Page 150 of Moonmarked

“But…but…Raja,” I choked because if someone had done this to him, it would have been her. There was nobody else in the world he’d trust.

“She’s okay, too,” he said with a soft smile, trailing his fingertips down the curve of my cheek. “I stole the bones from the giant I killed. They were dragon bones, better at storing and amplifying magic than any gemstone. Raja broke the seal and she’s okay. She didn’t die. She was only wounded, but she’s recovering well.”

I swallowed hard, pushing myself to sit up, grabbed his face in my hands. “That’s…that was…”dangerous,I was going to say.

“Necessary,” Rune said instead. “I’m going to make sure you’re safe one way or the other, Wildcat. We just have to endure tonight.”

Wrapping my arms around his neck, I climbed on his lap and kissed him and hugged him, and I was crying even before I realized it. They were both happy tears and sad tears, and I was a mess a minute in, but it was okay.

Rune calmed me down eventually, and when he smiled, I smiled.

“We’re going to get out of here soon,” he promised me, and I believed him.

My God, Ireallybelieved him.

“We’re going to be okay.”

He nodded. “We will.”

His eyes. His entire face. “Rune?” My voice cracked. “I love you.”

The words snuck out of my lips like they were being chased, like if they didn’t come out of me this very moment, they never would again.

I held my breath, held onto his shoulders, and I waited with my heart in my throat…

Rune closed his eyes and every muscle in his body tightened. “Then I really am a lucky bastard,” he whispered and slammed his lips to mine.

He kissed me like it was the first time. He devoured me, crushed me to his chest until I felt all of him, until I couldn’t tell which heartbeat belonged to me, and which to him.

He lay us down again and eventually slowed the kiss. Eventually let go of me and leaned back, smiling as he looked at me—a brand new Rune. Like those words hadunlockedhim.

“I love you, my beautiful wilding. And I’m well aware that I am not worthy of you, but if you let me, I will spend the rest of my life trying to become the man you deserve.”

Fireworks exploded in my chest, in my mind, and I understood perfectly well why he looked sonew.

It was exactly how I felt, too. Like all the worlds that ever existed and would ever exist were mine to claim.

“It’s happening. It’s finally happening. We really are going to Earth.” I was going back home—and with Rune.

There was absolutelynothingI could think of that was better than this, especially when he looked exactly like the image that mist over the river in the Illusion Game had shown me.

Carefree.Happy.Mine forever.

“We will. We can go and do anything you want just as soon as we’re away from here.”

My poor heart almost flew right out of me.

I nodded, touched his cheek, his lips. “There’s so much I need to talk to you about,” I whispered.

“And I with you—but there is no time. I have to go nowbefore he comes looking for me. I have to keep up this game until the ceremony is over tonight.”

These words he spit angrily.

“Did he…was Lyall the one?—”

“Yes,” Rune said, sparing me the question. “He orchestrated the whole thing. He ordered his soldiers to push me into the Hollow before it closed.”

I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat. “Because of me.” That’s why he’d tried to get rid of Rune. Because ofme.

---