Free Celtic Evil: A Fitzgerald Brother Novel: Roarke by Sierra Rose

bleeding
nose.
    “The spell was in the Book
and so was his medal,” Maggie countered, not backing down from his
tone since she also saw the fear in his eyes. “Is he the only one
with one of those?”
    Kneeling down to look at
Ian, Mac was relieved to see his eyes were clearing, just tired.
Placing a hand on his shoulder to sense more deeply, he shifted
some attention to the question.
    “We all had Trinity medals
but only Ian had the Claddagh medal.” He sighed, wincing as he
picked up the tension and slight pain from where his brother’s head
had hit the wall. “Our maternal grandmother gave it to him when he
was christened.”
    Recalling some of her
earlier investigations into his family, Maggie knew that meant it
had come from Fiona Kerrigan; a powerful wise-woman from up further
in Clare, and she wondered if any of them also knew the legends
associated with it.
    “What about your other
brother?” she asked quietly. “Is he alright?”
    Mac was feeling and not
liking everything he was picking up. “Doubt it, luv,” he
muttered.
    “It’s alright, Roarke,”
Jessica was whispering, leaning up and lightly brushing the hair
from his now peaceful face. “You’ll be safe,” she promised,
shifting a look up at his worried brothers. “Won’t he?”
    Ryan wasn’t about to touch
that one since even he had doubts on how all this would turn out,
so he made a show of looking out into the hall. While Mac suddenly
found Ian very interesting, this left Kerry the unhappy choice of
answering her.
    “We’ll take Roarke home and
he’ll be as safe as I can possibly make him,” He assured the girl,
kicking Ryan before he could finish the remark forming in his head.
“You stay with him, darling. Ry and I need to check on
Ian.”
    Jessica nodded but her
exhaustion was clear as she sat talking blindly to her friend, and
Cam just shrugged that he’d stay in the room.
    Barely waiting until the
door closed and ignoring Maggie, Ryan whirled on his oldest
brother.
    “How the bloody hell could
you promise that?!” he demanded in a low voice, anger clear. “You
don’t know if we can protect him. Hell, you don’t even know if we
can defeat Sebastian.”
    “Telling her that right now
would just upset her,” Kerry explained calmly, looking at Ian and
pleased he was standing on his own as he held out the medal.
“Sebastian’s counting on us not being able to co-exist enough to
defeat him. He’s also counting on our weaknesses causing us to
fail.”
    Ian seemed to consider
this. “You have weaknesses?” this was a surprise to him.
    “Everyone has weaknesses,
lad,” Mac replied, reaching back to rub his neck. “We’re no
exception but Sebastian knows the biggest will come from Roarke
since he has always blamed himself for what happened, and I’m
thinking there are other issues.”
    “If we can’t unite for this
then he’ll win,” Kerry aimed this at Ryan and his brother knew it
because he scowled and stalked a little ways down the hall. “Ryan,
all of us are different than we were that day but we need to
remember who we are and what we are. Mum and Da gave their lives to
stop Sebastian then, and now it’s up to us.”
    Maggie decided this was something she
shouldn’t hear so she started to quietly slip away when she caught
the way Mac was still rubbing his neck.
    “You all right, Fitzgerald?” she asked,
coming up next to him.
    “Too much bickering.” He
waved her off but avoided looking at her eyes, surprised when she
took his hands. “Read palms?”
    She hushed him with a look
then looked over for Kerry. “Hey, how exactly does Mac do his
healing thing?” she asked curiously, getting an answer when she saw
his sharp look turn warning.
    Still arguing with Ryan while Ian leaned
against the wall to watch, Kerry looked to answer when the question
hit him and he swore.
    “Damn it, you’ve taken too
much in at once,” he muttered, ignoring his brother’s attempt to
wave it off. “Mac, you know the risks