Page 49 of A Fate In Moonstone

“Perhaps this is the Heart Tree’s punishment, my true curse.”

“What? Being tethered to me for all eternity?” I placed my hand over his chest, and he covered it with his. A steady, and thunderous heartbeat. Fluttering butterflies took space in my belly. Rune looked at me, long black lashes lowered from his gaze locking on my lips and then my hazel eyes.

His lips opened to speak. I leaned in.

Boom.

Fireworks shot into the sky and I jumped. Rune laughed, and I spent the next hour finding ways to tickle and make him smile until he left for his room.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

“Try again,” Rune said from the boulder nearby.

I was flat on the ground, staring at the clouds.

We’d been training together for four hours. I loved and hated every second. He didn’t treat me like a delicate flower, his mate to shelter.

My fingers ached from gripping the hilt of my sword too tight and every muscle burned beneath my skin from using all the powers in my well of absorbed core magic.

None of them, besides his control over earth, were offensive powers. I could create weapons with the gems at my disposal, but it wasn’t something to only rely on. Still to the day, I wasn’t able to hold the other’s gem powers for long.

Sin Verin’s soldiers were after me for some reason. Rune and I decided to add more time for training outside my normal hour here and there.

My breaths were loud and labored. “I can’t.” I probably could, but I didn’t want to.

“One more, Princess.”

My grunt was all the response he’d get.

The ground beneath me shook and slowly, as if the earth herself had hands, guided me to a standing position.

Stupid jerk.

“Rude.”

He smirked and gestured to the small boulders to my right. We’d practiced magically throwing them and catching them midair. I missed and had to dive out of the way more than a few times.

The purpose was control. The more I used the power, controlled it, the easier it’d be to take out an enemy.

Inhaling deep, the apple scent from the orchards nearby weaved into my body. The dirt under my boot crunched as I dug the ball of my toes further in. I closed my eyes and lifted my hand like Rune showed me. Hand gestures weren’t a necessity, but I felt more in control this way.

A heavy weight pulled at my hand, like the rock itself was magnetized to me.

“I am stone, I am a mountain.”

Rune said I needed to be steadier, stronger, more grounded than the earth. I needed to be stone, a mountain to bend it to my will.

Dirt falling to the ground and the weight giving at my behest made me smile. The rock floated in the air as I opened my eyes, and I didn’t hesitate to fling it at my pleased mate.

He caught it, spun it like a ball over his finger, then shot it toward me.

“I am stone.” I breathed and widened my stance. I’ve stopped it before. I could do it again.

The rock wobbled, and slowed as I exhaled, then flopped to the ground with a loud thud.

I pointed to it with a smile. “That counts.” Technically, I stopped it. It wasn’t still floating in the air, and I didn’t get hit or have to jump out of the way.

Rune hopped off his boulder and raced to me. His large hands wrapped around my waist and lifted me into the air to spin me around.