Page 101 of Lifebound

“It’s okay,” he told me, his eyes around us, trying to see our surroundings better. I didn’t even bother.

“No, it’s not okay. This is my fault. My mess. Listen to me, Rune—you need to run, okay? You need to save yourself. Break the chains with your magic and then run. They won’t come after you.” At least I hoped so with all my being.

Rune then let his head fall to the side of the black horse and looked at me. “Stop talking.”

“Just listen to me—you can get away. You don’t need to?—”

“I am not going anywhere without you,” he cut me off. “Now, stop talking.”

Except if he knew what it was like in my head, he wouldn’t have asked for such an impossible thing.

“I can push you. You can jump off the horse and break free.”

“Stop t?—”

“This ismymess, damn it! I amnotgoing to watch you go down with me!”

I’d done that my whole life. I’d seen the people I cared about getting fucked over because of me again and again. I wasn’t going to lethimdo this to himself, too.

“Nobody is going down here, Wildcat,’” Rune said, then looked at my cheeks. “Have you cried?”

“I-I-No,” I stuttered, suddenly self-conscious about what my face must have looked like.

Fuck—I’d put on mascara at Miriam’s. My eyes probably looked like a raccoon’s.

“We’re going to be okay. We’re in the Enclave right now, but we’re by the edge. Blackwater isn’t far,” he told me and leaned closer, those unblinking eyes on me. “I will not see another tear in your eyes because of this.”

Goddamn, man…

“I wasn’t crying,” I muttered.

He acted like he didn’t even hear me. “We’re going to be okay.”

“But how?”

“I don’t know yet, but we will figure it out.” And he leaned his head to the other side to look at whatever he was looking at.

“Can’t you just use your magic?”

“Not against these. These chains are made by fae, what we call Ice magic. I can’t break them,” Rune said.

“Why not? You broke Miriam’s trap.”

“That was sorcery—this isn’t,” he said.

“What did that guy mean when he saidseal, though?”

Rune fell in place again, his face so close to mine. “It’s a seal on my magic. Most of it—not all.”

“Butwhy?” And how in the world did that even work?

“Because I was banished, Wildcat,” he told me.

Fuck, I was really starting to hate that word—banished.It made him sound like a bad guy when he wasn’t. He might havelookedthe part, but he wasn’t bad. I believed that with all my heart.

“I’m sorry, Rune. I thought…I was just trying to help.”

“Don’t apologize,” he told me without batting an eye. “What did you do to him? To the imp?”

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