Fallen Ward (Deepwoods Saga Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

him. The other man had walked so heavily that it was a wonder he didn’t leave craters in the ground with every step. Something had prompted Rune to get up and go after him, but even as he stood just behind Wolf, watching him, he wasn’t sure what. Maybe it was friendship. Maybe he’d finally gotten a handle on that elusive ‘sympathy’ or maybe it was something entirely different.
    “What, Rune.” Wolf remained slumped in on himself, facing the ground, not lifting his head at all as he said those flat words.  
    Not quite knowing what to say yet, Rune sank down to sit next to him, their shoulders brushing. He looked up toward the sky, watching a few thin clouds float past, as he tried to form the words he felt welling up in his chest. Instead of saying something in an attempt to comfort, as he’d seen Siobhan do, a question came out.
    “When Siobhan goes into a place that you know is dangerous, and you can’t go with her, how do you feel?”
    Wolf made a sound that was half-growl, half-groan. “Kiō, I’m in no mood to answer such questions.”
    Rune normally would have gotten up and left at that point, but he only half-heard Wolf’s response. A strange certainty had come over him, a sense of self-discovery, and he felt like he had to keep talking to get a proper look at it. “Does it make you feel like you can’t take a proper breath? Like someone has a hand around your heart and has squeezed it hard?”
    Because their shoulders were just touching, he felt it when Wolf went taut. Slowly, his head lifted enough that he could turn and meet Rune in the eyes. “Is that how you feel when Siobhan goes into danger?”
    “No,” Rune denied with a simple shake of the head. “Denney.” So those moments of terror came hand in hand with loving someone? He’d thought it was just his dark background that made him prone to think of every worst case scenario. Well, maybe he shouldn’t use Wolf as a gauge, considering he also had a bad background. Re-thinking that, Rune added, “Well, I do when any of you go into danger, a little. Makes my heart thump hard. But it’s always the worst with Denney.”
    Coming out of his bad mood, Wolf stopped slumping and instead leaned back, putting his shoulders against the door behind them. “You know why it’s the worst with her?”
    Rune was used to those questions from Wolf. Tran and Fei did it to him too. They always asked a question, making him think about things, so he learned on his own why he felt what he did. At first it had bothered him, but now he understood that they weren’t feeding him the answers because it was better for him to learn it on his own. So he didn’t feel annoyed when Wolf asked him this, and just answered it bluntly.
    “It’s because I love her.”
    Wolf’s head snapped around so fast his neck cracked.
    Rune found this reaction amusing and chuckled. “Look at that face. What, you didn’t think I know what it’s like to love someone? Wait, you really didn’t, did you. I’m insulted. What, did you think because I grew up the way I did, I couldn’t feel love for someone else?”
    “No, kiō, it wasn’t so much that,” Wolf denied. His tone said otherwise, though.
    Snorting, Rune shot him a look that said he didn’t believe that for a second. “It was Siobhan that first taught me, y’know. How to love someone. She taught me family love, and friendship. The rest of you did, too. But it was watching Markl and Sylvie that let me figure out that how I felt when I was near Denney was different.”
    Wolf used a palm to scrub his face, hard, several times. It seemed that Rune’s confession had startled him badly. Finally, he found his tongue enough to ask, “How long?”
    “How long, what? Have I felt this way? Or have I known?”
    “Both.”
    Rune pondered this question and found he couldn’t answer the first part. Trying to pinpoint a specific time was impossible. So he went for the second. “I think it was about two months or so ago.