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twenty-two

Trees, leaves, branches underneath us. I instinctively let go of Rune, and he let go of me because it seemed like something was pulling us down—not gravity, but some kind of a goddamn magnet.

We hit the ground at the same time, and we fell on bushes, which made the impact hurt a bit less, I figured, since none of my bones broke. I’d also fallen on my backpack before it slipped off my arm, so that must have helped, too.

I thought the fall was going to be longer. The shadows Rune had held us in had been at the very top of these trees, and now we were under them. On the ground. Alive, as far as I could tell.

I rolled a few times to the side of the bush until there was nothing but grass underneath me, and Rune was right beside me. I sat up as fast as I could, my instincts taking charge, my eyes blinking fast as I tried to take in my surroundings.

Trees, but not too many. The sunlight pierced through the canopy everywhere. Colorful leaves around us.

The smell of smoke was in the air—and a woman was standing there ten feet away from us, smiling.

My heart all but stopped beating the second I saw her. I moved back, searched for Rune to find that he’d sat up, too, just to my side, and his eyes were on that same woman.

I wasn’t imagining her—she was really there.

“Oh, hello, hello! Welcome—it’s so good to see you!”

Her voice was loud. Cheerful.

It freaked me the hell out.

“Rune,” I said because I was trying to stand up, but I couldn’t. That same fucking magnet that had pulled us down from the trees was making sure I couldn’t get my ass off the ground at all—and Rune was the same.

“Calm down,” he whispered. “It’s just a noxin. Calm down.”

“I can’t move,” I said through gritted teeth as the woman came closer, and she was holding something in her hands—a stick that was burning, and the grey smoke was curling up all around her. That must be where the smell was coming from.

“I’ll need a moment to free us. We’re in her trap,” said Rune, and I didn’t see a trap anywhere, but then I remembered this was Verenthia. They didn’t use rope and nets for traps here—they used magic. They made magnets out of the ground and didn’t even let you stand up!

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” I whispered because trying to calm down was having the opposite effect on me right now.

The woman came closer, faster.

She was possibly a few inches shorter than me, with chestnut hair falling in big waves around her shoulders, and she wore a pink dress that looked very different from what I’d seen people around here wear. The fabric looked soft and pressed, the stitches exactly right—but I digress. She had blush on her round cheeks—because there was no way that was a natural color—and her smile might be the most genuine smile I’d seen since I came through the Aetherway.

Which confused the shit out of my instincts.

“Tell me, who are you, beautiful girl? You don’t look familiar. I haven’t seen you around before,” she said, waving that stick around, and the heavy smell of the smoke filled my nostrils.

Of course, I was going to give her a fake name because Rune had already warned me, and I already regretted telling it to the Twinborn. But when I spoke with the name of a girl in my class in mind, the actual words that came out of my mouth were, “Nilah Dune.”

What the actual fuck.

I turned to Rune, and he wasn’t surprised, not in the least. Instead, he had his hands pressed to the ground where he sat, trying to sit up higher but struggling to even keep his shoulders up.

“Nilah Dune, welcome to Cloakwood. I’m Miriam, pleased to make your acquaintance.” And waving her stick around, she bowed toward me. “Tell me, who are you and what are you doing here?”

Oh, God…

I looked at Rune again, and this time I didn’t even care if I looked terrified— I was . Because there were words in the pit of my stomach marching up my torso to come out of my mouth, words that were the truth. The same truth I was not supposed to reveal to anyone here, yet I couldn’t stop it, just like I couldn’t push myself off the ground no matter how hard I tried.

“I’m…I-I-I…” I clamped my mouth shut, and at the same second, a sharp pain went right through my skull, like a knife cutting my brain in fucking half.

“It’s okay,” Rune said when I bit my tongue to stop from both screaming and talking. “It’s fine—don’t fight it. We’re almost as good as free.”

And I could see now, even in the daylight, that his hands were lit from within. He was using his magic against whatever was holding us down.

“Answer me, Nilah Dune,” the woman said again. She waved that stick at my face, and the urge to speak became twice as strong instantly.

“I’m a human from Earth. I’m the Seelie Prince’s Lifebound and I’m here to heal him of his disease.”

All these words left me as if they were in a hurry, and I brought both hands in front of my mouth, but it was too late.

What the hell is going on?!

“Oh— ooh! ” the woman said, clapping her hands and smiling even wider. “The prince’s bride!”

I beg your fucking pardon?

Even Rune paused for a heartbeat.

“She is not his bride,” he said, his voice dangerously low.

The woman waved her stick at him. “But she will be! You know how life-bindings of opposite genders work—they always end up wed!”

She laughed.

I looked at Rune, but he only had eyes for her, a murderous look in them. I wanted to say, is it true? Is what she just said true?

And also, is it too late to take me back home now? I really want to go back home…

But those words refused to come out of me.

“Give me one moment to unlock the trap—I will be right with you,” the woman said, and she turned around and hurried to the other side, between the trees and to what looked like a house in the distance.

The same second, Rune raised his hands from the ground and the light that came out of his palm was blinding. It didn’t last longer than a second, though. Something snapped and the air released like a lid had been opened somewhere, and then Rune was on his feet, reaching out his hands for mine.

Before the moment was over, we were both standing, no longer attached to the ground, and we were going to run away, I thought, as far and as fast as our legs could take us.

But then Rune said, “We’re going to try to turn this around, okay? Follow my lead.”

“What the hell was that, Rune? I couldn’t lie! I was trying to, and I couldn’t…”

“It’s not your fault—it’s her herbs. The noxin can taste truths from lies, and they also have a knack for developing all kinds of plants that make you reveal everything to them if you don’t have magic to block them.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed because that actually made sense. I’d smelled that smoke from her stick and then it had been impossible to stop myself. “Wait— taste truths?” Because that part sounded strange as hell.

“Yes. They have extra buds on their tongues. They can taste your lies in the air,” Rune said, and yes, my mind was wiped completely clean. “But we’re going to take advantage of this, so I need you to stand back and do as I say, okay?”

“Or we can just run before she makes us tell her more!”

“We lost the horse. I’m not sure how far we still are from the center of Cloakwood. We need?—”

“Oh, you freed yourselves already. That’s no problem at all, I guess.”

The woman was already back.

Rune turned around and started walking with a kind of gracefulness I honestly didn’t think a body could own, and he looked so calm as he went toward where she was standing, right by the trees. He looked so damn calm while I stood there and watched with my eyes wide open, terrified—until he gripped the woman by the neck and raised her up in the air.

That my knees held me in that moment was a damn miracle if you asked me.

They not only held me, but my body took me forward and I was suddenly gripping his arm, trying to get him to let the woman down. Fucking hell, she was choking!

“Rune, what the hell—what the?—”

“Wildcat, we just talked about this.” He turned his head to me—so calm. So quiet, like he couldn’t hear the woman struggling to breathe. “Remember the part where I said that you need to stand back and do what I say? I just asked you that.”

“Are you serious right now? That doesn’t count when you’re trying to kill someone in front of me!” That I even needed to point this out was ridiculous…right? “You can’t just kill someone who outsmarts you and knows how to get you to tell them your secrets!”

“Why not?” Rune asked, and he genuinely— sincerely— asked me that.

My mouth opened and closed a couple of times. “Because it’s wrong! Fuck, Rune, this is way too basic—it’s wrong to kill! Don’t they teach you that here?”

“She could have hurt you,” he said instead, turning to the woman again and squeezing his fingers around her neck.

Meanwhile she was struggling to draw in a little air while trying to pry his hand away, but she shouldn’t have bothered. I was trying, too, pulling him back with all my strength, but it was like trying to move a goddamn mountain.

“But she didn’t. She didn’t hurt me— let her go .”

“No.”

I had never been more pissed off in my life (except maybe when I saw that video of my sister being bullied.)

I stepped back, crossed my arms in front of my chest, and I watched him. Just watched him—and internally, I swore to God that if he didn’t let her go right now, I was going to bite him. Fuck it—I was going to bite his neck just like that vampire had done to Tuck and Tucker, and if that didn’t work, I’d bite his nose, too.

Rune looked at me. “ What ?” he spit, but I didn’t speak.

No, the next time I opened my mouth would be to bite, and by the sounds that woman was making as she struggled to stay alive, my moment was going to come soon.

But Rune closed his eyes. Took in a deep breath.

“You’re fucking infuriating , you know that?!”

This from him.

Rune said that, not me, and then he let the woman go and stepped back.

I’d be the biggest liar in all realms—however many there may be—if I said I wasn’t relieved. The woman was alive. She was coughing but she was breathing as she held herself on all fours.

“Thank you,” I told Rune because I had no idea what else to say, and I tried to pretend that I wasn’t affected by it at all before I went and helped the woman to stand up. It would be easier for her to breathe deeply if her head wasn’t lowered like that.

Meanwhile, Rune was pacing in a small circle in front of us, head down, fingers around his chin. The woman did stand up, and after I helped her rest against the nearest tree, I went to him. Watched him until he stopped going in circles and looked up at me.

“What?” he said again, this time with much more bite in his voice.

I realized I probably should have been scared after witnessing what he had been about to do. However, I wasn’t.

“You said fucking .”

Rune opened his mouth to say something, to possibly scream at me to go to hell, but then his eyes fell on my lips. He stopped. The color of his eyes changed right there in front of mine in a way I’d never be able to describe accurately. It became so much richer, more vibrant, and that thin line of silver that made little maps on his irises seemed to burn a little brighter, too.

That’s when I remembered—the kiss.

Holy fucking-shitting hell, I had kissed Rune, and Rune had kissed me, and I had actually told him that I needed him. Embarrassment and arousal poured onto me like lava. I was burning where I stood, completely scorched, even if it wasn’t visible to the outside world.

Except my heart was galloping in my chest and I already knew that Rune could hear it, so maybe he did know—which was worse.

“Give me one good reason…” he whispered, and I thought he was talking to me.

But then to finish his sentence, he turned his head to the side, to the woman standing in front of the tree, holding her neck, breathing semi-normally now.

“…why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”

“Wait, wait,” the woman said, raising her hands. By then I was hyperventilating from so many emotions that if he’d cut her head off, I wouldn’t have even thought to try to stop him.

Not that I actually believed he’d cut her head off…would he?

Because once again, you don’t know this man, Nilah.

“I can help you,” the woman said, thankfully pulling me out of my head. “I can help you. Let me speak.”

Rune fisted his hands and straightened his shoulders. “Speak fast.”

“I have a carriage. I can take you to town or wherever you need to go,” the woman said, no sign of that smile anywhere on her.

I looked up for a moment, considering that maybe someone else—like those men who were supposed to be the same kind as her—would be coming here any second and see Rune threatening her.

But the forest was empty on all sides, and when I looked up, I could just see the steep rise of the ground possibly fifty feet away, and my heart tripped—we’d jumped from there ?

How in the fuck were we not in pieces?!

“We can get to town on our own,” said Rune, and he took a menacing step forward, but now I was a bit calmer, and that embarrassment was erased from my mind for a moment, so I moved, too.

“But they’ll know,” the woman said. “Those hunters who chased you will have sent word—they’ll know to look for you. If I take you there, nobody will see you in my carriage. Nobody.”

Rune was silent for a moment.

The woman—Miriam—turned to me. “I can give you food and shelter for as long as you like, take you out of that awful dress you wear.” She was smiling again, just a little, her eyes glistening. She even raised her hand as if she was imagining touching my face, framing my cheek—from five feet away.

Which made her look slightly… not okay. In the head, I mean.

“Ask for whatever you want, and if I can give it to you, I will. In return, I only ask for one thing.”

Rune said, “Your life?”

“No, silly,” the woman said, waving him off—like she’d already forgotten that Rune had been about to strangle her with his bare hands just now. “I want a dark diamond.”

Dark diamond ?

I looked at Rune—this woman had really lost it! Except Rune actually answered her.

“I don’t have a dark diamond on me—which I’m pretty sure you know.”

“But you’re Midnight, and you can just run off home quickly, and get one for me. Right?”

What in the world? “Excuse me, um…what’s a dark diamond?”

“Oh, it’s the most wonderful thing,” Miriam said, bringing her hands together in front of her chest—again, like she had completely forgotten how she’d been choking, struggling to breathe just minutes ago. “And the Midnight Court is full of them. All I need is one, about the size of an apple—that should do it. Just one .”

I looked at Rune, shook my head because I was at a loss for words.

“When?” he asked her instead.

And the woman said, “At your earliest convenience, Sire.”

Sire.

Rune was not a sire . Was he?

His eyes were locked on mine, but I doubted he could see me. He was lost in his own thoughts.

A moment later, he nodded. “She needs food first. And a toilet,” he told Miriam.

“Oh, of co?—“

“Mark my words, noxin—if you so much as try to go behind my back in any way, I will kill you.”

It was impossible not to believe him now. His every word rang true—even to me.

But Miriam touched her tongue to the roof of her mouth and moved her lips like she was actually chewing something before she said, “Your truth has a very intense taste, Sire.” Color me fucking dumbfounded . “Please, allow me to invite you to my home for breakfast.” She smiled at him, at me. “This way.”

Miriam turned around and led us right to her home at the end of the tree line without another question.