“The best way to do that would be to prove she was involved and arrest her,” Hedley pointed out.
“It would be, but we need to catch her in the act.It’s the only way to prove to everyone that she’s involved.I’m sure that she’d be able to get out of anything else.”
Rune relaxed back in his chair.He’d done his job and told Killian what was going on.He wanted to know what Killian would do about Pearl, but he wouldn’t be involved in that.That was perfectly fine with him.He didn’t have the stomach to go after Pearl.She terrified him.
He really hoped she would never become queen.
Chapter Eight
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RUNE HAD THOUGHT THINGSwould go back to normal once Twig, Yorga, and Ash recovered.They’d all been released from the infirmary within a week, and Palmer had finally gone home to sleep in his own bed.Life should have returned to its usual rhythm, with Rune watching over Palmer as he researched dragon physiology, Palmer buried in his books and notes, and both of them existing in comfortable silence.
Except things hadn’t gone back to normal.Not really.
Something had shifted between them.Rune couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was, but he felt it every time they were in the same room.The space between them felt smaller.Palmer smiled more easily now, and Rune found himself smiling back without thinking about it.They’d started sharing meals more often, not just when Palmer forgot to eat, but because it seemed natural and they both wanted to.
Rune told himself it was just because they’d been through something together.They’d solved a mystery and saved lives.Of course that would bring them closer.It didn’t mean anything more than that.
No matter how big his crush on Palmer was.
He was thinking about it as he sat across from Palmer in the library.He was supposed to be reading a book on dragon metabolism while Palmer took notes from another book.Rune had read the same paragraph three times without absorbing a single word.His attention kept drifting to Palmer instead.
Palmer’s hand moved across the page in smooth, confident strokes, his handwriting surprisingly neat for someone who wrote as quickly as he did.Rune watched the way Palmer’s fingers were curled around the pen, the slight flexing of his wrist as he formed each letter.There was something mesmerizing about it, the way Palmer’s entire focus narrowed down to that single contact between pen and paper.
Palmer paused mid-sentence, pen hovering above the page, and Rune realized too late that he’d been caught staring.
“Something interesting?”Palmer asked, one eyebrow raised.A smile played at the corner of his mouth.
Heat crept up Rune’s neck.“I was just—” He gestured vaguely at Palmer’s notebook.“You have nice handwriting for a doctor.”
Palmer’s smile widened, and Rune wanted to sink through the floor.Nice handwriting?That was the best he could come up with?
“Thank you,” Palmer said, his tone suggesting he knew that wasn’t what Rune had been thinking about.“My professors used to complain they couldn’t read my notes, so I had to work on it.”
Rune nodded and dropped his gaze back to his book, actually determined to read this time.He was aware of Palmer watching him.He could feel the weight of his attention like a physical thing, almost a stroke along his skin.The silence that had always been comfortable between them suddenly felt charged with something that made Rune’s heart beat faster.
“Rune,” Palmer said quietly.
Rune looked up.Palmer was still watching him, but the teasing smile had faded into something softer and more uncertain.
“Yeah?”
Palmer opened his mouth, then closed it again.He looked down at his notes, then back up at Rune.“Nothing.Never mind.”
But it wasn’t nothing.Rune could see it in the way Palmer’s grip on his pen had tightened and in the slight flush on his cheeks that matched the one that Rune was sure was visible on his own face because he could feel its warmth.Whatever this was between them, Palmer felt it, too.
The realization should have scared Rune.Getting involved with Palmer would be complicated at best, dangerous at worst.Killian had brought Palmer here to work, not to get tangled up with the king’s half-brother.And Pearl was still a threat.The last thing either of them needed was more complications.
But when Palmer went back to his notes and Rune caught himself watching those hands again, he couldn’t bring himself to look away.Maybe complications weren’t always bad.Maybe some things were worth the risk.
Palmer glanced up and caught him staring again.This time, neither of them looked away.
* * * *
PALMER HEADED BACKto the infirmary, leaving behind the library.He wanted to stay there with Rune, and not only because they were researching wolfsbane and its effects on dragons.Something had shifted between him and Rune, and Palmer knew exactly what it was.
He just wasn’t sure what to do about it.
