CHAPTER 72

Weeks passed in the blink of an eye. Faye lay in a tangle of sheets, bunched and dragged to the far corner of the bed, under the window. She tucked against the wall cocooned in blankets with a pile of crumpled tissues beside her.

Her sister's voice carried from the living room. "Fuck off. She doesn't want to see you." The sizzle of magic followed, and the door slammed.

Faye closed her eyes as the tears fell. She told Sparrow what happened. How terrified she'd been. It took a little more than two weeks for her to calm enough to see that Rune didn't mean the things he'd said.

And that was where her heart warred with her head. Rune hurt the woman his brother loved. Vashien told her the clouded eyes meant her mind was broken. The woman's vacant stare haunted Faye's dreams, and Rune was the cause.

What kind of a person was she if she could dismiss what he'd done? She may as well have broken the woman's mind herself.

Faye's door cracked open with a light knock. "You can't hide in here forever," Sparrow said, hopping onto her bed and wrinkling her nose in disapproval at the pile of crumpled tissues.

Faye tucked deeper in the blankets, wiping them over her swollen eyes. She was so tired of crying.

"Come on. You need to eat something, bitch." Sparrow said, slapping the blankets. When Faye refused to move, Sparrow yanked on them. "Get. Up. You can return to your moping after you eat."

Faye held on while Sparrow pulled. Her voice broke as she asked, "Am I a bad person?" She felt ashamed for missing Rune. Every morning she woke up reaching for him and each morning she reminded herself he was a monster.

"What kind of stupid ass question is that?" Sparrow quirked her lip then vanished the pile of tissues before sitting next to her.

"I miss him," Faye said quietly, wiping away the new tears. "What's wrong with me? Why do I still want him?"

The image of Rune pinning his brother to the counter burned into her memory along with his gravel filled voice.

I'll come for her. But I'll show mercy, I'll just kill her.

"Honey, no." Sparrow ran her hand through her hair, immediately pulling it back. "You're Showering today. Your hair is disgusting."

Faye pulled the blankets tighter, not caring how oily her hair was. Sparrow would be lucky if she ate more than two bites of the meal she had no appetite for.

"I'm going to get Vash to drag you out of bed and drop your ass in your hot spring." Sparrow pet Faye's hair again. "Nasty ass."

Minutes ticked by in silence and Sparrow sighed. "He was good to you," she said, wiping a tear from her cheek. "You're allowed to feel things, you're grieving."

"I don't want to miss him," Faye said, drawing a ragged breath.

Sparrow snorted. "I'm more worried about shadow fuck's brother. You really think he will stop coming after you? He's not playing a game of tag. This isn't base, bitch."

"I didn't think of that."

"I did." Venom dripped from her sister's voice. "Vash set up a perimeter. Let that motherfucker show up here. I will fuck his world."

Faye swallowed, remembering the feel of his sword at her throat. "He's dangerous."

Sparrow smirked. "He's a day-blood. I'll rock his shit."

Faye didn't respond and Sparrow said, "Come on. You do need to eat, so get that ass out of bed."

Faye groaned as Sparrow exited her room.

Sparrow called over her shoulder as she left. "If you don't eat I'll get Aunty Clara. She'll be mad."

Faye made an exasperated noise. "I hate you," she called.

"You love me," Sparrow called back from the hallway.

Weeks passed but time did little to ease her heart. Faye pushed her breakfast around her plate. She was sure to anyone watching she appeared to have pieced her life back together, when in truth Faye felt hallowed out. Pushing herself through each day hoping the next would be easier.

She'd abandoned her garden in Hell. Sparrow was all too eager to demand her garden be returned, but Faye refused. Sparrow insisted she would do all the talking and she wouldn't have to see Rune at all.

Faye didn't want her garden. It would remind her of the times she spent with him. So many memories of him haunted her, leaving her feeling empty without his presence in her life.

A knock pulled her from her musings. Sparrow put down her cup of coffee and rolled her shoulders. "We're starting early today."

Rune came to see her every day and each time Sparrow sent him away.

"I got it," Faye said, getting up.

Sparrow froze, giving her a suspicious glance. "You sure?"

Faye nodded. "He's just going to keep coming back."

She opened the door.

"Faye." His voice was hushed as though he couldn't believe she stood before him.

She stepped outside, closing the door behind her. Rune looked the way she felt. He still wore a tailored black suit, but he'd lost weight. His features are gaunt with dark circles under his eyes.

She took a deep breath not meeting his gaze. "You need to let me go."

"Please speak with me," Rune begged, his voice pleading.

Faye took a deep breath, reminding herself he was a monster. She needed to end things with him. She would not allow herself to love a cruel dark-blood.

"There's nothing left to say."

Rune's past had come back to haunt him. Costing him what he needed most in this life. He bowed his head and said, "I am sorry I did not tell you of my blood debt."

Faye peered at him, tilting her head as though he spoke madness. "It's not that you didn't tell me. Why did you have to break her mind? Killing your brother's Anarian wasn't enough?"

Rune recoiled. "You think— I did not break her mind maliciously."

"How do you accidently break a mind?" Faye spat.

Rune paused, recalling the moment that changed his life. The cost of his arrogance. "My brother and I had a tenuous relationship. Alister announced Prinia and I challenged his choice. I expected him to stand down, instead Alister initiated a blood debt.If you take the woman who quickens my heart, I will take the same from you when your heart quickens."

Faye's lightning arced eyes lit with fury, promising violence. "Alister loved a woman and wanted to marry her. And you wouldn't let him because she was an Anarian?Thenyou traded the person you may or may not fall in love with, in the future?"

Her pain and anger tore at his heart. If he had understood what he would be offering in trade, Rune would have left his brother to his choices. But he'd trusted those who didn't deserve it. Nothing more than a pawn, fooled into thinking he pulled his own strings.

"I lived for twenty-two centuries and felt nothing. In my arrogance I cut my hand and spoke the terms of his blood debt."

Faye gazed off into the forest. "That's not an excuse."

Rune swallowed. "The three of us struggled. I pulled away from Alister's blade and she twisted in my grasp, severing her artery. Prinia bled out in The Eyes before Belind could heal her. Alister sealed our blood debt by kissing my blood off her lips. She became a vampire a few days later. My blood was too dark for her. It broke her mind. I asked Sadi to heal her, but Prinia is beyond her capability." Sadi spent more than a decade exhausting herself, reaching for a ghost. Prinia never answered her calls that would lead her out of Chaos and back to her physical body.

Faye met his gaze and remained silent, searching his eyes. Rune swallowed. Waiting.

"Can I heal her if you find my altar?"

"Healing the mind and core are Familiar magic. I will ask Sadi if she would be willing to teach you. You are stronger than we are."

"I want to heal her," Faye said.

"Familiar are secretive of their magic. I will speak with Sadi." Faye stood before him but remained completely out of reach. "How do I make things right with you?"

Faye looked away and touched the front of her neck. She spoke so softly he scarcely heard her. "I care for you, but we fundamentally don't work."

Rune stepped closer to her, taking her hand in his. "Then teach me. I cannot be without you. I love you."

"I forgive you. I'll help you repair what you did to your brother's wife." Faye squeezed his hand.

Rune's heart leapt as the Ra'Voshnik stirred, listening. Hoping.

Then she let him go. "But you don't love me. If you did, you would be upset with how your queen was treated for the past twenty-five years, not expecting me to shuck off my old life. You don't hear me. You don't value what I value."

Rune's lips parted. She couldn't mean that. He looked down at her, utterly defeated.

She stood on her toes to press her lips to his. Rune closed his eyes, willing her to feel how he'd yearned for her, his entire life. To glimpse the life he envisioned at her side.

Her fingers brushed over the side of his face, as she gazed up at him. She turned from him going back into her cottage, speaking two words over her shoulder before she closed the door.

"Goodbye Rune."