Page 10 of Fractured (Royal Sins #3)

He didn’t give me the chance to speak at all before he stepped back and pulled me with him, toward this big rock that was apparently hiding yet another passage, so narrow we barely fit one at a time.

The edges of the rocks caught on my clothes like they were trying to hold me back, but Rune pulled harder and my bird was right there over my head every step of the way.

The passage wasn’t longer than about twenty steps but to me it felt like two hundred until I could finally breathe again without two walls made of gigantic rocks trying to squash me between them.

Rune pulled me up a landing, and finally there was plenty of space around me, and plenty of air to breathe.

Then I opened my eyes and saw the other side.

“Oh, my God…” I whispered at the night sky full of twinkling stars, and the sea that stretched far below us in the distance.

“It’s the only opening up the mountain that looks out at the Mercove,” Rune said, stepping behind me, his hands on my waist as I walked a little farther out on the ledge. “We’re about halfway up and you can basically see all of the sea from here. Most of the islands.”

And he was absolutely right.

The sea stretched out below us, black as ink and alive with silver light.

Moonlight skimmed across the waves in rippling streaks, catching the peaks of water, moving like a living piece of art.

Far beyond the bay, islands pierced the horizon, and you could just make out the outline of mountains in the distance.

The air smelled of salt, but it was light and warm, and the slow breeze picked up my hair and pushed it to the side as if it was trying to caress me.

Above us, the sky was full of stars. There were no fae lights or flames dancing about here, just the moon and her companions, and the occasional small light coming from the dark seas.

In my mind I saw the glowing fish and the crystals and the herbs—I saw it all as if they were right in front of my eyes.

Mist hung over the water in patches here and there, glowing faintly.

It was all as beautiful as it was scary—but only for a moment.

Only until I realized that we were indeed halfway up a mountain, and the water was far below us, and the mermaids couldn’t get to us all the way up here. They had no legs, only fishtails. I’d seen those with my own eyes.

So, when Rune wrapped his arms around me from behind and pulled me to his chest, I exhaled deeply and let go of the fear and panic for another moment. I was perfectly safe.

“What do you think?” he whispered in my ear. “Do you like the view?”

“I love it,” I said, a bit breathless. “Wow, Rune. Wow. ”

Rune squeezed me to him tighter and kissed the side of my neck. My eyes closed and I breathed in freely, the wind playing with my hair, the salty scent filling my nostrils, making me think that I was a world away from everything I’d been running from until just now.

“We’re going to be okay, wildling,” he whispered. “Whatever comes after this, we’ll make it.”

“You sound so sure.”

“I am,” he said without hesitation. “Not just because I have access to my magic now, but because of you.”

I laughed a little. “Because I’m some kind of a freak of nature? Is that what you mean?”

“Not at all. It’s because of what’s in here.” He let go of me for a moment and brought a hand over my chest, pressed his palm right above my heart. “Because you’re brave and you’re stubborn and you refuse to give up. Because you’re so damn perfect, Wildcat. I’m in awe of you.”

My toes curled all the way and I about melted in his arms.

He planted kisses up my neck and my jawline, and I turned my head until his lips touched mine.

God, he was heaven. My heaven. He was everything I never knew I could even want—and all he did was hold me and kiss me like I was the most important thing in the world to him.

“Sit with me?” he whispered against my lips, and I nodded.

The ledge was about ten feet wide so there was plenty of space.

The piece of rock extending from the side of the mountain seemed to go on farther than we could see, and Rune found the perfect spot for us to sit there near the opening.

No sharp edges on the rocky wall, and we could rest our backs against it comfortably while we looked out at the sea and the night sky.

For a while, we sat there in silence, the bird made of light flying over our heads slowly, his light merging with that of the stars above us.

“Do you think they can do something against Lyall?” I asked eventually because the question remained in the back of my mind even now. Because I wanted to know, if we somehow failed to figure out what was really going on here, was there a chance that Lyall would not succeed?

Rune didn’t even need to think about it before he answered. “No.” My eyes closed, and I held on tightly to his hand between mine. “They’re too weak. Too few. They’re just barely surviving in here. I don’t see how they would go about even entering the Seelie Court if they tried.”

“Fuck. ”

“It’s okay, Wildcat. I don’t think it will come to an all-out fight.”

“How do you know?”

“Because it wouldn’t work. Lyall cannot be overthrown—he is the legitimate heir to the Seelie throne.

But he won’t be able to rule the others.

We don’t have to worry about killing Lyall, not right now.

We can just make sure that the other fae royals know what he’s planning and make it impossible for him to even try. ”

It did make sense when you thought about it that way. “He can’t have the Midnight Court because he doesn’t have you.” Which also made so much sense now when I thought about it. “I can’t believe he was that young when he planned for this. For you .”

“It’s Lyall. He’s always thought a few feet ahead of everybody else.” He pulled me closer to his side, and I put my legs over his thigh, almost climbing on his lap. “But he can’t win, not this. He’s a god in his court, but the other royals…”

“What are they like?” I whispered. “What’s your father like?” Every muscle in his body locked tightly and I felt it because I was basically lying against him.

Rune didn’t speak, not right away, and so I said, “Before, when Merenith asked if you remembered anything, you hesitated. Do you…do you remember?”

His eyes closed. “Just…just fragments. Pieces of a memory—and I’m not sure if they’re even real.”

I moved back a bit to look at his face. “What? What pieces?”

Rune sighed and grabbed me by the waist and pulled me to sit on his lap facing him. “Just my father’s voice when he marked me and banished me. What he looked like. What…he said. ”

My heart broke because it was clear to see the hurt flashing in his dark eyes. Fuck, now I regretted asking him. “I’m sorry, Rune.”

“Don’t be. I’m glad I remembered.”

“Even if it’s painful?”

He thought about it for a moment. “I have to know my past in order to know who I want to be in the future, don’t I?”

Damn right, he did. I leaned in and kissed his lips, moved my legs on either side of his so I could get closer and lay my head over his shoulder.

“I remember the queen, too—or just her body on the floor,” Rune said, and my blood turned to ice.

“You remember killing her?”

“No. I’m not sure if it’s even real, but I remember the scent of winter roses and the silhouette of a woman on the floor—that’s all,” he said as he played with my hair with one hand and closed the other over my cheek.

“And…her face?” I dared to ask.

“She was lying on her stomach,” Rune said, and again, I was almost relieved.

“Tomorrow,” I whispered, holding his hand over my cheek with mine as I turned to kiss his palm. “We’ll know more tomorrow.”

“We will. As soon as we get to the Quiet, we’ll know more about who you are,” Rune said, and my heart jumped again.

The sensation was like a stab right through it, which then made the image of my blood pouring out of me that had been only an illusion pop up right in front of my eyes.

Laughter burst out of me and I didn’t even try to stop it. “Fucking hell, Rune, I am terrified! ” And it was obviously not funny at all, but the alternative was to cry, and I would rather just laugh while I could.

Rune took my face in his hands and said, “So am I. That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop. We’ll get to the bottom of this, Wildcat.”

I believed him, of course. “Yes, yes, we will. You’re pretty stubborn yourself, Mr. Moody,” I said in a whisper.

He smiled a bit. “I am when it comes to you. I promised you that I’d get you out of this place the same way I brought you here, and I will.”

This was definitely not funny at all. “Don’t tell me you’re blaming yourself about this, Rune, or I will smack you on the head.” And I wasn’t even kidding.

He closed his eyes and his smile turned sad—which surprised me.

“Holy shit—you are ?!”

“I did bring you all the way to the court.”

“Because I asked you to! Because I’d have died if I tried to go without you! How have you forgotten?” His shirt was in my fists now as I shook him.

“I haven’t. I just keep thinking if I’d taken you back to your world when I found you in the woods?—”

“Then we wouldn’t be here .”

The words slipped out of me in one second. Rune clamped his mouth shut right away. Looked at me like he was in shock, too, like he was seeing me for the first time.

It hurt. My fucking heart hurt right now as I took his face in my hands. “If you’d taken me back, we wouldn’t be here right now. Do you really wish we weren’t?”

He didn’t hesitate for a second. “ Never,” he breathed and crashed his lips to mine .