Page 19

eighteen

Words spun in my head.

My life was getting overwhelming so fast I couldn’t even keep up with what was happening anymore. Rune walked beside me, and even though he never once turned his eyes toward me, I felt his attention all the same. It was on me every second of the way for however long we walked through the woods at the end of the maze market, until we reached what must have been another town. It had almost identical buildings—white stone and bricks and wood, though there were considerably fewer people walking down the narrow streets.

“What did the Twinborn say?” he asked all of a sudden, while I was holding onto my scarf, focusing on shielding my eyes with it as well as I could because there were two of those beings to the left of the street where we walked. Even though neither of them wore a cowboy hat, it was easy enough to guess what they were. Incubi, creatures who fed on lust—and they were as beautiful as the clouds in the sky, with their sneaky smiles and slit pupils. I really didn’t want to lose control of my body the way I had that morning, so I would rather just hide.

I looked at Rune instead. The way he moved was otherworldly, every step precise, every movement of his arms graceful. Even the way he blinked his eyes, kind of slower than normal, gave him a different aura than everybody else here.

“Nothing. They let the vampire bite them because he was a messenger who was going to deliver a message to Blackwater for them, to their mother.” And I almost said, they also warned me against you, but most importantly, whom did you betray ? What does that tattoo mean?

I didn’t, of course. No matter how my instincts reacted to this man, I didn’t know him. I couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t go back to the maze market right now and find Tuck and Tucker before they had the chance to go to their mother.

“Anything else?” Rune looked down at me then, barely turning his head, his brow arched.

“Just that the vampire was cheap and only took about half a cup of blood from them.”

I watched him curiously. His expression didn’t change. “You stopped to talk to them, and that’s fine. Twinborns are relatively harmless. But you won’t be talking to anybody else without me present again.”

Fire in my veins. “Is that an order?”

He turned to me with a slight smile— Mr. Moody indeed. “It is. And you will obey it.”

God help me, I was this close to putting my foot in front of his just to watch him fall on his face right there in front of me. But I controlled myself because something told me it would be impossible to take him by surprise.

“Suck it, Mr. Moody. I can do whatever I want—and what I want is to not obey your orders.”

“We’ll see about that,” the asshole said.

“We will. We def?—”

A door opened on the other side of the dirt road we were walking on with enough force to slam against the wall with a loud thud. I looked—we were right across from those two incubi who were hanging out in front of a two-story building with no sign on it, just a set of double doors and barred windows. One was blond, the other darker, both as tan as that first one had been. Both gorgeous—until I saw the woman who’d slammed the door to the wall behind them with such force.

My jaw hit the floor.

Hair white like snow, skin a rich olive, eyes so green they shone like fucking emeralds, pupils slit. She wore rags around her bust and hips, and heeled sandals that were made out of vines and small flowers.

How in the fuck was she real?

“Nilah.”

A hand on my arm. I realized I’d stopped walking.

But how could I just keep going when the woman stopped there next to those men, threw her long white hair behind her shoulders as she spoke, and she seemed pissed off about something.

Anger looked really, really good on her. And, fuck, I could have bet you a limb that I was as straight as straight gets until that moment, but this woman…

For her I would probably set the world on fire just to feel those lush, plump, pink lips on my skin. Just for a?—

I was pulled violently to the side until the woman, who’d just now noticed me standing there watching her, was out of my sight. Suddenly Rune came to my other side and blocked my view of her completely.

“Let me just—one second—let me—” I tried to push him to the side so I could see because there was a fire burning in the pit of my stomach, more intense than before, and I really wanted that woman.

I wanted her like I’d never wanted anything in my life.

“It’s just an incubus, Nilah. Control yourself,” Rune said, and then I was being dragged behind a building, but he didn’t stop going until we were at the edge of town and had an open field on the left.

The distance actually worked. I closed my eyes as my mind came back to me, and my cheeks flushed bright scarlet.

Fuck, that was intense. I genuinely was thinking about making out with a woman and wanting to so much it was still hard to breathe.

“What the hell is this place,” I muttered to myself, and it wasn’t a question at all—I was just trying to get control of myself.

“It’s a death trap for mortals like you,” Rune answered me anyway. “There’s magic in the air here and if you give it your attention, it will consume you. Do you understand? Your senses are a liability to you right now. Guard them.”

I closed my eyes and wrapped my arms around my head— too much, too much, this is too much, I chanted, and to my knowledge I only did it inside my head.

But then Rune answered, “It helps if you accept that anything is possible, Wildcat. It won’t be too much then.”

I stopped. Raised my head toward the sky. “How do I do that?”

“It’s simple. Whatever you see, tell yourself that it’s all perfectly normal, that this thing or place or creature has existed here for millions of midnights before you, and they will be here for millions more after you. Just like the sky and the ground beneath our feet.”

Possible. Normal.

Easier said than done—but something he said got my attention, and I eagerly let it. “You said midnights.”

He raised a brow. “Yes?”

“Helid said summers . Does that mean years and days? ”

“Yes. The Seelie Court counts their summers.”

“So…you’re not from the Seelie Court.”

“No. There are no Seelie fae with dark hair, Wildcat.”

“Oh.” That wasn’t something I’d heard before. “Does that mean you’re Midnight then?” Because he said a million midnights so it made sense.

“I used to be, yes.”

Rune turned his head away as if he were looking back where we came from. I’d known this guy for a day, not even close to long enough to understand any of his reactions or expressions, but I was willing to bet anything that right now he was uncomfortable.

Whom did you betray, Rune?

“But now you’re…?”

“Fae. I’m just fae.” This, he said almost forcefully, and his voice dipped in hatred so suddenly. “Do not speak to anyone again. It’s not worth the risk. You cannot fathom what magic is capable of.”

“You don’t have to be an asshole about it,” I said. “I’m just curious. And afraid. And?—”

He popped right in front of me. “Then stop talking to them.”

Them, he said. Like he wasn’t a part of the same creatures, the same world he lived in.

“Sure thing, Mr. Moody. I didn’t realize you’re so scared of them, too,” I said, just to spite him. He obviously didn’t care about my fear or my curiosity, and I didn’t care about him.

Again, the look in his eyes darkened. “I am not afraid—you are.”

“Fair enough.” I straightened my scarf and hooked my thumbs on the straps of my backpack. “But you are afraid of the prince.” I walked around him and behind the building.

He growled. An honest-to-God growl came out of him when I passed him by, and every inch of my skin rose in goose bumps.

“You only need to be alive, Wildcat…”

His whisper was so low that I convinced myself that I’d imagined it, and I didn’t acknowledge it at all.

Since there were no trees in the field that surrounded this town of the Neutral Lands, we stuck behind buildings. Rune led the way and I walked behind him, my eyes on his leather boots most of the time because I didn’t want to be controlled by anything or anyone in this place. As much as I hated to admit it, he was right. I really couldn’t even begin to imagine what actual magic was capable of, but I also wasn’t keen on finding out. That’s why I stuck to him and I didn’t even complain when I was dripping sweat and every muscle in my body screamed from exhaustion.

Soon, the sky grew dark, and finally, Rune said that we would stop to sleep in something called guesthaven, which was basically an inn, judging by his description. It was a place he’d been to before, and he trusted that the food and the room he’d rent for us wouldn’t be laced with any kind of magic or eternal debt.

Yeah, I didn’t ask.

Even so, he basically hid me behind a building that was empty, apparently abandoned, and he told me to wait while he went to make the deal. Luckily, he came back quickly and then he smuggled me through the back door of the tallest building we’d seen in this town, which was only four stories. But it was wide and it seemed to be constructed mainly from stone, but with wooden extensions and brick walls here and there, too. It had stairs made of stone that led up to the fourth floor where we would be sleeping, and Rune kept my hand in his through every step of the way.

Other creatures came down while we went up, and the stairs were narrow enough that I had to stick to Rune’s back the whole time. But the corridors were lined with doors on one side and open on the other, so plenty of fresh air came through. I didn’t feel like suffocating—even if my mind insisted that I was—by being in such a tight space with all these creatures that could kill me without breaking a sweat.

And finally, we reached the fourth floor. Our room was at the very end of the corridor, and there was noise coming from the one right below. Music—someone was beating something made out of metal to create this chaotic melody that didn’t make any sense to me.

But, finally, Rune opened the door with this big brass-colored key, and we were inside.

Tiny space. One bed. One dresser. One window.

Now I was really going to suffocate.

“I’m not—” Going to sleep in the same bed with you, I was going to say, but there was a possibility that this guy could read minds because he stopped me.

“I’ll be sleeping on the floor.”

The words died on my tongue. “Oh.” Good .

He pointed at the edge of the bed and ordered, “Sit. We need to eat.”

The problem was that right now I had absolutely no energy to argue with him or to remind him that I didn’t care about his orders because I’d only eaten in the morning, and I was starving. I even had a headache because of it.

Rune had a leather bag in his hands that was supposed to be filled with food. He said we’d eat inside where it was safer, and I had no complaints. Just the idea of seeing another plate full of blood soup was enough to make me want to give up on food forever.

We sat together on the bed, and he’d brought us plenty of things to eat—bread and cheese and fruit and meat he promised was beef and perfectly edible.

“You sure there’s no magic here?” I asked possibly half a dozen times, and he nodded and said he was— without getting pissed off, which was impressive. But maybe he was just as hungry as me because this time he was eating with me. He hadn’t at breakfast.

He’d brought us two new metal bottles full of water, too, which tasted like heaven. I never really knew how much simply walking around could exhaust you and steal all your energy. Betty and I used to do over ten thousand steps—according to our phone apps—when we went shopping at the only mall in Lavender Hill, but I hadn’t felt the exhaustion so much then. Maybe because I’d been in a better mood.

Rune was silent for a long time, and he ate only half of what I did. More food remained in the bag, and he wrapped it up and put it on the dresser for tomorrow, then led me outside toward the bathroom. It was a common bathroom for every guest on the floor, so when he opened the door and I walked in, he followed.

I turned, my jaw touching the floor. “No way in hell.” If he thought I was going to use the bathroom with him inside, he was fucking delusional.

“I am not leaving you out of my sight.”

I extended my arm to the side even though I had no idea which way I was pointing. “You left me out there when you came to pay for this room!”

He didn’t even bat an eye. “That was outside. Here, there are creatures who can smell you.”

“So, let them smell me!” That didn’t sound like a me problem at all.

Until he said, “There are creatures who can walk through walls.”

That clamped my mouth shut right away.

With a groan I closed my eyes and cursed loudly with the nastiest words I knew, and who cared that he could hear me?

“Turn around and close your eyes, Mr. Moody. And if I catch you taking a peek, I’m going to throw my shoe at your face.”

His eyes sparkled—did he think I was kidding? Because I wasn’t.

But just to make sure he understood—and it was easy to do since I was pissed off now—I leaned in and said, “ Don’t test me.”

Unfortunately for me, all my serious voice did was make him smile. He stopped himself halfway so all I got was a lopsided half-smile which looked too good on him for my own good.

Fuck, he was so goddamn gorgeous it wasn’t fair.

“My, my, Wildcat. You almost scared me there.”

He was mocking me. Clearly .

I closed my eyes again, called for the last bit of control that was quickly running away from me— please, come back. I would not let him get the best of me, damn it. I was used to bullies. He had no power over me, his hotness be damned.

“I will scare you for real one day. You just wait and see,” I said, and I meant it. I was going to find whatever made him shiver, and I was going to use it against him. Shamelessly. Mercilessly. Because, yes, I was used to bullying, but I also loved to bite back. I was petty like that.

“Now turn around. ”

An arched brow. A brand-new spark in his eye. “Is that an order?”

“I’m pretty sure it’s the goddamn law that you can’t see the prince’s Lifebound naked.”

There. His face changed so suddenly. His eyes, now a blue so deep, so dark, they showed me my reflection, turned down to my body.

Suddenly, I felt naked for real, like he could see right through the fabrics I wore.

My heart picked up the beating so fast it was a miracle it didn’t shake me in place, and my mind became completely blank. I was reminded of that heat I’d felt twice now from the incubi and the succubi during the day, except this was different.

This was…natural. It was just my body’s response to this gorgeous asshole that was messing with my mind.

“Be quick,” he finally whispered, and he turned around to face the door.

It took a good long time for me to calm down from that heat, to actually take in the bathroom, the rusty tub that would barely fit me to sit in it, but it was full of water that looked clean. The sink was basically a bowl full of water with a pitcher next to it and some soap on a piece of wood. A half-broken mirror hung on the yellowed wall over the basin. There were windows near the ceiling without glass, but if it was cold in here, I didn’t feel it. And the toilet, thank God, was in a separate cabin on the other side of the room. Putting my backpack against the tub, I went for it first.

Those glass spheres full of the sparks that glowed white and golden were mounted on the walls here and there, but none was in the toilet cabin. It was a hassle, but it was worth not being heard peeing by this guy.

Wait—can he actually hear me peeing through the door ?

Mortified, I walked outside and found him exactly as I’d left him, facing the door, not moving a single inch. He looked like a fucking statue, and I almost asked him to move, to make sure it was still Rune.

At the last moment, I decided to just get on with it.

I didn’t bother with the sink at all, just grabbed the bar of soap, cleaned it because it looked awfully suspicious, and then I began to undress.

My heartbeat hadn’t slowed down at all. My cheeks were flushed as if I thought he had eyes in the back of his head and could see me. My hands shook as I took off all my clothes, put them over the wooden box to the side of that basin, and rushed into the tub.

Ice-cold.

A muffled scream escaped me, and Rune turned.

Now, the water could have been boiling.

I wrapped my arms around myself and said, “ Turn around!”

He didn’t.

Rune didn’t fucking turn around. Instead, he came closer, and he could see me. I was naked and my legs were in the water up to my thighs, and he could fucking see me.

My God, if I could just get my body to move, I would be running away right now. Or fisting him in the face. Or doing anything at all other than standing there, trying to cover my boobs and my pussy with my hands.

The asshole came all the way to the rusted tub, squatted to its side, and put the palms of his hands against it.

“What are you?—”

Bright white light came from the contact.

The ice-cold water that had practically frozen my legs began to warm up.

Rune’s eyes slid down from my face and to my body like a fucking caress, and I felt the heat of his gaze as if it was physical. God, my heart was going to break through my ribcage any second. My lady parts were on fucking fire.

What the hell is wrong with me?! I’d been with a guy before, damn it.

“This okay?” Rune whispered when my lungs had run all out of air.

It took me a good long moment to understand what those words meant.

And when I did, I could only nod because my voice had abandoned me again. Traitorous fucker.

Rune stood up. Looked down at me. His eyes were made of blue fire, and I was suddenly desperate to get fucking scorched.

“Go ahead.” Slowly, he walked to the door again, backward. Never taking his eyes off me for a second. “And try to calm down, Wildcat. Everyone in the building can hear your heartbeat.”

That’s when he turned his back to me again.

I was fuming, but no word came out of me. This was the first person in my life who’d ever gotten the last word, and I wasn’t sure whether to be impressed by it or just ashamed.

Instead, I sat down in the tub where the water could hide me a little bit, and I forced myself to breathe.

He can hear my heartbeat. He could actually hear how it was galloping in my chest, and it had to stop now.

The best way to do that was to focus on something else. A bar of soap was in my hand and I was in the water, and I was going to fucking clean myself up thoroughly no matter what this asshole said or did.

The moment I calmed down a bit I realized that it wasn’t about saying anything back to him—it was about doing. It was about serving him the same medicine he served me.

I tried—I really did, but I couldn’t let it go. I would never forgive myself if I let him get away with what he just did. Never.

So, I stood up again.

He heard me—his head turned to the side, but he didn’t look at me that I could tell.

Then, against most of my instincts, I began to hum the slow melody of one of my favorite love songs, and I cleaned my limbs slowly.

My eyes were on him. His shoulders were tense, his hands in fists. He might be a fae —whatever the hell that really meant—and he might be dangerous enough to scare off a vampire, but right now he was just a guy who could piss me off and turn me on at the same second, so I needed to get back some of my self-respect. I was going to, no matter how much it cost me.

He wanted to play games and make me uncomfortable? Fine. Any game was more fun with two players, anyway.

“Hey, Rune, grab that pitcher for me?”

He turned. Looked at the pitcher near where I’d folded my clothes. Then turned to me.

He saw me standing there completely naked and wet, my arms to the sides. This time I wasn’t trying to hide anything, God help me.

He froze just like I had a few minutes go. Exactly the same way.

Oh, delicious, delicious revenge. Some said it was a dish best served cold, but I liked it warm. I liked it fucking steaming.

It took him almost as long as it had taken me to get himself moving. His eyes never left my face as he slowly went to grab the pitcher and brought it to me.

I must have lost my fucking mind—or maybe those incubi I’d seen during the day had affected me much more than I’d realized—but I said, “Warm it up for me, will you?” And I turned around.

I fucking turned around, turned my back to him so he could see everything —my back and ass and legs. I wasn’t sure whether I did it to tease him or just because I couldn’t face him like that for much longer, no matter how much I liked to play this game—but it didn’t really matter.

He stopped behind me and I could tell he wasn’t even breathing.

White light brightened up the room for a second, and then water, warm and heavenly, poured on my head.

I sucked in a loud breath from surprise because I thought he’d pour it over my shoulders first. But it felt so good, so smooth, that for a moment I forgot where I was and what the hell I was doing.

When I remembered again, heat gathered in my cheeks, in the pit of my stomach, and between my legs. My eyes were closed, and my traitorous mind imagined what it would be like if I turned around right now, wrapped my arms around his neck, and pulled him in for a kiss.

It would be a release, and God, I needed a release. Just to get this awful attraction I seemed to be having to him out of my system, so then I could focus on where I was going and how to survive.

Just one time.

Yes, I was that idiotic that I actually considered doing it. I considered turning around and trying to kiss him—and then Rune moved incredibly fast.

The water stopped coming. The pitcher hit the wooden box where he found it again, and the door suddenly opened—all within the same minute. I turned with my hands over my breasts to find him halfway out of it already.

“Get dressed,” he said, then walked outside and closed the door behind him.

I felt so exposed the moment that door clicked closed, the very moment I was actually alone. I looked around me at the empty room, and my eyes fell on the broken mirror. I saw myself, my body wet and naked, glistening silver under the nearest lights. My eyes were wide and my cheeks flushed and my lips parted—I definitely looked just as turned on as I felt.

And there was no doubt in my mind that Rune had seen it just as clearly.

* * *

When I walked out of the bathroom, dressed and with my clothes slightly wet—because I only found a small towel near the basin to dry with—I didn’t even look at him. Rune had been waiting outside, hands in the pockets of his pants, shoulders leaning against the wall, perfectly unbothered once again.

I said nothing, didn’t meet his eyes at all. He said nothing, either, just held the door of the room open for me to enter.

We lay down, me on the small bed that was incredibly uncomfortable, and him on the ground, just there. No blanket, and he had his arms underneath his head as a pillow. He lay on his back, eyes open and on the white ceiling.

I lay the same way, trying to gather the courage to tell him to get one of the blankets—I had two. They were both thin, but it was better than nothing. Pretty sure nights would get cold here, even though there was glass in the window in this room.

My hair was wet and I hated the feeling, but I pushed it up all the way as far as it would go. The sheets didn’t smell good or bad, for which I was thankful. The mattress was too hard, though, so I was feeling the discomfort ten minutes in.

When I thought Rune would already be asleep, I slowly turned on my side and went closer to the edge of the bed to look at him.

His eyes were still open.

My stomach fell but I didn’t dare turn back. I didn’t even blink, afraid he’d see it and ask me what the hell I was doing. As if he didn’t already know that I was lying there and ogling him like some mentally ill person.

Just that he was so beautiful.

I’d always understood the appeal of beauty, of course—I was human. But I’d never been quite so controlled by it before. I’d never had an urge to just sit there and look at something beautiful, take in every single detail, and feel so much pleasure and comfort from it. It was honestly insane.

The lights hanging on the walls were just bright enough so that I could see the ink on the side of his neck. It made me wonder how much farther below his shirt it went.

It made me wonder what he’d look like without that shirt at all. And without those pants.

Then I remembered that he’d actually seen me naked— twice.

Then I remembered that he’d emptied a pitcher full of water on me while I had my naked back turned to him. I remembered how I’d revealed myself to him, completely uncovered, confident, driven by that raw anger he made me feel when he tried to get the upper hand—and by the senseless desire he ignited in me.

“What does your tattoo mean?”

The words left my lips before I realized I’d decided to ask. And Rune was silent for such a long moment after that I regretted having spoken with all my heart.

Until… “It’s not a tattoo. It’s a mark.”

“For what?”

This one, he didn’t answer at all.

“Do you want a blanket?” I ended up saying eventually because it felt wrong to have two when he had none.

“No.”

That’s all he said. No.

I closed my eyes, squeezed them shut, begged for sleep to take me already. I was so tired that my limbs were still slightly pulsating, and I just knew that I was going to have sore muscles in the morning.

But when sleep didn’t come, I found myself praying I could turn back time somehow, go back to that bathroom and just settle for washing my face in the basin, never take my clothes off at all. Never turn around and show him my naked body like that— God, what the hell was I thinking?!

Betty would approve. Angry and horny me approved, too. That’s why I was so fucking mortified now.

“We should reach the edge of Cloakwood in a day and a half,” Rune said after a while, surprising me. I thought he wanted me to shut up.

I said nothing.

“If we’re lucky, we can get to Blackwater in three.”

I closed my eyes. His voice was really soothing. I wished I could tell him to just keep talking—or even to read me a bedtime story. I used to love it when Dad read those for me when I was little.

“How did he save you?”

My eyes opened again. “How did he save you ?” I asked instead.

Neither of us answered.

“What can you do, Rune? What’s your magic power?” I wondered, certain he wouldn’t answer that, either.

To my surprise, he did.

“All fae have the power of illusions in different ways. The Midnight Court creates them through shadows. Our magic connects to them as easily as it does to poisons and venoms—plants or creatures, they are very easy to access. And most, but not all Midnight Fae, have the power of dream manipulation.”

I thought about that for a second.

“Show me,” I then said. “How does one create manipulations through shadows?”

Slowly, Rune pulled a hand from under his head and raised it up at the ceiling. And on the wall to his right, just beside the door, the shadow moved even when his hand didn’t.

The shadow waved at me, moved its fingers, though Rune’s hand remained perfectly still, fingers pointing at the ceiling.

The shadow didn’t stop. It made circles and triangles, spun around and pretended to crawl on the wall like a snake, then like a worm. Pretended to be scissors, then made a rabbit with two big ears bouncing—again, while Rune’s hand didn’t move an inch. I found myself laughing a little at how the shadow rabbit jumped around, moving all the way up to the corner of the wall where the lights didn’t reach, then back again.

Then it became a dog with its tongue hanging out, and somehow, the shadow gained another five fingers to create a spider that looked terribly real.

“Holy shit, Rune,” I said when he lowered his hand, and the shadow, still there, waved at me, then disappeared, too. “That was amazing!”

He looked up at me with an arched brow as if he wanted to make sure I wasn’t mocking him. I wasn’t—not even close. “Really—that is incredible .”

He turned his eyes to the ceiling again. “It’s called umbrakinessis, the ability to shape shadows. I can also blend in with them seamlessly, become invisible to the naked eye. I can communicate with my kind under specific circumstances and dim surrounding light sources to create more shadows to manipulate.” This time, he only raised his fingers and the lights around the room dimmed down almost all the way before turning up again.

“Wow.” That might have been the coolest thing I’d ever seen. “What are those, anyway?”

“Fae magic at its rawest form. It’s just pure energy that glows when in contact with oxygen.” And he released three shapes into the air that glowed with a bright white light as they slowly floated higher up in the air and changed shape. I held on tightly to the blankets as I watched them turn to snowflakes, so beautiful they could have been a drawing, then stars with six points, and finally little rabbits hopping higher and higher in the air until they reached the ceiling and disappeared into the wall completely.

There I was, laughing again—that was so fucking cool.

Rune looked at me, and he seemed suspicious, like he really couldn’t believe that I was laughing, which made me stop.

“What about that shadow you came out of when you first found me on that horse? Was that the same thing?”

“Pretty much. There were a lot more shadows there, deeper and more powerful, so they were much easier to use—but yes. I both shielded you from the grogs and tried to calm down the horse.”

The memory of it was still very vivid in my mind. The way he’d just walked out of shadows with those eyes and those lips and that voice…

I fluffed my pillow and went even closer to the edge of the bed. “What about the others?”

So, Rune told me about the Seelie fae, who manipulated light magic and nature and healed most diseases and wounds with perfect ease—just like the prince had healed me. He told me about the Unseelie, who commanded darkness—not shadows because apparently they were different. Who were good at curses and who could actually possess animals and beasts of all kinds. Their population was apparently declining fast because the Court had been changing leaders every few years in the past couple of decades, and they were more divided than ever.

He also told me about the Frozen fae, who manipulated twilight, ice, and water, and were the best hunters in Verenthia, and who were currently under the control of the Midnight Court.

While he spoke, Rune closed his eyes and his voice lowered even more than usual.

I had never heard a more beautiful lullaby in my life, so I was half asleep when he was done talking. In a way, he’d just made my wish come true again because hearing about fae and magic was exactly like listening to bedtime stories.

His breathing was even, and his eyes remained closed a few minutes later. Slowly, I slipped out of the bed as silently as I could, picked up one of my blankets and put it over him. He didn’t move an inch.

It wasn’t much but it was something. I’d sleep better knowing he had it.

Goodnight, Rune, I said in my mind when I got back in bed.

And finally, I slept.