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“Don’t.”
He stumbled back, raising both hands in surrender. His breath puffed in the brisk morning air. “I …I didn’t mean any of that.”
Right.Sure.
Afraid she might burst into tears, not wanting him anywhere near her when she did, she ran the rest of the way to Lady’s side.
Around them, people stopped what they were doing to stare.
“Please give me a chance to explain. What you heard—”
“What I heard was sickening!” she said, stepping into Lady’s stirrup and pushing herself up and into the saddle. Because she was furious, she added: “Even for someone likeyou.”
Gideon stepped back. “Someone like me.”
She shook her head. “I was right about you from the beginning. Verity and Alex were right about you. You’re a selfish, horrible brute. You don’t care who you hurt, as long as you get what you want. Yourepulseme.”
He recoiled at those words. But Rune wasn’t sorry for saying them.
Unable to look at him a moment longer, she gathered Lady’s reins and turned away from the Blood Guard captain. “You and I are done, Gideon. I never want to see you again.”
Rune urged the horse into a canter.
She couldn’t put him behind her fast enough.
FIFTY-ONEGIDEON
GIDEON SLOWED HIS STEPS,watching her flee.
She didn’t look back. Not once.
He was that forgettable.
Did you really expect this would end happily?
Suspicion had tainted his relationship with Rune from the beginning. Gideon had only agreed to this farce of a courtship because he’d believed her to be the Crimson Moth, a belief proven false last night.
He’d been wrong.
So wrong.
And now that he trusted her fully, now that he knew what it felt like to wake up beside her, to believe a life with her was within reach, he’d gone and ruined everything.
Letting his head fall back, Gideon let out a shuddering breath. He deserved every bit of her wrath. After agreeing to Harrow’s asinine plan, Gideon was all that Rune accused him of and more.
Sickening.
Astupid brute.
He deserved to lose her.
FIFTY-TWORUNE
THE NORTH WIND WHIPPEDRune’s hair across her cheeks. Lady’s hooves kicked the dirt of the country laneways. Fields and bogs and forests blurred at the edges of her vision.
I want all of you, Rune. Not just tonight, but every moment from now on.
She felt feverish. Possessed. Unable to stop thinking about what she and Gideon had done. About the possibilities she’d let herself want.
