Page 62 of Their Blood Rite

‘My mother.’

He grips it.

‘I’m going to take it off, okay?’ he says.

I get the feeling his asking isn’t really asking. I nod and take a shaky breath.

He slides it off.

‘Fucking hell…’ Dorian whispers, his eyes wide as he looks at me. ‘Ronan…’

Shaw takes my chin between his fingers and lifts it. His lips are parted, and his brow furrowed as he examines me, slowly moving my face from left to right.

‘What the…’ he mutters.

Dorian lifts my left arm.

‘Look.’

They inspect my arm. When I look, my stomach drops.

‘What is that?’ I ask.

My arms are covered in scars and markings. More than one. Dozens, all over me. I pull up my sleeves, horrified to see them go higher.

‘What have you done to me?!’ I look up at them.

They stare at me like I’m a wounded animal, desperate to be put out of its misery.

‘Not us,’ Dorian says, holding up the bracelet my mother gave me, looking at it with disgust. ‘That’s one powerful glamour,Ronan.’ He sniffs it. ‘Potent earth magic created this.’ He scans the scars. ‘Who the fuck did this to you?’ he whispers so quietly, I don’t think it was even intentional.

I keep looking at my body. There are so many scars and marks on me. I remember my father pushing me down the stairs one night when he was drunk. I cut my arm so badly that he had to sew me up. I was amazed that after the cut healed, there was no scar.

But there is. A long and jagged line straight down my forearm.

And so many others.

‘I… I don’t scar…’ I manage. ‘You did this. It’s a trick.’

I never have scarred. No matter how deep the cut or hot the burn. My skin is pure and unblemished. It always has been

‘You do,’ Shaw corrects me. ‘The bracelet conceals them. You’re smothered in scars, Pixie.’ He sounds sad.

‘A glamour…’ I repeat in a hush, my brain trying hard to catch up and understand. My gaze becomes transfixed on the dark red marks like lightning under my wrist. They create an intricate pattern. ‘W-what…’

‘Those are your kindred marks,’ Archie says, biting his thumbnail. ‘Fucking hell. I don’t think I have seen so many scars on another in my entire-’

‘Enough, Archie!’ Shaw orders. ‘You can stand. I’m finished.’ He sits and looks at the two others. ‘Her earth witch mother knew what she was and hid it. Put that glamour on her to hide the blood magic Kindred.’

‘Clever. And powerful,’ Dorian says, still looking at my mother’s bracelet.

‘I need a punishment,’ I tell them in a shameful hush.

‘Sorry?’ Shaw asks with a raised brow.

‘I obeyed your command. But I need a punishment before the trigger can be ended. A punishment for needing to becommanded to obey, or in a second, I won’t be able to breathe again.’

‘What kind of punishment?’

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