RUNE
CLOUDS OF STEAM PRESSED in on Rune as she listened to William’s footsteps thud away from the cargo hold. The metal wall was hot against her back, but the rage in her heart was hotter.
Gideon’s words rang in her mind: The only person I’m planning to betray is Rune.
She’d suspected as much. Of course she had. She’d simply hoped for something else.
Hope is for fools.
How many times did she need to learn that lesson?
Rune’s heart pounded as Gideon stepped past her, following William out. The steam mostly concealed her, but if he wanted to find her, he could. All he had to do was turn around and look.
But Gideon didn’t look. Just followed William through the boilers and up to the level above. Their feet thudded on the metal catwalk overhead while Rune waited for her heart to calm.
This is good, she told herself. It’s a reminder.
Gideon was her most dangerous enemy. He would only ever hand her over to those who wanted her dead. Everything she’d admitted to him tonight didn’t matter. He didn’t care. All that mattered to Gideon was stopping Cressida.
His plan was like a bucket of ice water, waking her up.
She couldn’t lower her guard with him again. If she wanted to stay alive, to do what she intended, she needed to cut out these deadly feelings at the root. If Gideon was plotting to betray her, she needed to betray him first.
Rune pushed away from the wall. Steam swirled around her as she made her way back through the boiler rooms. Trying to come up with a way to outwit the Blood Guard captain.
When she returned to their cabin, she found it empty and remembered what William had said about Gideon and Abbie.
Did he go to her room instead? She shoved the thought away. Abbie can have him.
She didn’t want to sleep in Gideon’s shirt again, but neither could she put on the silky thing she’d packed for a weekend getaway with Soren. So she climbed into bed in her shift.
When the door finally opened—minutes or hours later, Rune couldn’t tell—Gideon stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.
Where were you? she wanted to ask, but she pretended to sleep instead.
Because did she really want to know?
She felt his attention fix on her, steady and intense. Beneath it, Rune’s throat went dry as sand. She desperately wanted to swallow, to moisten her mouth, but feared that small sound would give her away.
She kept her eyes shut and her body still, but she couldn’t stop her pulse from racing at the clinking sound of his belt unbuckling and the rustle of his clothes coming off, piece by piece, then dropping to the floor.
When he pulled back the sheet she slept under, Rune tried to think of something else—anything else—than a mostly naked Gideon getting into bed with her. Not so long ago, Gideon and Abbie had been alone in this room, doing Ancients knew what. The mattress dipped beneath his weight. Rune stiffened to stop herself from sinking with it and dipping toward him.
The room fell silent. “Rune?”
She swallowed.
With less than three inches of space between them, his heat curled toward her. His familiar smell infused the air. Every nerve in her body sparked at his proximity.
Rune clung to her side of the bed.
He loathes you.
“That kiss…”
The memory flashed in her mind: his hands in her hair, his mouth against hers, the heat of his body pressing her to the wall.
“Please,” she whispered. “Let’s forget it ever happened.” Gideon drew in a breath. He was silent for a long moment. “If that’s what you want,” he finally said.
“It is.”
Silence descended again. Soon, the sound of his breathing came slow and even.
How was she supposed to sleep with him lying right next to her? When all she could think about was his plot against her, and how he and Abbie would celebrate together when the Crimson Moth finally got what she deserved?
Several hours later she gave up trying.
Quietly, she got dressed and left Gideon behind, escaping for a walk along the upper deck’s promenade, trying to clear her head. The sun peeked up from the horizon, turning the sky pink and silhouetting the island in the distance.
When the Sister Queens ruled, the island country had been called Cascadia. Rune remembered the old map that once hung in Wintersea House, CASCADIA printed in bold letters at the top, greeting visitors when they arrived.
But once Nicolas Creed, the late Good Commander, rose to power, he renamed it. The maps now read: The Republic of the Red Peace. Everything bearing the former name was considered contraband and destroyed in the revolution. Even the coins, which bore the old name, were melted down and recast into new ones.
Rune had kept Nan’s old map as an act of rebellion and hid it away in the cellars of Wintersea.
“Did you miss it?”
Rune straightened, her body recognizing a predator.
But there was no threat in his words. A few seconds later, Gideon stepped up next to her, dressed in Soren’s shirt and pants, the seams nearly
bursting as they tried to contain his muscled form. He leaned over the railing, staring toward the island ahead.
From the dark smudges under his eyes, he looked like he’d gotten about as much sleep as she had.
Rune stared at him for a long moment, letting her eyes trace over the planes of his face before tearing her gaze away and looking toward their home.
“Yes,” she whispered. “With my whole heart.”
