Page 102 of The Devil In Blue
I spun to face Rune again to see that he’d veiled his antlers and wings, which made him look less beastly and more dangerously handsome. But it was a venomous beauty.
“If you want me to leave, you need only tell me,” I said, defeated. “Spare me the ache of your half-truths and tell me. Stab me with real honesty and get it over with.” His lip twitched with frustration as he glimpsed the deed on the floor. “You miss the woman I was. I know you do. You want her back, but I can’t give you that.”
I took a long pause to gather myself. No matter how many times I rehearsed what I wanted to say to him in my head, getting the words out was like trying to dislodge a ball of thorns from my throat.
“All I want is to be free, as you said, but freedom for me is not as simple as fluttering out of some crate,” I continued, my voice quivering. “I haven’t been in a cage in a long time, but that doesn’t matter. I’m the cage. But you made me wish I could be trapped with you. I… I wouldn’t mind that so much.”
I stepped toward him, taking a deep breath. “The day we met in the catacombs, you saw it. I wished to die. I longed for it.”
“If you die, you don’t go to the Labyrinth.”
I scoffed. “Everyone goes to—”
“You were never human. I should have realized it sooner. You were given to me to correct something I broke in the realms. To balance me. Even when you were gone, the mere thought of you kept me from destroying the world around me.”
I paused a moment, taking another deep breath in a desperate attempt to absorb Rune’s scent.
“And… you would give that up? I’m trapped in thoughts of you, Rune. I ache for you. It’s an ache I can’t ease unless I’m near you. Touching you. Listening to you speak.” Reaching up, I pinched my necklace between my fingers. “So, I remind you that I am not the woman you knew. The one who balanced you. There is nothing of her left.” Tears stung my eyes again and I knew I was losing a battle against myself. “I have but one question and the answer you give will dictate whether or not I take your offer of so-called freedom. Could you lovemewithoutherwas the offer to return to humanity your way of pushing me away?”
There was nothing for me to read on Rune’s face. I was starting to think it was a mistake to even try to break the last barrier between us. I was a woman with half of her memories and if what he said was true, I didn’t even have a past life. I was nothing and he was a king with many lifetimes behind him. Nothing aboutusmade sense and maybe I was a fool for thinking it ever could.
“The truth is,” I whispered. “The few good memories we’ve made since I’ve been here are more important to me than that necklace you gave me and crushed. More important than living a wealthy life outside this realm. They mean more to me than anything and perhaps it is because I had nothing, but it is true either way. You are a monster and I should not love you for all that you did to me. I should hate you, but I don’t. Ineedyou.” A tear slid down my cheek, burning like acid.
Rune’s eyes softened. The tightness in his lips relaxed a fraction and finally, I knew something was finally registering.
“Love,” he murmured.
My heart skipped when I realized what I’d said. Love. I wasn’t sure I even knew what love felt like, but there was something so potent forming between Rune and me, especially after all the lies and all the masks had been taken away.
Except for one. The one he was still wearing to shield me from what he was really thinking.
“I don’t know how I felt before or if it was love,” I said. “I don’t even know what it should feel like, but my heart burns when I am around you. My pulse quickens. I want to touch you. Feel you. I want to scream at you and kiss you and…” I paused for a breath. “I want you to help me create memories in place off all that I’ve lost. You. No one else. You held me when I was falling. You slept beside me while I wept. No more masks, Rune. Please. I have torn myself open for you to see and if you cannot do the same then I will leave. I will waste away praying for the day I perish for good because there is nothing else for me.”
Pain finally whispered across his eyes. I watched his broad chest expand time and time again as he breathed, but still, he had no words for me.
He didn’t need them.
Rune stepped toward me and fell to his knees. He looked up at me, all the guilt and regret and hatred he felt, either toward me or toward himself, seeped through the glow of his eyes and went straight to my heart.
“The truth,” he rasped. He flicked his hand at his side like he was swiping dust off a shelf and the crumpled deed burst into blue flames and disintegrated on the floor. “Let that manor be a home for spiders and bats. Your place is here.”
Closing his eyes, Rune wrapped his arms around my legs and pulled me against him, his mouth pressing to my stomach. Hot breath penetrated the fibers of my dress and I shivered, raking my fingers through his hair.
“I would kill a thousand men if a thousand men had wronged you. And I’d bring you a piece of every one until your necklace snapped.”
My heart galloped at the thought as Rune craned his head to peer up at me.
“I loved the woman you were,” he continued. “The sweet, curious, mischievous little bird who wanted to see everything. Whose light flooded my darkness. Whose smile infected my soul.” Slowly, he began to stand, making sure his palms traced every curve of my body as he unfolded to his full height. He’d gathered my skirts at my thighs and with no effort at all, he lifted me so my legs were wrapped around him. “But this—who you are—is who I love now. Wounded. Fierce. Unrealized and perfect. Beautiful.” He began walking toward his bed, one hand lifting to comb his fingers through my hair and pull me close. “Violent,” he growled, pulling me into his mouth.
Our lips crashed together in a heated kiss. There was no easing into it. Both our bodies had caught fire, fed by the heat rising between us.
“Kind,” Rune said between kisses. “And still so curious even when the world has torn you apart.”
Setting me down on the bed, he stepped back, watching me as he began to unlace his tunic. When he slid it off, I traced his body with my eyes, certain I would never get bored of seeing him like that. I watched him discard one thing after another until he was naked in front of me, white as the moon with smokey blue hair and eyes that burned. From his broad shoulders to his strong legs and even to the thick cock standing proud toward his navel, he was utter perfection.
I bit my lip as his wings slowly came into view again, large, regal, and dark. They filled half the room when they stretched out at full length. And those antlers returned, swept back like branches. This was him truly without a mask.
I stood up, watching him boldly as I unbuttoned my dress and slid it off my shoulders. The silk caressed my sensitive skin as it slipped to the floor in a heap. I was bare, every scar and marking branded on me for him to see. But if he’d shed his mask, then it was my turn to do the same.
