But her form was still wrong. It was obvious she had little to no experience with firearms. He marveled at Soren’s lack of prudence. If she’d beenhisfiancée, the first thing Gideon would have done would’ve been to teach her how to properly hold, aim, and shoot a gun.
And then she’d kill me with it.
But she hadn’t killed him yet.
He studied her.
Not only was her hair perfect, but so was her makeup. Kohl lined her eyes. Rouge reddened her lips and cheeks. Even her lashes looked darker than usual.
He wanted to smear it all off. To unravel those curls. To strip her down to the Rune underneath.
“What really changed your mind?” he asked. “Because I don’t think it’s Soren.”
Her eyes flashed with some turbulent emotion, like a ship on a stormy sea. It made him even more curious.
“I’m done answering questions. Do you accept my terms or not?”
“You’re asking me to go against my orders. What’s to stop you from cutting and running the moment I deliver on my end of the bargain? You’ve betrayed me before, remember?”
“You’re not exactly the most trustworthy person, either,” she shot back. “You handed me over to be killed the moment you found out what I was.”
And I’ll do it again.
“Youmade me believe you were in love with me.” He stepped so close, the barrel of her gun pushed into the center of his chest. “Youused me for intel. The entire time you were toying with me, you were recruiting witches for Cress’s army!”
“I didn’t know she was Cressida!”
Rune winced, probably realizing how loud she’d spoken. She glanced at the curtain hiding them from the rest of the shop.
“I thought she was Verity,” she said, quietly. “I thought she was my friend. I didn’tknow.”
This girl was so damn hard to read.
“I can’t tell the truth from a lie with you,” he said.
Rune said nothing. Just lowered her gun to her side.
Trusting her was impossible. What she was asking of him would require going against everything he’d committed himself to, everyone whotrustedhim. He would be betraying them all if he made this deal with Rune.
Unless I betray her first,he reminded himself.
Rune was certainly plotting the same. He didn’t for a second think she would be loyal to this truce. Of course she had some trick up her sleeve. Once he came through on his part of this deal, she would disappear without delivering what she promised—or betray him in some worse way.
I need to be three steps ahead of her this time.
“Well?” asked Rune.
“Fine,” he said. “I agree to atemporarytruce.”
She lowered the gun, her shoulders relaxing. As if she’d been tense this whole time, certain he’d refuse. She put the safety back on her pistol. “Good. Here’s the plan: there’s a back door past the fitting area. If—”
“Darling?” Soren’s voice called from outside the fitting room. “How are you faring?”
Gideon froze. Rune’s eyes widened.
Clearly she hadn’t expected her fiancé to return so soon.
She pushed past Gideon. With her pistol hidden behind her back, she peeked out from behind the fitting room curtain. “I’m not dressed yet, my love. Why don’t you wait outside? I’ll meet you in a minute.”
