Page 85 of Lifebound

Before the moment was over, we were both standing, no longer attached to the ground, and we were going to run away, I thought, as far and as fast as our legs could take us.

But then Rune said, “We’re going to try to turn this around, okay? Follow my lead.”

“What the hell was that, Rune? Icouldn’tlie! I was trying to, and I couldn’t…”

“It’s not your fault—it’s her herbs. The noxin can taste truths from lies, and they also have a knack for developing all kinds of plants that make you reveal everything to them if you don’t have magic to block them.”

“Holy shit,” I breathed because that actually made sense. I’d smelled that smoke from her stick and then it had been impossible to stop myself. “Wait—tastetruths?” Because that part sounded strange as hell.

“Yes. They have extra buds on their tongues. They can taste your lies in the air,” Rune said, and yes, my mind was wiped completely clean. “But we’re going to take advantage of this, so I need you to stand back and do as I say, okay?”

“Or we can justrunbefore she makes us tell her more!”

“We lost the horse. I’m not sure how far we still are from the center of Cloakwood. We need?—”

“Oh, you freed yourselves already. That’s no problem at all, I guess.”

The woman was already back.

Rune turned around and started walking with a kind of gracefulness I honestly didn’t think a body could own, and he looked so calm as he went toward where she was standing, right by the trees. He looked so damn calm while I stood there and watched with my eyes wide open, terrified—until he gripped the woman by the neck and raised her up in the air.

That my knees held me in that moment was a damn miracle if you asked me.

They not only held me, but my body took me forward and I was suddenly gripping his arm, trying to get him to let the woman down. Fucking hell, she waschoking!

“Rune, what the hell—what the?—”

“Wildcat, wejusttalked about this.” He turned his head to me—so calm. So quiet, like he couldn’t hear the woman struggling to breathe. “Remember the part where I said that you need to stand back and do what I say? Ijustasked you that.”

“Are you serious right now? That doesn’t count when you’re trying tokillsomeone in front of me!” That I even needed to point this out was ridiculous…right? “You can’t just kill someone who outsmarts you and knows how to get you to tell them your secrets!”

“Why not?” Rune asked, and he genuinely—sincerely—asked me that.

My mouth opened and closed a couple of times. “Becauseit’s wrong!Fuck, Rune, this is way too basic—it’swrongto kill! Don’t they teach you that here?”

“She could have hurt you,” he said instead, turning to the woman again and squeezing his fingers around her neck.

Meanwhile she was struggling to draw in a little air while trying to pry his hand away, but she shouldn’t have bothered. I was trying, too, pulling him back with all my strength, but it was like trying to move a goddamn mountain.

“But she didn’t. She didn’t hurt me—let her go.”

“No.”

I had never been more pissed off in my life (except maybe when I saw that video of my sister being bullied.)

I stepped back, crossed my arms in front of my chest, and I watched him. Just watched him—and internally, I swore to God that if he didn’t let her goright now,I was going to bite him. Fuck it—I was going to bite his neck just like that vampire had done to Tuck and Tucker, and if that didn’t work, I’d bite his nose, too.

Rune looked at me. “What?” he spit, but I didn’t speak.

No, the next time I opened my mouth would be to bite, and by the sounds that woman was making as she struggled to stay alive, my moment was going to come soon.

But Rune closed his eyes. Took in a deep breath.

“You’re fuckinginfuriating, you know that?!”

This from him.

Rune said that, not me, and then he let the woman go and stepped back.

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