Jesus, he was scary. I’d never heard the saying before, but I had an idea what it meant, and it made so much sense.
I didn’t want to accept we would do anything but hide. The thought of getting stabbed to death again and going through the traumatic pain while I suffocated from my blood made my heart double in pace.
“So train to fight,”feminine voices whispered. It sent a chill through me while, at the same time, a flash of my memory of my death, then standing in Aaliyah’s living room in the In-Between popped into my mind. With it came everything I had felt during those moments.
Rune brought me out of the spiraling memory as his arms wrapped around me, protecting me in his hold with his lips brushing against my temple. I blinked several times as the forest on one side and the stone wall on the other bled back into my focus. Rune’s arms weren’t around me, and when I glanced at him, I noticed he was still on his horse next to me with his large hands gripping the reins. But he narrowed his dark-blue eyes at me as he gave me a hard look. A warning.
The message was clear in his look and through our bond.
I barely got away with not being dragged back with his mouth on my pussy as he promised he would do the next time. Only by the grace of god was I kept from the embarrassment of everyone around me watching Rune tackle me from my horse to eat me out.
Rune’s eyes narrowed more, and his nostrils flared.“Don’t bring god into this. He’s not here and doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself. The only god you should be thanking is me.”
My lips parted, and my head spun.
God didn’t care about anyone?
“So what kills them, anyway?” Harper asked, making me jump.
I wasn’t sure if the others were talking as Rune and I had our private moment, but somehow Harper’s voice startled me out of my head. Maybe it was because I was used to hearing the deep voices of men and not another woman.
“Decapitation usually does the job with most immortals,” Slátra answered casually.
“Most?” Harper and I asked at the same time.
“There are different methods that must be used for different types of immortals. Not all die from a simple decapitation,” Rune answered, bringing my gaze back to him.
“So, what are some of the methods?” I asked.
How could someone live through a decapitation? At least now it made sense why the man who attacked Aaliyah and me lived through bullets but didn’t survive after Rune cut his head off.
Rune gave me a weird look as he adjusted on his horse. Through that, I knew he was uncomfortable and hesitant about what to tell me. I also knew from our connected link what he was feeling but kept everything else I was dying to know out of my reach.
“Some, you cut their heads off, then burn their body so they don’t reanimate. Others you dismember and keep their limbs separated in places to keep them from pulling back together and making themselves whole again. And rarely, you need items that belong to the person to use against them to end their life.”
It went quiet. The air around us became tense, and Ifelteveryone holding their breath. Everyone but Harper, who was just as confused as I was while she looked up and over her shoulder at Hluti, then at our group, raising her eyebrows.
My pulse hammered, and my breathing picked up little by little as something niggled at my mind. I reached for it and knew it was something important and probably pertained to me. But just like the frustration of having a word at the tip of my tongue that I couldn’t for the life of me think of, I couldn’t grasp onto what it was that was trying to click.
Rune watched me struggle for a long moment before he shook his head and raised a hand for me to stop.
“Isa,” he said in warning. I knew he was worried about my mind fracturing. It’d always been one of his main concerns when it came to me knowing anything about my past life. But I wasn’t sure why he was so concerned now that I knew who I was.
One thing stuck out more than the rest of what he said about how to kill an immortal. I nibbled on my lower lip for a moment, then licked it to soothe the pinch of skin I bit back.
“What sorts of items?”
His eyes shuttered, and his shoulders tensed. He put up a block in our link. It was still connected, that much I knew, but I didn’t hear or feel anything on his side as though it wasn’t. If it weren’t for the familiar brush of his essence that went deep into my soul, then I would’ve thought he disconnected our bond.
“Many things can be used that belong to them. In some cases... weapons.”
That wasn’t cryptic or anything.
What sorts of weapons? Anything could be used as one. Hell, I watched John Wick, and one of the bad guys told a story to scare his son that John Wick used a pencil to kill three people. Then in the sequel, he used abookto kill someone. So, in that case, did that mean someone could use a log they had for a fire and beat their brains out?
Rune snorted and shot me an amused smile before he clicked his tongue. Our horses picked up in pace, their hooves beating down harder, making it difficult for us to hold a conversation.
I huffed and scowled ahead of us since the discussion was over. He made it clear that he didn’t want me to know anything else because of his worry over myfragilemind.
