Saoirse
I wake up feeling groggy, limbs heavy, lethargic like I’ve been asleep for years.
“Where am I?” I say out loud, rubbing my head. The words seem to echo around the unfamiliar space.
I blink a couple of times, forcing the sleep out of my eyes before I take another look around.
“Jesus.”
There is an echo. Because the room I’m in is huge. The ceilings are high enough that I have to crane my neck back to see all the way up.
In fact, they’re so high that there are two sets of windows. One at a normal human height, and the second group set far above. Those are much smaller, but they let the light in in beautiful ways.
The walls are made of stone. Impossibly massive, ancient blocks of stone.
This is no house.
This isn’t even a mansion.
This can only be a—
The door opens with a soft creak. Cillian walks in with a mug of something hot.
Steam rises off the surface and curls around his beautiful face. A face that’s been wiped clean of the dirt and grime of battle.
Oh, fuck! The battle.
It all comes crashing back to me.
Including the literal crash that I had knowingly and purposefully committed.
“Hey, hey,” Cillian says, moving quickly to my side and setting the mug down next to the bed. “Don’t panic now. You’re safe.”
“What happened?”
He smiles. “I should be asking you that question.”
Right.
Theoretically, I was supposed to be at the mansion, waiting for his return.
Except that I’d decided that I wasn’t the waiting-around type. I mean, I suppose I am, because that’s what I’d done for the last thirteen years.
But the point is, I didn’t want to be the waiting-around type anymore.
Which is why I’d made the decision to follow Cillian and his men.
“I… followed you.”
His lip curls slightly. He’s annoyed at me. But there’s something else there, too.
Pride, perhaps?
“How did you manage that?”
“It was easier than you’d think,” I offer. “Kian was locked in the office coordinating things. Quinn was in there helping him. You’d taken most of the men with you. And I had a small window of time before more of your men arrived to guard the compound.”
“So you left?”