Sweet Ruin Page 36

  "Ever loyal archer." Orion gave the subtlest nod. "You could have taken the hybrids and run."

  "I trust in this. In you. In our mission." To save the worlds.

  "In time, your mate will look into my gaze and know the answer for herself."

  "But there's more. I can't harvest information as I have in the past--because I will never be untrue to her. Already threats arise that I can't contain." Nix had said her warlocks were working to keep the Morior out of Gaia. Warlocks were notorious for sacrificing nymphs to old gods. But Rune's informant pool was now gone.

  Orion faced the star-shaped table. "How many wolves sit among us?"

  Rune frowned again. "One."

  "How many witches?"

  "One."

  "Archers?"

  One.

  Orion had never called him anything but archer, even when Rune had possessed no skill. Rune had worked for millennia to become the best bowman in all the worlds--to be worthy of the name.

  Yet even after he'd become the best, he still hadn't become the archer.

  Recognition overwhelmed Rune. "I sit at that table as the Morior's archer." He had become worthy of the name; he'd just never realized it.

  "Your arrows are far-reaching. Your arrows are silent. Archers fight from the front line and from the shadows, do they not?"

  Assassin and front line. Those are my strengths. Those are my skills. Before, Rune had taken on tasks he'd thought should fall to him, the former whore.

  Orion nodded as if Rune had spoken. "The archer's undoing was how he saw himself." Orion the Undoing saw weaknesses.

  Rune had diminished himself, assigning his own skewed values.

  He was about to ask if he was the primordial, then he realized it didn't matter.

  Orion's lips curled. "Exactly."

  A stray thought: He steers us as Nix steers her army. If Rune had been concerned about the Valkyrie's savvy, he was no longer. Orion couldn't be stopped--

  Rune jerked awake. Had Josephine moaned? She was twisting in the sheets, her brow furrowed, her outline flickering.

  Nightmare? He'd burdened her with so many memories of torture and pain. . . .

  She started to grow intangible. Then to rise. Sleep-ghosting--she'd warned him about this!

  "Wake, Josie!" He dove for her hand. To tether her. She grasped his in sleep.

  He began to disembody with her. "Whoa, you need to wake up, love!" His voice sounded faint and ghostly.

  His heart thundered when they began to levitate. "You have to rouse yourself!"

  Her eyes were squeezed closed, her body limp. They ascended past the ceiling. Past the roof. Into the night.

  "Josephine!" he bellowed. They were drifting through the rain into the storm clouds. Higher. Higher. She wasn't going to wake!

  Then so be it. "Josephine, understand me--wherever we're going . . . we're going to be together." He pulled her close and kissed her.

  SEVENTY-THREE

  Jo blinked open her eyes. Rune was kissing her? When she stiffened against him, he drew his head back.

  "Dream?" she asked.

  His brows were drawn, eyes wild. "Not quite."

  She frowned. She wasn't in bed? No, he was outside with her. The air felt really thin. And cold. She peered up. The stars burned bright.

  Too bright.

  She met his gaze--read their situation from the alarm in his expression. "I sleep-ghosted?"

  "Yes, love." He swallowed. "Up."

  She didn't want to look. "Wh-where are we?"

  He gave a curt nod. In other words, Yes, it's that bad.

  "Why are you with me?"

  He grated, "Because that's where I bloody belong."

  She peered down. Sucked in a breath. Panicked.

  She started to embody, her stomach lurching as they plummeted.

  As soon as she'd solidified enough, Rune coiled his arms around her and traced them to her bed.

  "Ah, gods, Josephine." He tucked her into his lap, his lungs heaving.

  "Wh-what happened?" Panting, she clung to him, savoring his heat and strength, inhaling his scent.

  "We went for a trip." His heart pounded at her ear.

  "I took you with me?"

  With his chin on her head, he nodded. "You turned intangible and began to rise. I tried to wake you, barely catching your grip in time." He pressed his lips against her hair.

  Catching her grip? "Why didn't you let me go? I know how scared of heights you are."

  He drew back. "I will never let you go." He cradled her face in his hands. "Wherever you were headed--I don't give a fuck--that's where I want to be as well."

  He'd been her anchor, refusing to release her. Just as she'd always wanted.

  Then she remembered.

  "I've missed you so much, Josie--"

  She pushed at his chest until he eased his hold. "How did you know where I was?" She scrambled off the bed, standing to face him.

  He stood as well. "I've known since that night at Val Hall." He was unshaven, with dark circles under his eyes. He'd lost weight, his jeans hanging looser than usual.

  "You've been spying on me!"

  He nodded shamelessly. "I've lived in the carriage house for the last week."

  Then he'd overheard every conversation between her and Thad. "You need to go. Not doing this here. I'm not doing this with you."

  "Please. Give me five minutes."

  She glared, rubbing her arms. She was freezing in only a T-shirt--since it'd been chilly in the stratosphere.

  "You're cold." He crossed to her, removing his coat. "Take my jacket."

  Ignoring him, she traced to her closet for clothes. "I can't believe you've been right there all week," she called as she yanked on jeans. "Why not show yourself?"

  "An ally pointed out I shouldn't barge in on your bonding with Thad. You'd waited more than half your life to reunite with him. I decided nothing should interrupt you two."

  She snatched on a hoodie, her anger seething. She'd been in a good place with hating him. Then he had to go and follow her into space and all. "You were spying on me--except for when you went out to score?" She returned to her room. "The demon in you needs to get off multiple times a day, right?"

  He closed the distance between them with two strides of his long legs. Standing too close, he gazed down at her. "The demon in me is mated. As is the fey. Both are quite happy about this."

  Even now he could affect her. Luckily, all she had to do was recall . . . "That didn't stop you with Meliai."

  "No, it didn't."

  To hear it confirmed . . . Knife in gut. Her outline flickered.

  "I stopped myself with Meliai."

  "What does that mean?" Please mean what I think it means!

  "I didn't have sex with her."

  Wasn't the word sex a qualifier in this sense? "You two got off another way? A little slap and tickle for the nymph? Hey, as long as she was satisfied, right?"

  "I was determined to breach the wraiths that night; I was in bed, naked with her."

  Jo couldn't stifle her wince.

  "No one got off in any way, and I guarantee she was anything but satisfied. But I don't really remember what I was doing--I get . . . detached. I go cold, and my mind grows hazy."

  Flashes of a dream arose. A new one. Before Jo had sleep-ghosted, she must've seen another memory of his. She experienced that night on Ayers Rock from his point of view. When she'd admitted her phobia to him, he'd thought, She fears floating away; I fear extinguishing my emotions forever. . . . Maybe we could be each other's anchors.

  Her lips parted. I go cold. He'd grown so detached that he'd feared staying that way forever.

  She'd seen how unemotional he was with others. On that last night, he'd told her, "I want you to experience what it's like feeling utterly nothing."

  But she'd experienced his emotions for her.

  "I remember replaying every word of our fight," he said. "I was consumed with jealousy at the thought of you biting another."


  His comment snapped her from her thoughts. "So I'm not the only one with jealousy issues?"

  He gave her a look that said You have no idea. "I decided I never wanted another to know your bite. That it was our private act, only between us, to bond us. I realized that's how you view sex. And I realized I do too, with you. I abruptly stopped with Meliai, wanting only to get back to you."

  Jo turned from him, putting space between them. "Well, good for you, Rune, you didn't sleep with her. You did assure me it wouldn't happen every night." In a fake cheery tone, she said, "Why, after the Accession, your cheating might taper off even more!"

  He grimaced. "If I could take back those words--"

  "I still won't tolerate it, and you still have to do it for your work."

  "I resigned from that part of my job," he rushed to say. "Actually, I'd consider my new circumstances more of a promotion. I'm an archer only from now on."

  She narrowed her eyes, refusing to get her hopes up. "Maybe there was some truth to the things you said. I don't see how this can work between us when you think I'm immature and childish."

  "I believed you were trying to manipulate me because I never thought you'd choose to end this--even though you'd warned me."

  "You were so adamant that night. It's hard for me to wrap my head around this turnaround."

  "One of the reasons I was holding on to that life was because I didn't want to change again. Magh had forced me to so many times, and I think on some level, I equated change with her. So I resisted. Then I realized you were right--that transaction would have made me a whore. I recognized I'd never stopped being one."

  "I was angry when I said that."

  "You should've been. I was an ass. I'd continued to view myself as I'd been in the past. It didn't matter how much I'd accomplished or how far I'd climbed, I couldn't see my own worth." He rubbed a hand over his tired face. "Orion told me I was my own undoing."

  Orion was still hitting all the right notes with Jo. "Where does that leave you now?"

  "I hope starting anew with my beautiful mate. Those days are past for me, Josephine."

  She almost ghosted through the floor with happiness. Wait . . . "You had a phoenix feather at Val Hall. Didn't you get it from Meliai?"

  He closed in on her again. She craned her head up, meeting his eyes.

  "I stole the feather, threatening her and the covey with a bonedeath arrow. Apparently, that's frowned upon. I'm banned from all coveys."

  Jo's lips parted. He would do that for her? "But you're so admiring of them."

  He laid his hands on her shoulders. "I admire nothing more than you." His words were silky smooth--but his voice was rough with emotion.

  "You waited a week before approaching me? Weren't you dying to tell me you hadn't boned the nymph?"

  "I was! But I wanted to put your needs before mine. I listened to you and Thad talking, and you were so happy. When you gave him a week, I promised you one as well."

  She'd hoped he would live up to her memory of that groom; Rune was schooling the groom.

  "I want . . . I hope you'll start drinking from me again--then you'll experience my feelings."

  Her fangs sharpened for his skin so fast she gasped.

  But then his brows drew together. "Unless my memories are hurting you. What were you dreaming of before? You have Thad with you, under the same roof--so why else would you float away?"

  Her yearning had been sharp before she'd drifted off. "Because I didn't have you."

  He swallowed thickly. "Did I hear you right?"

  She laid her hand on his chest. Beneath her palm, his heart was speeding up. "I was thinking about you before I slept. Wanting you. Knowing I could never have you after that night."

  "Can you forgive me? My actions were idiotic, my words to you hateful. I flinch to recall them. But I will atone if you give me the chance."

  Could she? "What do you want from me?"

  "Eternity. Everything. I want to start with marrying you. If you'll have me."

  She was opening her mouth to say yes, then she recalled another obstacle. "You should know something before you commit to me. You'd talked about a promising lead on a dark fey female. She's here in the city. I think she's even an assassin--"

  "I've met her."

  If it took the rest of his immortal life, he'd erase that doubt from Josephine's eyes. "She came by to see Thaddeus. I thought her presence might upset you, so I intercepted her. Once I made it clear I was lost for you, we had a nice conversation."

  Josephine nibbled her bottom lip. "Lost for me?"

  "I told her you are everything." He rubbed his hands from Josephine's shoulders to her neck and back. How much he'd missed the luxury of simply touching her. "I also put in a few good words for Thaddeus."

  Her hazel eyes widened. "Get the hell out."

  "You don't have any reason to trust me, but I need to convince you I've changed. I know a way you can feel confident in me." He gazed down at her beloved face, solemnly saying, "Josephine, I vow to the Lore I'll never--"

  She slapped her palm over his mouth. "Ah-ah, Rune. When you're faithful to me, it won't be because a vow compels you to be. No more vows to the Lore for either of us, okay?"

  She released him when he nodded. But he needed to make her know, as he knew. "You trust I'll be true to you?"

  "Maybe you're not a complete idiot."

  He grinned. "Then I vow to you I'll never be with another. I love you, Josie."

  She sucked in a breath. "I love you too. Even when you're a dickwad."

  "You said if we had sex, I'd be telling you things. That I wanted a commitment and a bond between only us, and I would never want another female as long as I lived. I was telling you that"--he ran his knuckles along her cheek--"I just didn't know it yet."

  When she leaned into his caress, he knew she had truly forgiven him.

  "And didn't I tell you that you loved me?" She reached up to twine her hands behind his neck. "I completely called that! When are you gonna realize I'm always right?"

  "First step of matehood." The empty aching in his chest faded, warmed by a fire that would never die.

  "You need to meet Thad."

  He nodded. "I plan to apologize to him for our terse interaction."

  She raised her brows, pleased. "What do we do about his Vertas preference?"

  Rune tucked her hair behind her ear. "We do nothing."

  "Huh?"

  "He's a smart kid. If he's around us enough--and them enough--he'll make the right decision." Rune could tell she liked that answer.

  "You gotta meet MizB and Gram too. Hey, you could actually eat all the food they insist on cooking."

  "If I must," he said. "Over the last week, I might have contemplated sacking that kitchen for leftovers."

  "I want to live with you, somewhere close to them."

  With a thoughtful expression, he said, "I've got my eye on a condo in Trollton."

  Dazzling smile. "I'm supposed to do breakfast in a couple of hours. I could tee up everybody, and you could show."

  "I'll bring the ladies flowers. I'm smooth like that. Speaking of breakfast . . ."

  Her gaze focused on his neck, on the pulse point that must be fluttering like mad. Her demeanor turned from cheery--to lusty. "My blood is red again. Black's more my color." She leaned up to graze his neck.

  Just when he'd been thinking this day couldn't get better . . .

  "Have me back in time--for now take me somewhere so I can bite you till you scream."

  Like flipping a switch.

  EPILOGUE

  Jo's reading lessons had started today, and they'd just finished her first session.

  Rune took this as seriously as her continuing rune studies. Their new place was covered with spelling Post-it notes. He'd rewarded each stride she made with kisses, making her a highly motivated student.

  After Rune had deemed her brilliant, those kisses had landed him in bed. Well, what had he expected? When the first sentence he'd had her put togeth
er was Rune loves Josie, and he'd held her gaze? She'd been all over him.

  Now they were lazing between the sheets, about to get ready for dinner at the Braydens'. Though their new crib (a badass ranch) was in Australia, Rune had used a spell to connect their side entrance to a closet in the carriage house. A knock on the door there was a knock here. They lived a nanosecond away.

  He'd also tricked out their new bedroom. Directly above their bed was a barrier spell to prevent sleep-ghosting. It matched the one on the floor. Nobody was going anywhere with Rune on watch. Not that she could when he held her tight, even as he slept. . . .

  After Jo and Rune had reunited that first morning--again and again--she'd taken Thad aside. She'd eloquently explained her and Rune's previous relationship issues: "Thought he'd boned this nymph. He didn't. My guy's solid again. Gonna marry him when his people get here."

  Thad had looked as happy about that development as Rune had about Mount Hua.

  "Just give him a chance, kid. He's funny and smart. You'll like him."

  Thad hadn't been disappointed so much by Rune's Moriorness; he'd been bummed Jo was moving out: "I just got you back."

  "You're not losing me--you're gaining him. He's already protective of you. Since I'm his mate, you're his brother by fate."

  "Brother." Oh, she could tell Thad had dug that. "Huh. Two siblings in a week?"

  When the guys in her life had met, Rune had told Thad, "I want to apologize for being so brusque with you last week. I was panicked over my mate's well-being, and I reacted badly. My name is Rune Darklight, and I'm very pleased to meet you." He'd offered his hand.

  Thad had taken it. "Thaddeus Brayden. And I totally get it. I could've listened better, but I was freaking out because I'd just been strangling my big sister and all."

  Rune had nodded thoughtfully. "I doubt she'll let that happen twice, no?"

  Thad had grinned. And Jo had known all is right in the world.

  Since then Rune had traced her and Thad to new dimensions, showing them wonders. The guys got along great, despite Thad's Vertas leanings. Today, he'd gone to meet with some of them to plan Val Hall's rebuild.

  But that was okay. With Nix missing and Orion still a universe away, the war had hit the snooze button. . . .

  Now Rune pressed a kiss to her head. "I hope we're having fried chicken tonight."

  "Based on your reaction the first time, I think a repeat is guaranteed." No matter how far afield they traveled, Jo, Thad, and Rune convened with MizB and Gram for at least two meals a day. Rune had been the delighted recipient of home-cooked dinners; the women were overjoyed to have someone to cook for.