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“Where’s Finn?” I ask making no effort to move from my spot. I am genuinely curious.
It’s never been just Rune on his own. When he visits, Fintan is always with him.
Why the sudden change?
“Am I not good enough for you, cher?”
“I think I’d rather stay here and mope, thank you. Stay in with a good book, know what I mean?”
“Still peeved about the grimoire?”
I fix him with a stare. Of course I’m still peeved. I’m beyond peeved.
“You didn’t expect Sebastian to let you keep a powerful spellbook in your possession, did you?”
When he puts it like that…
Still, it’s Fintan I’m angry with the most for leading me on and letting me believe I could hold onto the grimoire.
“Aw, don’t be like that. Let’s go have a little fun. You don’t need to be cooped up all day and night.”
I would love nothing more than to get out of here and stretch my legs for a bit, but I hold onto my anger.
“You’re right—I don’t. You could set me free and we could all go our separate ways.”
In the end, I suppose it’s really me I’m peeved at. For thinking I could trust a vampire. For letting my guard down. For getting kidnapped in the first place.
“It’s not as easy as that.”
“It could be,” I argue, knowing it isn’t but poking, anyway.
Rune rolls his massive shoulders and sighs. “Look. You can stay locked away in your tower and mope if you want, or you can come with me and go for a walk by the water.”
I open my book again and pretend that doesn’t interest me, though I can’t focus on a single word printed on the page with Rune staring at me.
“Come on,” he goads. “You know you want to. Last chance before I say forget it and go for a run by myself. Going once… going twice…”
* * *
Over the next two weeks, Rune, Finn, and I get out of the hotel almost every night. They show me the Quarter as they see it and tell me the tales of how their city has evolved through the ages. It’s both fascinating and heartbreaking. For a city steeped in so much history, there has also been an unfathomable amount of turmoil.
And to my surprise, I wonder if the bias and hatred I was raised with might be one-sided. Finn is thoughtful, intelligent, and very protective of me. He has kept his word to safeguard my stay at the Elysian and hasn’t pushed his agenda or taken advantage of me.
Rune is quite a unique character. He is as big as a Norse bear but is almost childlike in his second life. He likes to drink and have fun and work off the stresses of his role as Sebastian’s right hand by letting off steam.
He’s a ‘work hard, play hard’ kind of guy.
And though I fought it hard in the beginning, I can’t ignore the pull I feel toward them. If my mother was bound to Sebastian, there’s a certain logic to her daughter being bound to his sons… if you can call progenies sons.
Mother Gaia may have turned the tables on the Tremé witches after the unification ritual, but who are we to reject her intentions? Maybe she has a plan. My parents were caught up in the turmoil of the ritual fallout, but maybe—now that a few decades have passed—it’s time to give Gaia’s intentions a try.
It’s immensely confusing, but my instincts tell me I am meant to be here. I am a Tremé witch and though I loved my life in Leeds, it was small and safe.
I’m ready to live.
And if my goddess thinks it’s my destiny to come home and fulfill my place as a Sun Witch of New Orleans, maybe I need to at least consider her intentions.
On tonight’s walk, we meander along the shore of Woldenberg Park… Finn on one side of me and Rune on the other. The two of them are a team in almost everything they do—brothers, not only in blood, but by choice.
