How did Callum get here?
What was happening?
Rune sitting across from me in the restaurant he took me to on a date popped into my mind. The look of utter frustration as he leaned back in his chair while he said it was hard to tell me things since I didn’t know much about anything.
My heart dropped to my stomach, tears stinging in my eyes while I fought in Callum’s hold. I opened my mouth, trying to scream anything. But for whatever reason, my vocal cords wouldn’t make a sound as my lips parted on a scream. Though in my mind, I heard my voice like my head was under water and everything was garbled.
“Rune, I’m sorry! Please... oh god, I’m sorry!”
“He’s not here,” Callum said, shaking me by my shoulders. “It’s only me.”
I wiggled in his grip and kicked at him that felt like I was moving as slow as I did when running in a nightmare. My chest squeezed until it became hard for me to breathe.
“Come back to me.” Callum’s Scottish accent morphed into Rune’s heavier Old Norse one. His voice changed from a snarl to deep and soothing. It broke through my frantic and muddled mind, bringing me peace and warmth. “Good girl, keep looking in my eyes.”
My heart stuttered over the beats as I gasped for breaths, clutching at the broad shoulders of the morphing Callum to Rune. Coal eyes brightened to an ocean blue and the black beard lightened and shortened to Rune’s dark brown. Black hair faded to brown hair with light gold pieces intricately braided on the sides of his head. A few long braids mingled with the rest of his long hair that hung past his shoulders to his chest.
I dug my nails into Rune’s armor until the pressure was enough to help me come back out of my mind. My breaths were loud in my spinning head. My wide eyes never stopped moving as I glanced around us, searching for Callum to make sure he wasn’t here.
Rune gently pinched my chin, bringing my attention to him. He was eye level with me, one of his knees on the ground in a crouch. His eyes were a shade darker than his normal ocean blue, and he wore a mask of calm.
“There you are,” he murmured to me like I was a frightened baby bird, which yeah, he wasn’t far off.
Blinking rapidly, I hoped it’d chase away the awful memory or whatever the hell that was. But I didn’t miss that Rune couldn’t hide the horror in his eyes as he watched me. I knew the look all too well because I often found myself gazing around with the same eyes.
Swallowing hard, I worked on calming my breaths as my eyes jerked away from his, searching for any signs of Callum again.
Rune turned my face again with his two fingers on my chin, his free hand grabbing one of mine and laying it on his warm neck. My breath shuddered as I kept my hand on him while he let go of it to work on fixing my pants back up. The whole time, he kept eye contact. His blue ones changed, filling with a burning rage that made the lighter blue specks of his eyes dance in the darkness. His jaw worked as he struggled with whatever he was thinking of saying.
The silence between us was heavy until he finished fixing my pants and tenderly cupped my face.
“He’ll never hurt you again. I promise.”
My heart picked up its pace—if that was possible—while my stomach twisted until it felt like I was about to hurl. I didn’t have anything more to retch up, and I didn’t want to puke anyway, let alone stomach acid.
“I know,” I said with a crack in my voice. My throat was raw like I’d been screaming for hours.
Rune’s eyes hardened but still held tenderness for me. His fingers twitched at the back of my head.
“Do you?”
Those two words shut me up with the weight of his question. It echoed in my mind and sunk me further into the dark abyss I’d been in since... my whole life.
I’d been in the cold ocean with turbulent waves crashing against the cliff, leaving me no way to swim to shore. My whole life, I’d been kicking my feet and waving my arms as I fought to keep my head above water. And since Rune came into my life, he was my life; he was the lifeboat that fought against the waves with me as he yanked me to the safety that was him.
He brought me to life with his smiles, laughs, and kisses. For a while, everything was all right until I was attacked and now hunted.
And I was thrown back into the ocean, fighting for my fucking life.
Everything around me wasn’t what it seemed. It was all dangerous.
Did I know Callum couldn’t hurt me anymore?
Yes and no.
Yes, because Rune wouldn’t ever lie to me. I knew deep down in my bones Rune killed him and made his last few seconds painful while he stared into his seething eyes.
No, because for whatever reason, my mind played tricks on me and firmly believed Callum was coming back to finish where we last left off.
