Page 22 of Fractured
“It’s Lyall. He’s always thought a few feet ahead of everybody else.” He pulled me closer to his side, and I put my legs over his thigh, almost climbing on his lap. “But he can’t win, not this. He’s a god in his court, but the other royals…”
“What are they like?” I whispered. “What’s your father like?” Every muscle in his body locked tightly and I felt it because I was basically lying against him.
Rune didn’t speak, not right away, and so I said, “Before, when Merenith asked if you remembered anything, you hesitated. Do you…do you remember?”
His eyes closed. “Just…just fragments. Pieces of a memory—and I’m not sure if they’re even real.”
I moved back a bit to look at his face. “What? What pieces?”
Rune sighed and grabbed me by the waist and pulled me to sit on his lap facing him. “Just my father’s voice when he marked me and banished me. What he looked like. What…he said.”
My heart broke because it was clear to see the hurt flashing in his dark eyes. Fuck, now I regretted asking him. “I’m sorry, Rune.”
“Don’t be. I’m glad I remembered.”
“Even if it’s painful?”
He thought about it for a moment. “I have to know my past in order to know who I want to be in the future, don’t I?”
Damn right, he did. I leaned in and kissed his lips, moved my legs on either side of his so I could get closer and lay my head over his shoulder.
“I remember the queen, too—or just her body on the floor,” Rune said, and my blood turned to ice.
“You remember killing her?”
“No. I’m not sure if it’s even real, but I remember the scent of winter roses and the silhouette of a woman on the floor—that’s all,” he said as he played with my hair with one hand and closed the other over my cheek.
“And…her face?” I dared to ask.
“She was lying on her stomach,” Rune said, and again, I was almost relieved.
“Tomorrow,” I whispered, holding his hand over my cheek with mine as I turned to kiss his palm. “We’ll know more tomorrow.”
“We will. As soon as we get to the Quiet, we’ll know more about who you are,” Rune said, and my heart jumped again.
The sensation was like a stab right through it, which then made the image of my blood pouring out of me that had been only an illusion pop up right in front of my eyes.
Laughter burst out of me and I didn’t even try to stop it. “Fucking hell, Rune, I amterrified!” And it was obviouslynot funny at all, but the alternative was to cry, and I would rather just laugh while I could.
Rune took my face in his hands and said, “So am I. That doesn’t mean we’re going to stop. We’ll get to the bottom of this, Wildcat.”
I believed him, of course. “Yes, yes, we will. You’re pretty stubborn yourself, Mr. Moody,” I said in a whisper.
He smiled a bit. “I am when it comes to you. I promised you that I’d get you out of this place the same way I brought you here, and I will.”
This was definitely not funny at all. “Don’t tell me you’re blaming yourself about this, Rune, or I will smack you on the head.” And I wasn’t even kidding.
He closed his eyes and his smile turned sad—which surprised me.
“Holy shit—youare?!”
“I did bring you all the way to the court.”
“Because I asked you to! Because I’d have died if I tried to go without you! How have you forgotten?” His shirt was in my fists now as I shook him.
“I haven’t. I just keep thinking if I’d taken you back to your world when I found you in the woods?—”
“Then we wouldn’tbe here.”
