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He chuffs a laugh. “No. I was working with a chipmunk. He helped me see inside the building where Egan had Aiden, and in return, I brought him out of wolf territory. See, that’s him there.”
He points over to the chipmunk bounding from tree to tree and waves. “Hey, little dude. This is the Unity Witch I told you about, Josie. Come, give her a high-five.”
The chipmunk runs over, and I bend down and hold out my hand. The little guy does indeed give me a pat of his paw.
I fight not to giggle, but it’s definitely a fight. “It’s nice to meet you. Thank you for helping Rune, and welcome to the Elysian.”
“He says thanks.” Rune laughs and nods. “Don’t I know it, dude.”
I give Rune a look. “What did he say?”
“That you’re way too classy for an ugly mug like me.”
I chuckle and smile at the little critter. “I happen to adore his ugly mug, but thank you.”
Rune notices a bruise coming up on the back of my arm and winces. “Shit. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to take my morning out on you.”
I brush away his concern. “I’ll let you make it up to me. Let’s finish our training session early so I can spend some time with the spellbook. Gran said I need to spend time with it, so it recognizes me. Maybe if I can figure out what curse she cast on him, I can work to remove it.”
“Shouldn’t you worry about that after tomorrow? Your final trial is in the morning.”
“Right, but my final trial is based on my connection to magic and Mother Gaia. There’s nothing to prepare for, and spending the afternoon with the family grimoire is likely exactly what I should be doing.”
He gives me one more kiss before patting my butt and then falling back into ready position. “All right, then let’s finish here and get you inside. Show me what you’ve got, girlfriend.”
I launch my weight forward, looking to force Rune to his back foot, to topple him to the grass.
It doesn’t work.
He sees the move coming and dodges easily, using my momentum to put himself behind me. The hard ridges of Rune’s body press into me, and I can’t resist leaning back into him.
“That’s my girl. Good try.” The smirk in Rune’s rumbling voice makes a shiver run through me. “Now—come at me for real.”
And just like that, the solid weight of his body is gone. “That was for real.”
“My bad.” Rune squares his shoulders, getting into a ready stance that puts his powerful, muscled thighs on display in his workout shorts.
“Are you ready, drengr? Or are you going to keep staring at my crotch?”
Laughter bubbles out of me. “Sorry. You’re very distracting. And what is drengr?” I repeat, butchering the pronunciation. “You keep calling me that, but I don’t know what it means.”
It doesn’t sound Latin, and it definitely isn’t French, but it could be something in Old Norse.
Rune waggles his brows, a glint in his eye telling me he’s plotting something. “I’ll tell you what it means when and if you can best me in battle.”
I step closer, closing the gap between us and dragging my gaze down his body. “What if there’s something else I’m after?”
He smirks at me, and I see when his mind flips to the same dirty track as mine. “Tell you what: if you avoid getting pinned for a full minute, you can have anything your little heart desires.”
Well, if that isn’t an incentive, I don’t know what is. “Are you sure you want to say that without knowing what I have in mind?”
“Drengr,” he teases me with the word again, “there is nothing you could want to do to me or with me that I wouldn’t like.”
“Remember that when I’m kicking your vampire ass in a minute.” I shake out my sore limbs, suddenly energized and raring to go—in more ways than one.
“Let’s do this.”
I nod, my focus sharpening as I mirror Rune’s stance, my feet shifting against the ground. I raise my hands in front of me to protect my face.
