Something strikes him hard. Kiaran hits the wall with a rough jolt that makes him growl. He whirls, but the darkness is complete. I push myself through the water to reach him. His hands find mine in a crushing grip.
A laugh echoes around us and something flickers in the corner of my gaze, but it’s gone so fast. Then her voice is at my ear, claws grazing my neck softly. “What do you think? Does he love you enough, human?”
I take the risk. I draw on my powers, building them like a storm inside me and fighting through my blurring vision. But before I can defend myself, the Morrigan slashes her claws down my arm in a quick, painful swipe. My power dies, leaving behind a dull ache at my temples.
Kiaran’s harsh intake of breath fills my ears and he releases me.
“MacKay.” When I reach for him, I seize nothing but air.
“Don’t come near me. She’s doing this on purpose. She’s a water wraith.”
“What?”
It sounds as if his words are spoken through a grimace. “And she’s playing with us.”
I can’t remember his lessons. Not now. Not with the darkness pressing in, suffocating. My legs burn from treading water. “Water wraith?” I pant.
“They draw lovers together and turn them against one another. She’s using this form to find our weaknesses. She wants me to hurt you.”
The Morrigan’s laugh is in my ear. “Hurt you?” she whispers with a laugh. “He wants to kill you.”
I lash out to slam my fist into the creature’s face, but she’s too fast. She’s already behind me, breathing cold, biting words into my ear. “He can’t hide his thoughts from me. I was the first Unseelie. His blood is my blood.”
I whirl, lashing out again.
She’s at my back, a devil filling my head with terrible doubts. Where is Kiaran?
As if she senses me looking for him, the hot cave mist clears just enough for me to see him in profile. He’s so still. Not moving. Listening?
“It’s in his nature to hunt your kind.” I feel her shift around me, pressing closer. “He can only resist my curse for so long before he gives in. He can’t help but want to feed on you.”
That’s when I know, unquestionably, that the Morrigan isn’t just speaking to me. She isn’t only at my ear.
She’s at his.
I say his name, low and urgent. And when he looks at me . . . Oh god.
I go still. Kiaran is looking up at me through his lashes, his gaze dark, hooded, and intense.
Are you Kiaran or Kadamach?
Something flickers in his eyes. I don’t know.
“Do you see the way he looks at you?” The Morrigan sounds like a victor on the battlefield, walking through the bodies. “Right now he can hardly breathe without being tempted by your blood. That’s my curse.” Her lips are close to my ear. “That’s the punishment of his lineage.”
Snarling, I turn to grab the Morrigan, but just when I think I’ve connected with something solid, she turns into mist, slipping away with a throaty laugh.
“MacKay.” I surge through the water toward him. “Listen to me,” I say sharply when I reach him. “Listen to my voice. You’re the Unseelie King. Now snap the hell out of it and help me. How do we kill her?”
Kiaran shakes his head once, but the darkness doesn’t leave his face. We swim to another set of boulders jutting out of the water; he’s as close as he can get without touching me.
His voice dips just low enough for me to hear, his words uneven, forced. “If she takes physical form, you might be able to overpower her and prevent her from going incorporeal again.”
“How do we make her take physical form?”
Kiaran exhales in a shuddering breath, then rests his palm on my cheek. “Trust me.”
As he bends in closer, I can see the hunger in his gaze. His pupils are dilated like a predator ready to attack its kill.
Then, with aching softness, he presses his lips to mine.
It takes all my effort to stay still, to stop myself from pulling him closer. My fingernails bite into the skin of my palms. Stay still. Don’t move. Don’t breathe. Don’t even think. I know his control is tenuous. I sense it when his lips tremble against mine. In the slow, deliberate way he breathes as if he’s trying to keep calm.
For us, it’s a chaste kiss. I don’t know how such a simple touch leaves me shivering, but I’m not the only one.
Kiaran’s fingers trail down my wet coat, a touch of fire through the cold material. Then his hand slips underneath to find my waist, fingers brushing the skin where my shirt and trousers meet. My mind whispers a simple word. Yes, I think. Yes.
Claws slash across my back, ripping through the fabric and deep into my skin, and I cry out. But my instincts don’t fail me. I twist out of Kiaran’s arms, raise my palms, and unleash my power.
Stay, I command with all the force of the Cailleach. Be still.
The Morrigan in the wraith’s body thrashes, sloshing water everywhere. Her sapphire eyes flash with rage and disgust. “Filthy human.”
“This filthy human has you trapped,” I say. “MacKay.” When he doesn’t move to strike, I glance at him. “MacKay?”
A soft curse escapes me.
He’s staring at me—no, not at me. At my back, where the Morrigan slashed her wraith claws through my skin so deeply that I can smell my blood mixing into the water.
Kiaran’s lips part. Then I see the small flash of fangs descend over his teeth. When his eyes meet mine, the normally bright, uncanny lilac of his eyes is shadowed by something darker.
Something ravenous.
“There it is,” whispers the Morrigan. “My beautiful Unseelie curse.”
“Shut up,” I say sharply.
Already, the energy to keep her corporeal is taking its toll. I’m growing lightheaded, dizzy. My temples pound, and dots flash across my vision. My human body can’t take it and I’ve had no chance to mend since last using my powers. I’m afraid that if I move to kill her, I’ll black out again.
Trust him. Trust him.
The Morrigan comes closer, straining against the limits of my powers. She senses an opportunity. “I can read his thoughts. Shall I tell you?”
“Stop.” My vision is fading.
“He’s fighting between his feelings for you and his will to survive. Which do you think will triumph? Do you think he can go against what he was made for? What I designed him to do? My curse always wins.”
His hunger will always win out. Always.
“MacKay,” I say, his name barely a whisper as I fight to stay conscious. “Look at me. Listen to my voice.”
Are you Kiaran or Kadamach?
He’s closer, moving through the water like a great shadow. It makes him seem bigger, more formidable. Even with his powers bound, Kiaran isn’t human. He’s a creature of darkness, fae in every way. That Unseelie in him that I always saw lurking beneath the surface is no longer hidden.
And the focus of his attention—of that towering build and those deep, dark eyes—is me. There’s nothing in his gaze to indicate that he sees me as anything other than a means of his survival.
Trust him. Trust him.
His name is on my lips, a pleading whisper. Look at me. Come back to me.
The Morrigan laughs.
Trust him. Trust him.