“Then what are you doing here?”
A sound from down the hall made them both jump. Gideon looked to the casting room’s open wall.
“There are dozens of Blood Guard soldiers in this house.” He rose to his feet. “They’ve been ordered to shoot you on sight. You have to hide…”
He started to cross the room when footsteps echoed from the bedroom beyond. Before Gideon could close the wall, sealing them in, Noah stepped through the opening, with several soldiers flanking him.
They must have heard the noise from Rune and Gideon’s scuffle. Laila stumbled in behind them.
At the sight of Rune, they all drew their guns.
Gideon stepped in front of her.
“Take Miss Winters out back and shoot her,” Noah told his sister. “I’ll deal with the witch’s whore.”
Something red-hot burst to life in Rune.
Howdarehe call Gideon that.
She grabbed her stolen knife from where Gideon had dropped it and stepped out from behind him, staring down the barrel of Noah’s gun. “Gideon has more valor in his thumbnail than you have in your entire being, you piece of—”
“Rune.”Gideon’s voice was a warning.
But what could Noah do? Shoot her? Laila was going to do that anyway.
“Drop the knife,” said Laila, her pistol raised as she stepped closer.
Rune raised both hands, as if to surrender. But instead of dropping the knife, she threw it.
Straight at Noah.
He ducked, but not fast enough. The blade sank into his shoulder and he screamed.
His gun went off. The shot went wide. Rune lunged for him, feeling feral. Like all of her rage and grief and fear suddenly had a target, and if she could justhitit, maybe she would feel better. Like herself again.
Laila grabbed her around the waist before she could, while the other soldiers descended on Gideon.
Rune scratched and thrashed like a wildcat. But it was no use. Laila called for backup, and suddenly they were throwing her to the ground and pinning her there. Laila pressed one knee to her flayed back.
Pain exploded through Rune. She fell still.
They bound her wrists and hauled her to her feet.
“No,” said Gideon. “No!”
As they dragged her from the room, Rune glanced back to see soldiers restraining him. A wild expression blazed in his eyes as his muscles bunched, struggling against four captors.
“Laila, don’t!”
Laila paused. “She put Cressida on the throne, Gideon.Cressida, who’s executing people as we speak.” She glanced back. “That monster killed my father.”
Rune remembered it. The way Cressida so casually put a bullet in Nicolas Creed’s head. The way he collapsed to the stones, utterly silent and still.
“Like your father killed Kestrel Winters?”
Laila straightened.
“Rune had to watch her grandmother die,” said Gideon. “Just as you had to watch your father die.”
