Rune’s mind blazed with panic.
Please… I’m trying to save you!
But why would he care?
This was what he came for, remember? You’ve given him a second chance to see it through.
Ava watched from a safe distance, arms crossed over her chest, unmoved by Rune’s struggle. Rune would get no sympathy there.
Which was when she remembered the pistol.
Gideon had shoved her against the mirror directly beside the sink, where his gun still rested. If she could reach it…
As her lungs burned, crying out for air, Rune’s knuckles knocked against the sink’s cold ceramic. She patted the edge, her hand shaking… but the gun was on the other side.
The room blurred.
The bright red symbol on Gideon’s chest filled her vision.
Rune’s lungs were about to burst. Soon, nothing would matter, because she’d be dead.
Her fingertips brushed metal.
Hope flared as her hand gripped the pistol.
One shot. Make it count.
Rune lifted the gun and fired.
EIGHTRUNE
THEBANGRANG INher ears.
Gideon’s hands loosened from around her throat as he stumbled back, staring in horror. Behind him, Ava dropped to the floor. Dead from the bullet in her brain.
The only sound in the room was Rune’s and Gideon’s uneven breaths.
Rune shook out her hand, which stung from the force of the pistol’s release, then lowered her gaze to the spellmark on Gideon’s chest. She’d nearly shot him. But at the last second, she had recognized the symbol.
Binder.A spell that bound its victim to a witch’s command.
It was a calculated guess, but considering Gideon’s hands were no longer locked around her neck, a correct one. Which meant Gideon hadn’t necessarily wanted to strangle her; he’d simply had no choice.
If Ava had castEverlastingalongsideBinder, the spell would have held despite Rune’s killing shot, and it would be Rune dead on the floor. But Ava hadn’t expected to die. She’d had no need ofEverlasting—an enchantment that kept a spell intact beyond the death of the witch who cast it.
Seraphine had taught Rune many things since they’d escaped the New Republic, and this was one of them.
“Don’t make any sudden moves,” she said, gun pointed at Gideon’s chest, where the blood-red symbol still blazed. WithAva dead, Gideon was free to go back to trying to kill Rune. This time of his own free will.
Except…
Rune glanced at the sink. Had Gideon intentionally thrust her against the mirror directly beside it? Had hewantedher to reach for his pistol, to shoot Ava and sever the spell?
Her mind swarmed with too many thoughts at once.
“Don’t think I won’t shoot you, too,” she said, still aiming the gun at him.
Rune hoped she sounded confident. She’d never fired a gun before today and had hit Ava by sheer luck.
