With her back to him, she poured the potion from vial to cup.
She handed him a cup, tapped hers to it. When she sipped and he didn’t, she tried again.
“And you can drink to me on my pledging with Loren, and wish me happy.”
He looked into her eyes. “I would drink to such news as that, and wish you happy.”
As he lifted the cup, Kiara stumbled in the door. “No, Taoiseach, no. Don’t drink it.”
When her knees buckled, Breen lowered her into a chair.
“She made a love potion,” Breen told him.
“What terrible lie is this! What have you done to Kiara, my friend? Why, there’s blood! Keegan, she’s—”
“Silence!” He set the cup down and, waving his hand over it, sealed the potion inside. “Did you think I wouldn’t sense it, couldn’t smell it? What do you take me for?”
He grabbed Shana’s arm before she could move, and, thrusting his hand into the pocket of her skirt, pulled out the vial.
“That you would do such a thing to another. Someone with all you have would do this to take more. You would break a sacred law, betray my trust, harm a friend, all for your pride.”
Her fury snapped so strong she couldn’t call the tears.
“I gave you what you asked for, what you wanted, and you spurned me.”
“We gave each other what we wanted, for a time, then it wasn’t enough, it seems, for either of us.”
“You would take her over me?”
He looked into her eyes, spoke the cruel truth. “I would never have taken you.”
“Bloody bastard, you’ll pay.” She jerked her arm free. “I swear you’ll pay. Your mongrel whore will know my wrath, as will you.”
With Kiara weeping, Shana blurred from the room.
“She won’t get far.” After pressing his fingers to his eyes, he walked over to crouch in front of Kiara. “There now, darling, where are you hurt?”
“She hit me. I think she hit me.”
As Kiara started to lift her hand to the back of her head, Breen took it, laid her other on Kiara’s head. “I know it hurts. Let me finish.”
“I saw—I saw on her dressing table, and I said no, she couldn’t. I said she had to give the potion to me, and I’d destroy it. I wouldn’t tell anyone. I’m sorry, I’m sorry. She’s my friend, and I wouldn’t have told anyone even though it’s law.”
“It’s all right now.” He shot a glance up at Breen, saw the flickers of pain, the concentrated focus as she worked. “Who wouldn’t do the same for a friend?”
Weeping, Kiara clung to Keegan’s hand. “But I think … After all, I think she was never my friend.”
“No, darling, but you were hers.”
Minga flew into the room with Tarryn right behind her. “Oh, my baby!”
“Let Breen finish, let her finish, Minga. Kiara’s doing fine now, just fine. Aren’t you, darling?”
Tears continued to fall in a flood, but she nodded as Minga dropped down beside Keegan and took Kiara’s hand.
“She hit me. I think. I said if she wouldn’t listen to me, she would listen to my mother. I was going to get you, Ma, bring you, but she hit me, I think, because my head—a terrible pain, and then Breen was there, and Brigid with her. It doesn’t hurt so much now, truly it doesn’t.”
“Feel a bit unsettled in your belly, don’t you?” Tarryn got another cup, poured some of what she carried in a bottle into it.
“I do, aye, but not as much now. What will happen to Shana? She wasn’t thinking right, she couldn’t have been. It was more than one of her tempers. If she—”
“Ah now, that’s not for you to worry about.” Soothing, gentle, Tarryn stroked Kiara’s face. “You drink this now, my good girl. That’s the way, every drop.”
When Breen stepped back, Tarryn ran her hands over Kiara’s head, her neck, her shoulders. Then, with a smile, nodded at Breen.
“Now, you’ll go with your ma, have a bit of a lie down, and you’ll be fine.” She stepped over to lay a hand on Minga’s shoulder. “She’ll be fine, I promise you.”
“Aye, she will, with a head as hard as my girl’s. Come, my love, you can rest in my bed as you did when you were a little.”
“Tell me this if you can, Kiara.” Keegan helped her stand. “Do you know where she would’ve gotten what she needed? Where she would have learned the words?”