That could only mean one thing. Rune had a pretty good idea why I’d come to this island.
5
FRIDA
“So tell me how you came to live on the Floating Forest,” I said, after polishing off the rest of the food. My stomach was full now, and the warmth of the cottage had soothed some of my nerves. At the end of the day, I had to embrace my new plan, whether or not Rune suspected me. I’d already fucked up my mission—at least in the way the guild liked to do things.
That didn’t mean I’d failed yet. All I had to do was convince Rune I wasn’t here for the reasons he thought. He had no evidence against me, nothing but a hunch. I’d just have to prove that hunch wrong.
Rune leaned back in his chair, folding his arms over his chest. “I was about to ask you the same thing.”
“Me? But I don’t live here.”
“You do now, don’t you? Most people who come to the Floating Forest are looking for a new life, a new home, and a fresh beginning. I figured you were the same. Otherwise, why’d you end up on this island?”
He was testing me. Rune clearly thought nothing of the sort.
“I only got here last night. I haven’t seen enough to know if I want to live here permanently.”
He nodded. “But you’re considering it?”
“I…well, I suppose so.” It seemed like the best excuse.
“Then you’re running away from something,” he said, his brown eyes sharpening on my face.
I frowned. “That’s a leap.”
“Is it? Why would a beautiful elf like yourself come here alone if she wasn’t running from something in her past? You would have had to leave everything behind. Your home, your friends. Your family.”
His words were hitting far too close to home. Years ago, Ihadrun from my life and left everything behind. Everything I’d always known. Everyone I’d loved. At the time, I’d been desperate to put as much space between me and my past—myfamily’spast—as possible, hoping that I could leave it in the dust. But it had caught up with me in the end.
“You sound like you’re speaking from experience,” I countered. “Does that mean you were running from something?”
His face clouded over, and the scowl returned. Interesting. I’d been trying to take the attention off me, but I’d landed on a truth he didn’t want me to know. Runehadfled from something. He was hiding on this island, hoping he’d never get caught. Despite these cozy lodgings, his past held as much darkness as mine did. I was right to suspect there was more to him than met the eye.
Rune heaved a sigh. “I suppose you’re right. I did run, same as anyone else who ends up here. I made a mistake once and angered the wrong person. It’s haunted me all my life.”
I sat back in my chair, my heart pounding. I hadn’t expected him toactuallyanswer. “What happened?”
“I’ve said enough already. It’s not something I like to talk about,” he said gruffly. “Least of all with a stranger.”
I pressed my lips together, deciding not to push. At least not yet. If I moved too quickly, those walls of his would raise right back up again.
I cleared my throat. “I get it. I’ve never talked to anyone about my own…issues.”
That, at least, was the truth. No one but my family and the other guild members knew about my desertion and subsequent return. A few of my forest neighbors had asked me about my childhood, my family, and my past, but I’d conjured up lies as explanations. I didn’t know how to tell people I’d been born into a family of killers—which meant I was a killer, too. Death swirled in my blood.
Everyone back home—sweet Maella with the flowers in her hair and old Aster who liked to sit on his porch, rocking back and forth and watching the day drift by—weren’t like me. If I’d told them the truth, they never would have seen me as anything but an assassin. Someone to avoid at all costs. As it was, they’d been my only friends for so long I hadn’t wanted to scare them away. Because of the miles between us, we already went weeks between visits. If the years passed without contact, my unending loneliness would become unbearable.
Of course, that was no longer the case. I had the guild now.
Rune nodded slowly. “I’ve never told anyone the details about my past, either. Most people here know I’ve got something that haunts me, but they don’t know what it is. I intend to keep it that way.”
I cocked my head. “You’re being awfully candid now, for someone who claims he doesn’t like to talk.”
He waved my words away. “I’d hardly call this candid. All I’ve told you is that I’ve got something, but that’s hardly surprising. Like I said before, everyone here’s running.”
I nodded.
