I clenched my jaw. His words cut through me, mostly because he was right. The entire reason we were on this path was so that I could return to the guild without consequences. He was helping mebecomethe very thing I wanted to pretend I wasn’t.
“Maybe I plan to ask for thieving assignments,” I said, nodding to myself. I’d never heard of Erik allowing members todictate the type of assignments they took on, but maybe I could convince him. A dragon was an incredible prize, after all.
“I don’t think you need me to explain how unlikely that is,” Rune said. “It’s time for you to deal with the fact you’ll have to assassinate.”
I came to a sudden stop again and whirled to face him. “I thought you wanted to help me with this.”
A long stretch of silence followed, Rune’s chestnut gaze searching my face. “I do want to help you, Frida. But when I look at you, I don’t see one of them. I see a girl who’d be far better off staying on this island and starting a life she would love. I think if you go back to the guild, you’ll be miserable. And beyond that, it’ll change you.”
“You don’t know me, Rune,” I whispered up at him, my heart pounding against my ribs. “This is what I want.”
Sighing, he stepped back and motioned down the path. “After you, then. The dragon’s cave is just up ahead.”
I nodded tersely and moved past him. Rune didn’t understand—he couldn’t. As much as I liked to tease him about his solitude, he truly did enjoy his time alone. To him, my desperate need to feel a part of something probably seemed nonsensical.
It didn’t help that Arvid’s request had brought back a flood of memories. My mother had shown me how to shoot an arrow. I remembered the way she’d praised me during our sessions, loving me fiercely until the day I’d run away. And then her illness had killed her. I hadn’t even been there to hold her hand at the end of it. Even now, I still grieved for those final months I’d lost with her, just because I hadn’t been able to deal with the truth of who I was.
The path wound up the hill, leading to a rockier stretch that curled up the side of the mountain. About a quarter of the way up, a large cavern mouth yawned to our right. The dragon satjust inside the entrance, perched on his haunches. His spiked tail curled around enormous paws tipped in talons.
My breath fled from my lungs. Sunlight slanted into the cave, illuminating his glittering black scales. His head swooped to the side as he snuffed at the air, his muscular body so broad and tall that I suddenly felt inexplicably small. I had never seen anything like him, and my knees weakened at the sight. A low grumble spilled from his spiked mouth.
“Whoa, Eldi.” Rune inched in front of me, his hands outstretched. He gazed up at the dragon with an ease that suggested he’d come here a time or two before. “It’s Rune, remember? And this is Frida. She’s an elven lass from the mainland, and she’s come here to ask you for help.”
Eldi snuffed again, then turned his head away.
“Can he understand you?” I whispered.
“He’s a dragon. Of course he can understand me.”
Eldi shifted further to the side, fully turning his back on us. His tail sliced across the ground and plumes of dust filled the air. Rune edged back a few steps, his body still a shield against the dragon. And then a moment later, the dragon was gone, vanishing into the depths of the cave.
“Hmm,” I said. “It doesn’t seem like he could understand you.”
“He understood me just fine. The problem is, he doesn’t want to help you,” Rune said.
I frowned. “What, he decided, just like that?”
“I warned you it might be difficult.”
“But he didn’t even give me a chance to ask him.” I squared my shoulders, calling upon my hopeful determination that had gotten me this far. “I’ll just have to follow him and try again.”
I started toward the cave, but Rune grabbed my arm and hauled me back behind him. “Don’t do that. This is his home, and he’s basically slammed the front door in our faces. You can’tforce your way inside and expect him to change his mind. You’ll have to come back tomorrow and hope he’ll consider listening then.”
“But—”
“I told you it’d be hard and that it might take time.” His eyes softened as he caught the look of despair I knew I wore. “If you keep trying, I’m sure you can win him over. You won me over, didn’t you?”
A fluttering went through my stomach. “Did I?”
He chuckled. “Well, for the most part. I still don’t think you could draw a fence if your life depended on it.”
A heady warmth curled through my belly. And that was when I realized one of us had stepped toward the other—or maybe we both had. Only a slip of air filled the space between us, and his full lips and gleaming tusks were only inches away from my mouth. A wild thought flashed through my mind: an image of Rune pressing his body against mine, gently caressing my neck with his lips.
A delicious tremor went through me, heating me up in places where I’d not felt warmth in far too long.
Fuck.
Swallowing, I dragged my gaze away from him. I couldn’t think these kinds of thoughts. Not about Rune. Not about anyone ever again. It was one thing to ignore the guild’s rules and read a novel, drink some ale, or dance to a lovely bard’s tune. It was quite another to climb into bed with the orc they’d sent me here to hunt.
