And he’d clung to her just now like she was a life raft in a maelstrom.
Rune stopped pacing. Lifting her chin, she drew in a deep, steady breath. Resolved.
If there’s a way to break his curse, I’ll find it.
THIRTY-FOURRUNE
“ARE YOU ALL RIGHT?”Gideon’s voice echoed behind her.
All right?
She was livid.
They were on the third floor, glancing into open doorways, looking for the nursery. Edmund was long gone, and had likely found them missing by now. They needed to hurry.
Gideon caught up to her, his long strides keeping pace with her furious ones.
“Does it upset you?” he asked.
“Does what upset me?”
“That a curse makes it impossible for us to be together?”
Be together.
As if, just maybe, he wanted that.
The thought was a spark. One flaring into a fire, warming Rune from the inside out.
“Why should it upset me?” She kept her gaze straight ahead, not wanting him to see the truth in her eyes. “We could never have been together even if you weren’t cursed.” She kept walking. There were only three more doorways before this hall ended. “You hunt my kind, remember?”
You’re hunting us even now. You’re only pretending to help me so you can kill Cressida, her army, and the Roseblood heir.
Gideon reached for her arm, coaxing her to a stop and turningher to face him. “On theArcadia,” he said, watching her closely, “you said you would have married me, had I asked.”
She saw the unspoken question in his eyes:Is that still true?
Rune clenched her fists. She never should have admitted that. The only thing saving her from the humiliation of that admission was that he didn’t seem to believe her.
Do not tell him the truth. Do the opposite of that. The truth will only get you killed.
Rune had already made the mistake of letting down her guard with Gideon—and as a result, she’d ended up on the purging platform. She couldn’t do it again. Just because she didn’t repulse Gideon didn’t mean he loved her.
He might be inlustwith her, but that wasn’t love. People who loved you didn’t plot to betray you. Didn’t try to hunt you down or wipe out your kind.
She removed his hand from her arm.
“I think we should focus on—”
Somewhere down the hall, a child started crying. Rune and Gideon glanced toward the sound: the last door on the right. Rune doubled her pace, with Gideon close behind her. When she found the door open, she stepped into the room.
A young woman stood near the window overlooking the harbor. She swayed back and forth, trying to calm the red-haired toddler in her arms.Meadow, Gideon had told her.
The moment the nursemaid sighted Rune, she stopped swaying.
“Who are you?” The woman drew the child closer. The crying increased.
“This is Captain Sharpe.” Rune began to close the distance between them. “And I’m… it doesn’t matter. We have orders to bring the child to the palace.”
