Chapter 34
thirty-four
Fire burned close by.
My eyes opened. I thought I wouldn’t be able to see anything or that there’d be only bright light to combat the flames coming for us from above, but no. My surroundings were nothing like I expected them to be.
I was lying on the ground on something soft, and there was a fire burning on the ground, indeed, just a few feet away from me, but it wasn’t coming from the throat of a black dragon. It was burning on sticks.
My head was on Rune’s lap.
“It’s okay,” he whispered and touched my cheek with his fingertips. “It’s okay, Wildcat. We’re safe.”
A hand on my ankle.
I sat up so fast the world tilted before my eyes a few times before it fell into place again.
Maera was sitting near my legs, and she’d been the one to touch me.
On her other side sat the Unseelie fae, potentially the heir to the Unseelie throne.
Alive and well and moving something over the fire—something that looked an awful lot like the body of a small animal of some kind that he’d put on a fucking stick to cook.
The sky was open over us. No trees close by, but there were hills as far ahead as my eye could see in the darkness, and there was water in the distance, too. I couldn’t see whether it was a lake or a river, but the surface glistened faintly under the soft moonlight.
Most importantly, there were no dragons nearby.
No dragons.
“What the fuck.” The words slipped from me as Rune pulled me closer, as if he was afraid I was going to collapse again soon—and he wasn’t entirely wrong.
“That is my sentiment exactly.” The Unseelie fae was pointing the animal he was cooking on a stick at me. “Such a simple question—what the fuck. Speaks volumes, doesn’t it?”
What the fuck, for real this time.
I blinked my eyes at him, then looked at Maera, who was sitting cross-legged there on the ground, clothed, her hair wet, her left cheek with a bit of a red scar across.
“He escaped,” she told me, as if she read the question in my mind. “And I’m okay. But he’s out there still.” And she nodded her head back, her eyes dark with worry.
She was talking about Lyall.
“How are you feeling?” Rune asked, pushing my hair behind my shoulder. He looked perfectly fine, too, if not a bit tired. The blue bags under his eyes were definitely more pronounced.
“Why are we sitting out in the open?” Because the sky was right there, and we could be seen from all sides—by dragons. Actual fucking dragons with black skin and large bat wings and fire burning in their throats like they had their own integrated fireplace.
“Lyall,” said Rune. “We’ll be able to feel him coming much clearer out here in the open.”
“And I’ll be able to smell him without small animals and plants getting in my way,” said Maera.
“So, he’s…” Again, I shook my head.
“Alive and possibly plotting our death as we speak,” said Rune, throwing another look around. “But we’re safe for now.”
“And…the dragons?” Because I could see none, but my fear still had a good hold on me, so I kept expecting one to pop into the air. My ears must have been full of the sound of those roars, too, because I could have sworn that one was coming from a distance.
“They’re in their area. We’re far from Santra here. They will not follow,” Rune said, but for once, his reassurance didn’t exactly make me feel better. It didn’t convince me because the memory, the feel of that fire, the heat that slipped under all that magic, was still so very vivid in my mind.
“And I’m Unseelie royalty, according to your boyfriend here.” I turned to the fae. “Sorry—His Highness, the Midnight King.” And he bowed his head, his tone clearly mocking.
“You know,” I whispered, and the guy bit into whatever animal he’d roasted so perfectly over that fire. I had to look away so I didn’t throw up.
“That I’m the heir to a nonexistent throne?”
I looked at Maera, and she only shook her head. Rune said, “I’ve told him the truth.”
I waited a heartbeat. “And?”
“Oh, I’m definitely going with you,” the guy said with his mouth half full. “Out of the goodness of my heart, of course. I care deeply about my realm. Deeply.” Then he bit again.
Maera raised a thick brow at him, then turned to me. “He’s a thief. He thinks he’s going to steal from the Fire Palace and disappear.”
A gasp. A hand to his heart. “I would never.”
Was it just me or was the Unseelie heir a tad bit dramatic?
Then he looked at me. “It’s not stealing when it belongs to me, is it?
All the gold and all the jewels I can carry.
” He made a fist and showed me his bulging biceps—he was a very well-built guy, apparently.
“And I can carry a whole lot, if you know what I mean.” He wiggled his brows like Betty always did, and I found myself smiling.
Pulling my lips inside my mouth, I cleared my throat. “What’s your name again?”
“Hil Haise, at your service,” he said. “His Highness told me all about you being the new Ice Queen, too. Show me your ears.” He grinned again. “Respectfully, of course.”
I felt the way Rune tensed because my shoulder was against his, but he said nothing. I reluctantly pulled my hair behind my ear and showed the fae that they didn’t have points on them. “And why were you in Ashfall, Hil?”
The way he looked at me, the stick halfway to his mouth when he paused. “Because I’m a very good and very generous guy. They framed me. I am innocent.” He put his hand over his chest again. “This is the purest of hearts you’ll find out there.”
“He stole from the last couple who ruled the Unseelie Court before the current usurpers took over some three winters ago,” Rune said. “He’s just a thief.”
It felt like a damn truck was suddenly lifted from my shoulders.
A thief. Not a murderer—a thief. I could work with that. Fuck, I was so relieved it was difficult to hold it back from showing on my face.
Then… “Just a thief?” Hil put the stick down and straightened up.
He’d had his knees up and his elbows resting on them, but now he looked like he was about ready to stand.
“I’ll have you know that it was my brilliance that got us in and out of the palace unnoticed, with more gold than any fae has ever stolen before in recorded history!
That’s not what just a thief does.” He held Rune’s eyes without blinking for a good moment, then grinned like the devil.
“Respectfully, of course, Your Highness.”
Oh, my God.
I looked at Maera, and I could have sworn she was trying not to smile, too, as she looked down at the ground and touched the tips of the grass blades with her fingers.
“Yes. And then you got caught and sent to Ashfall,” Rune deadpanned. His voice was so dull, so flat, I was tempted to applaud him.
“Like I said—I was framed. Someone sold me out.” The smile had vanished. Hil now looked angry—but more than that. He looked sad.
“And they never found the stolen gold, did they,” Rune said, and it must have been a guess, but it picked up the corners of Hil’s mouth and lifted them until he was grinning that same way again, orange eyes sparkling with mischief.
“But I didn’t steal it, though, did I? It belongs to me. Isn’t that what you said?”
“The riches of a court belong to its people. Royals only use them while they live. They don’t own anything,” Rune said, and I had no idea if it was true or not.
“Well, yes. I planned to use that gold while I lived.” The man shrugged.
Really difficult not to burst out laughing, but I managed.
“So, you didn’t know? You had no idea who you were before?” I was tempted to think it was bullshit, but then I realized I had never known, either. And Maera. She once said she only found out about who she really was a few years ago.
“Nope. I was raised here and there. My mother died when I was eight. Never knew my father.” Hil leaned in to whisper, “If I’m being honest, I don’t think she knew who my father was, either.” And he winked.
Whether he really didn’t care, or he pretended, I had no idea.
“Who was your mother? Was she tied to the royal family at all? A distant cousin maybe?” Maera asked, but Hil shook his head.
“Nothing of the sort. If I am tied to the royal bloodline in any way, it must have been my father. I’m probably a bastard or something. Worked well for you, didn’t it?” And he nodded at Rune.
Rune only looked at him, dead in the eye. Didn’t move, didn’t blink—didn’t fucking breathe.
I wanted to both laugh at his face and kiss the hell out of him for being so…Rune. So authentically Rune that I didn’t even find it weird that it turned me on. Stranger things had definitely happened—just in the past day, too.
“What is his problem?” Hil said under his breath, and he was actually nudging Maera on her knee.
“Touch me again and I will break your hand.”
Goddamn. She, too, said this with complete calm. No expression on her face. None.
The guy believed her. He immediately leaned to the side, frowning at her, then turned to me. “You should really consider who you hang out with.”
“And you should consider not wanting to steal from your home,” I said.
“It’s not stealing if it’s mine—it’s you who say I’m king.”
“And you just…believe us?” Because really, I’d had a much more difficult time coming to terms with it—but then again, I was a human from Earth. At least when I was born.
Hil shrugged. “Does it matter?”
“Of course, it matters. You were locked up in a prison cell, and now you’re being told you’re going to rule a kingdom.”
He looked up for a second—and I knew exactly what that look meant. I knew that what Maera said in the beginning was true, and my heart jumped.
I dragged myself a little closer to the fire. “Hil, you know about the curse, don’t you?”
“Yes, they told me,” he said, and he was playing with his bare feet against the ground now, looking down.
“And you are going to stay in the Unseelie Court.”
There. The way he looked. The way he looked away the next second, too. “I will come, and I will sit on the throne, yes.”
Maera looked at me and shrugged, as if to say, I told you so.
“No, not just sit, but actually—”
“Wildcat.” Rune cut me off, his hand falling over mine. “It will be okay.”
I shook my head. “He plans to leave. If he leaves, the curse and this whole thing…” It would have been for nothing.
But Rune smiled. “He will sit on the throne. The rest will work itself out.”
I narrowed my brows. “How do you know?”
“The throne will give him all his power. The palace will connect with him.” His eyes moved to Hil, who was most likely watching because he could hear every word Rune said. “Then he can decide if he wants to remain just a thief for the rest of his days.”
The way he said it, like he was sure. He was always so sure. And Hil had nothing to say for a good moment, so neither did I. What was there to say, anyway? I had no idea what sitting on a throne meant. I had no idea what the hell to expect from any of this.
“I think it’s time to go now, if you’ve rested enough. It’s a long way back,” said Maera, and she jumped to her feet.
“Wait—we’re not going to sleep here? Because I’m tired,” Hil said, but I stood up, too, so fucking eager to get going, to find our horses, to leave this part of Verenthia behind.
Because I was never coming so close to the mountain borderline again.
That dragon would forever remain only in my memories.
No thank you. I could live a thousand lifetimes without seeing another one of them again.
The fear was still there, and the farther away from Blackwater I was, the better I’d feel.
“You’ll take my horse. I’ll shift. Let’s move,” Maera said, pretending she hadn’t heard him.
Rune stood up, too, his hand in mine, his fingertip touching my chest. My naked chest where the dragon fire had scorched my shirt. You could see the edges of my burned bra, as well, but at least my nipples were fully covered.
Then Rune pulled off his own jacket and put it over my shoulders while Maera walked down the hill to the east, and the Unseelie heir followed after her, demanding she let him rest for the night because he’d gone through—and I quote “traumatic events, even for a dashing royal like myself.” Of course, Maera ignored him, but they kept going and gave us a moment of silence.
I needed to feel Rune like I could only do when we were alone.
Once he put the jacket over my shoulders I fell against his chest, wrapped my arms round his waist and hugged him.
He hugged me, too, held me for a little while there.
It was a break from being me, from holding a world on my shoulders.
A much-needed break, and I was already breathing a little easier.
I raised my head without ever letting go, kissed his jawline, his cheek. His stubble had grown, and it scratched my lips as I kissed him. I loved the feel of it, but I loved it when he turned his head and let me taste the softness of his lips more.
“Slowly, Rune. Kiss me slowly,” I whispered and licked his bottom lip. “Give me time to feel it. I want to feel it to my very bones.” Because we never knew what came next—not the next hour, not the next day. And his kisses were life.
Rune did exactly as I asked, kissed me like he was serving me his very heart and soul, filled me with brand new energy and squashed all the bad thoughts that ran free in my mind. We couldn’t stay long before Maera called for us, but for that moment, I felt reborn. Whole.
Who knew a kiss could have so much power?
“You remind me how to breathe, wilding,” Rune whispered in my ear before we turned to leave.
I didn’t think about the dragons again for a long time.