Page 40 of Blood Marked

The letter came folded into her linens.

No seal. No signature.

Just a cream-colored scrap tucked into her nightclothes like a secret. As if the sender knew she’d be the only one to find it. Knew that she’d read it alone, with shaking fingers and her heart clawing at her ribs.

Her name was written in her father’s handwriting.

That was the first blow.

The second came when she opened it.

Daughter—

I have been informed of the Mark’s manifestation. Of the ritual you are being prepared for. I fear your silence, though I understand its necessity.

You must tread carefully. I know the bloodline. I know what they want. The Houses will not protect you. Nor will the wolves who claim they do.

You are a key—more than a symbol. And they will bind you for it, Selene.

Use your proximity to Kael Fenrir. Use his desire. Use his guilt. Escape while you still can.

– E. Morwen

Selene stared at the words like they might rearrange themselves into something she could understand. Something that didn’t burn.

But they didn’t change.

Not even when she folded the letter.

Not even when her hand clenched into a fist around it.

Her father, Ambassador Elias Morwen, the man who had molded her into a diplomat from the moment she could read—had finally reached across the Veil to speak to her.

And it wasn’t to ask if she was safe.

It was to remind her that she wasn’t.

She sat on the cushioned window bench long after the suns dipped behind the Veil mountains. Her cloak wrapped around her shoulders. Her boots untouched. The hearth crackled softly in the background.

Kael hadn’t come again.

That stung more than she wanted to admit.

But this?

This letter carved out somethingdeeper.

Not because it was cruel. Her father had never been cruel. But because it wascold. Because it wasstrategic. Because he knew.

He knew about the Mark. The bond. The ceremony.

He knew things she hadn’t been told. Not by Kael. Not by the court. Not by anyone onthisside of the damn Veil.

Selene had spent days trying to make sense of what the Mark meant—why the court was circling her like vultures, why Kael burned so hot then turned to ice. She thought Kael didn’t know how to talk to her. That he was avoiding vulnerability.

But maybe he was just avoiding the truth.

Because her father had it.

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