Page 136 of Lifebound

“I amnotafraid of anyone,” he spit.

“Right, right, of course you’re not afraid of anyone—most definitely not the prince. That’s why you keep bringing him up! You’re not afraid at—” I continued, and it was because I was pissed off, and I was going to go on and on about it until I had no more voice left.

Except Rune didn’t let me.

Suddenly he moved so fast I only saw him when he towered over me. “I amnotafraid ofthe prince!”

His hands were on my face, fingers digging in my cheeks. Had it been anybody else I’d have been afraid. But it was Rune, so I grabbed his forearms and held onto him instead.

“I’m afraid of what he’ll do when he wakes up and takes one look at you—justone look,” he said through gritted teeth. “I’m afraid that he’ll want youlike this.”

Eyes closed and jaws locked, he touched his forehead to mine.

Everything I had wanted to scream at him just now faded away into nothing.

“It won’t matter to me,” I whispered in barely any voice. I couldn’t care less about what the prince would think when he looked at me—I was here to wake him up, return the favor he did me, and nothing more beyond that.

But Rune didn’t believe me.

Stepping back, he let go of me and shook his head, and smiled that awful smile. “Of course, it will matter. He’sthe prince.”

“For fuck’s sake, I don’t care who he is—Iwant you!” The words slipped from me and I only realized it when I heard them.

Regret opened a hole in my chest instantly.Fuck, fuck, fuck, I shouldn’t have said that!

What the hell was I doing, telling him I wanted him when I was days away fromneverseeing him again?

Rune clenched his jaws so hard I heard it. “You don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m just a banished bastard—I’mnothing,”he spit.

He could have stabbed me, and it would have hurt less. “You’re—”everything,I was going to say when…

“Rune.”

My heart stopped. The words died on my tongue.

Raja was just outside the door in the hallway.

Rune looked down at the floor for a moment, then straightened his shoulders. It only took him a second to compose himself, and when he spoke again, he sounded normal. Just like always.

“Come outside when you’re ready.”

With that, he walked out and closed the door behind him, leaving me all alone.

I went to the bathroom and I almost didn’t recognize the reflection in that mirror. I looked…detached. In shock. Unable to process what had just happened. Unable to come to terms with what my tomorrow was going to look like.

Back home without Rune.A world away from him.

And worse yet, he didn’t care to make this last day count. He wanted to stay away, and I understood. I really did. I should have wanted to stay away, too, since the very beginning. I should have been smart enough to see where this would end, and to stop it when I could, before it became…so much.

The problem was that I never actually believed that I could fall for a guy, let alone afaewhose life was such a secret I hardly knew three things about him with certainty. I genuinely didn’t believe that such a thing was even possible.

When I walked outside, I wasn’t even close to understanding anything at all, but I heard movement behind the house, and that’s where I went. I saw small white lights coming from beyond the first line of black trees, and that’s where my legs took me.

The sky had become a light gray with the rising sun. Rune was tending to two horses attached to a wooden carriage, at the door of which was Raja wearing black leather pants and a leather jacket to match. She said nothing, only waved a hand at me to enter the carriage.

With my mouth shut and my head down, I walked up the three narrow stairs until I was inside.

The door closed.

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