Page 104 of Bitten & Burned
When I saw it, I nearly dropped her.
I froze. Couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe.
“She’s marked, she’s ours, she’s marked, she’s ours…”
My head turned towards the girl in the corner.
She was curled into herself, rocking like she wasn’t in her body. Still whispering. Still twitching.
I swallowed hard. Tried to steady my voice and failed.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
She didn’t even blink. Just kept chanting.
“She’s marked, she’s ours…”
My blood roared in my ears.
“Tell me your name, freak!” I snapped.
That got her attention. She flinched, blinking up at me as if she’d only just noticed I was there.
“Lady,” she said. “They call me Lady.”
“Last name.”
She grinned. Wide and cracked.
“Ashborne.”
I knew she was going to say it. But it still hit me like a godsdamned brick.
It was on my back. This entire time…
I lay Rowena down on the ground, standing and going to the three I’d decimated. I rolled each over, pulling up shirts to see the brands on their backs.
Just like mine. Branded just like me. And now…
I glanced back at Rowena on the floor.
The sight of each one made me feel more crazed. Like I could throw myself over the railing into the ocean. Like I could scrub my skin off and still not be clean.
Gods, the way she smelled—sweet, but rotten. That’s why. That had to be why.
I looked at Lady Ashborne in the corner. “Do you know me?”
Her eyes were glazed over as she looked. I could have sworn I saw one lazily drift to the left.
She shrugged. “I don’t know who you are, but I know youhave one, too. I can smell it on you.” She laughed. “You’re ours too. Not like her. You’re one of us. But she’s ours.” Her laugh bubbled up again.
I saw red. I rose. I moved.
I snapped her neck like the first one.
I was panting when I heard something. Someone at the stairs. Smelled like chocolate and bergamot.Anton. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. He was going to…
I dove back to the ground beside Rowena, pulled her into my arms again, and tried to drive out the vision of what I’d seen on her thigh.
