by Laken Cane
She stood in the circle of his arms and finally, Strad, Owen, and Lex slipped up beside them, and they all huddled in a circle of misery and pain until the graveyard was full of people.
Nikolai, with Fie at his side, walked through the gates. Four of his Army walked at his back, and after Fie had nodded and smiled at Rune and the berserker, one of the captains lifted her to his shoulders.
Fie was exactly where she wanted to be, and no despair, no sadness, no heartbreak lurked in her big eyes.
Rune looked at Nikolai. “Ready to go?”
“I am, Princess,” Nikolai said. “Thank you. I owe you. I won’t forget this.”
She couldn’t really care, when those she loved most in the world were staying behind.
She nodded and then glanced at the captain. “Take care of Fie.”
“Princess,” he said, smiling, “she will take care of us.”
And it was time.
She climbed the rock and stood quietly until the cemetery was as silent as it would ever be.
Those who wanted to be close to her for whatever reason—support, love, the hope of hitching a ride with her back to her world—climbed the rock and stood at her back.
Z, Strad, Owen, Lex, Roma, Nikolai.
Grim.
Part of her crew.
Most of her heart.
Cree Stark stayed on the ground with the Skyllians, but her stare was not on Rune. She watched the berserker.
“I’m going home,” Rune started. She waited for the disappointed murmur to quieten before she continued.
“I’ve been told that it’s my responsibility to appoint a leader. Someone to oversee the shimmer lords. I’ll give you the man I think is qualified to lead you until you decide to either elect someone else or…” She sighed and pushed her hair back. She didn’t want to stand there talking. Everything was catching up to her.
The reality. She was going home.
She was going home and she was losing Z. The berserker. Owen. Lex.
“Oh, God.” She put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, God.”
They all stepped forward, her people, and she felt them there at her back. Warm, supportive. Loving her.
Forsaking her.
She immediately felt guilty for the thought. But that didn’t make it any less true.
She swallowed hard and forced herself to continue.
“The man I choose to guide you will always look out for the good of Skyll. He won’t allow anything or anyone to come between him and his world.” She pulled a small box from her pocket.
She turned to Owen Five, took his arm, and pulled him to stand beside her.
“Rune,” he asked, his face, beneath the brim of his hat, confused. “Rune?”
“You’ve lived in hell,” she said. “You deserve a taste of paradise.” She opened the box and guided his fingers to the precious contents. “I got your eyes back. Take them.”
“Go on,” she prompted, when he stood unmoving. “Take your eyes and lead your people. It’s your dream, cowboy.”
“You are my dream,” he whispered. “I wanted this with you. You’re making me choose between Skyll and the love of my life?”
She nodded, even though he couldn’t see her. “It always comes down to choices. Hard fucking choices. Make the right one, Owen.”
Slowly, his hands shaking, he pulled his eyes from the lined box, and turned away from her to put them back where they belonged.
She reached up to run her fingers through the waterfall of his straight hair as it flowed over his back. “Owen,” she said, too low for anyone to hear her.
And then Strad took her hand and pulled her to him. “Someday we’ll see each other again, Rune.”
She just stared up at him and let him believe whatever he needed to believe in order to leave her. “What about your addiction? What about my blood?”
“I don’t know. But it isn’t your blood that makes me want to go with you. It’s you. It’s been you for so fucking long.”
She nodded. “You weren’t surprised when I chose Owen as their ruler.”
His face was pale against the black of his hair, and his eyes held nothing that she could see but anguish. “Matthew already told me what you would do. He asked me to protect his shimmer lord against Owen, if it comes to that.”
“It will come to that,” she said. “I didn’t kill Brasque myself because Owen is the one he tortured. Owen can decide what happens to Brasque Dray.”
“We will see.”
“Don’t stay, Berserker. Please, don’t stay.”
“My child asked me to. I have to stay for him.”
“He’s not a child. He’s not really even Matthew. No more than Fie is Fie.”
“He needs me, Rune.”
“I need you,” she shouted, then lowered her voice. “He doesn’t. He and his lord want to use you.” Then she shook her head. “Don’t they?”
He softened his stare. “No.”
“Fuck you, Berserker.” She burst into tears and he pulled her against his chest, his own eyes wet. “You swore you’d never leave me. You swore that.”
“I’m sorry.” His voice was hoarse. “But I’m not leaving you, sweetheart. You’re leaving me.”
She wanted to stay, so very badly. Almost as badly as she wanted him to go with her.
There was nothing left to say.
She moaned and pulled away from him, wiping bloody tears from her face. He’d made his choice.
And she’d made hers.
She turned to Z. She needed him to be the last thing she saw before she left.
Z, the love her of her life.
He’d once chosen death over her.
But right then, he was the only one who would have chosen her over all else.
She held his hand, held it as hard as she dared.
She looked at him, and everything faded away.
Everything but his face, his touch. “Stay with me, Z.” She touched her chest. “Stay with me in here.”
“Always,” he swore. “Always, sweet thing. I won’t leave you.”
The people were shouting and clapping, and their happiness should have been contagious. But she couldn’t manage so much as a smile.
“Rune,” Lex said, her voice so thick Rune could barely understand her words. “Tell the twins I love them. Tell them I will find my way back, someday. Tell them.”
She nodded.
Lex’s demon was hers to call. She could have forced the little Other to go back with her.
But she wouldn’t.
Shiv Crow screamed and Rune turned her eyes upward, watching him come. He would go with her.
She stepped away from them all and buried her fingers in Grim’s thick coat. Roma took her hand. “I will go where you go, Princess. Forever, I will be your shadow, your champion, your protector.”
Rune did smile, then, but she couldn’t see through the blood obscuring her vision.
“Goodbye,” she whispered. “Goodbye, my friends.”
She kept her gaze locked with Z’s as she finally, finally, let herself listen for the sounds that would take her home.
She didn’t see the sky hand but the air changed, grew heavy and dark, and the world began to gently fade. She heard screams of “the hand, the hand!” and vaguely realized the people were scrambling for cover.
They wouldn’t have seen the hand snatch her up.
She didn’t see it, either.
Z’s face was the last thing she saw before the echoes took her.
Before the hand took her.
And just like that, leaving behind pieces of herself that she would never, ever get back, Rune Alexander went home.
Home.
About Laken Cane
Laken Cane is an urban fantasy writer living in Southern Ohio. Shiv Crew is her debut book, followed by Blood and Bite, Strange Trouble, Obsidian Wings, New Regime, the Rune Alexander short, Shadows Past, and Wormwood Echoes, and The Witch’s Daughter.
She is currently working on book eigh
t in the Rune Alexander series.
Places you can find Laken:
www.facebook.com/laken.cane.3
www.twitter.com/lakencane
www.lakencane.com and
www.facebook.com/groups/shivcrew, her very friendly and active fan page.
From the author—
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Thank you!
Laken
