Rune watched as Laila used her gun to lift the ring Alex gave her out from beneath her collar. It dangled in the air, catching the light.
Rune tried to seize it, but her arms were pinned, and Laila beat her to it. The girl’s fist closed around the silver band. She yanked hard, breaking the chain, and handed it over to Gideon.
From the way his jaw clenched, she knew he recognized it immediately.
Rune felt like the world was falling apart around her. This wasn’t how she’d wanted him to find out.
“You’re engaged to him?”
He looked like he’d been punched in the stomach.
“I was going to tell you.” Rune pulled one arm free and stepped toward him, her fingers brushing his sleeve. “Gideon …”
He flinched away from her, as if she’d burned him. His eyes blackened as they met hers.
“Never touch me again.”
Rune shrank back, feeling something wither inside her.
But why should she cower? He was the one who’d tricked her into falling in love with him. He was the one consumed by hate. He was the one handing her over to be slaughtered.
Rune straightened. “That’s right. I am engaged to him. Your brother is twice the man you’ll ever be.”
The hurt in his eyes was unmistakable.
“You know what?” Stepping close, he took her hand and shoved the ring onto her finger. “Keep it.”
For some strange reason, the gesture made Rune want to burst into tears.
“We’re done here,” he said, brushing past her. “Arrest the Crimson Moth.”
She watched him walk away, the soldiers parting before him. Watched the door slam as he trod outside, leaving her at the mercy of witch hunters.
As if he couldn’t bear to breathe the same air as her for another second.
FIFTY-SIX
GIDEON
GIDEON SMASHED RUNE’S VIAL on the cobbles, watching the rain wash the blood away.
He couldn’t stop thinking about his mother’s ring on that chain around her neck. A ring he’d given Alex for safekeeping.
Alex had proposed to Rune. And Rune had accepted him.
You are a fucking fool, he told himself as he mounted his horse.
Of course none of it had meant anything. Of course he didn’t mean anything. Not to her. It was all a game, and though he supposed he’d won in the end, somehow, he’d still come out with nothing.
She’d chosen Alex.
And who wouldn’t?
Your brother is twice the man you’ll ever be.
The words turned Gideon’s heart to stone.
Why did it even matter? She was the Crimson Moth—a perpetual thorn in his side for two years now. A fucking witch.
He’d been deceived a second time. He’d opened himself up only to be skewered again. He’d believed in the girl Rune pretended to be. He’d allowed himself to hope. To think that maybe they could have something beautiful together. Something good.
Was there some flaw in Gideon that made him so naive? So susceptible to deception?
He ran a hand across his face, swiping off rain droplets. When Laila had finally secured the witch in restraints, shoving her out of his parents’ old shop and dragging her onto a horse, Gideon couldn’t bring himself to look at Rune. He stared straight ahead as he led them through the storm to the center of town, toward the purging platform standing in the main square, where Seraphine’s execution was soon to take place.
Now, a second witch would join her.
Lightning flashed as they arrived, illuminating the beams of the platform. A crowd had already gathered, waiting for the purgings to start.
Gideon tried to harden his pathetic heart against what came next. He should be celebrating his capture of a notorious criminal. This witch had been his obsession for two years. Hunting her down, putting her to death, seeing justice finally done.
She was the reason he got out of bed every morning.
But now that he had her, and justice was at hand, all he felt was hollow.
“Gideon!”
His brother’s voice made his head turn sharply, searching the crowd. He spotted Alex in the distance. Rain plastered his blond hair to his head as he pushed through the bodies.
Gideon swung down from his horse.
“What the hell are you doing?” Alex shouted, drenched with rain.
“What am I doing?”
Alex pushed past Gideon, moving for Rune, who was still mounted on Laila’s horse. “Let her go.”
Gideon grabbed his brother’s lapel and swung him back. “Watch yourself, brother. You’re on dangerous ground.”
Alex glared at him, his normally gentle eyes full of fury. He jabbed his finger in Rune’s direction while the crowd hissed and spat at her. “You’re perfectly fine with this?”
Keeping himself between his brother and the Crimson Moth, Gideon repeated something Bart Wentholt once said: “Someone has to do the dirty work of protecting you from dangerous witches.”
“She’s not a dangerous witch!” Alex shouted in his face. “She’s an innocent girl!”
“Innocent?” Gideon almost laughed. “She’s bewitched you, Alex.”
She’s bewitched us both.
“Would you look at yourself, for once!” Rain ran in rivulets down Alex’s face. “This warped sense of justice is destroying you!” He shook his head, sending droplets flying. “You’re about to murder the girl I love. Don’t you see how messed up that is?”
Gideon’s hands fisted.
“She’s a witch, Alex.” His voice was as cold as the gray sky overhead. “Sympathizing with them is an offense punishable by death.”
Alex lifted his chin, defiant. “Arrest me, then.”
The words landed like a blow. After all these years spent trying to protect Alex, his little brother was throwing Gideon’s sacrifices back in his face.
“Don’t be a fool,” Gideon said. He had an overwhelming urge to grab his little brother and drag him away. Lock him inside some closet until this was all over. Possibly never let him out. For Alex’s own sake.
His brother’s eyes were bright fire. Staring Gideon down, he shouted loud enough for the entire crowd to hear: “I knew she was the Crimson Moth and I didn’t tell you!”
“Alex,” Rune interrupted from behind them both. “Don’t do this.”
Gideon’s heart twisted as he watched their eyes meet. Heard the tremble in Rune’s voice as she said, “Please, please walk away.”
“Heed her,” said Gideon.
Alex stared at her. “I’m sorry, Rune, if you think I’m going to stand here quietly and watch you die, you’re an idiot.” Turning his back on both his fiancée and his brother, he addressed the bloodthirsty crowd. “I helped her steal witches from my brother’s prison cells! I helped smuggle criminals off this godforsaken island! I’m guilty!”
His eyes flashed as he turned back to Gideon. “Now arrest me.”
Gideon’s jaw clenched. Alex had declared in no uncertain terms that he was an enemy of the Republic. A witch sympathizer.
He knew what he had to do.
But Alex was his little brother, and it was Gideon’s job to keep him safe at all costs.
“Captain,” Laila said softly. “If you don’t, I will.”
She held out a set of iron shackles, the chains clinking in the wind. Alex held out his fists, waiting. Daring Gideon to do the unthinkable.
But Gideon had a sworn duty: to root out witches and their sympathizers. To prevent them from ever rising again to wreak their tyranny on the innocent. It was his purpose. His calling.
So, with his heart breaking in his chest, Gideon took the cold chains from Laila and locked them around his little brother’s wrists.
FIFTY-SEVEN
RUNE
THE WITCH MANACLES RESTED heavily in Rune’s lap, the cold iron enclosing her hands from wrist to fingertip, ensuring she couldn’t cut herself or draw a spellmark.
Thunder rumbled overhead as she looked out over the crowd. Many of those spitting on her, cursing her, demanding she pay for her crimes with her life, were the same people who’d once sat around her table and danced in her ballroom.
It didn’t surprise Rune.
These people had never been her friends.
In one sense, it was a relief. Rune didn’t have to pretend anymore. They finally knew what she was. She cared about Alex, though, who now faced certain death. Whose own brother would deliver him to it.