Rune was a force. One Gideon could barely keep up with.
He wanted to go after her and tell her as much. The problem was… well. There were a lot of problems.
Gideon lifted his fist, opening it to reveal the ring lying on his palm. His mother’s wedding band.
I would have married you in a heartbeat, had you asked me.
Ancients help him.
He wanted it to be true, but it didn’t make sense. Even if he weren’t a witch hunter, even if they weren’t sworn enemies, Gideon had nothing to offer Rune. He was a soldier; she was an heiress. She wasnobility.
And she’s deceived me in the past.
Rune could easily be deceiving him now. The last time he’d believed her, her lies had burned him badly.
And if she isn’t lying?
He ran a hand across his forehead.
Did it change anything?
Did it changeeverything?
In the heat of the boilers, Gideon loosened his collar androlled back his sleeves, trying to think. Going through all the reasons he had to mistrust her. Hate her, even.
She deceived me by hiding her identity as the Crimson Moth.
But Gideon could hardly fault her for it. He would have done the same, if their positions were reversed.
And Gideon had deceived her right back.
She betrothed herself to Alex.
Because Alex didn’t hate what she was. Because being with Gideon would have been a death sentence. He had made that clear the moment he handed her over to be purged.
She helped Cressida rise.
Except, according to Rune, she hadn’t known her friend Verity was really the witch queen in disguise. Was she lying? Possibly. But Gideon knew Cressida all too well—and she was certainly more than capable of this.
The evidence he’d held against her was toppling like a house of cards.
So, what was left?
Even if Rune loathes Cressida, she has reasons for supporting her.
Cressida would restore a world where witches like Rune would no longer be hunted. She had every reason to want a new Reign of Witches. She could be secretly working for Cressida and lying to Gideon through her teeth.
What if Rune and Cress had struck a deal? What if, once Cressida had her throne, her resurrected sisters, and the island under her control, she disposed of Soren, eliminating Rune’s need to marry him? This whole thing might be an elaborate ruse.
I would have married you in a heartbeat, had you asked me. That’s how desperately I wanted to be yours.
He thought of Rune in the steam, eyes bright, face flushed, hair coming undone. He’d wanted nothing more than to takeher in his arms and kiss her. To tell her with his mouth and hands what he couldn’t say with his words.
Gideon gritted his teeth. Pressed his fists against the wall.
No.
Loving Rune was what had allowed her to dupe him the first time. If he didn’t eradicate this naive desire to believe her—to believe she loved him, to believe he could ever be worthy of her—he would never stop Cressida from bringing evil back to power in the New Republic.
