She blinks, then laughs and glances down. “I don’t know. Lefty is just a tad bigger than righty, and it always bugs me.”
“What?” My brain scrambles at the gibberish that just came out of her mouth. I reach for her hand and tug her down next to me. “Let me see.” I cup both breasts and teasingly pretend to weigh them in my hands. “Nope. Not seeing it. Still damn fine.”
She giggles and squirms under me. “It’s true.”
I suck one nipple into my mouth and tease my tongue over the tip. The wriggling stops and she arches her back.
“Mmm.” I release her nipple. “Tastes perfect. Let me test the other one.”
Her whole body ripples in a sensual movement and she lets out a moan as I suck the tip into my mouth.
“God. Your mouth. Your hands. You make me feel so…alive,” she says on a breathy whisper.
She reaches up, dragging her fingers through my hair, pulling me closer.
“Oh my God!” she gasps, and not with pleasure this time. “Declan, why…what happened? Why is this…this mark brighter and why is there more of it?” Panic pulses through her questions.
I grip her wrist, careful not to touch the mark directly. The light beats in time with her pulse. “It’s spreading.”
She jerks her arm back. “Spreading? What do you meanspreading?”
I should’ve explained this to her instead of getting distracted first thing this morning.
She sits up, pressing her back to the pillows, then tugs the sheet up to her neck and curls her arms around her knees.
I rake my hand through my hair. Words taste like rust in my mouth. “It’s a tether. A piece of the Rider’s binding. When you touched me, you woke it up. It’s been climbing since.”
Her eyes widen. “Climbing to where?”
“To your heart.” The answer lands hard in the quiet room. “When it gets there, he’ll own you the same way he owns me. The curse doesn’t just mark. It claims.” I trace my fingers over the living, cursed ink on my own chest. “This isn’t decoration. It’s alive. It’s both my cage and the conduit that keeps the Rider tethered.”
Heat prickles beneath my skin like the ink resents being called what it is. Then the black lines shiver once and sink beneath the surface.
Emery flinches, wide eyes darting to my hand. “Tethered to what?”
My hand stills over my sternum. “To me. To my blood. My family was the anchor that bound him when he was first called up. Each generation inherits what’s left of the chain.” My voice roughens. “And I’m running out of links to give.”
I flex my fingers, watching the black lines ripple under my skin. “When he rides, when he claims someone, I feel it here.”
Her serious gaze remains fixed on me. “How do we end it?”
End it? No one in my family has ever tried. The Rider isn’t something you end. He’s something you survive. TheSterling Oath has always been about control. Containment. Not eliminating the Rider.
For the first time since I was branded, I want to believe the curse can be broken.
But what will it take from us first?
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Emery
Is this curse real,or should I bring Declan to the closest hospital for a psych evaluation?
The glowing green pattern around my arm makes a convincing argument forreal.
I’m still deciding whether to panic or laugh when Declan’s phone buzzes against the nightstand. He rolls away from me, muscles shifting under the sheet, and snatches it up, turning away as if to shield me from the screen.
“Lucky you,” I mutter. “My phone died and I couldn’t figure out where to plug it in.”
