Page 63 of Blood Marked

She screamed—sharp, more from effort than fear—and raised both hands.

The airrippled.Timestuttered.And the world split open.

For a second, Kael sawthroughher. Saw stars. Sawother realms.

The assassin froze mid-strike, mouth open, eyes wide. And then hedisintegrated,turned to ash and shadow in a blink.

Kael stared. Selene dropped to her knees.

“Selene!” he shouted, catching her before she hit the ground.

Her skin was hot. Her eyes wild. Veins shimmered silver for a heartbeat before dimming.

“I’m fine,” she gasped. “I just—it’s harder now. After the last time.”

“You're not fine,” he growled. “You just melted a man into dust.”

She laughed weakly. “He had it coming.”

Kael didn’t smile this time.

The last assassin hadn’t moved. Not frozen by fear. Watching.

And when Kael stepped forward, that man smiled. Slow. Crooked. Like he knew something Kael didn’t.

“Run,” he said. And vanished.

They didn’t sleep that night.

Kael found a sheltered ridge deeper in the woods, away from the corpse-stained cave and the rot left behind.

Selene slept in fits. He held her anyway. Because something in her had changed. And something in him wasbreaking.Notjust from the betrayal of his father. Or from what the assassin had meant with his cruel smile. But from the fear that no matter how strong she was,thiswould kill her.

Or change her into something even the Veil wouldn’t recognize.

TWENTY-SEVEN

SELENE

Selene woke to the scent of moss, iron, and him.

Kael.

He was close, maybe three feet away from where she lay wrapped in a spare cloak, but he felt farther. Distant. Still and braced like a man expecting a fight.

Moonlight poured through the canopy, catching on the edges of his jaw. He sat with his elbows on his knees, back hunched, head bowed. One hand clenched a dagger. The other flexed against his thigh like it didn’t know how to be still.

His body was tense. His shoulders knotted with unspoken words.

Selene slowly sat up, careful not to startle him.

“You’re brooding again,” she said quietly.

He didn’t look at her.

But his jaw worked like he’d ground his teeth down to bone.

“You scared the shit out of me,” he said finally.

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