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“What’s this?” Laila pressed the cold barrel of her pistol to Rune’s chest, tugging at the silver chain hanging there, the bottom of which was hidden below her shirt.
Rune watched as Laila used her gun to lift the ring Alex gave her out from beneath her collar. It dangled in the air, catching the light.
Rune tried to seize it, but her arms were pinned, and Lailabeat her to it. The girl’s fist closed around the silver band. She yanked hard, breaking the chain, and handed it over to Gideon.
From the way his jaw clenched, she knew he recognized it immediately.
Rune felt like the world was falling apart around her. This wasn’t how she’d wanted him to find out.
“You’reengagedto him?”
He looked like he’d been punched in the stomach.
“I was going to tell you.” Rune pulled one arm free and stepped toward him, her fingers brushing his sleeve. “Gideon …”
He flinched away from her, as if she’d burned him. His eyes blackened as they met hers.
“Never touch me again.”
Rune shrank back, feeling something wither inside her.
But why should she cower? He was the one who’d tricked her into falling in love with him. He was the one consumed by hate. He was the one handing her over to be slaughtered.
Rune straightened. “That’s right. Iamengaged to him. Your brother is twice the man you’ll ever be.”
The hurt in his eyes was unmistakable.
“You know what?” Stepping close, he took her hand and shoved the ring onto her finger. “Keep it.”
For some strange reason, the gesture made Rune want to burst into tears.
“We’re done here,” he said, brushing past her. “Arrest the Crimson Moth.”
She watched him walk away, the soldiers parting before him. Watched the door slam as he trod outside, leaving her at the mercy of witch hunters.
As if he couldn’t bear to breathe the same air as her for another second.
FIFTY-SIXGIDEON
GIDEON SMASHED RUNE’S VIALon the cobbles, watching the rain wash the blood away.
He couldn’t stop thinking about his mother’s ring on that chain around her neck. A ring he’d given Alex for safekeeping.
Alex had proposed to Rune. And Rune had accepted him.
You are a fucking fool,he told himself as he mounted his horse.
Of course none of it had meant anything. Of coursehedidn’t mean anything. Not to her. It was all a game, and though he supposed he’d won in the end, somehow, he’d still come out with nothing.
She’d chosen Alex.
And who wouldn’t?
Your brother is twice the man you’ll ever be.
The words turned Gideon’s heart to stone.
Why did it even matter? She was the Crimson Moth—a perpetual thorn in his side for two years now. A fuckingwitch.
