“Last night.” Irial crouched down in front of her.
“How?” She pushed away every emotion, not by choice, but by necessity. Her feelings threatened to drown her. She shook from the intensity of the rage snarling inside her. Rage made sense, chased away the tears. Her skin stung like crawling things were all over her. It hurt too much to even let the anger well up.
Focus.
She took several breaths, caught Irial’s gaze, and asked, “How did she… did it happen?”
“It was quick,” Irial hedged. “Can we leave it at that for now?”
Ani stared at him. Her once-king, her protector all of these years, was undoubtedly devastated too—and guilt- stricken.
“For the moment,” she whispered. There were tears inside, but letting them fall meant Tish was really gone.
She can’t be.
Ani stood. “I should go to Rabbit.”
“He’s fine. Your house is the safest place in the city tonight. I promise.” Irial reached out and brushed her hair back. “I’m sorry, Ani. We thought we had enough guards, and she hadn’t tried anything. There were Hounds here, and if Tish hadn’t…”
“Hadn’t what?”
“She slipped out.” Irial scowled; at himself or at Tish, Ani wasn’t sure. “You’d think they could keep track of her, and… I don’t know why she did it.”
“She didn’t like to be caged. She did better than I do, but after a few days, she was still Gabriel’s daughter, and…” Ani shuddered at the thought of telling her father. “Does he know?”
“He does. The Hunt all know.” Irial looked lost, like he wanted to say something that would make everything right, but there was nothing. “Ani…”
She looked at him, not wanting to comfort him, not wanting to hear his words, not wanting the conversation to continue.
“Go check on Rabbit, please? I need… I need…” Ani’s words faltered. She look
ed past Irial to Devlin.
He crossed the room to her side.
She folded her arms over her chest, but it didn’t stop the trembling.
“Bananach would have to kill me in order to touch Ani.” Devlin said the words evenly. “Anyone killing me is very unlikely.”
Irial looked from one to the other, and then he left.
The quiet in the room was so much worse than before. It was empty. Tish wouldn’t ever come running into the studio again. She wouldn’t be there arguing over the music they played. She wouldn’t scold Ani. She wouldn’t anything.
Bananach had killed her.
Ani’s heart felt like it would stop, and for a moment she wished it would. It should’ve been me. Tish was gone, and Ani was left without her.
Ani looked at Devlin. “I want her dead for this.”
CHAPTER 29
Devlin had no words for Ani as she stood there silently. He knew this was when comfort was to be offered. Logic insisted there should be something he could say. There really wasn’t. His sister had killed her sister.
Ani didn’t weep. She stared at him with dry eyes. “Help me? I need to fix… this.”
“It isn’t something you can fix.” Devlin wished there was more he could say, some word, some promise. He couldn’t. War destroyed lives, families, hope. If they didn’t find a way to nullify Bananach, this would be just the first member of Ani’s family to die.
Words weren’t of any use, so Devlin pulled her into his arms.