“Christ!” I snapped, getting up with sore ribs. “What’s the big fucking deal? Huh? You still get the leprechaun luck and without the headache of trying to keep her in line.”

“Oh, like you're any easier to keep in line?” He growled, stomping closer.

“I would have been! I was thinking it’d be a pretty good setup. You know…like before.” Dullahan jerked to a stop.

“Before?” Lorcan asked, eyes sliding back and forth between Dullahan and me.

“The last time I took a female form we had a great time. I wasn’t too difficult, yeah? See win-win,” I said, my tongue dragging across my lips. Perhaps it was wrong to bring up that time we had together, it was ages ago and didn’t actually end all that well.

I told myself I was bringing it up to manipulate his emotions. Which, I most certainly was. However, I realized with surprise there had been a part of me clinging to the idea things would fall back into how they used to be with him and me.

I was lonely. I wanted a companion and Dullahan was the one person immune to my powers.

“Are you trying to argue about eating me in front of my own face?” Lacey raged.

“Well, I mean…I don’t want to anymore…” I trailed off with a grimace. Things were a mess. “Or maybe I still do.”

“Great,” she said slowly, “so you don’t know if you want to eat me,” she sighed, flopping on the bed and crossing her arms. Dullahan watched her closely and I thought he might be imagining it. Me as her.

Or perhaps he was just thinking about when we were together all that time ago. Me with wild red hair, his arms holding me in the dark, and his fingers brushing away my tears. That had been a very dark time in my history. When I’d been disturbed by what I was because I suddenly regretted what I’d done. I’d mourned the person I’d become, wishing they were still in my arms.

I wasn’t that person anymore. Literally and figuratively, I thought with a smile.

“No,” Dullahan said, making the past fade away again.

“What do you mean, no?” I snapped.

“You aren’t killing Lacey,” he growled, stomping up to me. I stood my ground and squared my shoulders.

“You dare to tell me what to do?” I asked him, offended he was trying to direct me like I was some underling.

“Of course I fucking do because I’m the sidhe king—” he said and I scoffed. He ground his teeth but then smiled, his wounds unspooling and his mouth stretching from ear to ear. “I can rip that soul clean out of whatever body you’re in and send it straight to hell.” I looked at him in rage, reaching up and swiping my bloody mouth, Remington’s red juice still dripping from my chin.

“You aren’t stronger than me,” I said through my teeth. Dullahan laughed and his eyes began to burn like candle flames were in them.