there by her own hand.
“You recognize it.” Not a question.
“Nope.”
“You have one exactly like it.”
“Nope.”
“It’s the mark of the Daughters of Aset.” She opened
her mouth for another denial, but his cold glare stopped
174
SINS OF THE HEART
her. “It’s carved in your forearm and it was burned into
the ground where my brother was butchered.” He
paused to let that revelation sink in. “Know anything
about that?”
“Nothing.” And this time, she wasn’t lying or hedging. What he’d just told her was news to her. Definitely not good news. She’d known a bastardized,
inverted version of Aset’s mark had been tattooed in the
dead reaper’s skin. But she hadn’t known about it being
burned into the ground.
Guess she’d been right. Letting him ask his questions had definitely given her some answers.
Was Calliope aware of any of this? Maybe. Maybe not.
And, of course, Roxy couldn’t discount the possibility
that the Asetian Guard had actually killed and skinned
the reaper in the first place, though she couldn’t see a
purpose to such action. If they had done it, though, it
would have been nice if they’d mentioned that small fact.
Fuck.
She set her jaw and kept her mouth shut.
Stalemate. He stared at her. She stared at him.
At length, he asked, “Whose pendant is this?”
“I dunno.” But she did. And the knowledge brought
an ache to her chest.
