Page 70 of Moonmarked

“I am,” I promised him, just because I refused to believe this wasn’t real. “I missed you, Mr. Moody. I missed you more than I know how to say.”

His eyes opened all the way, and he lookedsurprisedfor a moment, and doubtful in the next, like he was hesitant to believe his own ears.

I leaned in again and kissed his lips gently, and he didn’t hesitate for this. Pulling me until I was facing him again, he deepened the kiss, slipped his tongue in my mouth, kissed me like time was his to control, and it wouldn’t pass without his say-so. I melted into his arms, his lips, every breath that went into his lungs.

“You disappeared,” Rune then said, and he wasn’t smiling anymore. I could see the colors of his eyes just slightly because the bird was on the other side of the room, but it was enough to see his fear. “You disappeared, Wildcat. I lost you in Mysthaven—you just disappeared.”

He rose on one elbow, grabbed my face with his hand, came closer. “I thought I lost you. Do you understand? I thought you died.”

“I didn’t,” I said. “I didn’t. I’m okay.”

“How?” he demanded, and the pain in his eyes, in his voice, broke me because it matched my own. It was a mirror of everything I’d felt since I jumped from that balcony.

I closed my eyes and tried to stop the tears that camelike a fucking army seeking to destroy me, but I couldn’t. They spilled from the corners of my eyes, and Rune caught them all with his fingers, with his lips.

“It’s kind of a long story,” I whispered, and even though I was crying, I still smiled. I even laughed a little.

“Look at me, Wildcat,” Rune said, and I did. His face loomed over mine and I was safe here, wasn’t I? I wassafewith Rune.

The tears slowed down.

“What happened?”

“Well, I ran away,” I started, feeling a thousand pounds lighter already. “I heard your voice on the balcony—you told me to jump.” And by now I was half convinced that I’d just made that part up, but…

“I did. I spoke to you through shadows.” Closing his eyes, he clenched his jaws and brought his forehead to mine, kissed my lips one more time, desperately. Then he lay down on his side, and like that we were face-to-face and chest to chest, breathing the same air.

“I heard,” I said.

“You shouldn’t have,” Rune whispered, raising his hand to push my hair away from my face. “I hoped you would, but you shouldn’t have.”

“Well, I’m glad I did.” Because I’d been too chicken to make up my mind about it myself.

“Me, too, wilding.” Another kiss on the tip of my nose. “Me, too. I’m so fucking glad. I took you to the back, to the fields, and I thought you’d wait for me there.”

I flinched. “Well, fuck. I…Ididn’t.I ran as fast as I could.”

A small smile stretched his lips. “I know. I searched for you all day. You weren’t there.”

“In my defense, I had no clue I was supposed to wait. I thought it was safest for me outside the court,” I muttered,feeling a little stupid now becauseof course, I should have waited for him to find me instead of running. He took me to that canal himself!

But… “I’m glad you didn’t wait. There were soldiers everywhere by evening. I’m not sure I’d have been able to hide you properly inside these walls.” Closing his eyes again, Rune sighed deeply. “You did well, Wildcat. You did well to run.”

Thank God,I thought. Otherwise, I’d have had to second guess my instincts the next time.

Not that there would be a next time, of course, but still. I was surrounded by fae. By now I knew that anything was possible here. Anything at all.

“Tell me everything,” Rune said, caressing my hair, planting kisses all over my face. “I want to know what you did, how you survived.”

I nodded—I wanted him to know, too. I wasn’t really sure how much time we had before I needed to get back to the palace, but he needed to know.

So, I lay there in his bed, in his arms, finally feeling safe enough to breathe without terror holding my thoughts hostage—and I told him everything, every single detail from the moment I jumped into that river.

Rune absorbed every word I said and didn’t interrupt me once until I was done.

twenty-three

He continuedto play with my hair for a while in silence as he thought through everything I had told him. Then Rune took my right hand in his and held my forearm in front of his face, and the bird that had been sleeping at the table suddenly rose in the air and flew closer to give him more light to see my skin.

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