“I’ll start at the far end,” said Gideon. “If you start here, we can meet in the middle.”
Laila nodded, stepping into the first bedroom and taking her lantern with her.
Gideon strode quietly down the dark hall. On his way to the end, he passed the door to Rune’s bedroom.
He’d made the calculation already, downstairs. Thethumphad come from this general area. But stronger than his knowledge of the house’s layout was a feeling in the pit of his gut.
Aknowing.
Gideon stepped inside Rune’s bedroom.
It still smelled like her. Like the wind and the sea and the rain. Like something wild and untamable. He breathed it in.
In the moonlight flooding through the windows, he searched the room quickly. The floorboards creaked beneath his weight as he checked closets and the space beneath the bed. But there was no one here.
Gideon was about to turn and leave when he remembered the false wall.
He turned to face it.
Beyond the wall lay Rune’s casting room. Discovering it was what had led Gideon to realize she was the Crimson Moth.
Gideon pressed his hands to the wallpaper, feeling for the crack. When he found it, he pushed in, and the latchclicked.
The wall swung open.
The smoke of a freshly extinguished candle wafted out.
Gotcha.
Gideon stepped into the room…
… where a blunt object whacked him over the head.
FIFTY-EIGHTRUNE
RUNE DROPPED THE CANDLEHOLDERand ran. The soldier cursed, then lunged for her. His hands closed around her ankle. Rune fell. The floor rose to meet her elbows, spiking pain up her arms.
They grappled in the dark: him trying to pin her down, Rune struggling to escape him.
She kicked him in the shin. He cursed and let go. The moment he lost his advantage, Rune sat down on top of him, pressing her stolen knife to his throat. Panting with the effort.
He fell immediately still beneath her.
The only way to escape now was to kill him. Before he called for help.
I’ve killed a man already tonight. What’s one more?
But she couldn’t bring herself to press down, to slit his throat.
“Well?” he growled. “What are you waiting for? Kill me and be done with it.”
Rune froze.
That voice.
It was honey to her soul.
“Gideon?” she whispered, nearly bursting into tears at the possibility.
