Page 62 of Lifebound

“No, no, that…that can’t?—”

“Nilah.”

Every inch of my body froze in place when I realized that Rune was right behind me.Right there,not by the tree.

And Tuck and Tucker basically slammed against the wood of the shop, trying to get away. “We were just having a conversation,” Tuck said.

I turned with half a heart, looked up at Rune, at his dark eyes as he stared at them.

“We were. Thanks for the talk, boys. Safe trip.” I stepped back, now afraid that Rune might hurtthem.

“Our pleasure, beautiful Nilah. Safe trip to you, too, wherever you’re going,” said Tucker, and they waved at me with both hands.

With my head down, I turned around and walked away toward the trees, praying Rune would follow.

He did.

eighteen

Words spun in my head.

My life was getting overwhelming so fast I couldn’t even keep up with what was happening anymore. Rune walked beside me, and even though he never once turned his eyes toward me, I felt his attention all the same. It was on me every second of the way for however long we walked through the woods at the end of the maze market, until we reached what must have been another town. It had almost identical buildings—white stone and bricks and wood, though there were considerably fewer people walking down the narrow streets.

“What did the Twinborn say?” he asked all of a sudden, while I was holding onto my scarf, focusing on shielding my eyes with it as well as I could because there were two ofthosebeings to the left of the street where we walked. Even though neither of them wore a cowboy hat, it was easy enough to guess what they were. Incubi, creatures who fed on lust—and they were as beautiful as the clouds in the sky, with their sneaky smiles and slit pupils. Ireallydidn’t want to lose control of my body the way I had that morning, so I would rather just hide.

I looked at Rune instead. The way he moved was otherworldly, every step precise, every movement of his arms graceful. Even the way he blinked his eyes, kind ofslowerthan normal, gave him a different aura than everybody else here.

“Nothing. They let the vampire bite them because he was a messenger who was going to deliver a message to Blackwater for them, to their mother.” And I almost said,they also warned me against you,but most importantly,whom did you betray?What does that tattoo mean?

I didn’t, of course. No matter how my instincts reacted to this man, I didn’t know him. I couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t go back to the maze market right now and find Tuck and Tucker before they had the chance to go to their mother.

“Anything else?” Rune looked down at me then, barely turning his head, his brow arched.

“Just that the vampire was cheap and only took about half a cup of blood from them.”

I watched him curiously. His expression didn’t change. “You stopped to talk to them, and that’s fine. Twinborns are relatively harmless. But you won’t be talking to anybody else without me present again.”

Fire in my veins. “Is that an order?”

He turned to me with a slight smile—Mr. Moody indeed.“It is. And youwillobey it.”

God help me, I wasthisclose to putting my foot in front of his just to watch him fall on his face right there in front of me. But I controlled myself because something told me it would be impossible to take him by surprise.

“Suck it, Mr. Moody. I can do whatever I want—and what I want is tonotobey your orders.”

“We’ll see about that,” the asshole said.

“We will. We def?—”

A door opened on the other side of the dirt road we were walking on with enough force to slam against the wall with a loud thud. I looked—we were right across from those two incubi who were hanging out in front of a two-story building with no sign on it, just a set of double doors and barred windows. One was blond, the other darker, both as tan as that first one had been. Both gorgeous—until I saw the woman who’d slammed the door to the wall behind them with such force.

My jaw hit the floor.

Hair white like snow, skin a rich olive, eyes so green they shone like fucking emeralds, pupils slit. She wore rags around her bust and hips, and heeled sandals that were made out of vines and small flowers.

How in the fuck was she real?

“Nilah.”

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