Page 132 of First Light

“You tried to convince me to forget him. It’s not your fault.” A thought froze Carys and glued her feet to the floor.

Duncan had tried to get Carys to forget Lachlan. He’d tried to convince her to go home and move on with her life, undoubtedly knowing that if she’d done that, he never would have spoken to her again in his life.

The woman he thought might be his destiny.

Duncan would have given up any chance with her to keep her from the Shadowlands. To keep her safe.

“Carys, what’s wrong?”

She shook herself out of her frozen realization. “Nothing.” Her voice was barely over a whisper. “I forgive you. I mean… there’s no need to even ask. It’s fine. It’s just not the time to think about all this and?—”

“Exactly.” He nodded. “I agree. The priority is finding Seren’s killer.” He rose and started walking to the door.

“Yeah.” She nodded. “That’s the most important thing right now. And after we figure out what happened?—”

“It’s not important.” He glanced at the table. “Please make sure to eat something tonight. It’s only been a week and a half, and I can see you getting thinner. This place is hard on a body.”

“I will.” Her voice caught a little bit. “And I think it’s important.”

Duncan turned at the door, his hand on the bronze latch. “What is?”

“Figuring out how I feel about you. And about Lachlan.”

His face went blank. “You don’t owe either of us anything.”

She frowned. “Aren’t you worried about me getting my feelings about you and your brother confused? I mean, right now I wonder if Lachlan fell in love with me or just with the woman who looked like Seren.”

Duncan couldn’t stop his smile. “Oh, I don’t worry about that.” He walked slowly to where she was standing by the table and gently lifted a hand to her cheek.

She could feel the heat of his body in the cool room, the subtle humming of his massive energy, vibrating within his stillness.

He didn’t touch her skin, but he tucked a piece of her hair behind her ear, his hand hovering at her temple. “You never liked me from the beginning. If you ever give me a chance, Carys Morgan, it’ll be because I earned it.”

Carys walkedto the library the next morning, looking for a book in English that might tell her more about Briton history and the Queens’ Pact.

Or a spy novel, but that was probably hoping for too much.

She was trying not to think about how much she missed her mobile phone and what that said about her. She’d thought she had a healthy balance with technology when she was at home—not being one of those people whose face was always stuck to a screen—but she was starting to realize that when you had hours and hours of nothing but your own thoughts swirling around your head, solitude could be tedious.

She opened the double doors to the massive castle library and caught Aisling rummaging around in the stack of crated books.

“Carys!” She looked up with a slightly panicked smile. “How are you? I heard you had an adventure with a bear yesterday.” She wiped her face, only to leave a smudge of dirt behind.

“Yes.” She looked at the pile of crates, which appeared to be the same ones where Seren’s journals had been stored. “Can I help you look for something?” Why was Aisling looking in Seren’s books?

“Oh, could you?” Her quick relief dispelled Carys’s suspicions. “Ages ago, I loaned Seren a book about fae history and I think she forgot to return it, and now Regan is asking for it and I don’t know where it is, and books here aren’t like books in the Brightlands.” She sniffed and started to rummage around again. “They’re still mostly handwritten, so they’re very valuable.”

“Sure, I’ll help you look.” She walked over. “Point me to a crate.”

“Try this one.” She patted a wooden box. “It’s mostly books on dragons and flying and such, so it’s probably not in there, but she wasn’t the most organized person.”

“Right.” Carys pulled the crate over to a stool and started to sort through the books, none of which were labeled on the spine. “What language?”

“Anglian.” Aisling nodded. “So anything not Anglian, just set to the side.” She started digging through her crate again. “Regan is moving forward on helping me with my grimoire. Finally.”

“Good.” Carys glanced at her as she set aside something that was clearly in Welsh. “So after that, you’ll leave Alba?”

Aisling nodded. “Yes. It’s time. It’s past time, of course, but…”