Rebel Witch (The Crimson Moth, #2)

by Kristen Ciccarelli

Instead, he’d found this Rune. His Rune. A total mess. The basest part of him wanted to tilt her head back and kiss her until she told him why she was crying.

“How dare you touch her.” Gideon knew better than to open his mouth. But he couldn’t help himself. “At least she likes it when I touch her.”

“Who’s there, pumpkin?” She could almost feel Gideon wither beneath the pet name. “No one important, sugarplum.”

“You want the truth?” Her own hurt bubbled up, like steam from a volcano ready to erupt. “This is the truth: I would have married you in a heartbeat, had you asked me. I would have married you knowing you would hand me over to my killers—or kill me yourself—the moment you found out what I was. That’s how pathetic I am, Gideon! That’s how desperately I wanted to be yours!”

If this was weakness, he wanted to be weak. If this was sin, let him be damned to hell.

“Watching you flirt with them makes me…” He made a sound low in his throat. “It makes want to go to the shooting range and fire off a hundred rounds, imagining I’m firing at them.”

“Live in the darkness too long, and eventually you won’t recognize the light,”

“Sometimes our paths must diverge from those we love,” Antonio said as they rode, side by side, scanning the surrounding mountains. “But if love is the highest power, our paths will converge again—if not in this world, then the next.”