Chapter 24
twenty-four
Half the bathroom ceiling was missing—on purpose.
This side of the house seemed to have been constructed on the side of this piece of rock right there in the middle of the forest, and I hadn’t even noticed.
Not that I’d been very focused on the building while Rune was sparring half naked in the dark, but still.
It wasn’t a big room, and the toilet area was separate, right behind the entrance door, followed by a long mirror with a basin in front, and then the shower—which was water falling from the dark grey rocks over the eight-foot wall.
It poured in steadily, clear as glass. Rune pulled me closer to it, and I had yet to find the words appropriate for this moment, so I said nothing, only followed.
Small, smooth rocks in white and grey and black were set in the shower floor, and before we stepped on them, Rune’s hand lit up with that white light, and warmth slipped out of him before it dimmed again.
By the time we touched the water, it was just slightly hotter than lukewarm .
Rune stepped in first, and pulled me gently under the fall, letting the water cascade over our skin.
It felt heavenly, that pour, even if it looked like a bit too much from the outside. It wasn’t. The water was light, and the temperature was perfect, and the mist that rose from it softened the hard lines of Rune’s body, but it didn’t hide him from me. Nor me from him.
My God, it was perfect here—the room, the water, the sky just a breath away. We could see it through the branches of the trees that seemed to grow right behind the wall.
I immediately fell in love with this place. It felt like a secret— sacred . Ours.
Then Rune began to wash me.
His hands slid over me slowly this time, like he was learning every curve and every shape of my body again. His mouth found my collarbone, the underside of my jaw, and he kissed me gently as the water washed over me. He didn’t rush at all, and I didn’t ask him to. His every touch was just perfect.
His eyes followed every line his fingers traced over my body, and I had to move my head to the side a bit so the water didn’t stop me from seeing his face. The awe in his eyes. The fascination.
“Rune,” I whispered, and my voice could have been lost to the sound of the water pouring, but his bloodshot eyes locked on mine instantly. “One more time.” I needed to feel him for one more time.
He didn’t hesitate.
Rune wrapped his arms around me and lifted me like I weighed nothing, pressing my back against the warmed wall, his body fitting mine as though we were carved out of the same piece of stone.
The heat, the mist, the sound of the water pouring, and the relentless slide of his mouth over my throat—I lost myself in him within seconds.
He was hard, and I felt him when I locked my legs around his hips tighter.
Fuck, I was burning for him again. There was fire under my skin that only he could ignite, and only he could put out again.
He took his time with kissing me, touching me, sometimes digging his fingers into my ass, my back, fisting my hair, and sometimes letting his fingertips slid down my shoulders, and over my thighs locked around him tightly.
He kissed me with his all, not fast and not desperate like before, but slow, like a flame burning atop a candle.
He gave me everything I needed, and then more.
When he finally positioned me over his hardness with his hands on my hips, I was so ready it hurt. I closed my eyes and rested my head on his shoulder and let him do with me what he wanted.
He pressed me against the wall, then slowly, gently, eased himself all the way inside me.
It wasn’t rough at all. It was slow, raw, like he was carving a new promise into my soul with every thrust. His arms caged me in, holding me up, holding me together.
The water poured over us, and our eyes were closed, each other’s names on our lips.
I felt every word he didn’t say, and I knew he felt mine.
When I cried out in ecstasy, he knew exactly how to hold me, how to make sure I never forgot a second of the pleasure, the connection that we shared.
It was the most beautiful thing I’d experienced in my whole entire life.
Rune dried my hair and helped me put my clothes back on, then took me through the forest and toward the palace, through a gravel pathway far away from the field full of those forges. The night was silent, and we didn’t speak. We only held onto each other’s hands tightly and prayed.
At least I did.
I prayed to the bright stars that illuminated the dark sky with all my being that we figured this out just like Rune said, that I could undo the life-bond with Lyall, and that Rune could take me somewhere, anywhere where we could be free.
Where we could be safe, and most importantly—together.
Yes, I was from Earth, and he was from Verenthia, but we had a plan. We would spend time back home, and then come here when Earth got too much for him. We’d make it—I knew we would because I knew he felt everything I felt with the same intensity.
So, when he took me through the shadows and beyond what he called court workers who seemed to have no idea we were even there, I wasn’t sad. When he led me to this narrow stairway, took me up to the third floor, then told me to keep going for another three, I wasn’t sad.
When he kissed me and my toes curled in my shoes, I wasn’t sad— well, maybe a little bit there. But I didn’t cry because it wasn’t goodbye.
“Don’t come out of the palace again. I will come to you when I can,” Rune whispered in my ear before he kissed my lips for one last time and stepped back. Waved his glowing hand at me, and shadows sprouted forward, spinning around me like a tornado.
I saw through them, though with difficulty. I saw his face, saw his eyes, and when I blew him a kiss, he saw it, too. Smiled. Pretended to catch it with his hand.
Then I walked up the stairs backward until I couldn’t see him again.
It was easy enough to find my room on the sixth floor—it was just around the corner, like Rune said. And the guards were there, the three I’d last seen outside, stationed by the walls, but they didn’t react at all when I appeared at the beginning of the hallway.
That’s because Rune’s shadows were still swirling around me, and they couldn’t even sense me at all until I was two feet away.
Then they turned, and they looked, and they even drew out their swords before they started to walk down the hallway cautiously, slowly.
I slipped inside the room with my breath held and my heart pounding, and the shadows disappeared.
“His Highness the Prince requests your presence after you are finished with the food, Miss Nilah.”
I looked up at Poppy—or was it Pippa?
She’d come knocking on the door in the morning, and I’d still been foggy from sleep when I pulled open the door for her. She almost passed out to find that I’d slept with clothes on—the same clothes I’d had when I snuck out to go find Rune.
The guards were out there, by the walls, and I could have sworn their eyes moved to me lightning fast, but they said nothing.
Poppy didn’t say anything, either—didn’t ask me where I was last night or why the guards didn’t find me after my walk in the gardens.
At first, I thought I should say something myself, just in case someone got suspicious, but then decided against it.
I didn’t need anyone to be asking questions.
I could just pretend the night before hadn’t happened at all.
I felt fine. Mighty fucking fine. Not that it was a surprise—I’d had a good dose of Rune the night before.
But I was surprised by what Poppy said while she watched me eat breakfast in one of the armchairs I was pretty sure was meant for reading.
“What? Why?” I asked when the initial surprise passed, and Poppy actually made a face because I spoke with my mouth half full.
“I’m sure he has a good reason, Miss Nilah. I will prepare your attire while you eat,” she said, and with a deep nod, she retreated to the other side of the room, to the closet hidden in the wall near the vanity table.
“But…but what if I don’t feel like it?” I asked, then wanted to smack myself in the head.
Why in the world was I afraid to see the Prince? He wasn’t scary, for fuck’s sake. On the contrary—he was the very definition of Prince Charming from back home. I’d forgotten so fast who he was—the boy who saved my life. The man I’d traveled all this distance to save back.
The more I got to know him, the sooner I could end the life-bond, and then I’d be free. Besides, if I befriended the prince, he could make the whole thing easier for me and Rune.
And I was sure he would, just as soon as he found out about us.
“Even if you don’t feel like it, I’m sure you can make yourself presentable for a few hours, at least. For his sake,” Poppy said, as she went through the dresses in the closet, not even looking at me.
And that was perfectly okay. In fact, I would rather hang out with Lyall and see more of this place, find out whatever could help Rune piece this thing together, than stay locked up in this room. The books did look nice, but I could read later, couldn’t I?
“Of course,” I said to Poppy— after I swallowed possibly the most delicious omelette I was ever going to taste in my life. “I can make myself plenty presentable for a few hours.”
She was very happy to hear that.