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“He took it as well as expected,” I answer, putting Rune’s problems out of my mind in favor of my own. Truthfully, the conversation went better than most of the ways I imagined it could have played out with Sebastian. “I staked my claim, so there wasn’t much he could do.”
“You claimed Josephine?” He leans forward in his seat, elbows resting on his knees in front of him. “The one witch that Sebastian wants to end more than anything else in the world? You’ve always got your panties in a twist over nothing, but this is taking it to a whole new level.”
“Nothing?” I repeat, astounded by his nonchalance. “This isn’t nothing, Rune. This is very much something.”
“How do you know she’s your witch if you’ve never had a unity bond before?” Rune tips back the rest of his drink, giving me a moment to consider his words before he sets down the empty glass and looks at me seriously.
“We would all kill for the opportunity to form a bond with a Sun Witch—to regain a slice of humanity and to become a daywalker and feel the sun on our skin again.” He shakes his head as if dispelling the fantasy from his mind. “That doesn’t mean you can go around forcing a bond that doesn’t exist.”
“I assure ye that isn’t what is happening. The first time I saw Josie, it was like something inside of me clicked into place.” My gaze loses focus as I remember the way her silken hair shone under the orange glow of the setting sun. “Even before I laid eyes on her, I was drawn to her by some force greater than the both of us. How do ye explain that if it’s not the beginnings of a unity bond?”
Rune is quiet for a moment before he speaks. “What if I felt the same thing when we rescued her from Egan?”
“Ye did?”
He shrugs in response, and I grit my teeth to keep from snapping. His feigned casualness is getting on my nerves. If one of us is connected to Josie, this is monumental.
How can he possibly be so cavalier about the unity bonds?
“What did ye experience?”
Was I correct in thinking that Josephine is truly Rune’s Unity Witch? It seems impossible that what I’m experiencing is purely a result of my gift and how close I am with Rune. Then again, the unity bond itself must be all kinds of intense and overwhelming.
The thought of losing Josie opens some yawning pit in my core. Which is complete lunacy because I don’t even have her.
Rune huffs, pushing to his feet and going to the hearth. He jabs at the ash and embers with an iron poker. I’ve been by his side long enough to know that his fidgeting indicates his rising apprehension.
“I felt something,” he finally says. “I don’t have the words to describe it. Doesn’t matter. I’m not convinced that means she and I have some kind of predestined connection.” He looks over his shoulder at me. “Are you sure Josephine hasn’t cast some kind of love spell on you in order to manipulate you?”
“Do ye think so little of me that I wouldn’t know the difference between a witch’s trickery and my own feelings?”
Are they even my feelings? Is what I experience when I’m with her just a by-product of the unity bond? Is it something else? Does it even matter?
“All right, then tell me—how did your one-on-one interrogation go? Did you get any information from her at all? What did Egan want from her? Tell me she at least gave you something to go on.”
“He’s looking for a moonstone amulet he thought was hidden in the Dumont home.”
Rune makes a face.
“Ye know something about that?”
“Yeah, maybe,” he says, his fingers twirling the braid in his beard. “One of the artifacts the witches used to seal the unity bonds was a gaudy moonstone necklace.”
“How do ye know that?”
“Bas told me.” Rune plops down in his chair again. He reaches for the goblet, remembers he already drank it dry, and sits back with a sigh. “He was there the night it all went down, remember?”
I remember. How could I not? What I don’t remember is any mention of powerful witch artifacts. That seems like something I should have been told about.
“And ye think the amulet Egan is searching for is the same one? What for?”
Rune raises a brow at me. “You’re supposed to be the smart one, Finn. What do you think?”
Since the beginning, the werewolves have resented being bound to their Moon Witches. Most of them resist the connection, hurting both parties.
That doesn’t mean Egan would try to undo the unity bonds. Regardless of his intended use, the result is the same. “We can’t let Egan get his hands on something that powerful.”
“Obviously. So, where’s the amulet now? Did Josephine tell you if she handed it over to the wolves?”
