The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley

Here is a summary with spoilers for The Irresistible Urge to Fall for Your Enemy by Brigitte Knightley

Osric Mordaunt is a talented and prideful assassin working for the Fyren house. He loves what he does, and he knows he is good at it. Osric has a problem though; he is dying of seith rot, a disease that is giving him nerve damage. His doctor tells Osric he has months before his magic will be gone. Osric’s steward and friend, Mrs. Parson, tells him that there is a healer who could heal him. The problem is she is well protected in the Haelan Fortress, guarded by Wardens; Osric won’t be welcomed. He comes up with a plan though; he is going to pretend to donate a substantial amount of money to the healers, specifically for the pox outbreak that this healer is trying to cure.

Aurienne Fairhrim enjoys her life at the Haelan Fortress. But she is in desperate need of funding so she can help cure the pox, which has been plaguing many children. As she enters her office, she believes she is meeting her new intern, when in reality, it is a man who snuck in and wants her help. He offers her a large amount of money if she promises to heal him. Aurienne has no desire to help someone from the Fyren house, so she denies him. That is, until her superior comes in and says she should do it anyway.

Osric is a thorn in Aurienne’s side. He wants to start the healing process, but he has very strict rules. He doesn’t want anyone to know that he is sick, so Aurienne must go to him in odd spots and odd times so no one finds out. Aurienne is already regretting agreeing to this, as Osric is very hostile towards her. But during that first meeting they figure out the logistics: she will attempt some experimental cures during the full moon, but also look into ancient sites to see if his disease has anything to do with that.

Their new bargain sets the two to be tentative partners. Aurienne spends her time researching ancient legends and cures, which Osric mocks her for all the time. But the two visit many sites together, traveling around during the full moon to test different cures. After many trips together and much name-calling, the two are both getting frustrated; at each other, and at not being able to find a cure.

The night that the two are supposed to try again, Haelan base is attacked. When Aurienne tells Osric, he is intrigued, and decides he is going to look into the attack as well.

After more failures, Aurienne decides to go further into her research. She decides her next step is to speak directly to street healers, smugglers, and dealers. Osric agrees that it would be the logical next step, but says he will go do it, as he doesn’t think or want Aurienne there to screw it up. But to Osric’s surprise, Aurienne sneaks into the tavern and is already trying to get the information she needs. During the bar visit, one of the patrons touches and gropes Aurienne. Osric sees, and decides that the man can no longer live. It’s one of the few times that Osric realizes that maybe Aurienne isn’t so bad, and doesn’t want anything bad to happen to her.

Finally, Aurienne feels like their experiment has shown results, and she is very hopeful. Osric agrees, believing that the degeneration has slowed. Osric even kisses Aurienne’s hand, which shocks Aurienne. Their celebration is cut short when Lord Bardolph Wellesley summons the two of them. The supposed reason is his daughter’s illness, but it quickly becomes clear he has ulterior motives. Wellesley surrounds them with armed men and presses Aurienne for the names of Haelans involved in suspicious funding. He becomes threatening when she refuses. Osric, unable to use shadows because of Wellesley’s anti-Fyren lights, is initially at a disadvantage—until he exploits the only “shadows” available: the insides of Wellesley’s soldiers. He massacres them gruesomely. In the chaos, Wellesley grabs Aurienne and holds a knife to her throat. Aurienne reacts by pressing her knife to his hand, but the maneuver catastrophically backfires: instead of fainting, Wellesley dies on the spot.

After Wellesley’s death, Osric infiltrates Wellesley Keep more deeply. He uncovers a cellar full of bottles preserved with sofoglycolate broth—used to stabilize viruses. Aurienne identifies the liquid and realizes Wellesley had been hoarding smallpox samples. She smuggles two bottles out for testing. The pair realize that Wellesley has a number of other dealings, and they are worried that they are now involved with his death, though they do manage to cover it up nicely. Osric, ever the opportunist, also decides to steal Wellesley’s treasures.

In a mission Osric went on for Aurienne, he gets badly injured. He goes to find Aurienne, but she is at her childhood home; Osric decides he only trusts her, and goes to her home unannounced. It makes Aurienne furious he would show up, but when they get alone and she sees a knife sticking out of him, she starts to heal him. She pushes herself to exhaustion. Her friends back at the keep also warn her that it is dangerous to keep someone like that. But all Aurienne can think about is how much her feelings towards Osric have changed.

Aurienne continues to hear Osric, until he finally wakes up. But she insists that he stay at her parents’ house and continue to heal until he can walk properly. During this time of healing, both of them start to realize that they have feelings for each other, but neither of them are ready to admit that to the other. At Aurienne’s parents’ anniversary party, Osric watches from his room and sees how happy and let down she is; he then realizes he wants Aurienne. She later comes up to be with him; she needs to get away from Aedan, a man who really wants to marry Aurienne, and her parents approve of as well. Aurienne has no interest though, so when Osric offers to dance with her for Aedan to see, she agrees. The two of them, from their banter to now easy conversation, realize how much their relationship has changed. Osric then offers to kiss her, to really make Aedan jealous and give him a clue that he is no longer in the running for Aurienne. She agrees, and the two share a passionate kiss.

Finally healed, Osric goes back to Fyren headquarters, where he reports to Tristane. They start to question him, especially since he disappeared for a long time. He also starts to panic, as his seith rot is getting hard to hide. Tristane then mentions they have a new job, to investigate the person and why the hospital got a sizeable donation a couple of weeks ago. Osric offers, but Tristane says she will be taking the lead on it, meaning that Tristane is going to go right to Swanstone and to the healers… to Aurienne. He goes to the hospital to tell Aurienne; they have already put up new wards. Then Osric tells her of Tristane, and how good she is at her job. Aurienne also mentions that the vials she took were full of the pox, the same pox she is trying to cure that is only affecting children. They need to figure out why someone would want to hurt children for their war. Aurienne also wants to go back to Faerwndor, to once again try to get a cure for Osric.