Page 80 of Whispers of the Water

My dad had killed Rune’s father, the person Rune had seemed to love most in the world.

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “I don’t know the details, but—”

“No.” Rune slowly shook his head against his pillow with his eyes transfixed on the ceiling. “No.” He quickly sat up and looked down at me. “That can’t be right. They didn’t have a daughter. They had a—”

“That was a lie,” I interjected. I sat up and held the sheet to my bare chest. A wave of my hair fell over my shoulder to shield my face as I kept my eyes trained on the blankets, too afraid to meet his eyes. “The whole story about the King and Queen having a boy was a lie that they spread to keep me safe.”

Silence stretched like an endless void. I picked at the gray silk sheets, crumpling them into a wrinkled mess before smoothing them back out with my palm, only to wrinkle them once more. I had no idea how many minutes passed or if, in actuality, it had been only seconds, but with Rune’s continuous silence, the pit in my stomach expanded.

Steeling myself for what I might see—loathing, anger, disgust, regret—I dared a peek at Rune. He sat like an immovable statue, his face pressed into his hands as they rested on his bent knees. The muscles in his shoulders were pulled tight in a tense hold.

What to do or say left me. I knew this had to be hard for him. For starters, I’d just told him that the person his kind had been searching for all these years didn’t exist. Even worse, he’d literally just slept with the daughter of the man who killed his father.

Finally, Rune’s hands slid down his face until he clasped them in front of his mouth. His eyes found mine, and I saw him swallow hard. “So you … you know your parents now?”

“I know of them now. I–I don’t know them personally. Dallas said that they’re …”

My throat tightened, and I quickly had to look away. I refused to let my heartache take over the moment. This wasn’t about me and my deceased parents. This was about Rune and making sure he was okay with the truth. I could deal with my grief later.

I cleared my throat and turned back to him. “Anyway, I don’t know the details, but they’re no longer here.”

Rune’s eyes slipped closed, and he hung his head again. Pain inked its way across my chest at the clear struggle he was enduring.

“Rune, I can’t tell you how sorry I am. I know how much your father meant to you, and it’s been—”

“It’s not your fault,” Rune said from behind his steepled hands. His eyelids slowly fluttered open to meet mine. “I don’t blame you for your father’s actions. This is all just …” He took a deep breath.

“A lot,” we said at the same time.

The faintest trace of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth as he reached over to grab my free hand. He gave it a squeeze before tracing a small pattern into my skin with his thumb. “So, Dallas. She was a part of the Water Fae circle you unknowingly ran with.”

“She’s apparently my personal guard and head of my security team. She’s also here in Massachusetts with us.”

He raised a brow. “Here?” After a thoughtful pause, he asked, “Was she the friend at the corn maze? The one Yasmine saw?”

I sighed and told him about the bathroom incident, including Imani’s slip-up, which Yasmine heard.

“Well, that makes a lot more sense. We’ll have to keep an eye on Yasmine to make sure she doesn’t piece things together.” He shifted on the bed to face me fully. “Can you tell me everything? From the moment you faced Jonah?”

“Are you sure? I know all of this has been a lot for you.”

“I’m sure. Nothing’s changed. I love you and want to know everything. I want to be there for you in every way I can. You’ve been dealing with this on your own all this time. That ends now.”

Warmth pierced my heart like an arrow striking true. Even after everything he’d learned, he still wanted me. That was far more than what I could’ve dreamed or deserved. So, after taking a deep breath, I let it all out. I recounted what happened in my fight with Jonah, noting the hardening of Rune’s jaw and tightening at the corners of his eyes when I told him of Jonah’s attempt to drown me. I explained all I knew about Water Fae and myself, which was far too little, as well as how Dallas and I had been working together on grasping my abilities.

“You’ve been training?” Rune asked.

“Just a little. I really needed help figuring out my abilities, because they kept getting the best of me. Like that day when things were … escalating in the bathroom between us. When I said ‘no’ and put a stop to what we were doing, it was because the water in the sink was reacting to my desire for you, which I couldn’t say at the time, since I was still too afraid to tell you the truth then. To be honest, I think I’ve broken a couple of sinks doing that.”

He raised a brow at me. “Forget the sinks. I’m just glad that’s what really happened, and it wasn’t me being a complete pushy ass.”

I smiled. “It definitely wasn’t that.”

Rune leaned back against the headboard and stared across the room. “So,” he paused for a moment, then finished, “You’re really the Water Fae Princess, huh?”

“I am.”

A smirk appeared. “I can’t wait to see how the Water Fae react to their Princess having a Land Fae for a partner.”

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