couldn’t blame him. The beasts were disgusting. Drinking from them was unthinkable.
Her monster hadn’t cared, though. It had just needed to feed.
“The fuck does it mean?” she demanded. “This princess shit?”
“It was foretold,” Nadaline said. And her voice was filled with awe and hope and a fear caused by an eternity of slavery and horror. “The noble princess will come and death will come with her. Amid perilous days and endless nights, the clash will see an end to the darkness and the world will begin anew.” Her smile was wide. “You have come to free us, Princess.”
And she dropped to her knees.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Z fell to his knees beside her.
“Fuck you, Z,” Rune half yelled, incredulous. “Get up.”
Like she wasn’t his Rune, his captain, his friend.
His eyes clouded for a second and then he shot to his feet. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
But he did.
They both did.
“I’m going to kill Damascus,” Rune said, almost unable to look at him. She was terrified she’d see a stranger looking back at her. “But I’m no one’s princess. I’m just here to take out the evil and grab some meds.”
Blue crossed her arms. “You’re our redeemer. Get used to it. Princess.”
“Princess,” Nadaline breathed, still on her knees.
Z shrugged, smiling slightly, but he couldn’t hide the uneasiness in his stare. “They’ve been waiting for you for a long, long time.”
Rune slid her arms around his waist and pressed her cheek against his chest. “And I’ve been waiting for you.” At that moment, nothing else really mattered to her.
It should have. She had a crew, and people, and problems she could not ignore.
But Z.
Z.
She was getting a second chance. It wasn’t too late. For once, it wasn’t too late.
She shuddered against him, relaxing slightly when he squeezed her.
But she was Rune Alexander, and she had responsibilities.
There were others she loved.
Choices. Always choices.
She could stay with Z, who would forget the Rune from before but could start a new life, a new memory with her there, in the new world.
Or she would leave him to his fading memories and go back to save her people. Her world.
But that thought was fleeting and its hold was timid.
No. She would not leave him.
Could not.
She stepped out of his arms but devoured his face with a stare she knew was full of joy and love and other soft, emotional things only other people ever felt.
“I know,” he murmured.
His beautiful eyes were brimming with the same softness, love, and desperation surely overflowing from hers.
But then, his always had been.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“We need to go,” Blue interrupted, her voice holding a little surprise and maybe more than a little anger.
Rune understood that the other woman didn’t see her as the bad motherfucker Z had made her out to be.
Not yet.
Rune glanced down at Nadaline. “Get up.”
Nadaline stood, but the hope in her face never dimmed. “I’m so thankful you’re here, Princess.”
“Don’t call me Princess,” Rune said. “I don’t like it. I don’t want it. Don’t let it come out of your fucking mouths again.”
Blue’s grin lit up her eyes. “You got it.”
Rune gave her a sharp nod. “So let’s get started.”
“The hunt will begin,” Z said. “For you. Damascus won’t give up until you’re…” But he couldn’t finish.
Rune grinned. “I’m immortal, baby. I can’t die.”
“It’s already begun,” Nadaline said. “Can’t you feel it?”
They were all silent for a long moment, listening, waiting, feeling.
And it felt dark.
But for Rune, there was something deeper.
The world of Skyll embraced her, held her the way she imagined a loving mother might hold her child.
She was home.
And home loved her.
“Yeah,” Rune said. “I feel it. And when I first arrived I saw it. Are you saying it will get worse than what I’ve already seen?”
Her three companions glanced at each other.
Finally, “Yes,” Z said, quietly. “What you saw has become normal life in Skyll. It’ll get worse. It’ll get…”
“Frantic,” Blue finished for him. “Hysterical.”
“Rivers of blood will flow.” Nadaline’s voice was flat, her gaze distant, as though she listened to long-silenced voices. “It will get bloody.”
“Agitated,” Blue said.
Rune took Z’s hand, unable to help herself. “I’m here to help calm it the fuck down.”
Blue frowned, but there was no accusation in her voice when she spoke. “You’re the reason for the turbulence and blood, redeemer.”
“No. Damascus is responsible for that. I’m responsible for ending it.”
Nadaline held a hand up, as though silently begging Rune not to get angry for what she was about to say. “Some people