Page 69 of Lifebound

“Holy shit, Rune,” I said when he lowered his hand, and the shadow, still there, waved at me, then disappeared, too. “That was amazing!”

He looked up at me with an arched brow as if he wanted to make sure I wasn’t mocking him. I wasn’t—not even close. “Really—that isincredible.”

He turned his eyes to the ceiling again. “It’s calledumbrakinessis,the ability to shape shadows. I can also blend in with them seamlessly, become invisible to the naked eye. I can communicate with my kind under specific circumstances and dim surrounding light sources to create more shadows to manipulate.” This time, he only raised his fingers and the lights around the room dimmed down almost all the way before turning up again.

“Wow.” That might have been the coolest thing I’d ever seen. “What are those, anyway?”

“Fae magic at its rawest form. It’s just pure energy that glows when in contact with oxygen.” And he released three shapes into the air that glowed with a bright white light as they slowly floated higher up in the air and changed shape. I held on tightly to the blankets as I watched them turn to snowflakes, so beautiful they could have been a drawing, then stars with six points, and finally little rabbits hopping higher and higher in the air until they reached the ceiling and disappeared into the wall completely.

There I was, laughing again—that was so fucking cool.

Rune looked at me, and he seemed suspicious, like he really couldn’t believe that I was laughing, which made me stop.

“What about that shadow you came out of when you first found me on that horse? Was that the same thing?”

“Pretty much. There were a lot more shadows there, deeper and more powerful, so they were much easier to use—but yes. I both shielded you from the grogs and tried to calm down the horse.”

The memory of it was still very vivid in my mind. The way he’d just walked out of shadows with those eyes and those lips and that voice…

I fluffed my pillow and went even closer to the edge of the bed. “What about the others?”

So, Rune told me about the Seelie fae, who manipulated light magic and nature and healed most diseases and wounds with perfect ease—just like the prince had healed me. He told me about the Unseelie, who commanded darkness—not shadows because apparently they were different. Who were good at curses and who could actually possess animals and beasts of all kinds. Their population was apparently declining fast because the Court had been changing leaders every few years in the past couple of decades, and they were more divided than ever.

He also told me about the Frozen fae, who manipulated twilight, ice, and water, and were the best hunters in Verenthia, and who were currently under the control of the Midnight Court.

While he spoke, Rune closed his eyes and his voice lowered even more than usual.

I had never heard a more beautiful lullaby in my life, so I was half asleep when he was done talking. In a way, he’d just made my wish come true again because hearing about fae and magic was exactly like listening to bedtime stories.

His breathing was even, and his eyes remained closed a few minutes later. Slowly, I slipped out of the bed as silently as I could, picked up one of my blankets and put it over him. He didn’t move an inch.

It wasn’t much but it was something. I’d sleep better knowing he had it.

Goodnight, Rune,I said in my mind when I got back in bed.

And finally, I slept.

nineteen

Peoplewith a hundred heads on their shoulders chased me.

In front of me were vampires, red-eyed and fanged and thirsty for every drop of blood in my veins.

There were sorcerers laughing in the distance somewhere I couldn’t see, and I kept trying to find Rune in the darkness, but he wasn’t there. He’d just disappeared.

I knew I was dreaming—I always knew when I was dreaming—but I couldn’t wake up. It was torture, and when I finally managed to somehow escape the waiting vampires, I fell—and landed right into a lair of snakes.

Snakes that wrapped their bodies around me tightly, and that were going to bite me right on the ankle, but the little boy wasn’t going to be there to save me this time. He was wasting away somewhere instead, sleeping, ill, waiting formeto save him.

And the snakes bit. The pain of their fangs felt so incredibly real.

My eyes opened wide. I sucked in a deep breath and I was about to jump out of wherever I was, andrun, run, runto the ends of the world where no vampires or snakes or sorcerers could ever find me again.

Instead, something was over me—something that had locked my legs and my arms to my sides tightly.

Wide indigo eyes over mine.

A voice trying to chase away that scream that still rang in my ears.

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