Page 13 of Blood Marked

“Oh, forgive me,” she said, voice dripping poison. “I forgot I’m supposed to be demure now that I’mbranded.”

Kael growled. “Keep your voice down.”

“Why? Afraid they’ll hear the truth?”

He stepped toward her. “You knew what this was before you ever crossed the Veil.”

“I didn’t know it would bind me toyou.” Her breath hitched. “Or that I’d be dragged into a prophecy I don’t know anything about! I was here forpeace!An offering.”

“You knew the ceremony might activate something,” Kael snapped. “You knew what the Stone was. You shouldn’t have jerked your damn hand.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I wascut too deep. That was an accident. You think Iwantedthis?”

Kael opened his mouth, then shut it.

Truth was, no. He didn’t think she wanted it.

She looked too much like he felt—cornered, burning, walking on a leash fate had wrapped around both their throats.

But that didn’t change the fact that she washisnow. Bonded. Claimed by magic older than any of them She had been marked, and in turn, he was marked as well. Branded.

Andthatmeant things had changed. For both of them.

“You’re part of this now whether you want to be or not,” he said finally. “You carry the Mark. That means you’re in this with me until we figure out what the hell to do next.”

Selene folded her arms, the motion slow, deliberate. “And what exactlyisthis prophecy?”

Kael’s silence stretched long enough that she tilted her head.

“You don’t know,” she said, more quietly this time. “You don’t know either, do you?”

“I know enough,” he said. “I know it ends with someone on a throne—or dead.”

“That’s comforting.”

“It’s the truth.”

Her laugh was humorless. “You really don’t know how to handle defiance, do you?”

“I don’t have time for posturing.”

“Good,” Selene said, voice sharp and cold. “Because I’m notposturing. I’m surviving.”

Their eyes locked.

Tension coiled between them—taut, unyielding, thrumming like a live wire. Her mouth was set in a line of fury and fear. His was clenched tight against a thousand things he couldn’t say.

She wasn’t afraid of him. Not really. That was the most dangerous thing.

Because it meant she’d push.

And if she pushed too hard, he wasn’t sure whether he’d break… orsnap.

But then her posture shifted, shoulders straightening, chin lifting just a hair.

“I’ll play the part,” she said at last. “Because it keeps me alive. And because I have no choice. I didn’t come here to start a war. We want peace and right now, being binded to you will give both dominions that.”

Kael nodded once. “That’s all I need.”

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