Chapter 19 #2
“I found Rune, as you can see,” Lyall said again, and my eyes moved to his—golden and wide and inviting.
“Come, Nilah, come. Say your thanks. I just said mine.” And he wrapped his arm around Rune’s shoulders exactly like a friend would.
He was smiling wide, and Rune wasn’t—they were exactly the opposite from one another, and I saw it as clear as day when I forced my legs to move forward, get closer, and look at them.
Light and dark. One looked like he carried the sun on his shoulders, the other like he wore the night like armor.
One was the fire, the other the smoke it left behind.
One smiled like he could conquer the world with his charm and knew it—yet I still trusted the other whose lips were a straight line far more.
My heart tugged, begging me to move faster, get closer to him, and I did.
I stopped just three feet away from them, and Rune was right there, but that no still echoed in my ears, even if it was just a figment of my imagination.
I didn’t dare ignore it, not when Lyall stepped to the side right between us and put his hands on our shoulders.
“Look at her, my friend. Isn’t she a dream?” My cheeks flushed but not because of Lyall’s words.
Because of Rune’s eyes. Big and wide and so full they took the air from my lungs.
My God, I’d missed him so much I’d started to forget the lines of his face without even realizing it, and that scared me shitless. Forgetting Rune was a fate worse than death, and I’d been so close to it, now that he was there.
“Thank you again for bringing her to me. You are a true friend.”
Lyall’s voice was in my ears, but I couldn’t even turn toward him. Rune commanded all my attention, all my senses—all of me.
Then he lowered his head deeply. “It was my pleasure, Lyall. I’m glad to see you’re okay, Nilah.”
His voice. That perfect spot between a whisper and actual sound. My knees grew weak, and it was a miracle I didn’t lose control.
“Thank you,” I barely said with a nod of my own. “I’m glad to see you’re well, too.”
“He is, he is—you don’t know what he was like when I met him. A starving boy, practically skin and bones, but tough as nails at the same time,” Lyall said, laughing, patting Rune’s shoulders.
Rune, who couldn’t look away from me from under his lashes, his head still lowered.
“He can get through anything, Rune. Anything at all.”
“I know. He saved me from pretty much everything that tried to kill me in Verenthia.”
Fuck, my fingers itched to touch his face, to trail the shape of those lips, to push his hair away from his beautiful face.
“Now that’s a story I would love to hear during dinner.” Lyall pushed my hair behind my shoulder suddenly, then stepped to Rune’s side again.
The look Rune gave him would have been so incredibly obvious had Lyall not been focused on me .
“Go ahead, my friend. I’ll find you when I have the time,” he said. “My beautiful guest must be hungry—and who would want to keep her waiting?”
Lyall laughed again.
Rune’s jaws locked. “Have a good evening.” And he stepped to the side.
Once more I was struck by how different they were from one another, the fae princes, though one banished. Standing together, friends, so full of secrets. The prince was polished gold, and Rune was rough stone, full of edges and shadows and storms waiting to break.
My heart all but fell to my heels. Wait, please, don’t go, I begged inside my mind, but I didn’t dare utter a single word out loud.
“Until next time, Nilah,” Rune said—again, as if he knew exactly how much I wanted to reach out my hand to touch him, speak to him like I knew him—because I did. And he knew me better than anybody in any world.
“Until next time, Rune. Thank you again for bringing me here,” I whispered, like he’d just brought me to the gates of the court that morning. Like he hadn’t helped me to run away when they accused me of killing the prince.
Like we were strangers.
“No thanks needed.” And Rune made for the open doors.
“Not a word to anyone, my friend. Remember,” Lyall called behind him, but Rune only nodded his head, said nothing.
I watched after him until the doors closed and took him from my view.
He left, and he took my heart with him, and his name remained locked behind my lips.
“He’s quite something, isn't he.”
Lyall was right in front of me, but for a moment, I didn’t care. For a moment, I couldn’t find a single reason why I shouldn’t run after Rune right now, why I shouldn’t call for him to come back, even ask the prince to give me a fucking moment alone— why the hell not?!
Because Rune.
Because I saw it in his eyes, in the way he spoke. I saw that he didn’t want the prince to know about us. And I trusted Rune. If he thought those reasons why existed, I’d trust him even if I couldn’t see them. I’d trust him until I spoke to him alone.
“He is,” I ended up saying a moment too late, but I was still processing everything in my mind. “You’re a lucky friend.”
Lyall raised a brow, but whether he was feigning suspicion playfully, or whether he was truly feeling it, wasn’t clear to me at the moment.
“We both are,” he said, analyzing my face with that smile that made me incredibly self-aware all of a sudden.
“You really do look extraordinary, Nilah. Your beauty puts this court to shame.” Slowly he bowed his head at me as well, and now I was not only self-aware, but I felt uncomfortable as fuck in my skin.
“Oh, please. It’s just me,” I said, cheeks on fire. “Why is everyone bowing to me—you gotta stop. Seriously, it’s weird as hell. Just… stop. ”
Lyall burst out laughing like I’d just said the funniest thing he’d ever heard, which then turned up the intensity of my discomfort.
“You are the prince’s savior, Nilah Dune. You will be bowed to.” He said it simply, his voice even, yet the command in it could not be missed. “Come, let’s sit. I’m sure you’re hungry. Please, join me.”
He turned around, waving his hand as if to reveal to me the dining hall he’d invited me to, and it was indeed breathtaking. Just as beautiful as every other detail in this palace. In these people.
It wasn’t like the grand halls I’d seen from the corridors on my way down here—somewhere on the fourth floor.
It was quieter, almost completely empty now, save for us and the three guards who’d been stationed right inside the doors, and who looked ahead like they were statues, not moving a single inch.
You couldn’t even tell if they were breathing.
A long table made of pale wood stretched across the center, surrounded by twelve high-back chairs carved with delicate vines and blooming flowers.
Only two places had been set, side by side rather than across from each other, the plates shining like polished mirrors beneath the floating lights over the table, as well as the lanterns mounted on the walls.
The windows were draped in sheer silks, layers of gold and red that swayed gently with the breeze.
On the right, tall windows opened onto a balcony, less fancy than the gazebo of that room Lyall took me to, and they were both open. That’s why the air smelled like a perfume made of night-blooming flowers.
It felt...too perfect. Like a stage waiting for the players to step into place—and that was me .
I was the prince’s player, it felt like, as he guided me toward the chair on the right, pulled it out for me and then pushed it in gently when I made to sit.
The table was fully set with the strangest foods I had ever seen. Almost too pretty to even eat. I’d eaten in the rest of Verenthia, and the food had been very similar to that of back home—but here?
They had jewel-bright berries, golden breads still steaming, and meats glazed in what smelled like honey that caught the light so perfectly it looked like glass.
Bowls of spiced vegetables in greens and reds, while crystal goblets were full of what I was pretty sure was wine.
It looked exactly like what everyone had been drinking at Lorei’s orgy in the Enclave.
And the thought of that night made my stomach twist like I’d suddenly swallowed a bag of rocks.
Fuck, Rune…
Nothing smelled heavy or greasy. It was all soft, and the faintest hint of vanilla clung to the air each time I breathed in.
“I hope the food will be to your liking. Not to brag but our court has the best chefs in all the faelands, and my mother, bless her heart, has the best saved for me.”
“That’s, um…that’s great. Really, this all looks so nice,” I muttered.
“If I may serve you some of our finest wine,” he said and picked up the crystal jug to pour in the glass near my plate.
“Thank you, but I’d rather just have water if you don’t mind.” I was not about to get drunk in this place anytime soon.
“Certainly,” Lyall said, and he didn’t look offended in the least. He just reached for the glass bottle near the wine and poured it for me in another glass—there were plenty throughout the entire table. “May I offer a selection of my favorites? I’m dying to see how much our tastes match.”
He said it like the thought genuinely excited him, and it was very difficult to tell if he was being honest.
“Sure. Go ahead,” I said, a bit relieved because I wouldn’t know where to even start. Every plate was like a small, gilded temptation. I didn’t want to overeat or mix the wrong things and get sick. I couldn’t afford to, not here.
“Tell me, then. Tell me all about your trip to the Seelie Court, Nilah,” Lyall said as he carefully took my plate in his hand and began to put food on it.
“I would actually like to know more about the people who tried to kill you, Lyall. Any news about that yet?”
When he looked at me, his smile had turned sad. “No, not yet. But tonight, I don’t want to feel bad. I’m here and you’re here, and we somehow made it against all odds. I would rather focus on that .”
Well, fuck. When he put it like that, I couldn’t find it in me to insist because he was right. Against all odds, we’d made it. Those two kids who met in that meadow on Earth at exactly the right time, and now we were somehow here, in this palace, eating dinner together.
Though I’d have loved it if Rune was sitting next to me right now, I thought I could make an attempt to be thankful for being here. For being alive. For not being threatened in any way—at least for the moment.
“Of course, yes. You’re absolutely right, Lyall,” I said with the best smile I could muster, and I cleared my throat. “Where do you want me to start?”
“At the very beginning,” he solemnly said.
So, I did.