Page 109 of Marked
As a human I wasn’t the best person, stealing from people who needed every dime they saved.
But I never wanted to do it. I wanted to help people. To lift them up where no one ever did with me.
Ruin just gave me an opportunity to try again. To maybe be better this time around.
Can I really be mad?
“I know you are weirded out, and you have every right to be. But he did it for the right reasons. He did it to save you when he couldn’t save her,” Caine says softly.
Arrow.
I wince. “Oh yeah. So, I’m the replacement for his dead almost wife.”
“Lilah...” he grumbles. “He didn’t care for her like he does you.”
That makes me look at him.
With the top down, the warm summer air whips his dark hair around his head like a halo of jagged locks. He shifts gears smoothly, and we glide through traffic.
“How do you know?” I ask.
He shrugs, winces with the motion, and stops. “I’m Asmodean, but we can sense things besides lust. We sense passion, chemistry, love.” He checks his mirror before getting over. “And when he talks about her, there is none of that. But I saw how he looked when they brought you back. I saw the pain, the hope. And yes, the love.”
My head shakes in vehemence. “He can’t love me, Caine. It’s been like a week.”
“Time is different to a supernatural. We may not be truly immortal, but we mark the passing of time different. He may not know that is what it is yet, but it’s there.” His hellfire eyes dip to me. “Just like it’s in you.”
I flush. “No comment.”
He laughs. “Ruin is a good guy, Lilah. Better than me. And you’re the first good thing he’s had in a long time. So don’t hate him for being selfish enough to want to hang on to that. And don’t be afraid to want something just because it isn’t normal. You deserve to be happy. You both do.”
We fall into silence, and his words echo in my ears. Of all the ones at the colony house, I never expected Caine to be the one to tell me that. To cheer for us the most.
“He has marks now,” I mutter. “Like Markus’.”
“That ... is not my place to tell you. Suffice it to say, what you’re thinking they mean... You’re right.”
Marks that only a Consort can have.
Ruin is marked for me. Something almost stupidly happy breaks through me.
I was right. The sword cuts both ways.
I may be Ruin’s but he is also mine, and the marks on his body prove it. My stomach quivers at the notion.
“And you’re not railing against it?” I tease.
“I’m selfish enough to want to.” he admits. “But I can’t change myself or the situation. Can’t force you.”
I stare at the side of his face. “That is awfully not demon of you.”
He snorts. “Yeah, well ... Don’t read anything in to it.”
I grip the hard line of his forearm. “Are you okay?” I ask. “Really?”
He gives a curt nod. “I’ve had worse.” He glances at me with a slick smile. “Like the time the acrobats came through town. Now that was abenderif there ever was one.”
My eyes roll and my stomach rumbles. Loudly.
