I was like an open book with my expressions, and I hated it. It didn’t help that he knew everything through our bond.
Like a freight train hitting me, a numbing cold swept through me, making my stomach drop like a ton of bricks. My heart slowed down from its erratic beats. All the panic and fear were wiped away until I couldn’t feel anything.
Why did I feel so detached and cold? Why did it take Rune’s touch and warmth to bring me back and make me feel?
I mentally shook the thoughts away, dragging my hands along his arm, over his broad chest that expanded from my touch, and up to his neck... anywhere to keep me warm. For it to chase away the increasing numbness that made my heart beat more erratically in a way that a panic attack did.
“The Angel of Death,” I murmured so softly I wasn’t sure he heard. “He told me she’s being punished but wouldn’t tell me why.”
Rune circled his fingers on my wrist by the side of his neck. It brought my gaze back to his face, finding his blue eyes holding concern as he felt everything I was feeling.
The link... the damn link.
I went to close it, but Rune’s grip on my wrist tightened as he snapped, “Don’t. Don’t lock me out. Let me help you.” He moved my hand from his neck and brought it to his lips, pressing a gentle kiss to my palm. All the while, he maintained eye contact. “What you went through was traumatic, and you need someone to keep you grounded in the here and now. Let me be that someone for you,elskan mín.”
Swallowing down the rising lump, I parted my lips to speak, but Hluti interrupted.
“Did Az—” Hluti cut off mid-word from the glare Rune shot him over my shoulder. “Did Death tell you anything else? How to heal yourself or what you’ll return as?”
“What I’ll return as?” I asked as I peered over my shoulder, bunching my eyebrows.
Hluti was leaning against the wall, arms folded over his chest, and the little light in the room reflected in his amber eyes, giving it the eerie, unnatural glow like burning embers fighting to escape. One booted foot was braced against the wall behind him, while the other long leg braced him to stay leaning against it. It was one of those typical things men did while they said,“I’m holding the wall up.”
“Mortal or immortal,” he grunted. His amber gaze went past me to Rune as he shared a look with him. His attention landed back on me after whatever silent message he and Rune shared. “Or did he talk in riddles?”
I bunched my eyebrows further together.
Yeah... Death had talked in riddles, but how did Hluti know about Death’s confusing answers?
Hluti huffed a laugh, shaking his head at whatever he saw on my face as he turned away, giving me his scarred and rugged cheek.
“Of course he did,” he grumbled under his breath with another huffed laugh that held no humor.
“Wait. How do you know about that with Death?” I asked him while glancing at everyone with narrowed eyes, demanding an answer from anyone.
Rune watched me with a guarded expression and kept his emotions in check so I didn’t catch onto anything. Why wasn’t anyone telling meanything? I was tired of being in the dark, dammit.
“Are you BFFs with him or something?” I asked sharply. It wasn’t directed at just Rune but everyone in the room. Even the silent mountain-man Viking who still sat by Rune and me.
“Doesn’t matter,” Rune said with a squeeze on my hip. “What does matter isyou. I need to know what you want to do before we burn your friend’s body. Do you want to give her a proper farewell?”
Aaliyah’s death finally hit me like a ten-ton truck at his question. Tears stung my eyes as a lump rose in my throat. My forehead and temples became tight and throbbed. I was done and over with crying. I was tired of being a mess. But the reminder of my best friend being gone... it was like opening the wound and digging dirty fingers into it.
I’d never get to do our girls’ day out with her anymore. Never get to stop at a coffee shop to get a latte in between our shopping for clothes and books. I’d never get to hear her advice on dating or listen to her about her recent fling. No more late nights drinking until we were three sheets to the wind and drunk dialing her ex, who she was never over.
My heart broke, and guilt swamped through me as I realized it only took till this moment for me to feel anything about her death. For it to really settle in and slap me across the face.
I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t move.
“You were in shock, elskan mín. That’s why,”Rune murmured through our link as he brought me closer in his arms.
I sucked in a breath, resting the side of my head on his shoulder, blinking away the tears and swallowing back the sobs that welled in my chest. My throat was thick, and my head throbbed harder from the cries I held back. I dug my fingernails into his biceps, clutching at him like he was the only thing holding me to Earth—in the plane of the living and not being dragged back into the dreaded afterlife.
With trembling lips, I opened them to speak but pressed them together in a tight line as my voice cracked with my first attempted word. Rune rubbed gentle circles on my back as he comforted me. I squeezed my eyes shut as I tried forcing the tears and pain away.
It wasn’t going anywhere. I was like a boiling pot that was about to spill over.
“We don’t have time to bury her body, do we?”I asked him in our link.
