I knew I was supposed to be marrying Rune soon, but that didn’t mean I couldn’t have fun, right? It wasn’t like we were in love. It wasn’t like he’d actually proposed or that we were even married.
No vows had been exchanged.No rings. Just a contract neither of us had signed by choice.
So why did guilt twist in my gut like I’d done something wrong?
I pulled back slightly, still dazed. Elias’s eyes searched mine, and I could tell he was about to ask if something was wrong when the temperature around us shifted.
A rush of cool air swept through the bar like the front edge of a storm, sending goosebumps prickling up my arms.
And then—like the ancestors wanted to answer that twisting guilt for me—I knew it was Rune before I saw him. I felt the weight of his gaze crash into me like a wave. I turned slowly, the world narrowing to a single point across the bar. He stood at the threshold, his expression unreadable—but hispresence? Thunderous.
The music didn’t stop. The lights didn’t flicker.
But everything inside of me did.
“Shit,” Elias muttered. “Is that your friend?”
“Uh,” I managed a half nod. “Kind of.”
“Shit,” he repeated. “The Voodoo King.”
“She kissed him,”I hissed at Adelle, trying not to let my voice carry over the music—but I knew it did.
She didn’t even flinch. Just kept sipping her stupid frozen hurricane like this wasn’t a full-blown crisis unraveling right in front of us. I wanted to knock it out of her hand. Instead, I tightened my grip around my father’s cane, knuckles going white.
“It’sgoodfor her,” she said, dragging the words out like I was the irrational one.
“A vampire, Adelle,” I growled. “She kissed avampire.”
Adelle smirked and stirred her drink. “I heard the sex is mind-blowing.”
I leaned closer, eyes sharp. “Then you go experience it.”
She rolled her eyes with the dramatic flair of someone who’d been doing it since childhood. “She needs this. Okay? She’s spent her whole life on the outside. Don’t you get it? She wasn’tseenbefore. This is the first time she’s being noticed for just being herself.”
I ground my teeth. My magic thrummed uneasily under my skin, aching to rise. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if I gave in to it in a place like this. The Quarter would burn.
“A virgin?” I muttered, more to myself than her. But Adelle arched a brow.
“Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not. That’s not the point. The point is—she doesn’tbelongto you, Rune. Marriage contract or not, she’s still a person.”
My jaw locked. “We aremarried.”
Now that got her attention. She sat up straight, her drink sloshing slightly. “What? Since when? I thought it was justarrangedto happen.”
I didn’t have a chance to argue. Because right then, the vampire—Elias—vanished into the crowd like smoke. One second he was there, the next he was gone, leaving Maple blinking after him, dazed and far too vulnerable in the middle of the dance floor.
Before my sister could throw another dig at me, I was moving. My legs ate up the space between us in seconds.
She didn’t see me coming.
One moment she was swaying on unsteady feet, her lips parted in confusion—still drunk on the hurricane, on adrenaline, and the vanished vampire.
The next, she was in my arms.
She looked up at me, dazed and blinking slowly. “You’re so tall,” she murmured, as her gaze bounced around my face.
“Rune?” she whispered, fingers curling in the front of my shirt like she wasn’t sure I was real.
