Page 48 of A Court of Truth and Thorns
I rub my eyes. “Leaf. Where is she?”
Wil reclaims his smile. “Supervising the relocation of the Eye’s debris beneath the ground. She says it’s safest for now, until the pieces can be examined for...” He runs his hands through his hair. “I don’t know for what, actually. She so bored me with her explanations that I just put her in charge of it all. I can do such things now. Even more so once I am crowned king. Not bad, right?”
My heart squeezes, the one name not yet mentioned stoking my fears. “Violet, is she...” I choke back the words as the frightening truth shows in Wil’s eyes. My next words come as a whisper. “She destroyed herself when she got Bahir’s ring for me, didn’t she?”
“No.” Wil pulls back, life leeching from his voice. “She destroyed herself when she realized she’d handed our father’s head and throne to a monster. She was already a shell when she stepped onto that roof. She just wanted to do something right before leaving.”
No.No, no, no.I snatch his hand. “Violet drew Bahir to that roof to discover the conduit he used to harness the Eye’s power. She went up there to fight. She was a hero.”
He shakes his head and touches his breast pocket, a piece of paper crinkling beneath his fingers. A letter. “Violet took her life before she ever set foot on that roof. Drank a poisonthat Leaf kept amidst her medicines. She...” Wil’s eyes glisten and he turns his face away. “She said she wanted her death to matter since her life hadn’t.” My breath catches, no words coming to my rescue. Wil swallows. “I miss the little fool,” he whispers, squeezing my hand once and then straightening. A prince. A ruler. “I think I hear footsteps.”
I frown as much from the shift in topic as from the realization that the steps Wil was just hearing, I’ve been feeling for some time. Rune is coming. The door bursts open to let in a bare-chested silver-haired storm that launches an apple at my sheet-covered torso.
“I’m gone,” Wil says, saluting and scampering out the door.
“Coward!” I call after him.
Rune growls and points at the apple. “Eat. You’re hungry.”
I rub the back of my head. “No, I’m not. I think that may be you.”
He snatches the apple from me and bites into it. “Bloody brilliant.”
“Rune,” I say softly.
Lowering the apple, Rune hoists himself onto the bed beside me and extends his hand to my face, gently cupping my chin.
I press into him like a cat, my skin warming in response.
Rune’s hands slide down my body, tracing my shoulders, brushing the swell of my chest, and—
Need and desire, mine and not mine, pulse through my core so hard that my breath catches. “Stars.” I draw breath, looking at Rune, at the hard bulge in his breeches and, finally, his flaming red face. “Oh, bloody stars.”
He winces. “Yes, there is that. Not that you shouldn’t know that I want you, it’s just... I’d rather be able to tell you that myself than let this... whatever it is... do it for me.”
“I don’t understand.”
Rune pulls away with visible effort. “Your heart, your breath, they were all mine after the Eye shattered. I was so afraid to sleep for fear of taking your air. It’s gotten better. No one knows whether we’ll ever be truly... separate again.”
“I don’t care.” The truth of the words grips my heart. “I don’t want to be.”
Rune’s mouth lowers to cover mine, and where I end and he begins is suddenly a moot point.
The balcony overlookingthe palace courtyard is cold, flakes of gentle snow swaying down from a clear sky. People crowding the yard below pull their cloaks tight and tentatively take the small heat crystals that children offer in baskets. Having the children bring around tuned crystals was Raza’s idea. And it’s working.
The princess’s gaze follows her charges’ progress. Satisfied, she steps back into the shadows and pulls her hood further over her head.
Striding up to where Wil, Rune, and I stand behind the balcony’s side curtains, Calvin bows formally. “It’s time.”
My heart pounds, my palms sweating despite the cold. “I’ll wait for you here,” I whisper desperately. “I’m a scout. I don’t do crowds.”
“I understand,” says Wil in a voice so empathetic, it sets the hair at the nape of my neck on end. The next heartbeat, Rune drops a chip of ice down the back of my dress.
I gasp.
Grinning, Rune and Wil each grab an elbow and march me out to the center of the balcony between them.
“I’m going to murder you in your sleep,” I tell Wil. He has the decency to pale before taking a step forward to the railing.
