Why wasn’t I taking action?
Why couldn’t I work my legs and leave the room to find him?
My stinging eyes snapped to the door when I heard heavy footsteps racing my way. My heart was in my throat as I stood still frozen in my spot while watching the door with wide eyes.
“Rune?” I whimpered with a hiccup of a cry.
I jumped when the door slammed open. The moonlight didn’t help me recognize the shadowy form at first until he strode toward me. The long braided sandy-blond hair with a glossy sheen in the moonlight was the first thing I noticed as Slátra strode to me with his hand gripping his sword. His green eyes glowed but not from desire. It was something different. They swept the room in the space of a heartbeat before landing on me.
“Why are you alone?” Slátra snapped. I shrank back because it was the opposite of the usual joking tone he had with me. He curled his lip in a snarl and narrowed his eyes. “Where did he go?”
If I knew the answer to that, I wouldn’t be a hot mess right now.
I shook my head and opened my mouth to answer but couldn’t find my voice. It cracked and wobbled like it always did when I tried holding back from sobbing. I cleared my throat and licked my trembling bottom lip before I tried again but still couldn’t find my voice.
Slátra’s eyes softened before they narrowed again as he glanced away and searched for my missing other half. It was obvious Rune wasn’t here in the tiny room, but maybe Slátra could’ve been looking for any signs of a struggle or something. When he noticed the sword on the ground, he cursed and snatched it up before he grabbed my arm and dragged me by his side, leading me to the others.
“Did you connect your link with him?” he asked.
I nodded but didn’t think he saw since he didn’t look my way. I cleared my throat again and swallowed around the lump in my throat.
“Yes. I can’t feel him though. Something’s—” I cleared my throat when it cracked. “Something’s wrong. He has to be in trouble.”
Please. He couldn’t have died and left me behind.
If he was—I couldn’t think too long about it—I would do what he said he was going to do when I died. I’d snap and burn the world down before I took my life. It was a classic Romeo and Juliet thing, but I now understood why they did it. I couldn’t go on with my life without Rune. It gave me a new perspective of what he went throughtwice.
“Slátra,” Hluti grunted.
He was gently moving Harper’s head off his lap as she still slept. He was so careful with her, and it didn’t go unnoticed by me how this rough man was being gentle with her as he petted the back of her hair before he got to his feet.
His amber eyes went to Slátra. “Rune’s missing?”
“Aye. He left his sword behind.” The blond let go of my arm and raised the weapon to show Hluti before he took a quick step back. “I’m going out to find him. Stay with the females.”
I noticed we were missing another person, and my stomach dropped to my feet like it was full of lead. I turned, glancing around the shadowed room. The corners were darker, making it easy to hide, but I would hope he’d make himself visible or known. Not hide. He didn’t owe me anything, but my friend knew that I worried about them and needed to know they were all right.
“Where’s Hlíf?”
Why did he always make me worry? The last time I asked where he was, we were attacked. My breath hitched as my pulse thundered in my ears. I whipped my head toward the others, eyes wide and my hands shaking.
“Where’s Hlíf?” I meant for it to come out normal, even gently to show my worry. Instead, it came out bordering on a shriek.
Harper stirred awake, and I felt awful. But I couldn’t control myself and was desperate.
“Guarding us from outside,” Hluti answered, his amber eyes flicking to me before he looked back at Slátra. “Go find Rune and take Hlíf with you. I’ll take the females somewhere else to hide.”Just in case we were foundhung between all of us, which Hluti didn’t say out loud but he might as well have.
My breaths were becoming choppy, and I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. I was on the brink of the same panic attack that had been building for Slátra and Hlíf. I needed Rune. He always helped me, and now he couldn’t.
Where the hell was he?
“The woods,”feminine voices whispered.
My breath caught as my shoulders tensed. I turned to the front door, not listening to the men as they talked. I remembered the weird noises in the woods the whole time we traveled earlier. Rune never showed any signs he heard it, and with our link connected, he didn’t see me looking at them even as he watched me. It was suspicious and worried me the whole time. I should have said something to him and not risked his life—
No. I wasn’t going to think about that.
Not going to think that he could have been kill—
