Chapter 34
thirty-four
I looked at the dais, at the chair where we’d been sitting just minutes ago—the War General’s seat, according to Rune.
Now we were lying on the marble floor, my head over his arm, my leg dragged over his stomach, his hand locked around my thigh. I shook my head at myself for the fifth time, and said, “I can’t believe you fucked me in the throne room.”
And better yet—I couldn’t believe we were still there, lying on the floor, staring at the stars on the ceiling, not getting the hell out of here already.
But Rune was in no rush at all, so neither was I.
Pulling me closer, he planted a kiss on my forehead.
“When you came into the ballroom tonight, you looked like you were his,” Rune said. He didn’t sound jealous anymore, not in the least. He sounded curious instead. “But in here you sounded like you’re mine.”
My toes curled and I snuggled closer to his side. “You know I had no idea that he was going to kiss me, right?”
“Of course.” Rune kissed my hair again—no hesitation .
“I don’t know why he did it.” I had been just as shocked as Rune had looked.
“He’ll say it was the wine, or that he thought you might want him to, or that someone whisper-challenged him, but I’m not sure of the real reason.”
I shook my head—this was getting ridiculous. “Rune, I don’t want to do this,” I said, closing my eyes. “I don’t want to get in the way of the two of you—you’re friends, for fuck’s sake! I don’t want to hide anymore. I want to tell Lyall about us.”
Taking in a deep breath, I sat up because I might not have thought through what I just said, but it sounded exactly right.
“I want to tell him, Rune,” I said when he sat up, too, no sign of the man he had been at the ball or in this throne room when I first came in here. He was calm now, his eyes peaceful, the colors in them vivid. Even the way he held his shoulders changed when he wasn’t pissed off.
“It’s too soon, Wildcat,” he said, pushing my hair behind my ear gently, analyzing my face with that tiny smile curling one side of his lips.
“I’m serious. He needs to know so he can stop whatever it is that he’s trying to do here.
” Because Lyall was trying something. With that game he took us to and then asking me to be his date for the ball—he was definitely up to something, and I didn’t even need to know what it was. I just wanted him to stop.
“I know Lyall enough to believe that he’s either developing feelings for you or he’s figured out a way to…put you to use,” he said, and I flinched.
“Put me to use?!” I spit. “How about he just wants me to undo the life-binding? I’ll bet that’s his reason for playing nice with me. ”
“No, that’s not it.” Rune leaned in to plan a kiss on my lips. Even though I was already starting to get pissed off, I didn’t move away. Obviously. His kisses were life.
“You don’t know that,” I muttered, my eyes on his lips that were stretching a little more now.
“Has he ever mentioned the life-bond to you since the day you told him you don’t want to do it?”
“I…” I thought for about a second. “Not really—but maybe he’s just giving me time.”
Rune grabbed my hands in his. “He’s planning something, and I don’t know what it is yet, but I know he won’t just let you go. Whatever his reason for doing this, for trying to claim you publicly like that?—”
“Wait, wait, hold on a minute— claim?! That word is too much!”
“That’s what he tried to do, Wildcat.”
“No, no—you could be wrong. The people had no idea who he was—he wore a mask. They had no idea who I was, either and…”
“Plenty did, though. Enough did, and once he’s no longer pretending to be dead and comes clean with the court, everyone will know. He thinks ahead.”
Well, fuck. That did sound a lot like Lyall.
My eyes closed, and Rune put his fingers under my chin and raised it. “It’s okay, Wildcat. We’ll figure it out.”
“How?”
“The moment I make sure we have a clear, safe way back to the Neutral Lands, you will do the unbinding ceremony with him. I’ll take you away right after,” Rune said.
I looked into his wide, honest eyes. God, he was so beautiful it hurt.
“And you’re coming with me,” I said, gripping his shirt in my fists, just in case he thought about moving away.
Rune put his hands over my fists and smiled. “I am. I’m never leaving your side again.”
My heart jumped. I slammed my lips to his so fast I even surprised myself. That was exactly what I’d needed to hear— exactly.
“For however long you can—we’ll stay on Earth.” That’s the way I’d planned it in my mind as well.
His hands were on my face. He held me there in front of him, our lips touching as we spoke. “As long as I can,” Rune confirmed.
Music to my ears. “And then we’ll come back.”
“ I will come back when you’re safe,” he said, and my stomach twisted uncomfortably.
“Why don’t you go ahead and forget that right this second,” I told him. “Because I am never leaving your side again, either.”
Rune leaned back and looked at me. “Wildcat?—”
“That’s non-negotiable.” I cut him off, and I wasn’t going to let him even bring it up again. “Tell me what I can do to help, Rune. I can’t stay here for much longer—this place is driving me insane.”
Suddenly, his whole demeanor changed, and he sat up straighter. “Why? Did someone hurt you?”
Oh hell. “No, I…I just…” My voice trailed off and I couldn’t even help it.
Now these memories that came back to me now were ones I wished were dreams for real. Just nightmares I could leave to die in a dark corner of my mind and never revisit again.
“Wildcat, if someone hurt you in any way, I need to know about it. Tell me, right now ,” Rune said through gritted teeth, my face in his hands, his eyes so dark so suddenly I couldn’t even see the silver threads in them .
“No, Rune, I’m fine. It’s just something that happened in the Gallery of Time,” I said, holding onto his wrists.
“What was it? Tell me everything,” he urged me.
And I did.
I told him about what the woman wearing green in the Whisper Room said in my ear, and how I lost Lyall and went looking for Rune, then went inside the Gallery of Time for some peace and quiet.
I told him everything, held nothing back, and when I described to him half the portrait of the woman who looked just like me, something inside me buzzed.
Like raw energy, like something alive and hungry, trying to feast on whatever it could find inside me.
“Half of it was torn, though, so maybe I’m wrong. I didn’t see her full face.” Rune had stopped moving, breathing, even blinking as he looked at me. “I’m probably wrong…right? It simply can’t be.”
“Are you sure that’s what the plaque said?” he finally asked, and even his voice had transformed.
I nodded. “It was the Ice Queen, Rune. The same one they said you killed. The last sovereign of Ice —it was her.”
And she, somehow, looked enough like me that anybody would have believed we were the same person.
“Impossible,” he whispered, touching my face with his fingertips.
“Exactly. It’s impossible, so I saw wrong. It was dark, and…and half her face was gone, and…” Fuck, why was it so hard to breathe all of a sudden?
“Yes,” Rune said with a nod. “I’m going to check it myself, wilding. Don’t you worry around it—I’m going to find the portrait and I’m going to check it myself.”
My heart skipped a beat. A big part of me wanted to tell him no, beg him not to do it .
Because that part of me really believed that what I’d seen was real . There had been no misunderstanding, and I hadn’t been wrong at all—that portrait and that woman were real.
Naturally, I ignored it.
“Yes, please do that. And we’ll tell Lyall about it when we come clean, okay?”
“He’ll see us as a threat if we tell him now,” Rune said instead. “The entire court is very vulnerable. Trust me, Wildcat, now is not the time.”
“I don’t want to hide, damn it,” I said, a little louder than I intended, and my voice echoed in the tall ceiling. But the door remained closed, and nobody had come for us yet, so…
“Me, neither, but I will do whatever it takes to keep you safe,” he said before he kissed me. And I wanted to lean into that kiss, hold him close while I could, but…
“There’s something else, Rune.” I hated to even bring it up, but he was right—he needed to know. About the woman wearing red, about the knife that had been in her hand. The knife that she’d then put in mine before she ran away.
It was all too senseless for me, even as I spoke about it, and I hadn’t even allowed myself to dwell on it for long before I slept. But now that Rune knew, too, I felt a little better. He was from here, had grown up among these people—he would know what to do better than me.
Again, Rune was silent for a long moment, pulling me closer, resting his chin over my shoulder while I played with the ends of his hair, touched the skin of his chest, trailed the lines of his tattoo.
God, how I wished it didn’t exist right now.
“I wish you would just talk to your father and have this thing removed, Rune. You’d be safer if you had your full magic,” I whispered after a while.
“That’s not an option, wildling,” he said and kissed my shoulder. “I’m plenty safe. Don’t you worry about me.”
“I do worry.” And no amount of him telling me not to was going to change that.
“There are times, when…” Rune stopped speaking, let his voice trail off, made me lean back so I could look at his face.
“What? What were you going to say?”
He closed his eyes, sighed deeply. “There are times when I’m sure Lyall had a reason for bringing me here. For keeping me here. For being my friend.”
My brows narrowed. “What reason?”
“I don’t know,” Rune said, shaking his head. “He hides it well. And maybe I’m even wrong—I really don’t know. But my point is that other people are suspicious as well, Wildcat. Like the Broken Crown. ”
“What the hell’s the Broken Crown?” Pretty sure I hadn’t heard that before, but something about those words…