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My jaw drops and tears brim in my eyes. Not my Rune—who could ever want to hurt him? I’ll kill the fucking bitch.
“I was so shocked and disoriented that she nearly succeeded… Kol cut her head off before she could finish me off. I’m left with this scar as a reminder of why I don’t speak. Of why I must keep quiet. Whomever placed this curse doesn’t want their secrets to get out, and I pay the price.”
My heart is already being torn to ribbons over him. I reach up and hug him tightly, trying to push away the hurt with my embrace, but I doubt it even touches his pain… his trauma.
“Let me hear you.”
He jolts and leans back quickly, eyes wild, and he shakes his head with fear coiling in his eyes.
I narrow my gaze and place a hand on his. “Do you trust me?”
His red eyes burn into mine for a few quiet moments before he shakes his head again. I give him a warm smile.
“Good—I’d be upset if you did.” I repeat his words from the other night. His lip kicks up and I can see a flicker of hope pass over them.
We have an understanding, it seems—that our distrust in one another gives us more credibility than either of us will admit.
He sits on the bed like a wounded warrior, arms slumped forward and head down. He’s completely naked and I take this moment to take every bit of him in. His pale skin makes his crimson horns so somber, along with the sadness in his eyes.
“You’ll try to kill me.”
I’m stunned to my core.
I’ve never heard a voice so whisper-like and echoey, deep but haunted. Like hearing a ghost in a dream, one that is at the other end of a dreary and dark cave. I can feel a force behind his voice, like something is trying to coerce me into evil doings, but my heart is stronger. Maybe it’s because I’m life itself.
I smile.
His eyes widen and he fists the bedding like the small act alone will shatter him.
“How could yourfirstwords to me be so horrible?”
His eyes fill with grief and he dips his head to hide the tears that well in them.Oh, I like vulnerable Rune. I scoot close to him and wrap him in my arms, tipping us so that we fall into the pillows and are facing each other.
“I haven’t spoken aloud to another person in over a hundred years.”My spine warms and my heart breaks. What a cruel curse.
I watch him silently shed a few tears. He’s so tired that he finds sleep quickly in my arms. I can’t even imagine what it’s like to be able to talk after gods know how long he’s been mute. After his first attempt with someone he loved… I stroke the dark locks of hair from his face and press a kiss to his lips before sitting up.
He mentioned that he doesn’t know what deity he is due to the Rhythm being disrupted. Kastian told me the same thing in his glades.Everythingwent to hell after the Rhythm was destroyed.
That’s right—Naminé gave me a book on the Rhythm that she managed to find in the library. I grab it and start flipping through the pages. I stop the second I land on a page that has a picture of four gods.
Four. Not two.
Okay, life and death—who are the other two? I try to make out the image, but it’s so smudged and old that I can’t really tell what and who they are.
The Rhythm Gods: Keepers of the Realms and flow of the universe. The four must remain in a constant and steady stream. If the Rhythm is disturbed, chaos will break loose and the rules of the Realms can be altered.
What the hell… I turn the page and find a photo tucked in the crease between the pages. My heart drops as I look at the smiling and radiant Violet. Beside her is who I assume is Lucius.
The rules of the Realms can be altered.
My stomach feels twisted. I want to hate her… No—I do hate her. Yet at the same time my very bones ache for her. This must be the book she found all those centuries ago, when she discovered she could destroy everything just to get her Lucius back.
Love can turn into despair, twist into evil when it’s corrupted.
I shut the book and lie down next to Rune, pulling him close and reminding myself why we can’t have our hearts attached. No matter how badly I want it…
I won’t let us turn into poison.
