Page 23 of The Darkest Knight

“There are ways around Meliot’s enchantments.” Gavin’s slight smile was the kind that never quite reached his eyes. “Take mine, for instance. I couldn’t bear a woman’s touch, which made my terms seem impossible—my Sabrina had to make love to me to break it. Seemed insurmountable, didn’t it? And yet …” He trailed off, the silence serving as its own explanation.

Niall stiffened, standing straighter. The conversation stirred something he didn’t want to confront. “I have to go. Can you help Tamara understand that all of you need to concentrate on finding a way to help Padriag?”

“No, he can’t,” Tamara interrupted, her voice cutting through the air, tight with irritation. “I need to ask you a couple more questions before you poof out of here.”

Niall turned to Gavin, who merely shrugged, the faintest smirk tugging at his lips before he pushed off the wall and walked away, leaving Niall alone with her. He sighed inwardly, bracing himself for whatever was coming.

Painfully transparent doubt clouded Tamara’s gaze, frustration knit her brow, and uncertainty flickered in the way she shuffled her feet. She bit her bottom lip in thought, her eyes locked on his as though willing him to answer the question she hadn’t yet voiced. The intensity of her emotions hit him like a wave, raw and unfiltered.

“Before you go, I want to ask you a favor,” she said, her voice soft but unwavering. She took a tentative step closer. “Can you … give me a hug?”

The request jolted him, knocking the breath from his lungs. A hug? Of all things? He hadn’t hugged anyone since his wife. The memory was a ghostly ache he kept buried deep, and now it threatened to resurface.

Before he could respond, she closed the distance between them, slipping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his chest. Her warmth seeped into him, soft and unexpected, cutting through the cold armor he’d worn for so long.

His body froze, unyielding at first. He told himself not to move, but something within him betrayed that command. Slowly, almost unwillingly, his arms lifted and wrapped around her. His chin rested atop her head, her hair brushing against his jaw. He closed his eyes, the scent of her—wildflowers and something sweet—filling his senses, anchoring him to the moment.

“I want to help you, Niall,” she whispered, her voice muffled against his chest. “But at the same time, I want what’s best for you. It’s not fair for us to place this burden on you. I’m so sorry.” Her words ended with a soft sniff, the sound fragile, breaking through his defenses. Something inside him cracked. He found himself wanting to promise her anything, anything at all, just to keep her from crying again.

Abruptly, he pulled back, breaking the contact before he could lose himself in it completely. As he stepped away, a strange, almost dizzying sensation swept over him, as if life had been breathed back into him after years of numbness. His heart pounded in his chest, not from fear or battle, but from something far more overwhelming. Hope. It filled him, light and heady, threatening to spill over.

“I will disclose the terms of breaking my enchantment,” he said suddenly, his voice steadier than he felt. “Only so that you understand the impossibility of it—and so you’ll stop asking.”

Tamara’s eyes widened, a mixture of shock and curiosity flashing across her face. “I’m listening.”

“Do not worry, Tamara,” Niall added, his gaze softening despite the weight of his words. “I am sure you and the others will find a way to free Padriag … and leave me behind.”

His thoughts tumbled one over the other. He was not ready for this. Not in the slightest.

Tammie held her breath, anxiety crackling through her like static as a dozen grim scenarios flickered in her mind. She clutched her hands tightly, waiting for Niall to explain the terms of breaking the enchantment that had held him prisoner in an alternate world for three centuries.

Her gaze flicked to him, searching for some sign of reassurance. Instead, she found his stormy grey eyes watching her with the same trepidation she felt. He looked every bit a man bearing the weight of a lifetime’s worth of sorrow. After all, he’d lost his family, his life, his world. And here she was—worrying about how this would affect her.

“Okay,” she said, forcing her voice to steady. “I’m ready. Just tell me what ridiculous thing that stupid wizard put in your enchantment to make it so hard to break.”

Niall swallowed hard. The silence stretched between them, heavy and fraught. His hesitation made her pulse race. Whatever he was about to reveal clearly cost him to even put into words.

Finally, he dragged a hand over his face and shifted his gaze to the distant horizon, as if searching for strength out there in the fading light. “When I left, my wife, Caitlin, was about six months along in her pregnancy.” His voice grew quieter, tinged with sadness. “He would have been our first son. We already had two little girls.”

He paused, the tension radiating from him palpable. “My family was my whole world. For the first years of the enchantment, nothing mattered to me, except getting back to them. When I lost them, I lost everything.”

Tammie blinked rapidly, willing back the sting of tears. “I’m so sorry, Niall. Were you … were you ever able to go back? To visit them?”

His throat worked, the struggle evident in the way he spoke. “Twice,” he said, voice rough with memory. “The first time, I learned Caitlin had given birth to a healthy boy. She named him after me.” His lips twitched, a flicker of a smile cutting through the grief. “Loud, strong cry, he had.” He shook his head as though dismissing the thought.

“The second time I was able to return, it was different. Caitlin had remarried. My children—” His voice cracked, his gaze darkening to cold steel. “My children called him Da.”

Tammie couldn’t breathe. The agony in his voice twisted her insides, but nothing could have prepared her for what he said next.

“In order to break my enchantment … as my savior …” His eyes locked on hers, flat, emotionless. In a flat tone, he recited the words that he’d obviously repeated many times in his mind.

By blood, by heart, by love unspoken,

The power of family now be woven.

From lone knight’s path, let bonds be found,

With roots to grow in sacred ground.