Heartless Hunter (Crimson Moth, #1)

by Kristen Ciccarelli

During the Sister Queens’ rule, witches wore their casting scars with pride, putting their power on display like jeweled rings and silk garments. Scars signaled wealth and rank, and most of all, magic. Now they marked the hunted.

Once a sign of superior status, the scars were now impossible to hide, making the old woman easy prey for witch hunters. It was why Rune never cut herself. She couldn’t afford to let them find the scars.

“Rune has been out rescuing witches all night. They say the Crimson Moth only works beneath the cover of darkness.”

“It’s not possible,” he said. “There’s not an intelligent thought in that girl’s head.” And the Moth was intelligent. To go toe-to-toe with Gideon, to outwit him, she had to be. And if the mutilated bodies they kept finding across the city were her victims, she was also ruthless. Disturbed. Evil.

“What are you proposing? That I befriend Rune Winters?” “More than that, Comrade.” Harrow’s grin widened, and there was mischief in it. “You should woo her.”

Dangerous game lol.

Because Gideon Sharpe was by far the most tactical choice. If she and Gideon were courting, Rune would have intimate access to all the information she needed to rescue every witch—now and in the future.

Setting down the enchanted cup, she reached for the other. “Something wrong with that one?” Rune froze like a rabbit in a snare. “Wh-what?” “The wine you offered me. After I refused it, you set it down and took the other.” Shoot. “D-did I?” Shoot. Shoot. Shoot.

Didn’t think that one through, did ya?

“I almost got rid of it after they purged her,” she said softly. “But I didn’t want to forget that evil lurks where we least expect it. So I kept it, to remind me.” Gideon could interpret this to mean the evil of witches like Nan. But for Rune, the evil was in her own actions, in what she had done to the person she loved most.

He let go of her hand, falling quiet. When her giggling subsided, she looked over to find a thoughtful expression on his face. “Your laugh is like a fuse,” he said. “It lights you up.”

Gideon Sharpe was a cold, heartless murderer. Not a softhearted suitor. He played the same game she did, and was more skilled at it than she’d thought. Fear nipped at her. Perhaps bringing him here had been a mistake.

“Rune,” he said, pupils dilating. He looked hungry suddenly. Like a man who hadn’t eaten in years. “Less talking.”

I like his dominant nature lol.

He’s going to kiss me, she realized. And the scariest thing was, Rune wanted him to. More than she wanted information, more than she wanted to rescue Seraphine … in this moment, she wanted to know how his mouth would feel against hers.

Rune flung her arms around him, clinging tightly. He pulled her close, holding her for a long time. It was there, in his arms, that Rune realized for the first time she could trust Alexander Sharpe with her life.

Majora spells required someone else’s blood given with permission; Arcana spells required someone else’s blood taken against their will.

Arcanas were the most powerful of all spells and had been outlawed for centuries. Not only were they considered wicked, they came with a considerable cost: if a witch took someone’s blood against their will, the spell using that blood would corrupt the witch. She would crave the power it gave her, and resort to more coercive bloodletting, often killing her sources.

I really hope this isn’t foreshadowing.

For a moment, half-stuck in the past, Gideon saw not Rune Winters standing on the measuring block before him, but Cressida Roseblood. Watching him like a lioness. Contemplating whether to play with her food before she ate it, or go straight for the jugular.

Caelis, where people didn’t care if you were a witch, and certainly didn’t report you to the police. And Alex, the boy she trusted most in the world.

Witch’s whore, they’d called him. They didn’t want Gideon in their ring. But neither would they throw him out, fearing Cressida’s wrath. Since they couldn’t get rid of him, the men took turns beating Gideon to a pulp night after night. Taking out their anger and hate on a target Gideon was happy to provide them.

“If one day you wake up and decide you want to hit back,” said the man across from him, “come find me.” He wrote an address down, pressed it into Gideon’s open palm, and folded his limp fingers over the paper. That man was Nicolas Creed.

He stared at Rune, unsure if she was obtuse, or a master of deception. She had drastically widened his net of suspects—but intentionally or unintentionally? Is she actively sabotaging me? Or is she innocent?

Rune might lie, but Alex wouldn’t. His brother would never knowingly sabotage him by aiding a dangerous witch. Not after everything their family had been through.

And each entry was named after one of the seven Ancients. Mercy, Liberty, Wisdom, Justice, Amity, Patience, Fortitude.

Yes, Gideon. I’m asking you to be my date. Rune P.S. My plan is to win you over so you’ll keep making me dresses forever. P.P.S. Let me know when it’s working.

He’d learned very quickly not to challenge Cress. Arguments with her came with consequences. When he disagreed or disobeyed, she would punish him—and sometimes others. Until he stopped resisting her altogether. Rune, on the other hand, seemed rattled by his insults, but unfazed by his defiance.

This is a game, he reminded himself, his chest tight. It means nothing. But if that were true, why did he feel like he was walking straight off a cliff, hoping he wouldn’t fall?

“When I told Cressida we were done, that I wanted nothing more to do with her, she warned that if I refused her advances my little sister would suffer my mother’s fate. I was terrified of her by then, and I desperately wanted to spare Tessa. So I did whatever she asked.” He ran a hand roughly through his hair. “She killed Tessa anyway.”

Wow. I’d hate witches too.

“My mother drowned herself a day later. My father hung himself a few days after that. And still, she wasn’t satisfied.” His hands fisted. “I knew there was one last person she could hurt, if I didn’t do as she asked.” “Your brother,” murmured Rune.

None of what had happened to him excused what he was doing now, of course: hunting witches down, one by one; propping up a violent regime. But it helped her understand him.

This is a game, she told herself, nuzzling her face into his palm. It’s only pretend. It’s how she justified dragging her fingers through his hair and pulling his mouth down to hers.

Their first kiss!!!

“Rune.” His thumb brushed across her knuckles. “I would like to come in, but I promised to go slow with you.” Lifting her hand, he kissed the sensitive part of her wrist, making her shiver. “And if I step through that door tonight, I’m afraid I won’t keep my word.”

Step through the door!!! lol.

“I kept waiting for a telegram,” she said. “Or some other sign that maybe I’m not so easy to walk away from. But there was nothing until your note tonight—and that was only to say you’d be late.” She looked up at him. “I thought you were jilting me.” “Jilting you?” Gideon’s eyebrows arched. He almost laughed. “Rune, I haven’t stopped thinking about you for three straight days.”

Gideon cupped Rune’s neck with both hands and captured her mouth with his, stopping her from leaving. He kissed her slowly, deeply. Claiming her in front of Verity.

“Buttercups are my favorite,” she whispered, breathless and walking backward. “But daisies are also acceptable.” The corner of Gideon’s mouth turned up. “Noted.”

But he knew this signature like he knew his own name. “It belongs to a witch who should be dead.” His eyes met Laila’s. “Cressida Roseblood.”

Uh oh.

What will I do without you? Maybe that was the problem. Rune needed Alex more than he needed her. He’d given her so much, and she’d given so little in return. She was doing it now. Being selfish. The selfless thing to do was let him go.

As Rune lay in the guest bed, staring at the ceiling she’d slept beneath so many times before, she couldn’t help wondering: Which room did Cressida lock their dying sister inside? Which bed did she coerce Gideon into, night after night? Was it this one?

“The whore comes here every night, the man told me. After she’s done with him. I could see the disgust in his eyes. In all of their eyes. When Gideon got hit for the last time, when he went down and didn’t get up, I watched them throw his body into the alleyway with the rest of the trash. As if this were routine. Like he came there every night, drunk or high, and let them beat him half to death. Like he thought he deserved it.”

Omg. Poor Gideon.

“I’ve spent two years living here, trying to bring my brother back. But the Gideon I knew and loved … he’s gone, Rune. He’s not coming back.”

Maybe he could replace the voice in his head—the one that said he was worthless, disgusting, better off dead—with Nicolas’s voice. So that’s what he did. He used this man’s belief in him like a crutch.

It took months. But, little by little, Nicolas’s faith in Gideon became indistinct from his own. Soon, Gideon stopped letting his opponents beat him into oblivion. He started getting back up and hitting back harder and better. He started believing that just maybe there was something worth fighting for.

“Sadly, though, people don’t always know what’s best for them. Sometimes they need us to step in and protect them from themselves.”

He was choosing her, she realized. This boy who saw exactly who she was—what she was—and didn’t care. Or rather: cared so much, he wanted to give her back what the revolution had taken.

Alex is so sweet. He's obviously the right choice. Why am I rooting for Gideon? Lol.

“I told her to get out of the bed, and she fell to her knees on the floor, begging me to spare her life. She told me she loved my brother, and that was why she did the things she did—because Gideon belonged to her.”

“So I raised my gun to the roof and shot three rounds. And then I told her to run. I told her if I ever saw her, if she ever touched Gideon again, I’d make her wish she was dead. I watched her disappear into the woods behind Thornwood Hall.”

Stupid. Why the fuck would you let a super powerful and evil witch go free?!

This was Alex, after all. The boy who, upon learning she was a witch, had drawn Rune a warm bath to ease her cramps instead of handing her over to be killed. Who else would have done that? No one.

“You went and fell in love with that pretty little socialite.” Gideon flinched, halting at the shop entrance. Harrow stepped lightly around him, smirking as she entered the shop. “Why else would you give up so easily?” Gideon’s hands fisted.

Gideon’s spine tingled. That bad feeling was back. Something was wrong. The fog. The empty room. The freshly lit candles, as if the meeting hadn’t even started yet when they’d burst through the door. As if they’d been set up. We were expected.

But before he could grab her arm and pull her back into the room, a loud BOOM! shook the walls and floors. The red-hot force of an explosion threw him backward, slamming his body into solid brick. Fire flared across his vision seconds before the world went black.

Shit.

A whirlwind of sadness and longing and something else. Something she didn’t want to acknowledge. Turning her back to the door, she sank to the ground. Drawing her knees to her chest, she remembered him stepping into the black flames that had come to devour her. While everyone else ran away, he had run toward her.

“Gideon, the thought of you inside that building … it felt like being held underwater.” She lowered her gaze to the pulse at the base of his throat. “Like being starved of air.”

Oh yeah. She's down bad for him.