RUNE SPENT THE FOLLOWING day packing suitcases and making a list of things to send for once she and Alex were settled on the Continent. They had decided Rune would leave on the same ship as Alex the morning after Seraphine’s rescue.
Which was in two days.
An electric feeling zipped down her spine.
“There’s a pile of suitcases sitting on your front doorstep,” said a sudden voice. “Do you have visitors?”
Rune looked up from her packing list to find Verity sweeping into the casting room, her heeled boots clicking on the floorboards as she pulled her gloves off her hands.
Rune had sent a carriage to fetch her friend early, before Alex arrived for their last meeting about tomorrow’s heist. Rising from the desk, Rune bit her lip and turned toward her friend, who scanned the room, her attention homing in on the stacks of wooden crates crammed full of spell books, and the empty shelves beyond them. Verity’s brows knit.
“That’s what I wanted to tell you about.” Rune’s stomach knotted. She wasn’t looking forward to this conversation—or to leaving Verity behind. Taking a deep breath, she said, “I’m leaving the New Republic.”
Verity’s gaze shot to hers.
“I’m going with Alex to Caelis.” Rune touched the thin chain around her neck, lifting it out of her bodice so Verity could see the ring hanging from it. “He asked me to marry him.”
Verity blinked. “And you accepted him.”
“I know you wanted me to choose someone more useful …” Rune wrinkled her nose, not liking the insinuation that Alex wasn’t valuable. “But I—”
“No,” Verity interrupted, shaking her head. “No, I’m glad you didn’t take my advice.” She stepped toward Rune and reached for her hands, gripping them tightly. Her dark eyes glittered as she said, “I never should have made that stupid list. I wasn’t thinking about you. I was thinking about the mission.” She shook her head harder, as if angry with herself. “I’ve been a rotten friend.”
Rune let out a breath. “I thought you’d be more upset.”
“I am upset. You’re like a sister to me.” She looked stern, suddenly. “I don’t want you to leave, but I also want you to be happy. And safe. In Caelis, you can be both. Besides, Alex adores you. He’ll spoil you for sure.”
Rune smiled. “You’ll visit us?”
Verity squeezed her hands. “Of course.”
Rune pulled her into a hug, not even minding her perfume. “Thank you for understanding.”
“I’ll always understand,” Verity whispered.
 |
SHORTLY AFTER ALEX ARRIVED, the three of them gathered in Rune’s casting room one last time to discuss tomorrow’s plan. As the sun dipped below the horizon, Verity pulled out two stolen Blood Guard uniforms from her rucksack.
“It might be a little big,” she said, handing one over to Rune. “But it should do the trick.”
The red wool coat, cotton shirt, breeches, boots, and hat were all stolen from the student in her dormitory. Hopefully, the girl wouldn’t notice before Verity returned them.
Rune took the stack of clothes. “Why are there two?”
“This one is for me,” said Verity, taking off her spectacles to rub her fingers against her tired eyes.
“But why do you need one?” “I’m coming with you.”
Rune frowned at her friend. “Absolutely not. It’s too dangerous, Verity.” Verity ignored her, picking up the black soldier’s hat and placing it on her head. “Everyone knows that witch hunters work in pairs, if not packs. It
might look suspicious if you’re alone.”
“I agree,” said Alex. He sat cross-legged beside Rune, one hand planted on the floorboards behind her, his shoulder touching hers. With his closeness came the comforting warmth of him, along with his leather and oak smell. “You’ll be safer with Verity at your side.”
Rune slit her eyes at them both. “And if something goes wrong?”
Verity tilted her chin back so the brim of the soldier’s hat stopped obscuring her view. “Then you won’t be alone when they throw you in a cell.”
From the firm press of her lips, she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Admittedly, Rune felt calmer knowing Verity would be there. “Fine,”
she sighed. “Thank you.”
She set her stack of clothes on the carpet in front of her, next to Gideon’s access coin and her last remaining vial of blood. It was mostly full. She’d been trying to save as much of it for tomorrow’s heist as possible, in case something went wrong and she needed to cast a spell—or several—to get them out.
It would have been nice to replenish at least some of her blood stores before tomorrow, but her monthly cycle hadn’t started yet.
“It would make me feel better if we went through the plan one last time,” said Alex.
So they did.
At three o’clock in the afternoon, Rune would meet Verity at her dormitory, and together they would don their Blood Guard uniforms. While crowds of people filled the streets for the Liberty Day festivities, they would travel to the palace and enter the prison.
Alex would wait with the horses a block away.
Once inside, Rune and Verity would use Gideon’s access coin to get past the seventh gate, telling the guards they had orders to bring Seraphine to her purging. They would retrieve Seraphine, usher her out of the palace prison, and bring her to Alex and the waiting horses.
From there, Rune and Alex would hide Seraphine at Thornwood Hall. The next day, they would board the ship to Caelis with Seraphine concealed in their cargo, bound for freedom.
Rune’s heart stuttered at the thought. In two days, she’d be sailing across the Barrow Strait, toward a new life.
As if hearing her thoughts, Alex reached for her hand, lacing their fingers together.
Verity yawned.
“We should all try to get some sleep tonight,” said Rune, worried about her exhausted friend. She pushed up from the casting room floor. “Come on. I’ll walk you both out.”
|
AFTER SEEING BOTH VERITY and Alex off, Rune returned to her bedroom and changed into her nightgown. Just before climbing into her bedsheets, she saw a box tied with a ribbon at the foot of her bed.
Rune had been so busy packing for Caelis all day, Lizbeth must not have wanted to bother her with it.
Sitting down on the bed, she pulled the box toward her and tugged the folded piece of paper out from under the ribbon. Unfolding it, she recognized the handwriting and immediately stopped reading.
It was from Gideon.
The conversation she’d overheard between him and the girl called Harrow flared anew inside her, burning like a hot iron. Anger and hurt blazed in her chest.
She wanted to throw his letter onto the fire, unread.
Except … was it fair to hate him so much for pretending? Rune had pretended right along with him. She’d used him the same way he’d used her.
It was Rune who’d invited him to her bedroom the night of their first kiss. She had considered crossing that uncrossable line in her attempt to extract what she needed from him. She’d practically begged him to take her into his bed the other night—to trick him, once and for all. To make him
believe the lie she’d built in order to dupe him into marrying her, so she could use him in the future.
At least, that was part of it. The smallest part of it, but still.
Rune had been holding Gideon Sharpe to a different standard, despite playing the same game. Really, she was no different than him.
The thought made her squirm uncomfortably.
Taking a deep breath, she lifted the letter and started to read:
Rune—
The things you overheard yesterday morning—as despicable as they were—I said to protect us both. If I’d told Harrow the truth, she would declare me compromised. I needed her and Laila to believe in your innocence, and the best way to do that was to make them think I felt nothing for you.
It doesn’t absolve my actions—it’s true that I started courting you to try and uncover the Moth. I don’t expect your forgiveness. But I need you to know that what we did the other night wasn’t a lie. Not for me. Everything I said that night, I meant.
Gideon
Rune felt like someone had dropped an anchor inside of her, pulling her down to the bottom of the sea.
She wanted to believe him. She’d be a fool to believe him.
And that was exactly the point, wasn’t it? No matter what he said or did, Rune couldn’t trust him. He thought her innocent—that’s why he was apologizing. That’s why he fancied himself in love with her. But if he knew the truth …
He’d arrest me right now and hand me over to be purged.
The thought steadied her. Gideon was her enemy.
And I’m marrying his brother.
Rune worried her lip in her teeth. She wasn’t only marrying Alex; she was leaving with him. At the very least, Gideon deserved to hear that from her.
She needed to tell him. And say goodbye.
Glancing down to the box, Rune freed the ribbon, lifted the lid, and pushed back the brown paper inside.
A bouquet of silk buttercups sprung from the packaging.
Her pulse hummed in her throat as she reached to pick them up. The flowers were simpler than the rose he’d given her at her after-party, but ten times as plentiful. Rune held the bouquet in her hands, stroking the tiny petals made of buttery silk, tracing the fine stitches.
He made these.
Rune had told Gideon that buttercups were her favorite flower, and instead of picking some, he sewed them for her. Had he stayed up all night doing so?
The humming in her throat turned to pounding.
Why did it have to be Gideon who knew how to speak to her soul? It made her eyes prickle.
I can’t accept these.
She needed to give the flowers back.
Tomorrow, she thought. I’ll return them before I meet Verity. Because after tomorrow, who knew when she’d see him again?
Before rescuing Seraphine, she would put Gideon behind her for good, and with him, her role as Rune Winters. She’d play the shallow socialite no longer. The path she’d started on when Nan died was ending; the days of risking her life as the Crimson Moth were almost over.
Rune was headed down a new path. One that led to Caelis, and to Alex. To safety and joy. Rune was going to live the life Nan wanted for her. The one that was stolen from them both the day the Blood Guard dragged her away.
So, she laid the bouquet of silk flowers back in the box and closed the
lid.
Tomorrow she would say goodbye to Gideon Sharpe—forever.
