Page 89 of The Devil In Blue
We stopped just inside the large doors leading outside and turned to each other.
“And you worry that will anger him? That he will abandon you?”
I shook my head. “Abandonment doesn’t frighten me,” I said, part of me realizing right there and then that I wasn’t being entirely truthful with myself on that front. “But I do worry the king will hurt when the realization hits. The realization that, even if he thinks he found the woman he loves, she isn’t me.”
My own words made my heart ache and I had to bite my lip hard to distract from the unfamiliar pain.
“Briar,” Naeve said with as sweet a smile as her oddly beautiful face could conjure. “I can’t tell you what the king is thinking. But you know who can? The king. You have questions and you have concerns. Express them.”
Father Eli had forced the rule of not expressing myself at Southminster. With pain and demand, he made the concept of communication sinful. Punishable. I winced internally at the memories and closed my eyes, willing him out of my head.
I couldn’t let them dictate my thoughts anymore.
Reaching out, Naeve grasped the door handle and pulled one of the two doors ajar. She did it with more ease than I had, but much less than Rune. We both stepped out onto the landing and I peered across the courtyard toward the maze entrance, which was lit up under a bright moon that day.
Rune was standing with Elanor near the arched entrance to the Labyrinth. Her chin was as high as ever. After what Naeve said, I was feeling a bit heavier under her gaze, but I kept my shoulders straight, forcing myself not to shrink in her overbearing presence. I didn’t know her past with the person I supposedly was and therefore I couldn’t apologize for it.
When Naeve and I reached them, Rune’s gaze settled on me and the tenseness he was clearly feeling with Elanor slowly dissolved from his face. To think that my presence was what relaxed his demeanor had my pulse fluttering with pride.
I wasn’t used to it.
None of my reactions when I was around Rune made sense, especially after the initial shock and aggression he displayed when I first arrived. I gulped silently and inclined my head in greeting.
“My king,” Elanor addressed. “We will patrol while you are occupied.” She raised a brow at me before she turned and accompanied Naeve down the path.
Alone with Rune again, I felt both at ease and anxious. For a fleeting moment, he just looked at me. But the way his eyes took me in was so different from what I was used to. Lucien looked at me like he was wondering which way to position me for his pleasure. Father Eli looked at me like a sculpture he had molded proudly. Rune regarded me as if he barely believed I was real. Somehow, that made me feel seen.
My heart skipped a beat and it made me tense for a split second enough for him to notice. He narrowed his eyes at me and moved forward, closing the space between us.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
“Sure?”
“That you want to go in. Elanor has been trying to convince me not to bring you for the past half hour.”
I looked past him into the dark, swirling mist beyond the maze’s arch.
“Should I be afraid?”
“Everyone should be afraid of that place. It’s eternity. It’s a path that does not end for most. And it’s the darkest parts of ourselves.”
I took a deep breath and let it out on a controlled sigh before glancing down at Rune’s hand. Reaching out, I slowly slid my fingers into his grip. Taking my bottom lip between my teeth, I bit down and used that twinge of pain to ground me before my damaged mind started to drift.
“If you don’t let me go, I can’t get lost,” I said.
“Very true,” he smirked.
I glanced over my shoulder to see that all the ravens had left and we were completely alone.
“Will Elanor be here when we come out like she was last time you returned?”
Rune sighed, the smirk dripping from his face. “I suspect not.”
15 Years Ago
Briar was buzzing with excitement. When I told her we were visiting the human realm, she lit up. If only she remembered her human life, she might not have been so elated. A human who enjoyed their life was a rare thing to come across in the Glyn. They passed through the Labyrinth so quickly, their conscience vacant of guilt or unfinished business.
But perhaps the human world looked different through the eyes of someone who couldn’t remember their mortality. I would never know for sure. I was never mortal. Of course, I’d seen my fair share of foul human cruelty to know it didn’t matter. Humans were as vile to each other as they were to themselves. Part of me didn’t want Briar to see it, but I promised I’d take her and I promised I wouldn’t leave her. And the only times the realms came close enough to cross between them was the week of Allhalloween.
