CVIII

When her song had finished, Kieran held her where he could look at her, the man staring for hours. It made her uncomfortable, the intensity of his scrutiny, but each time she

turned her head away he would gently bring it back so that the green of her eyes was not denied to him.

Their cards were on the table. Lyla had proclaimed Tasha did not love him, and in doing so proclaimed he was a self-deluded pawn. The revelation cutting him deeply, though she suspected it was something he already knew and laboriously struggled to accept. Kieran had accused her of harboring thoughts of killing their child before Tasha or Kieran might ruin him. She did, and it made her hate herself for all the doubt that flourished inside her, how every day her resolve weakened.

Neither was at peace, each of them raw from battle. But Kieran was still bigger and he would not let her move.