water,” Rune said, grabbing a bucket. She placed the hat on Owen’s covered abdomen. “There any supplies in the pantry?”
Lex was rummaging around inside the freestanding cabinet. “There are some potatoes, old but edible, some dry beans, two turnips, onions with green things growing out of them, what looks like a bag of flour, and a bucket of…what is that?”
Strad peered into the can. “Lard.”
“Lard?”
He grinned. “Yup.”
It took them less than a half hour to get the fire going, water bucket filled, and to be assured by Cree that she could easily make a pot of soup for them to eat.
Or for her to eat, if Owen stayed unconscious.
“Wonder why he’s not waking up,” Lex murmured, staring down at the nearly unrecognizable cowboy. “He looks…he looks so bad.”
“You should have seen him when I first took him from Dray. He’s healed a lot since then.” Uncomfortable, she fiddled with her gun. “I fed him.” She shot a quick look at Strad. “Before I lost my monster. I’d have fed you by now if I could have.”
He grinned. “I’m good, sweetheart.”
She stared, drinking in the sight of him, letting the realization that he was really there sink in.
She’d half-forgotten how big he was, how his dark hair streamed over his muscles, how the look in his eyes could be hard or soft depending on whether or not he was looking at her…
“Strad,” she said. That was all, but it made him stride across the room and pull her into his arms.
She leaned into him, holding his big body close to hers.
But when he would have kissed her, she automatically turned her face away. Hadn’t even known she was going to. Just…
“Can’t,” she whispered. “Not here.”
She’d thought she’d do whatever she wanted, have whomever she chose. But the only one she could think about was Z.
Once upon a time he’d had to watch as she’d taken other men. She’d rejected him and his love, and she had taken other fucking men.
She had hurt him, so very, very much.
She wouldn’t do it again. Not in his world.
Strad’s frown was fleeting. “Rune?”
“Go,” Cree said. “You’re delaying the inevitable. The sooner you defeat the witch, the better.” But she watched only Strad.
She wasn’t wrong.
Rune nodded and squeezed Strad once before releasing him. “Let’s go.”
They closed the door, listening as Cree locked it behind them, but Rune frowned and pushed her palm against her stake scars.
“What is it?” Strad asked.
“I’m not sure. I have a bad feeling about the two of them.” She knelt beside Grim and buried her fingers in the thick fur behind his ears. “Grim. Guard them for me.”
His tongue came out as he panted, but he never took his stare from hers. A stare eerily like Sorrow’s.
“Will you guard them?” she asked.
He got up and went to the door, then looked back at her.
“He wants inside,” Lex said.
Strad rapped his knuckles against the door. “Open the door, Cree.”
She opened it. “What’s wrong?”
“Grim is going to stay with you. He’ll protect you,” Rune said. “Feed him some of that stew.”
The big dog slipped inside, and Rune’s gut eased. “She’ll be safe now.”
“And Owen,” Lex said.
“I don’t care about Owen.”
Lex studied her for a few tense seconds. “Right. You don’t care about Owen.” But her eyebrows were nearly lost in her hairline.
“He poisoned you, Lex. Nearly killed you.”
“Maybe it was something he had to do.”
Rune clenched her fists. “God, Lex! Murdering a world of Others was something he had to do? What the hell?”
“Did he explain why?”
“He said it was to bring me here to destroy the fucking witch before she killed the worlds.”
Lex nodded. “He’s one of us, Rune. We’ve all done stupid, selfish shit. We’ve all done things we thought we had to do. We’ve all kept secrets. And we’ve all done things for the…” She shrugged, then smiled. “For the greater good. Can you tell me Owen had only evil intentions for anything he did? Can you tell me you truly don’t trust him not to hurt you?”
“He let the baby be taken.”
“That baby has its own destiny, Rune. The baby is not yours.”
“I don’t know who you are,” Rune murmured, shocked and not a little hurt.
“Yeah,” Lex argued, “you do. I’m Lex, I’m a demon, and I’m one of yours. And I can tell you right now that I would release worse poison than rot upon the world of Others if I thought for one fucking second it would decimate the evil that is my mother. So Owen’s intentions to