Chapter 30 #2
Pretty sure Rune could tell, but he chose to ignore it.
Instead, he turned around and guided us up the bridge.
Maera stayed behind, looking back every few seconds, just like me, but nobody was coming closer to us.
Not the chancellor, not the soldiers, and not the morvekai monster.
They all stayed right where they were and watched us in silence as the blue bird guided us farther and farther away.
Minutes later, we were in the nearest town again, and the Unseelie fae continued to ignore us.
“It wasn’t it.” It made sense now—it wasn’t it. Not the right place.
We sat near a tree trunk at the edge of that same town that led us to the settlement.
We’d stopped to take a breather, to think through what to do next, and Maera had gone to shift back, too.
At least that’s what I thought she went to do when she simply went around the back of the buildings without a single look our way the moment we sat down.
“Two bridges,” Rune said, tapping his fingers together as he stared at the ground.
“The other one was ruined, but it was there. Two bridges, not one. It wasn’t the right place,” I said, shaking my head at myself. I should have known it couldn’t possibly be so easy, damn it. Nothing ever was.
“No, it wasn’t.” Rune looked up at me, concerned. “We can’t stay here long. The chancellor will be on us. The usurpers will grow curious. They might want to cause trouble, maybe try to keep us from leaving since Lyall was already here.”
Goose bumps covered my arms and I dragged myself closer to him. Rune immediately put his arm around my shoulders. “The morvekai. That…thing. How powerful is it?” Because just the thought of being face to face with not one but five of them—or more—made me feel so fucking helpless.
“Very,” Rune said, making my stomach twist. “But they can be killed. I can kill them. You can kill them.” A finger under my chin, and he pulled my head up so I looked into his eyes that were so full of colors, I was almost relieved to see they hadn’t changed.
Like I was already expecting everything to be different at any given second now.
Must have been the trauma.
“You can kill a morvekai,” Rune repeated, and he sounded so sure I was tempted to believe him.
“They guard this whole place. Vair said they existed to keep everyone inside these walls—”
“Unseelie, yes. Weak ones. They’ve already lost so much of their power when the royal family was slaughtered, and then with the curse. Ordinary fae are not like royals, Wildcat. Power-wise, they’re much weaker.”
“Yes, I know that. I’ve seen it.” I’d seen the difference more than once. “But I’m not…”
The words were there. The words were right there, in my mouth, ready to come out, and I couldn’t make myself say them. I’m not a royal. I’m not a fae. I’m not-I’m not-I’m not—who the hell was I trying to fool here? Whatever I was, I was not human, either.
“You’re powerful enough.” Rune brought my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “Don’t be afraid.”
“And if I am, anyway?” Because this fear didn’t have a button I could press to shut it the fuck down and relieve myself of it.
Rune smiled, and the sight made my heart squeeze. God, he was so perfect it wasn’t even fair. I was completely hopeless against this man.
“Then be. You carry your fear better than most people I’ve ever met. I’m not worried, wildling.” And he leaned in to give me a feather-soft kiss.
Eh, maybe it wasn’t so bad. If Rune believed it, maybe I really could take on a creature like that and survive.
“You’re something else, Your Highness,” I muttered with a sigh, and the next second, I could feel every muscle in his body lock down tightly. “What?”
I turned to look around, to see if he’d maybe spotted someone coming, but instead Rune grabbed my chin and turned me to face him again. “The only time I wanna hear those two words is when you say them.” And he kissed me again.
It was deep, this time, not merely a brush of lips, but a real kiss. One that took my breath away and wiped my mind clean and made my toes curl in my boots all the way.
Just like that, I couldn’t remember what the hell I was thinking about a moment ago, and my shoulders became so light. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long before we heard the footsteps.
Especially loud footsteps. So loud it was obvious that whoever was coming closer was slamming their feet against the ground on purpose.
It was Maera.
She’d shifted back to human, and she was wearing clothes that were definitely not hers.
But the way she was looking at the two of us sent blood rushing to my cheeks instantly, and I had no idea why I had the urge to move, get away from Rune, put some distance between us.
It was absurd. Rune was mine, and we’d never tried to hide it.
I was his, and I had no trouble with the whole world knowing—and they did.
They all knew. So why was I suddenly so damn uncomfortable that Maura had caught me kissing him?
The look in her eyes. It was the look in her eyes that freaked me out, and when she squatted down in front of us, I could have sworn she was paler than normal.
“Where’d you get those clothes?” I muttered, just to break the awkward silence, because I was not going to move away from Rune. Fuck that—I was staying right there by his side no matter how Maera or anyone else looked at me.
“I stole them,” she calmly said. “I also threatened a guard and almost killed him.”
“What the fuck.” It was so sudden that the words slipped from my lips the very next second.
“The mountain borderline,” Maera continued. “The Seelie King went toward the mountain borderline.” She turned and pointed north.
Rune stood up and pulled me with him.
“Did they say why?” he asked Maera. He didn’t seem the least bit concerned about her threatening anyone, and neither did she when she shook her head.
“He only asked how much food his horse would need to get to the mountain borderline and back. The king didn’t speak to anyone other than the chancellor.”
The king, she said, and for the life of me I couldn’t imagine Lyall carrying that title.
“When?” Rune asked.
“Just before sundown.”
“Where’s this mountain borderline? I thought the kingdom was surrounded by the Eternal Water at the back.” And the Frozen and Midnight Courts were at its side—that’s what I knew. That’s what I’d seen with my own eyes.
“It’s not behind the Unseelie Court,” Rune said. “It’s the edge of Blackwater.”
My mind went blank again for a moment. “Wait, wait, hold on a minute.” I stepped away from Rune, looked around at the buildings and the people. “What’s he doing in Blackwater?”
That same second, shadows erupted all around Rune, and I’d have jumped and screamed if the fear didn’t freeze me in place first. As it was, I only watched the big black ball of shadows gathering at his side, and his eyes were closed, and Rune wasn’t even breathing.
“I have no idea, but I have the feeling Raja will know,” Maera whispered, and with a hand on my arm, she pulled me back, farther away from Rune, as if to give him space.
Raja. He was reaching out to Raja—of course. She would know, wouldn’t she? She knew Blackwater—she was the vampires’ Keeper of Secrets.
Then Rune drew in a sharp breath like he’d gone hours without air, and my heart skipped a beat.
I was by his side before the ball of shadows faded away into the night air, like it had never even been there in the first place.
Rune breathed heavily, and when I touched his cheek to invite his eyes to me, for a moment there I could have sworn he didn’t even recognize me.
“Of course,” he then breathed, put his hands on my cheeks and kissed me. “Of course, he went to Blackwater.” And he let go of me and stepped back.
“I’m gonna smack you in the head if you don’t tell me what the hell that means right now,” I said through gritted teeth because I was at the end of my patience here.
Rune smiled that half smile I adored, and his eyes lit up with mischief instantly. “As much as I would like to see that, Wildcat, there’s no time,” he said. “I know where Lyall went, and I know where the heir is.”