I’ll build her a training field with no walls, just open land.
Fire dances in the reflection of my eyes, its weight forcing my fingers to spread painfully wide as it grows, jumping higher and higher until I release it. Tristen stands behind me as I set it free.
The intense heat causes the grass to curl while staying green before turning into ash. The flames happily move, looking for the shrubs that try to trap them. Leaping over the vine wall, it curls back to attack the bushes. Roses burn, the petals curl then fall like rain.
I glare at Blackthorn Castle. “You’re next.”
It happened just after I burned the field. A gift from the gods that would be magically inked into my flesh like a badge of honor not everyone could earn. My mating mark appeared.
Panic pours out of my skin, sniffling the fresh air. If Selene’s mark appeared when she was with Galen…
Why did I listen to her? I should have fought to walk by her side as he led her away.
My eyes no longer see clearly, my feet carry me so swiftly I’d win a race against flood waters.
“She’s okay,” Tristen whispers as he struggles to keep pace with me. “He wouldn’t kill her. You and I know this.”
He’s right. Galen will hunt down her mate. But that doesn’t mean he’d hurt her.
A strong odor of horse shit soon hits my boots, and the soil turns muddy. No amount of sand and hay can harden the soil of the barns. Horses whinny as sounds of boots thrash come running out of the stables.
“Hey,” Tristen grabs the back of my shirt, my chest. “That’s Galen’s horse!”
Galen. The sound of his name halts my feet.Kill him. He’s a threat to your mate. Kill him now.
A palm slaps my cheek. “Snap out of it!” Tristen grunts. “There will be no honeymoon, Titus. Get control over your actions.”
No chisel can chip away the stiffness of my muscles. “Galen is a threat,” I hiss.
Tristen kneads his fingers on my shoulders; he’s so close that all I can see are the shades of his cool-toned brown eyes. “You’re a threat to her if you can’t get your bond under control.”
Me?
The bond doesn’t like that. The bond is like another magic I have to understand. It’s like my fire, a puppy yapping for attention, but it’s got personality traits like fae magic; it wants respect.
Tristen’s hand slips into mine, and he leads me up the chipped stone steps to the guard's scouting wall. Heavy boots, the tapping of weapons gliding against the side of bodies as soldiers walk, echo and create a feeling that relaxes me.
We have to think. If Galen is here, then he wasn’t with Selene when the mark appeared. This is good. Yes, calm down. I’ll get to her, slowly, so I don’t alert anyone. I’ll keep her safe. I’ll make her mine.
Tristen guides us to the ledge of the maze-like walkway. The soldiers use this area to be Galen’s eyes and ears from above. This elevated aisle twists throughout the city like veins that direct all the infection—the gossip— to the heart: the castle.
Tristen leans over the edge. “Look,” he whispers.
My stomach arches in as I lean into the ledge. Sure enough, Galen and three dozen guards all mount up and ride for the gates.
“Where are they going?”
“I don’t know,” I whisper.
“This is good?” he wonders.
“Then why do you sound worried?”
“Selene’s alone. We have time to think.” He looks over his shoulder. “Walk normally. If we’re seen running to her rooms, word will get back to Galen.” He pivots wide like a mountain, blocking me from squeezing past him.
The walk to Selene’s tower is painfully slow, but by the time I make the final step up her stairs, the bond is shouting again.
I smack into his back. “Why the fuck is there a rose bush in her hall?” Tristen steps back; we both draw our swords. “Why does it smell like a dead body?”
