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FORTY-THREE

RUNE

GIDEON WASN’T HOME WHEN she arrived at his apartment. So Rune moved quickly. She needed to be long gone before he returned. The sooner she rejoined Aurelia and Meadow, the better.

Rune was still wet from her swim. Her ice-cold hands shook as she rummaged through his cupboards, stopping only when she found the sack of apples and the bag of hardtack. She’d hauled them out and was about to sling them over her shoulder when a creaking floorboard made her freeze.

“First, you steal my gun. Now, I find you breaking into my apartment and taking my food.”

Rune shot to her feet, spinning to face him.

Gideon leaned against the door frame, still in uniform. Watching her. “Were you going to leave without saying goodbye?”

Her heart galloped in her chest.

Is this it? Would he arrest her now? Or would he wait to betray her, expecting a cargo hold full of witches, including the Roseblood heir?

Rune drew her casting knife, gripping it in front of her. Gideon’s gaze flickered to the blade and back to her face.

Realizing her stolen gun was gone, he moved like a predator, descending on her. She slashed the air with her knife in warning. But he only grabbed her wrist, holding it away from himself.

“ You are far worse than a thorn in my side,” he said, his dark eyes gleaming at her. “You are a knife in my heart.”

His voice was low and dangerous, making the hair on her arms rise. But at odds with his voice were his gloved fingers, which lifted to her throat. Rune let out a soft gasp as he gently traced the arc of her neck.

“And you’re a wolf I can’t outrun,” she whispered, closing her eyes against his touch. “Not even in my sleep.”

His hand went still, prompting her eyes to open.

“Dreaming about me again?” He cocked an eyebrow, as if this pleased him. With his grip still tight on her wrist, he leaned in, his breath warm against her cold lips, making her heart beat in triple time. “How often do you dream of me, Rune?”

The look in his eyes made her ache with longing.

More often than I’d like.

Seeing how she shivered, Gideon let go of her wrist. When Rune didn’t lash out with her knife, he tugged off his jacket and dropped it over her shoulders.

Rune glared at him. How dare he be kind on the eve of his betrayal.

After pulling it snug around her, he tugged her toward him, doing up the top few buttons. Ensnaring her further.

Her fingers tightened around the hilt of her knife.

Are reinforcements on the way? Is that why he’s delaying me?

Was his plan to seduce her until they arrived?

Rune was trapped. She couldn’t get past him—not if he didn’t want her to. The only way to escape was to lower his defenses. And to do that, she needed to play the same game he was playing. One last time.

Rune ran her free hand up his chest, resting her palm against the scar beneath his shirt. Gideon glanced down, watching her. To Rune’s surprise, his gloved hand slid over hers, linking their fingers together and keeping her palm pressed to his heart.

Their intertwined fingers filled Rune with a strange and terrible yearning.

“Will you miss me, Crimson Moth?”

She swallowed. “How can you ask me that?”

“Is that a yes?”

Normally, Rune could tell when he was plotting something. Tonight, he was impossible to read.

“Where will you go?”

He was a fool if he expected her to answer that.

“Somewhere you’ll never find me.”

Gideon stepped closer, until there was less than an inch of space between them. The heat of him called to Rune’s cold and trembling body. How easy it would be to step into his arms and let him warm her completely.

Rune mentally shook herself.

No.

If she walked down this path, she wouldn’t be able to walk herself back. She’d walk herself straight into another one of his traps.

“I’ll miss you the way a fox misses the wolf’s snapping jaws,” she said.

His mouth curved at her words. “I can’t tell if you’re insulting me, or flirting with me.” He slid a gloved hand behind her neck, tipping her chin upward with his thumb so her mouth tilted to his.

She knew what he was about to do.

The worst thing was, she wanted him to do it.

Rune lifted her knife to his throat. Trying to stand firm against the snare of him. “Don’t you dare.”

Gideon leaned in anyway, calling her bluff as his mouth descended on hers. His free hand slid into her hair, pulling her closer, lips parting hers.

His kiss made her ache in all the usual places. But it also made her ache somewhere new.

What if this is really goodbye?

She dropped her knife and kissed him back.

Gideon’s mouth turned devouring. Rune untucked his shirt from his trousers and slid her hands up his bare chest. She pressed a palm to his scar, which was already heating against her touch. He shivered and grabbed hold of her thighs, lifting her onto his hips, pulling her securely against him.

Rune’s blood hummed.

This is a trick, she reminded herself, meant to keep me here until the Blood Guard show up.

She forced herself to remember Aurelia and Meadow down at the harbor. The two people she’d sworn to get safely across the Barrow Strait. They were waiting for her. She couldn’t fail them. Not when she was so close.

He’s trying to delay me. This is a distraction. The prelude to a trap waiting to spring closed.

But not even this was enough to snap her out of her madness.

It was Gideon who did that. Trembling a little from the pain of his curse, he lowered her from his hips. Taking her hand in his, he drew the pistol from his holster and pressed it against her palm.

“Promise me you won’t lose this one,” he whispered, his cheek rough against hers.

Rune glanced up at him.

What?

But he was already stepping away. Leaving his gun in her hand.

“And if someone tries to hurt you,” he said, “and there’s no other way to stop them, don’t think twice. Just shoot. Got it?”

She frowned, watching him pick up her casting knife from the floor, then sheath it in his belt. As if they’d made a trade. He didn’t close the gap again. Just stood to the side, leaving her path to the door wide open.

He wasn’t even trying to stop her.

Because he has soldiers on the way. They’re probably already here.

“I’ll give you a twenty-minute head start.” His expression was inscrutable. But his unspoken words were clear: And then I’m coming for you.

Twenty minutes. Rune wouldn’t even get to the harbor in twenty minutes.

Still, it was something.

She grabbed the bag of food she’d stolen from his cupboards and strode toward the open door of his apartment. She needed to get as far away from him as she could. Needed to start over somewhere he would never find her.

What would that be like—a life apart from him?

Her footsteps slowed, pausing in the door frame. She turned to glance back at him.

“Gideon?”

The sight of him blurred.

“I wish—”

“Don’t.” His voice was ragged. “Just go, Rune.”

She nodded, swallowing back tears. The only safe thing to do was run.

So that’s what she did.