Page 81 of Lifebound

But Rune didn’t answer. He was wide awake, alert, those eyes of his that looked so much bluer than they did at night moving fast from left to right.

Then he pulled the reins and the horse stopped walking. I held my breath for a moment, listened to the birds chirping in the distance, the leaves moving with the slow wind.

When nothing happened, I tried to turn around, to sit with my back to him again, but Rune’s hand moved to my hip and squeezed.

“Stay,” he ordered.

Heat spilled all over me in an instant.

Then I heard the footsteps.

With both arms around his body, I turned as well as I could to see who was coming. Rune seemed calm, not alarmed in the least, but I was. I was panicking so badly my heart about soared out of my mouth—until I saw them.

Four men stepped away from the tree trunks they’d been hiding behind, and they slowly came closer.

They had no glowing eyes or double heads or pointy noses. They looked very ordinary, if not slightly bigger in size than your average man. They wore brown leathers, and curiosity in their eyes, and they moved like they knew where every tree and every blade of grass was without having to look.

“Rune?” I whispered because I didn’t know whether to freak out all the way yet or not.

“Remember what I told you about life-binding, Wildcat?” He reached for the side of the saddle where he’d strapped my backpack, and slowly brought it between us. I put my arm through the straps and tightened my grip around his torso again. “Every creature in Verenthia knows the same things. That’s why it’s very important not to tell anyone who you are.”

“I won’t,” I whispered. “I won’t tell.”

The men were barely ten feet away now, still coming.

Rune wrapped his other arm around my shoulders. “It’sveryimportant not to let anybody find out. There’s no telling who wants the prince dead, and who’s willing to kill you for it.”

Here I thought whoever had sent those monkey monsters after me had simply wanted me tonotheal the prince, when in reality, they’d sent those beasts to killme.

“We’ll lie,” I whispered, my unblinking eyes on the men. “We’ll lie to them.”

“They’re noxins,” Rune said. “They’ll know.”

What the hell’s a noxin?!“I’m a good liar.”

“It won’t make a difference.”

“Hello, travelers. You’re in noxin territory. Please state your name and your business.”

The voice of the man made me want to scream simply because it was soordinary.Just like a man would speak back home—like my dad spoke.

“We’re just passing by. We won’t trouble you for longer than a few more minutes,” Rune said, and his voice was as calm as ever, as low. You would never suspect a thing if you heard him speaking.

The men who’d stopped at our side now exchanged a look.

Then the same guy said, “Your name and your business,” much more forcefully.

A second of silence that for me lasted a whole eternity.

Rune slowly lowered his head until his lips were against my hair. I barely heard it when he whispered, “Hold on tight.”

Everything happened so fast.

He moved, slammed his legs onto the horse’s sides, and the horse started running at an incredible speed. The scream died in my throat as I held on for dear life now. Rune was busy with the reins and keeping the horse running, and I had to hold on all by myself while we both jumped up and down with the horse’s body—and while those men followed, two on foot, and another two on horseback.

Where in the hell had they gotten those horses so fast?! And they were as big as ours, too.

“Shit, shit, shit,” I kept chanting, now basically wrapped around Rune’s body with my ankles locked around his hips, and my arms around his neck. He didn’t complain at all as he guided the horse forward, turning to the sides abruptly, hoping to gain a few more seconds.

---