Chapter 23 #2
“When, though? Because Lyall is going to ask me to undo the life-bond again, and Rune, that’s my only leverage with him right now. With them .”
“It is. You did the right thing telling him you wanted to wait.”
“But how long will I have to?”
Closing his eyes, Rune took in a deep breath. “I don’t know yet. Things are…complicated right now. Everyone is restless. Most believe the prince is dead, and some think we’re being betrayed by the queen. I myself had no idea Lyall lived until two days ago.”
“Did you think I killed him? ”
The way he looked at me was more than a good enough answer. “Not for a second.”
I smiled. “How did you know?”
“Because you buried a snail you stepped on when you were five years old, Wildcat.” Aw, he remembered about the poor snail . “And you actually rescued a werewolf from a sorcerer’s cage.”
I took his face in my hands and kissed him slowly.
“Is it true what he said—that he’s trying to find the people responsible?” I asked after a moment.
“Yes. He’s trying. Questioning everyone, sending his shadows to spy on anyone he finds slightly suspicious.” Easy to understand by the tone of his voice that Rune didn’t like this bit very much.
“Why, though, Rune?” I wondered. “Why would someone go to such great lengths to kill him?”
For a second, he was silent as he raised his fingers and touched my face with his fingertips.
“I told you before that Lyall is very vicious when he wants to be. As he prepared to become king, I’m sure he made many enemies.
He’s powerful. He’s confident. Arrogant at times.
It’s easy to see that some people might not have taken kindly to it. ”
A thought occurred to me. “Do you still think he’s a good man?” That’s what he told me before—that he thought Lyall was a good man despite how much he’d changed in recent years.
“I want to think so,” was his answer, but it didn’t take a genius to see that it wasn’t a yes.
“Me, too,” I muttered.
“I’m going to figure this out, Wildcat. Both Lyall and whoever tried to kill him, and what will happen to us when you unbind yourself from Lyall. I’m just going to need some time. ”
“ Us ?” I asked with half a heart because he said all that, but the us was the one thing that stood out to me.
“Us,” he confirmed.
“Does that mean you’re going to stick with me, Mr. Moody?”
Again, he looked surprised at the question. He grabbed my face in his hands and pulled me closer. “I thought I lost you once, and that was the end of me. From this moment on, where you go, that’s where I will be.”
My poor heart .
I kissed him with my everything.
“We’re going to make it out of the court, and we’ll figure out the rest. But right now, Lyall can’t know about us,” Rune said between kisses.
“Yes, I figured that when I saw your face earlier.”
“He’s fascinated with you, and he will not hurt you. It will give me time and freedom to ask around, put the pieces together so that we can decide what to do next,” he said almost angrily.
My eyes closed, and I nodded even if my heart was breaking. “I just wish it wouldn’t be too long. My family is waiting for me, Rune. I miss them so, so much…”
He leaned back and smoothed my hair away from my face. “How about a letter, then? Would you like to write to them, tell them you’re okay?”
My heart jumped. “ Yes ! Are you serious—yes, I want to send them a letter! You can do that?”
“Yes, I think so. I can get a letter safely through the Aetherway.” And he smiled a smile that warmed me to my bones.
“Fuck, Rune, that’s…that’s…” I didn’t have the words, so I just kissed him again and I didn’t let go for a little while .
“Then you can sit at that table and write it while I go check the outside,” Rune said. “I won’t take long.”
I nodded. “It’s still early, isn’t it?”
“You still have to get back to the palace before anybody notices you’re gone,” he said. “A shower, and then I take you back.”
I smiled so big it hurt. “That’s a deal.”
I wrote the letter with tears in my eyes, and I lied for most of it.
I told Dad, Fi, and Betty that I was fine, and that I’d made it to the prince, and that I’d healed him and he was okay—which was all true—but then I also said that he’d invited me to spend some time in the Seelie court, and that I’d accepted because it was such an incredible place, and the people were nice, and the queen was super nice, too.
Thankful that I’d healed her son—which she should have been.
I told them that the prince himself would bring me back in just a couple of weeks, and that I‘d write to them again whenever I got the chance.
I also told them about the beauty of the Seelie Court and the queen’s palace, and the room I was sleeping in, told Betty all about the makeup. All those were true, too.
By the time I finished, I was a fucking mess, but the pressure on my shoulders released a little bit.
“They will get this. I promise you, they will. I’m sending someone trustworthy,” Rune promised when I folded the thick piece of paper he gave me and left it on his table.
“I know,” I said because if he promised me, I believed him.
“Come, Wildcat. Let me clean you up.”
He’d put a blanket over my shoulders when we left the bed, and now he took it off me, grabbed my hand and led me toward the door, walking backward, wearing only a pair of black boxer shorts that looked mighty good on him.
The sight of him calmed my mind like magic, and the smile on his face, the warmth in those strange, beautiful eyes—yes, he was designed especially for me, and I’d argue with anyone who thought otherwise.
But I’d written the letter and I knew that my family was going to read it soon, and if anything, they weren’t going to worry so much. They’d stop waiting for a little while, and I didn’t need to worry about them worrying, either.
It was all going to work out eventually—that’s what I believed when I looked at Rune.
And then he led me to his shower.