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NORMALLY, GIDEON WENT OUT of his way to avoid parties like this. So when Rune held her ribbon in the air between them, he didn’t know what the hell he was supposed to do with it.
Real
He’d spent the last two hours making it for her, feeling slightly ill as he sewed every petal.
his mother could never resist the silk roses his father used to make her after they argued.
That, of course, was before the Sister Queens broke his mother’s mind.
Oh
“I seem to have scandalized your guests. I wonder if we should give them something more to discuss?” Rune turned her face to his, clearly intrigued. “What did you have in mind?” Getting you alone.
Ooop
Rune thought about Verity’s mimic spider, Henry, pretending to be weak in order to catch predators in its web.
STOP WITH THE SPIDER STUFF
“Is that a nice way of saying I lack pedigree?” “Not at all!” She forced a laugh, settling into her persona. “Just look at your suit.” “It was my father’s,” he said, defensive. Rune’s footsteps slowed. He thinks I’m making fun of him.
Thi is going so well
“Gideon. You’re wearing a vintage suit made by the Sharpe Duet, and you think my guests are laughing at your pedigree?” He cocked his head. “Yes?” She stared at him. He really doesn’t know. Nan and her friends owned nothing made by the Sharpe Duet, but not for lack of trying.
She growled a little. He seemed to be intentionally misunderstanding her. To her surprise, Gideon smiled. If you could call the slight twitch at the corner of his mouth a smile. Is he … teasing me? A furious heat rushed up her neck. Has he been teasing me this whole time?
“What are you doing here?” said Gideon, staring at her like she was a puzzle he couldn’t figure out. At the sight of him, alive, Rune burst into tears all over again.
“I thought you were dead!” she managed between sobs. She reached for his shirt, clenching it in her fists, and pressed her forehead into the hollow of his throat as she trembled all over. His hands found her waist, holding her lightly. “And that … upsets you this much? The thought of me dead?”
“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.” His hand touched her chin, bringing her eyes back to his. Studying her for a long time. “That might be the nicest thing anyone’s ever said to me.”
“You have never been more beautiful than this moment.” The words made her pulse kick. What? He stepped closer. Lifting his hand to her hair, he tangled his fingers in it. “You’re exquisite, Rune.” She swallowed. I am?
She was like a deer making eyes at the wolf that wanted to eat her for lunch. Stupid deer. But she knew the fear of not having him now, and she suddenly wanted all of him. Body and soul.
“Do you want to come in?” he breathed against her lips. The question sparked a fire inside her. No, said her brain. But her mouth defied her. “More than anything.”
Like nothing mattered more than her. Maybe it was the brush with death, but even his little brother’s feelings were suddenly of no consequence. Rune was everything that he hadn’t believed could exist in a girl.
He would start there, and if he proved himself worthy of her, maybe this could be more than a game. Not just flirting and kissing and courting, but a life shared. Maybe Gideon could have all of her. But would she want all of him? He was terrified to even hope for it.
A truth that asked: What if? What if she wasn’t a witch and he wasn’t a witch hunter? What if this didn’t have to be pretend?
“Like what?” Rune smiled, tenderly cupping his face. “Powerful,” she whispered, kissing the crease between his brows away. “Like two souls fusing into one.” Like a kind of magic. “Oh,” he said, and grinned.
IT WAS ONLY LATER, after Gideon fell asleep with Rune cocooned in his arms, that she lay awake, her whole body buzzing with a frightening realization. I’m in love with him. Instead of getting Gideon Sharpe out of her system tonight, Rune had gone and gotten herself addicted. The hunted had fallen for the hunter.
“You,” she whispered. “I’m afraid of you.”
She backed up a step. “The way you make me feel is …” She hugged the bundle of clothes tighter. “I’m afraid it’s something I could get used to. Something I could need.” She shook her head. “I’m afraid you’ll be the end of me, Gideon.” And then, much more quietly: “Maybe you already are.”
But Gideon wasn’t noble. And he didn’t do the right thing. Because he wanted this.
Teehee
“I’m scared, too.”
“What if I asked you to trust me?” Rune looked like she might burst into tears at the question. “You want me to trust you?” “We could trust each other,” he said, stepping toward her.
“I want all of you, Rune.” Gideon kissed her brow. “Not just tonight, but every moment from now on.” “I want that, too,” she breathed, tilting her head back. “But how would it work? Help me imagine it.” Gideon smiled as he thought about it.
“Would you attend some of my parties?” His hands palmed up her bare back. “All of them.” She pulled away a little, glancing at him. “But you hate parties. I don’t think you’re fond of my friends, either.” “I can learn to like them.” His arms locked around her waist and dragged her back to him. “I can be civil.” She raised an eyebrow, as if to say, Can you? For you, yes.
“I’d rather fight with you than do most other things.”
“You won’t come to resent me?” she whispered. “For what?” His breath tangled with hers. “For being shallow and silly.” “You aren’t those things, Rune.” She wrinkled her nose. “Sometimes I will be.” “Sometimes I’ll be a brute. Can you handle that?”
“I’ve had better,” he said, staring Harrow down. “You were right; it was no chore. But I’m not about to repeat the endeavor anytime soon.” The lie sank inside him like poison. “She’s a pretty face, nothing more.”
His comrades are bitches who deserve no rights
Rune stood in the frame, her face pale, her hair a tangle. The look of shock and hurt in her eyes was like an axe splitting open his chest. “Rune …” Visibly trembling, she stammered, “I-I have to go.”
You’re a selfish, horrible brute. You don’t care who you hurt, as long as you get what you want. You repulse me.”
He deserved every bit of her wrath. After agreeing to Harrow’s asinine plan, Gideon was all that Rune accused him of and more. Sickening. A stupid brute. He deserved to lose her.
I want all of you, Rune. Not just tonight, but every moment from now on. She felt feverish. Possessed. Unable to stop thinking about what she and Gideon had done. About the possibilities she’d let herself want. I am such a fool!
“Be my wife, Rune. Come with me to Caelis. Let me give you the life you should have had.” One by one, the tears fell. Rune pressed her hands to her eyes to hide them. His wife.
But do I love him? As a friend, yes. Like a brother, definitely. Could he be more than that? Rune didn’t know. Maybe.
“Okay,” she whispered. He pulled back, lips parting in surprise. “Really?” She nodded. “I’ll go with you to Caelis. I’ll be your wife.”
But I need you to know that what we did the other night wasn’t a lie. Not for me. Everything I said that night, I meant.
But if he knew the truth … He’d arrest me right now and hand me over to be purged. The thought steadied her. Gideon was her enemy. And I’m marrying his brother.
Rune held the bouquet in her hands, stroking the tiny petals made of buttery silk, tracing the fine stitches. He made these. Rune had told Gideon that buttercups were her favorite flower, and instead of picking some, he sewed them for her. Had he stayed up all night doing so?
During her meeting with Alex and Verity, she’d put the coin and the vial inside the pocket of the uniform, and left the uniform folded on her casting table.
Suspicious
It couldn’t not exist. Unless it was an illusion. That thought stopped Rune in her tracks. She thought of the way Verity was always poring over Rune’s spell books, her fingers tracing the symbols. Was she memorizing them?
His voice sounded strange. Like someone had wrung out all the emotion, leaving it empty and cold.
:(
“Can I ask you something, Miss Winters?” “Of course,” said Rune, happy for the interruption, but wondering why he was being so formal. “Was any of it real?” “Real?” She frowned. “What do you mean?” “You. Me. Us.” Gideon shoved his hands in his pockets. “What we did three nights ago. Did you mean any of it? Or were you toying with me the whole time?”
Kinda hypocritical since he did the same ad his lif wasnf on the line if sh found ot his secret at least not to the same extnt
Rune froze. He knows what I am. “Crimson Moth,” he breathed as his gaze met hers. “I’ve finally caught you.”
He’d been gathering evidence against her from the beginning, waiting for the right moment to bring her down. The gifts. The kisses. The words whispered in the dark between his bedsheets … None of it had meant a thing. “You are everything I thought you were,” she told him.
“And you,” said Gideon, voice quiet, “are nothing at all like I imagined you’d be.” For someone who’d been hunting her so relentlessly for two years, he should be more triumphant, she thought. Gloating and preening. Instead, he looked … destroyed.
From the way his jaw clenched, she knew he recognized it immediately. Rune felt like the world was falling apart around her. This wasn’t how she’d wanted him to find out. “You’re engaged to him?”
But why should she cower? He was the one who’d tricked her into falling in love with him. He was the one consumed by hate. He was the one handing her over to be slaughtered. Rune straightened. “That’s right. I am engaged to him. Your brother is twice the man you’ll ever be.” The hurt in his eyes was unmistakable.
Alex had proposed to Rune. And Rune had accepted him. You are a fucking fool, he told himself as he mounted his horse.
