Page 14 of Ties of Starlight (Tethered Hearts #2)

N yrunn quickly got Idonea to their tent for the night, anything to get her out of sight of the crowd so he could calm her down.

Her wall had shattered, and it was taking everything in him not to fall into the panic flooding through the bond. He couldn’t even figure out what she was feeling, but it was almost… everything.

How could one person feel so much?

He’d lost track of her just long enough to hear a spy’s report on their progress tracking Olaug down and the sighting of some Moon Elves near the border, and the next thing he heard was hysterical screaming, a slap echoing through the air. Then a jerking, glass-breaking sensation overtook him, but it was all inside the bond. As he’d rushed over, he could hardly breathe from the tidal wave. He reached the source to see Idonea on the ground, scratches on her birthmark and scrapes on wine-stained hands and a wine-stained dress.

He ignored the whispers of everyone around him as he ushered her away. All that mattered was his wife.

So he hurried her into their tent and deposited her onto the bed. His cape slid off her shoulders. She was shaking all over, her eyes squeezed shut, tears spilling out of them.

He knelt in front of her, running his hands down her arms until he reached her wrists and tugged on them, gently cradling them as he whispered, “You’re alright. Everything is alright.”

Idonea tried to pull her hands away, moving like she was going to bury her face into her palms, but when she opened her eyes, she froze. Her eyes doubled at the sight of the red stains on her skin. Then she started shaking again. Her head whipped around as she looked at the tent and her breathing went dangerously shallow and she started muttering, “No—I’ve got to—I’ve got to get it off—”

“What? Idonea, hey, talk to me—”

But she was stumbling off the bed, her hands in front of her as she looked around. “The blood—I’ve got to—”

Did she mean from the scrapes? She didn’t think the wine was blood, right?

But if that was what she needed… Nyrunn quickly grabbed the rag and dipped it into the washbasin already prepared for them, originally intended for them to wash off the paint decorating the edges of their faces. He then caught Idonea as she was pulling at her dress, where it was stained red, gasping. He took her arm and started running the cloth against her skin, the red wine stains coming away easily. She stared down at her arm as he cleaned her hand before she slowly looked up at him.

Her lips started to move, forming a name, but it never came. She just took a sharp, shuddering breath as he switched to her other hand. Once both hands were mostly clean, he looked back up to see her gaze was now fixated on her dress. It was completely ruined.

But her hands were still shaking so much, and she was clearly in some panicked, heightened state…

“Idonea, I’m going to help you out of this and get those scratches cleaned up as well, do you understand?”

Her gaze was still glassy, but she gave a tiny nod.

He set the washcloth back on the vanity before he shifted behind her, taking a deep breath. This wasn’t exactly what he’d imagined, but he was still nervous all the same. Mostly because he had absolutely no idea what was wrong with her.

He made quick work of the laces despite the ridiculously tiny knots and was pulling the bodice away from her shift and the weight of the skirts quickly pulled it all to the ground the second her arms were free as well, leaving her in just the shift. The wine had soaked through to it, but Nyrunn had a bigger problem than that, given how Idonea had reached up to her birthmark and had opened the scratches again. If he got her into anything else, she’d just stain it too, not to mention, he needed her to stop aggravating her injuries for her own well-being.

He grabbed her by the shoulders and set her on the bed again before he rinsed the rag clean and returned with it. He hesitated as that glassy, vacant look was back fully; her breathing was rapid and she was staring off into space, nails digging into the skin around her birthmark.

He stood in front of her, legs brushing her knees as he took her arm again and gently tugged. It crumpled as she looked up at him. She blinked until the haze faded. “Br—Nyrunn?”

His heart stuttered as he finally heard his name leave her lips. He cradled her hand in his as he reached forward with the other, holding the rag, and murmured, “Yes, I’m right here. I’m just going to clean those cuts and then we can get you into something not drenched in wine. ”

“Wine?” she whispered.

He pressed the cloth to her skin and she startled back, but he let go of her hand to wrap that arm around her, flattening his hand against her shoulder blade, forcing her to stay within his grasp as he started to clean the wound. “Yes, Lady Katla spilled wine all over you. My guess is that it wasn’t an accident.”

“Olvir—I mean Olaug—” Her words shifted into a gasp when his grip on her back tightened involuntarily. He quickly relaxed it, hoping his expression was doing a better job of hiding the spike of white-hot jealousy that ripped through him at the fact that she was thinking about Olaug when he was the one there, trying to take care of her.

How could that cad have such a stranglehold on her heart? What would it take to break it?

He finished cleaning the scratches and stepped back. “Yes?”

“I—I just—” her voice cracked and he hated himself for being so in love with her his jealousy frightened her. Would he ever get it right?

“What aren’t you telling me? What really happened to him?” Her hands still had some red lingering as she wrung them together.

The letter was heavy in Nyrunn’s pocket. It was never far. He took a deep breath as he moved to clean the rag again, not looking her in the eyes as he said, “I told you everything. I don’t know what else you want to hear. If he’s found—”

“Is he alive?”

Nyrunn looked over his shoulder. “Well, I haven’t exactly laid eyes on him since before he ran off, but I haven’t heard otherwise.”

Her eyes spilled over. “I—I remember—at least I think I remember the night before. After I ran into you, I went back to my room—”

A strange sensation clawed up his throat, pulsing from the bond. Confusion. Guilt?

Wait, she was asking if she did something to Olaug? Like there was the chance she could have—

“Why would you think that?”

Was this what she was hiding from him?

She shook her head. “I—It doesn’t make sense! If I didn’t—”

Her eyes landed on him as he finished wringing out the cloth, the water running pink. She went silent.

He turned around. “You think I did?”

“Something happened, and you won’t tell me! I know it, I know something is wrong. I’ve known it from the beginning, and if you’re just going to kill me too—”

Kill her?

“Why would I do that?” Nyrunn took a deep breath, pushing away Idonea’s emotions and pushing down his own. He could not be overwhelmed. Still… “Heavens, Idonea, how could you ever think I’d kill you? Why would I?”

Idonea squeezed her eyes shut and sank her fingers into the stained shift.

When was she ever going to justify herself?

“Why would I kill him for that matter?” Nyrunn scoffed. “As much as I might have wanted to over the last year, I thought we needed him for this! Why would I continue to weaken our people and put them at risk by killing the Cometa Couple?”

“Because I—” Idonea cut herself off. “I don’t know!”

“Why won’t you believe me when I tell you nothing happened to him? There was no blood, no sign of struggle. What else could that mean? ”

Why wouldn’t she accept that he’d abandoned her?

“He didn’t leave me!” Idonea’s voice ripped through the air, and her fury rushed into him, unbridled. She stepped forward. “He would never do that. I know he wouldn’t. I know him, my heart and my soul know him completely; that’s why I won’t let you convince me otherwise just because you’re jealous!”

There was nothing Nyrunn could say to convince her, was there?

Idonea gritted her teeth, chest heaving with every breath as her voice lowered to a whisper. “He loves me. You just think you own me.”

Nyrunn knew of only one thing that might actually get her to see things for what they really were.

Maybe then she’d see who actually loved her.

“Fine. Keep your secrets. I know you’re hiding something from me. But I’m done. You can have mine.” He pulled out the letter and held it up in the air. “You want to know how I’m certain Olaug ran away and is alive out there? It’s all right there in his own hand.”

He threw it and it fluttered to the ground and it made him sick the way she threw herself to her knees, ignoring the scrapes on her hands in order to get it. She fumbled with the paper as she knelt on the ground, unfolding it to read what Olaug wrote.

He watched as her lips parted, tears filling her eyes again, hands rattling the paper.

Giving an already fragile, struggling young woman a letter that would shatter her?

He stepped out of the tent right before her first sob tore through the air and the devastation came through the bond. He staggered the second it hit. His hand clutched his own heart as he grabbed the nearest column and crashed against it .

He couldn’t breathe. His heart was shredding second by second. He’d never felt anything like this. The heartbreak he’d thought he’d felt when he discovered how Idonea despised him was nothing compared to this.

Nyrunn sank to his knees. Was he dying?

He wished he was dying.

This… This was what Idonea was feeling? And it was his fault.

He wasn’t the hero in this after all.

Maybe there were none.