Chapter 20 #2
I kept moving as fast as I could, and I still couldn’t shake the feeling that I was being watched—by the damn palace at my side.
What I assumed was the servants’ wing wasn’t far beyond the stables.
Two five-story buildings side by side made of stone and pale wood, with narrow windows and low sloping roofs.
Lines of laundry stretched between the upper two floors, and the scent of soap replaced that of hay in the air here.
There were fae men and women in all kinds of uniforms going about, and a few noticed me, but none bothered to ask who I was or what I was doing there.
And then I saw the smoke.
My heart picked up the beating. Impossible not to keep running, even though people could see me. The smoke rising in the air was just beyond a line of trees in the distance, and I didn’t stop until I was on the other side and saw the field.
No stone paths and no rose-draped courtyards in this small forest, but the shadows were darker, and that served me.
Buildings extended from this side of the palace, also much darker than the gardens.
Ahead, the field stretched wide. Not so many lanterns here lining the stone paths that seemed to snake all around, and barely any floating golden lights here as well.
But it was enough to make out the smaller structures scattered every few feet across the field that seemed to rise into a hill maybe a hundred feet in the distance.
Atop of it was another small forest, though bigger than the one I was hiding in. My mind worked. How in the fuck was I going to find Rune here, when there were possibly near fifty forges on this field?
Not all were working, though. Only a few of their chimneys spilled occasional sparks into the night, and the ring of hammer to metal echoed in the warm air ever few minutes—like a heartbeat.
I stepped out of the tree line, shaking from head to toe, and I stuck to the dark as well as I could. Rune had to be here somewhere, and my eyes searched every single person who was still here at this hour.
None of them was Rune.
I’d know him in the dark, just as I knew him in light. There was no mistaking the way he moved, the shape of his silhouette, the feeling of him when he was near—and he wasn’t.
Hope slipped from my fingers every time I turned to look back, to make sure that the guards weren’t following me still.
Then I looked up at the sky one more time, intending to pray that nobody killed me when I went close to those men to ask them for Rune—and that’s when I noticed the thick tendrils of smoke rising in the air from beyond those trees at the top of the hill.
It was like my heart knew. I felt him in my very bones. That’s where Rune was, surrounded by trees, far away from everyone else, working alone, just like he told me.
Rune was really here.
Once again, I started running. Whether the fae working in the forges noticed me or not, I didn’t care and I didn’t even turn to check. I just went for the other side of the field, up the hill, and straight into the first line of trees, possibly in less than five minutes.
My heart was about to beat right out of me, but I didn’t stop going until I saw the lights. Until I heard the movement.
Until I heard the sound of metal slamming against wood violently—and fast.
I stopped running, basically slammed against a tree trunk and pulled myself behind it. Forced myself to close my eyes and breathe. Considered that maybe I was mistaken, that this wasn’t Rune’s forge. That it wasn’t him who was working behind those trees, but someone else.
Impossible, a voice in my head insisted, except I wasn’t sure if it was my gut feeling, or just my heart, desperate to see his face again.
Either way, when I started to move again, I did so slowly. Cautiously.
The small lights I’d seen in the distance became bigger and bigger the closer I went, and I realized they weren’t golden—they were white.
I saw the forge, this one a proper workshop, three times the size of those in the field, nestled between strange colorful oak trees that seem to bend over at the tip like they meant to protect the building between them.
And in front of it was Rune.
My knees grew weak. I rested all my weight against the tree at my side, my hand in front of my mouth, my eyes full of tears.
I watched in awe as those three balls of blueish white light floated in the air while Rune, a little to the building’s side, moved and attacked those pieces of wood spread out about him.
He wasn’t working, no—he was sparring, with two big silver swords in his hands, wearing nothing but a pair of black pants.
They hung low on his hips, revealed to me every inch of his chest and back, his skin slick with sweat and dirt here and there.
He was barefoot, too, and his hair was in front of his eyes like always, but the way he moved…
My God, the way he spun around and twisted and ducked and swung those swords—I was breathless five seconds in, even before those tree trunks that had roots for legs like fucking tentacles moved, too, and tried to attack him all at the same time.
He cut through their barks that were already full of lines and chipped in several places with such ease it was like watching a fucking movie unfold in front of my eyes. John Wick who? Because Rune would totally kick his ass.
And maybe that’s why I found myself smiling, my lips stretching more and more behind my hand as he jumped then went down on one knee, spun around with his leg outstretched and took those roots out from under one of the trunks.
It slammed onto the ground rolling. What a strange sight.
The other five trunks moved back as Rune went for them with those swords, too fast for me to even see him properly.
And it was over.
The trees stopped coming at him, and they suddenly turned limp, fell against the ground like they were no longer capable of standing upright on their root-feet. It was just Rune under those lights, swords in hand, breathing heavily with his eyes closed.
My heart all but burst out of my fucking chest. How in the world is he so perfect?
I stepped away from the tree, and I only needed to get past another three to get to him. I wasn’t trying to keep quiet. I was trying to grow fucking wings to get to him faster, so I stepped on a twig and the sound echoed in the night, and Rune heard.
He stopped, froze, chest suddenly still, eyes wide open—and right on me.
It was like the world was suddenly mine. He saw me.
I ran.
Without even breathing, I ran with all my remaining strength the fifteen feet it took me to get to him, and Rune didn’t move. He only watched me, eyes wide and a silvery blue, shocked. At the last second before I jumped into his arms, he threw the swords on the ground and caught me.
His arms locked around my body tightly like he was never planning to let go again. Not enough air in the world but I didn’t mind. Rune was there and I was in his arms and everything was okay.
Because I was never planning to let go again, either.