Page 71 of Marked By the Enemy
“What is it?” I asked.
“I ask you to let me live here with you and your friends. This Keep has a protective energy, and a fae man with black hair and golden wings told me to come here. I cannot remember why, but I remember he said I would be safe here.”
Me and my friends exchanged confused glances, but we shrugged and let it be.
Branwen stood with her palm on the hearth. The flame rose without spark. “Would you like some tea? We brought provisions from the village, and we have fermented red tea from the caves of Yunna.
“That would be lovely, thank you.” Sael tossed her braids, and I noticed her pointed fae ears.
“Who are you?” I asked as I studied the ugly half-formed marks on her forearms.
She whispered one word: “The Seventh.”
The air pulled tighter, though no one moved. The marked ones glanced at each other, then at me. Willow walked across the circle and sat beside the stranger, Sael.
I frowned. Branwen spoke first. “What does that mean? The Seventh of what?”
Sael’s eyes swept the circle, pausing only when they found mine. “I was bound after the Fifth group of rebels vanished… and after the Sixth group failed.”
Around us, the fire crackled softly, and somewhere in the orchard, a bird let out a plaintive cry.
“The Bone Seat of the Star Court tried to feed me to a demon in the Fissured Realm.”
My breath caught, but she kept going.
“He opened the red gateway and pushed me through.” She looked away, jaw clenched. “But I managed to escape—with help. The rebels in the Seventh group pulled me back.”
She touched her chest lightly, where her vowmark had once glowed. “Still… the demon took part of my soul. That’s how it happened. That’s how the demon used the Star Court’s Bone Seat as a vessel.”
A few of the marked shifted where they stood. Someone whispered, “She’s a Pure-Blood?”
Sael nodded and sighed. “That’s why I can’t walk the corridor. It won’t open to me.”
Astrid frowned. “How do you understand what’s inside it?”
Sael’s voice was calm. “Because I’ve witnessed what it does to those who can, and I’ve seen the frustration of those who cannot. The vow used to link us all so we would be compassionate about our differences and see others’ shadows to gain that compassion. But the Bone Seats twisted it.”
“We are aware of this,” Ulric said.
She accepted her beverage with a smile and sniffed the steam. “You are very well-informed. That is good. This fermented red tea smells good.”
Branwen nodded. “What did the Bone Seat do to you?”
“He fed part of my soul to his demon. That’s the piece I’m looking for.”
Fed to the demon.
No one spoke. The phrase hung there, heavier than any curse. What kind of vow allowed that? Murmurs rose, uncertain, uneasy.
“Demons, you say?” There was a nervous twitch under Darian’s eye as he crossed his arms tightly against his chest.
The Seventh nodded slowly and stared at him. “Yes, Prince Darian of the Moon Court.”
Lina set her mug of tea down on a flat stone with a thud and tied up her blonde curls anxiously. “What happens if you find this part of your soul?”
“If I can take it back, it might be the start of undoing what he’s built. We can take back the other souls he has stolen, too, without killing everyone tied to him.”
“You mean the innocents?” Rainer said. “The ones who don’t even realize they’re bound?”
