Page 75 of Rebel Witch: The Crimson Moth 2

SEVENTY-FIVE

RUNE

THE BANG DEAFENED HER.

Gunpowder burned in her nose. Pain and heat flooded her chest. Just before Rune’s legs gave out, Cressida’s enraged scream shattered the air.

Gideon’s arms encircled Rune as he caught her, lowering them both to the ground. The strength of him was everywhere, surrounding her like a comforting blanket as the blood gushed from the cavity in her chest.

It surprised her, even now, how both gentleness and strength could be bound up together in one man. She was in his lap, some part of her realized, and the warmth against her cold cheek was his chest, the steady beat beneath, his heart.

I’m going miss the sound of your heart, she thought .

“What have I done,” Gideon cried, his entire body trembling. “What have I done?”

“You spared me,” Rune whispered, touching her blood-soaked fingers to both of his cheeks, drawing a mark on each one. Gideon was so consumed by grief, he didn’t notice. “You spared all of us.”

Cressida needed Rune’s life to resurrect their sisters, and Gideon had stolen it from her.

The cold started in her fingers and toes, the chill spreading inward slowly, to her core, until Rune knew she’d never be warm again.

She closed her eyes, saying a silent goodbye to him and to the life they might have had together. Saying goodbye to those three joyful children she’d never get to meet.

In mere steps, Cressida would be upon them. Rune smiled, remembering the last symbol she’d drawn on the floor of Larkmont, after the whipping, as she collapsed in a pool of her own blood.

I didn’t just break your curse, she wanted to tell him. I reversed it. Forever. Cressida can’t touch you.

But she was fading too quickly, and the words wouldn’t come.

Sensing Cressida’s proximity, Gideon’s arms tightened on Rune. His tears splashed onto her face.

“I love you,” he whispered into her hair. “I should have told you so much sooner. I love you, Rune Winters .”

Death was pressing in. As its shadow slid over Rune, Antonio’s words echoed inside her:

Sometimes our paths must diverge from those we love. But if love is the highest power, our paths will converge again—if not in this world, then the next.

Pressing her hand to Gideon’s heart, Rune whispered: “Come find me in the next world.”

And then Death found her.