He and Rune were enemies at war. Rune was the key to destroying Cressida, and Cressida had to be destroyed. He needed her as a hostage, to bargain with. He needed to stick to his plan. Nothing more.
He couldn’t let Rune weaken him again.
Even if he wanted her to.
ANNOYANCE PRICKLED GIDEON AShe neared the party. The fiddlers’ joyful, driving beat and the rowdy, grinning dancers were at odds with his dark mood. They made his teeth clench. For a second, Gideon contemplated returning to their cabin instead of rejoining the revelry.
But there was still a spy running loose. And he needed to find them before they found him—or, worse, Rune.
So he stepped into the room.
Gideon saw her immediately. Like a compass that would always find north. The moment his eyes landed on Rune, she glanced up from the center of the crowd, where she danced with a young man in suspenders.
In a flash, Gideon remembered her drunk and weeping in the powder room, a hollow look haunting her gray eyes. She was neither drunk nor weeping now, yet the look in her eyes was the same.
Gideon was caught in the snare of her gaze. Rune’s eyes always reminded him of a storm. Like thunder and lightning, mingled together.
Except…
Wait.
A moment ago, her eyes had been blue, her hair the color of wheat.
Now her eyes were gray, and her hair was returning to its natural strawberry blonde.
Her spell was wearing off. And she had no idea.
Gideon recalled the police officers knocking on doors, show- ing every passenger aboard this ship a locket with Rune’s likeness.
Anyone in this room could recognize her.
Gideon surged toward her, cutting through the dancers, getting jostled and bumped and sworn at.
“Excuse me,” he said when he arrived, cutting in. “I need to borrow my girl.”
The young man started to protest, took one look at Gideon, and stepped away with a gesture that said,All yours.
“What are you doing?” said Rune.
Gideon ran his fingers through her hair.
“Your illusion…”
Rune glanced at his hand, where the rose-gold strands sifted across his palm. Her face paled.
He slid his fingers through her gloved ones. They needed to get her out of here before someone noticed.
Unless someone already has…
Gideon glanced around the room, spotting Ash and William and the rest of Abbie’s friends engrossed in a game around a card table. Abbie wasn’t with them.
Where is she?
He kept scanning, tugging Rune toward the exit. But when his attention fixed on the door, his steps halted.
Rune froze behind him.
The same officers who’d interrogated every passenger on the ship, asking if they recognized Rune’s face, were currently stepping into the room.
