He moved to Abbie like metal to a magnet. The cold rushed in, making Rune hug herself. Ash and the others were already filing into the stairwell. As Abbie turned Gideon in the direction of her friends, Gideon smiled at something she said, forgetting Rune.
They looked so natural together.
It was a reminder: Gideon needed Abbie and her friends to believe his fake marriage was real. What better way to do that than to flirt with his fake wife while teaching her how to handle a gun?
“Is he always like that?”
Rune dragged her eyes away from Gideon and Abbie to find the golden-haired William standing beside her, frowning at the pair.
“What do you mean?”
“Attentive to other women, at your expense.”
“What? Oh… no. It’s not like that. He and Abbie are old friends.”
William said nothing. Only studied Rune with something like pity.
If William saw what Rune saw when she watched them together, maybe her gut feeling was right. Abbie was infatuated.
Was Gideon?
It doesn’t matter. I don’t care.
Even if Runedidcare—hypothetically speaking—there wasno way to compete. Abbie wasn’t a witch, but a normal girl. Something Rune could never be.
A heaviness sank inside her. Like a boulder weighing her down.
Above them, the sky was darkening. Rune shivered in the chilly breeze. She glanced at Gideon’s jacket, still lying on the deck at her feet.
“I know a good place to warm up.” William held out his arm. “If you want to join me.”
His eyes sparkled as he smiled at her.
Rune’s gaze dropped to the white name tag on his uniform, declaring him part of theArcadia’s crew. Recalling the doors she couldn’t get past and the cargo holds she needed to find, Rune said, “I’d love that. Thank you.”
She took his arm and they followed the others inside, leaving Gideon’s jacket in a crumpled heap behind them.
TWENTY-ONEGIDEON
“TELL US, SHARPE: HOW’Dyou convince that poor, sweet girl to marry you?”
They were below deck, in the Crew Alleyway—a long hallway meant for employee use, in the ship’s second-lowest level. Around them, stewards, servers, and restaurant staff rushed past.
Poorandsweetwere not words Gideon would have chosen to describe Rune.
“Actually,” he said, thinking of the pistol pointed at his head while Rune dictated her terms in the wedding shop’s fitting room. “She convinced me.”
“Ha!” laughed Ash. “Good one.”
They were so close to the engine here, Gideon felt the vibrations beneath his feet. The sound of its thumping echoed through the Alleyway like a giant heartbeat.
“I swear it’s true.”She coerced me.
Gideon was still thinking about the way Rune fit against his chest: soft and warm and small. He didn’t know why he’d asked about her dream, because the way she’d called his name in the dark last night was best forgotten. She’d never said it like that before—half cry, half moan.
What exactly had they been doing in her dream?
He glanced back to where Rune trailed far behind, with William at her side.
