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“Sorry,” Vashien muttered and smiled at Faye.
“You, shadow dick. You’re lucky she already beat your ass. I’m watching you.” Sparrow held two fingers in a V and lifted her chin. She stabbed them to either side of her windpipe and pointed at Rune before walking out. Vashien in tow behind her.
Faye glanced at Rune’s hand and stood without his assistance. He lowered his hand and stepped around her. Faye turned with him, “We’re not done.”
“I am sure we are not, however after your outburst I am in need of blood. Unless you are offering, it would be kind of you to continue our discussion at my desk.”
Faye followed him, watching as he plucked a wine bottle and glass out of the air. He poured a glass and drank it down faster than Sparrow could. He refilled it and motioned to the seat across his desk.
She stood beside the chair, growing suddenly tired. She stifled a yawn and glanced down at the chair. “You don’t have wing friendly furniture,” she said, stretching her wings out a little. The motion betrayed her, and Faye arched her wings back, yawning.
“Noted,” he said, filling his third glass. He strolled to the settee, and Faye remained where she stood. Her breaths came a little faster. He glanced back at her, sipping his drink. “You can sit with your back to the fire.”
That worked when she was curled up to his chest, reading a book. “I’ll stand.”
Rune silently walked back to her and leaned on his desk. “I should not have left you as I did.”
Faye met his gaze. “Why did you leave?”
He took a deep breath and stared toward the door for long moments.
Was he wishing he could leave? Thinking about whatever woman he was with? Faye’s thoughts spiraled until she derailed them by saying, “Why are you willing to do that, but not my ceremony?”
He tapped his index finger against his glass once. Twice. “The ceremony puts you in danger, which places my life in jeopardy. My answer is no.”
Faye’s wings sagged. She glanced up at him even though he wouldn’t meet her gaze, and said, “Wouldn’t it be safer if I can heal myself. I would be harder to kill. Me alive, equals you alive. Win, win.”
He finished his glass and set it on his desk between them. Meeting her pleading gaze, he said, “You have not invoked your blood. The risk outweighs any benefit a Ceremony of Blood could offer. You would be gifted a tendril and left without the shard needed to wield it.”
“You need me to cooperate with you because I’m as strong as you are.”
“You are stronger.” His voice was deadpanned as he watched her.
Faye’s brow lowered as she dropped his gaze. She couldn’t be stronger than him. Her heart pounded harder as she swayed on her feet. She was getting so tired, her energy slipping from her like water through parted fingers. “Somethings wrong,” Faye muttered.
Rune took her arm, steadying her. “Shifting is taxing until you are able to control it.”
“I’m not done…” Faye’s words slurred as the edges of her vision blackened. The room spun, and Faye was moving. She lifted her feet into her view. Moving but she wasn’t walking. She peered up at the underside of Rune’s chin. He was carrying her. “I’m not done talking to you,” she said, laying her head on his chest.
“I know,” he answered.
Faye was nestled into a soft bed as warm blankets were pulled around her. She turned on her side as her mind drifted. “I know I don’t end up with you, but I need you for my ceremony. I want a family one day. Is that so hard to understand?”
The weight at her back faded as her consciousness slipped. She vaguely heard him speak as the blankets tucked around her sleeping form.
“I will think on it.”
Chapter forty-three
Fayepickedatherdinner. She sat with her sister and Vashien at the table in the den. She’d woken up a short while ago tucked into bed in the room adjacent to Rune’s, starving. Now that she was fully awake, replaying her conversation with Rune, she quickly lost her appetite.
Sparrow poured herself a shot, swinging her leg under the table. “Did you two make up and he’s going to do your ceremony now?”
Faye swallowed, putting her fork down. “He said no.”
Still holding the neck of the bottle, her sister wrinkled her nose. “What do you mean he said no?”
“I asked him, and he said no,” Faye said flatly, not wanting to talk about it. Anger and hurt simmered in her, leaving a bitter taste in her mouth. Faye couldn’t grasp how he could want her, take her to his bed, make her finish harder than she ever had in her life. But performing her ceremony? Out of the question.
