Niall Healey walked onto the stage. He was only five years old, and his mama had been the queen. Or so the president said. He took a seat next to President Dawn.
The president nodded. “I have requested that Niall begin preparing himself to be king. His mother would’ve wanted that.”
Niall had one brown eye and one blue eye, and he was bigger than most of the other boys. Right now, he just looked sad and maybe angry. His blond hair was defiantly short for a Fae.
Mercy nodded. She was mad, too. None of this made sense.
He stood, even though the president hadn’t asked him to. He cleared his throat, and his chin wobbled. “I’ll be a good king. I promise.”
Mercy let go of her friends’ hands so she could clap along with everyone else.
Finally. Something good was going to happen.
She came to with a jerk as silence replaced the drone of the plane’s engine. They’d landed. She straightened and looked for the threat, turning to find Logan watching her. She pushed the hair away from her face and wiped her eyes. Had she broadcast while sleeping? She couldn’t let him know how dismal their numbers were. Worse yet, had she been snoring?
“You all right?” he asked, somehow looking perfectly comfortable sitting in the pilot’s seat in his tattered, dirt-covered boxer-briefs. The soft light kissed the very angled and sleek muscles in his chest, abdomen, and arms. Heck. Even his legs had muscles.
“Yes,” she whispered, straightening up to look around as the plane bobbed gently in the soft waves. The sun had risen, warming the area only slightly. They were floating by a deserted dock in front of a darkened cabin. “Not another cabin,” she sighed.
Logan chuckled and pointed to some wires. “There’s a landline. I already broke in and called for help while you were sleeping. Didn’t want to awaken you.”
Help. She could finally get back to her people. At this point, she wasn’t sure if she was in trouble or not. But if so, she couldn’t leave Trina and Sandy to take the blame for her. “I told you everything I know,” she said quietly.
“I said I’d let you go free,” he muttered, his right hand clenching into a fist, watching as his knuckles turned white.
Why was he doing that again? She reached out and took his hand. “Did you hurt yourself?”
“No.” Then he allowed her to uncurl his fingers.
She turned his hand over, stopping cold at the sight of his palm. A gorgeousK, jagged and masculine, was surrounded by harsh and somehow beautiful lines.Kfor his family name of Kyllwood. All black, slightly raised, a part of his palm. Her heart jumped into her throat and started pounding so hard it was difficult to speak. “Your marking,” she whispered.
“Yes.” He looked down, no expression on his immortal face.
Oh. She blinked. “You’ve found your mate.” What an asshole. He’d brought her to orgasm while soon to be mated to someone else. Obviously he hadn’t transferred the marking to the other female yet, or he wouldn’t have been able to kiss Mercy without succumbing to the mating allergy. The fact that she’d done the same was irrelevant. “You’re such a dick.”
He jerked and turned toward her. “Excuse me?”
A mating mark only appeared when a demon met his or her mate, and then it was transferred to the mate during sex. She’d read all about it, fascinated. “You’ve met your mate, and here is the mark to prove it. Yet you kissedme.” Man, she’d read him wrong. No honor. What a jackass. His poor mate. How incredibly sad. “I should tell her the truth.”
“You are her,” he drawled, dark amusement glittering in his eyes.
She drew back, releasing him. The world stopped spinning for a second. “Wh-what?”
“Yeah,” he said, staring at the brand again. “It appeared when you took my blood.”
“Uh, no.” She shook her head, pressing back against the door of the plane. “I’m only twenty-five, and I can’t mate a demon.” Panic grabbed her along with a pleasing and intriguing warmth she didn’t have time to deal with. Mated with Logan. Holy Greek yogurt. Branded by him. Her breasts tightened, and her sex softened. A lot. “A marking can disappear if it hasn’t been transferred, right?”
He looked at her as if she’d lost her mind. “Yeah, they can disappear. Not often, but it has happened.”
So maybe there was more than one possible mate for a demon. So much for having sex with him, though that had pretty much been taken out of the realm of possibility, anyway. “This changes everything.”
His massive chest moved as he exhaled. “Agreed.”
Two men suddenly appeared on the dock next to the plane.
Mercy yelped and pushed even harder against the door.
Logan sighed. “Perfect timing, as usual.” He pushed open the door and held out a hand, the one with the marking, to help her out.
