Page 86 of Lifebound

I’d be the biggest liar in all realms—however many there may be—if I said I wasn’t relieved. The woman was alive. She was coughing but she was breathing as she held herself on all fours.

“Thank you,” I told Rune because I had no idea what else to say, and I tried to pretend that I wasn’t affected by it at all before I went and helped the woman to stand up. It would be easier for her to breathe deeply if her head wasn’t lowered like that.

Meanwhile, Rune was pacing in a small circle in front of us, head down, fingers around his chin. The woman did stand up, and after I helped her rest against the nearest tree, I went to him. Watched him until he stopped going in circles and looked up at me.

“What?”he said again, this time with much more bite in his voice.

I realized I probably should have been scared after witnessing what he had been about to do. However, I wasn’t.

“You saidfucking.”

Rune opened his mouth to say something, to possiblyscreamat me to go to hell, but then his eyes fell on my lips. He stopped. The color of his eyes changed right there in front of mine in a way I’d never be able to describe accurately. It became so much richer, more vibrant, and that thin line of silver that made little maps on his irises seemed to burn a little brighter, too.

That’s when I remembered—the kiss.

Holy fucking-shitting hell,I had kissed Rune, and Rune had kissed me, and I had actually told him that Ineededhim. Embarrassment and arousal poured onto me like lava. I was burning where I stood, completely scorched, even if it wasn’t visible to the outside world.

Except my heart was galloping in my chest and I already knew that Rune could hear it, so maybe hedidknow—which was worse.

“Give me one good reason…” he whispered, and I thought he was talking to me.

But then to finish his sentence, he turned his head to the side, to the woman standing in front of the tree, holding her neck, breathing semi-normally now.

“…why I shouldn’t kill you right now.”

“Wait, wait,” the woman said, raising her hands. By then I was hyperventilating from so many emotions that if he’d cut her head off, I wouldn’t have even thought to try to stop him.

Not that I actually believed he’d cut her head off…would he?

Because once again,you don’t know this man, Nilah.

“I can help you,” the woman said, thankfully pulling me out of my head. “I can help you. Let me speak.”

Rune fisted his hands and straightened his shoulders. “Speak fast.”

“I have a carriage. I can take you to town or wherever you need to go,” the woman said, no sign of that smile anywhere on her.

I looked up for a moment, considering that maybe someone else—like those men who were supposed to be the same kind as her—would be coming here any second and see Rune threatening her.

But the forest was empty on all sides, and when I looked up, I could just see the steep rise of the ground possibly fifty feet away, and my heart tripped—we’d jumped fromthere?

How in the fuck were we not in pieces?!

“We can get to town on our own,” said Rune, and he took a menacing step forward, but now I was a bit calmer, and that embarrassment was erased from my mind for a moment, so I moved, too.

“But they’ll know,” the woman said. “Those hunters who chased you will have sent word—they’ll know to look for you. IfItake you there, nobody will see you in my carriage. Nobody.”

Rune was silent for a moment.

The woman—Miriam—turned to me. “I can give you food and shelter for as long as you like, take you out of that awful dress you wear.” She was smiling again, just a little, her eyes glistening. She even raised her hand as if she was imagining touching my face, framing my cheek—from five feet away.

Which made her look slightly…not okay.In the head, I mean.

“Ask for whatever you want, and if I can give it to you, I will. In return, I only ask foronething.”

Rune said, “Your life?”

“No, silly,” the woman said, waving him off—like she’d already forgotten that Rune had been about to strangle her with his bare hands just now. “I want a dark diamond.”

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