Page 86 of Rune’s Solace

“Good.”

She blinked. “That’s a weird response.”

“Need you telling me the truth.”

“I am.”

I nodded and went back to work because work I understood. There wasn’t much left for me to do, Mystic had already cleaned the split inside her lip, nothing looked broken, her breathing was good, and she’d been checked over, but I found reasons anyway. I looked at the scrape on her palm and the raw place on her elbow, checked her wrists, ran my fingers carefully over the back of her head, because apparently some part of me believed if I checked enough times I could prove she was really here.

Eventually Amy caught my hand. “Rune.”

I stopped.

“There’s nothing else.”

“I know.”

“You’ve checked.”

“I know.”

“Three times.”

“Probably.”

She kept hold of my hand, looking down at it where it sat inside hers, and for a while neither of us said anything.

Then the question I’d been trying not to ask came out anyway. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

She didn’t pretend she didn’t understand. “He had Sawyer.”

“Why didn’t you find me?”

“I couldn’t take the chance.”

“You should have.”

“He said he’d kill him if I did.”

“You know I would have found a way.”

“Yeah. That’s the point.”

I sat back a little. “What?”

“I knew what you’d do, Rune. I knew you’d come after me, and Devil would come, and Bolt and Horse and everybody else would come because that’s what all of you do. He said he had eyes on the place.”

“You believed him.”

“Yeah.”

“So you went.”

“What was I supposed to do?”

“Anything but that.” It came out loud before I could stop it, and I saw the smallest movement go through her.

A flinch.