and Brendan had lived and worked there together—neither having married—and both discovered that in modern times, castles demanded a lot of love and elbow grease.
But neither Collum nor Brendan had procreated—which left Seamus Karney and then Kelly Karney to inherit the estate, a complicated state of affairs, or it might have been had Ireland not made many changes in the past decades and if Seamus had not seen to it that his daughter had carried dual citizenship from the time she was born.
Kelly had loved her Uncle Collum dearly—just as she loved her Uncle Brendan.