Page 39 of Ties of Starlight

“Nothing's really happened—”

“Get away from my husband!”

“Get away from my wife! Get back! Give her some space!”

Idonea snapped out of the memory to see she was on the ground, on her hands and knees, cheek stinging and deathmark aching. Her hands were stained red and burning from scrapes against the stone. Her throat was raw and she was wheezing and gasping for every breath.

Tears were rolling down her cheeks.

She held her breath, waiting. She'd snapped again. Either her human blood or her lifetimes had finally split her head and now she was waiting for the blade.

But all that came was a soft palm brushing over her shoulder and then her vision was filled with Nyrunn kneeling in front of her. He ran his hands over her shoulders and then to her jaw, tilting her head up. He locked eyes with her.

“Deep breath, little lily.”

She obeyed, but it was shaky and fell apart as a sob wrenched out of her mouth as she waited for the blade to plunge into her chest.

It didn’t.

He looked up and around at the crowd that was gaping at them, one of the guards holding Katla back. She was clutching her cheek, red scratches peeking out from under her hand.

“Come on, let’s go get you cleaned up,” Nyrunn said. Hequickly pulled his cape off and wrapped it around her. She didn’t move to grab it. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to her feet, holding the cape in place. She stumbled on shaky legs and then Nyrunn was pulling her into him, sliding his hand to her waist, taking on her weight and steadying her. The crowd parted for the king as he pulled her away, and Idonea winced at the way everyone looked at her.

She looked back over her shoulder. Katla was being let go and her scratches being examined. Idonea looked up at her husband.

The nephew of her killer.

It wasn’t about how she’d failed in this life. This was punishment for what she’d done in her last. How poetic.

This time it would be her husband who killed her.

Chapter 14

Nyrunn quickly got Idonea to their tent for the night, anything to get her out of sight of the crowd so he could calm her down.

Her wall had shattered, and it was taking everything in him not to fall into the panic flooding through the bond. He couldn’t even figure out what she was feeling, but it was almost… everything.

How could one person feel so much?

He’d lost track of her just long enough to hear a spy’s report on their progress tracking Olaug down and the sighting of some Moon Elves near the border, and the next thing he heard was hysterical screaming, a slap echoing through the air. Then a jerking, glass-breaking sensation overtook him, but it was all inside the bond. As he’d rushed over, he could hardly breathe from the tidal wave. He reached the source to see Idonea on the ground, scratches on her birthmark and scrapes on wine-stained hands and a wine-stained dress.

He ignored the whispers of everyone around him as he ushered her away. All thatmattered was his wife.

So he hurried her into their tent and deposited her onto the bed. His cape slid off her shoulders. She was shaking all over, her eyes squeezed shut, tears spilling out of them.

He knelt in front of her, running his hands down her arms until he reached her wrists and tugged on them, gently cradling them as he whispered, “You’re alright. Everything is alright.”

Idonea tried to pull her hands away, moving like she was going to bury her face into her palms, but when she opened her eyes, she froze. Her eyes doubled at the sight of the red stains on her skin. Then she started shaking again. Her head whipped around as she looked at the tent and her breathing went dangerously shallow and she started muttering, “No—I’ve got to—I’ve got to get it off—”

“What? Idonea, hey, talk to me—”

But she was stumbling off the bed, her hands in front of her as she looked around. “The blood—I’ve got to—”

Did she mean from the scrapes? She didn’t think the wine was blood, right?

But if that was what she needed… Nyrunn quickly grabbed the rag and dipped it into the washbasin already prepared for them, originally intended for them to wash off the paint decorating the edges of their faces. He then caught Idonea as she was pulling at her dress, where it was stained red, gasping. He took her arm and started running the cloth against her skin, the red wine stains coming away easily. She stared down at her arm as he cleaned her hand before she slowly looked up at him.

Her lips started to move, forming a name, but it never came. She just took a sharp, shuddering breath as he switched to her other hand. Once both hands were mostly clean, he looked back up to see her gaze was now fixated on her dress. It wascompletely ruined.

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