Marked (The Coldest Fae Book 3) by Katerina Martinez (novel24 .txt) 📗

With a flash of green light, Gullie emerged from the back of my hand and had a little stretch before kicking up into the air and hovering nearby. “That was something of a trip, wasn’t it?” she asked.

“That’s a bit of an understatement,” I said.

“What happened?” Mira asked, frowning. You’ve been gone for hours.”

“Some stuff happened, but first—what was that?”

“That?”

“That look you just gave my uncle.”

She touched her hand to her chest. “Look? What look?”

Gullie grinned. “Busted,” she sang.

“Busted?!” Mira shrieked. “No such thing has happened.”

“Really?” I asked, “Because a couple of hours ago I saw you flirting up a storm with him.”

“You asked me to distract him, did you not?”

“I did, but—”

“—well, it’s not my fault that I ooze sexuality and confidence.” She turned her nose up. “Besides, I am many, many decades older than you are and can do what I want.”

I cocked a thumb over my shoulder. “Except him, understood?”

Mel’s eyebrow arched. “I don’t see how you get a say…”

I placed a hand on my hip. “What does that mean?”

A strange, tense silence filled the room. “Really?” she asked, “The glow all over your face speaks volumes about what you got up to earlier.”

My cheeks flared hot and red. “Glow? What glow?”

Gullie pointed at my face. “That glow. Your sex glow.”

“Gull!” I yelped.

“What?” she shrugged, “I was just trying to clear things up.”

“Well, thanks, I really appreciate that.”

Mira pressed her palm to her face. “Tell me you didn’t.”

I stared at her, trying to regain a little of my composure. “I… don’t see how that’s any of your business,” I said, “And yes, I realize the irony of saying that. But supposing it was your business, why is it a bad thing?”

“Because the Royal Selection isn’t over.”

I looked around the room. “Mira, we’re in a tent, far away from the castle. I would say it’s over.”

She shook her head. “You wrote your name on the frost stone, so the selection must be completed. Remember?”

“Oh… no, I guess I didn’t. But how can the selection continue? We’re not going back.”

“I don’t know, but when it’s over, if you don’t win…”

Fate will rewrite itself, and I won’t be his soulmate anymore. She didn’t say it, but she didn’t have to. I hadn’t even considered the possibility that the selection needed to be completed. I’d assumed it was done. It didn’t change the way I felt about him, though. It also didn’t take away the hunger growing in the pit of my stomach.

But was that enough to risk what would happen if he continued to live?

“Alright, look,” I said, “I didn’t come here to talk about what I did or didn’t do with the Prince.”

“Is this about the plan?” Mel asked. “Because I’ve been thinking—”

“—I can’t leave.”

She paused, looked at Mira, then back at me. “What? Why not?”

I shook my head. “Something happened just now. Toross took me out to a garden somewhere behind the village and… I saw my parents.”

“You saw your parents?” Mira asked.

“In a vision or something,” I said, “But it was so real… it wasn’t like a dream at all. You forget your dreams, but this, I haven’t forgotten a single second of what happened. I don’t think I ever will.” A tear threatened to spill down the side of my cheek as the emotions started bubbling up again. I caught it and held myself together. “I talked to them.”

Another paused moved through the room, but this one was tense, dark, and serious. “Let me make sure I understand this,” Mira said, “Because we never established what happened to your parents.”

“I never had it established for me,” I said, swallowing the catch in my throat. “But now I know, they’re dead. They’ve been dead… for as long as I’ve been alive.”

“And you spoke to their spirits?”

I nodded. “Something like that.” I was still holding the box in my hands, and I showed it to them now. Opening it, I revealed the dagger inside. “This was my mother’s. Touching it triggered some ancient spell that allowed me to speak to them. It doesn’t work anymore. The magic’s gone.”

Gullie settled on my shoulder and touched the side of my neck. “Sorry.”

I smiled at her. “It’s okay,” I said. “I feel more at ease, now, knowing where they are, and who they were.”

“Who were they?” Mel asked.

I moved a little closer to the center of the tent and lowered my voice, as if I had a secret to tell them. “My mother was the Alpha of this place, of these people. I don’t want to say too much more because I don’t really know who’s listening.”

“Alpha? That’s big.”

“She also knew who I was, who I would become. I’m the white wolf, and I’m supposed to lead these people on a crusade against the castle, or they’re going to die. All of them.”

“Is this… true?” Mira asked, “Can it be verified?”

I shook my head. “I only have my mother’s word—or her ghost’s word, I guess. But I can feel it in my heart, I know it’s true. She said if I don’t help them, Ashera is going to lead an attack on the castle that’s going to end up killing them all, and there will be no moon children left.”

“Because these are the last…” Mel put in. “That was something I heard, once. They’d been all but exterminated.”

I nodded. “That’s why I can’t leave. Toross wants to train me, so I have to train and prove to them that I’m the white wolf, and then they’ll listen to me. They won’t follow Ashera toward the castle and throw themselves at death’s door for no reason.”

“Has fate not already decided that will happen?” Mira asked.

“My mother told me fate was a scribe that was always writing. That some things are written, that others are not, but that all can be changed depending on who makes what choice. My mother asked Toross to smuggle me away from the moon children and keep me away from them, but he