Marked By Lies: A Reverse Harem Series (The Marked Series Book 1) by Paige Orr (the red fox clan TXT) 📗

little wave before floating away to give us some space. I clear my throat, feeling my cheeks heating up at the fact that I’m so disappointed Cailean didn’t get the chance to kiss me. Hell, for all I know he wasn’t going to in the first place, I seriously need to get my head back in the game and stop letting myself be distracted.

“I’m going to explain the plan to Grey, I’ll be back in shortly. I’ll send Eric in when he comes back upstairs.”

Cailean seems to snap himself out of a daze as he agrees, turning on his heel and heading back inside. I slump against the door, taking a moment to myself before dealing with my cock blocking friend. Could this shit get any more awkward?

Chapter Eighteen

Cailean

I walk back into the living room, putting the box of books down on the table, and sit back down in the chair I claimed earlier, trying to center myself. I can’t believe that I almost kissed Melissa. I don’t know what the fuck is wrong with me right now, but I seriously need to knock it off. I feel like a fucking ass for almost taking advantage of Melissa’s good nature.

Here she is putting her life on the line to help our people and I’m drooling over her like a horny dog. I can’t even imagine what she must be thinking about me right now, not that I could blame her. I wouldn’t be surprised if she was completely affronted with my behavior towards her just now.

I need to get myself under control and throw myself into figuring this mess out, my people are relying on me and I’m being led around by the balls. I’m ashamed of how I acted and I just have to hope that Melissa will continue to work with us, especially if we are to have any hope of solving this shit.

I’m pleasantly surprised at how astute Melissa has been. Fuck, she has basically solved this case in less than twenty-four hours when we haven’t been able to figure out a single thing in weeks. Because of her help, we are so close to being able to save our people, which means that I can’t afford to let myself become distracted.

Reaching forwards, I grab the first book out of the box and begin to flick through it, looking for any information on the ritual connected to the sigil that Melissa has found. I couldn't believe my eyes when she first showed us that damned drawing. I hate that I was right about who is behind this, even if it has given us a solid lead.

The previous times that we’ve had to deal with the cults have been some of the darkest times in our people’s long history, and I’m not looking forward to the repeat performance, especially if my original guess was right.

The cults have always been difficult to fight against, but if this is as large of a group as I think it is, then we’re in for a rough time. Previously the biggest group has only been around ten people, not including women and children. But with the number of people being taken, it’s hard to guess just how large this group is.

I snap the book in front of me closed, throwing it onto the table beside the box just as Melissa comes back into the room, Eric close on her heels. The two of them seem to be getting on rather well if the grin on her face is anything to go by, and I can't stop the pang of jealousy that shoots through my gut.

I push the feeling down, knowing that I have no right to feel that way as Eric piles the boxes up beside the one on the table. He gives me a funny look when he notices me staring, and it’s only then that I notice that I’m scowling at him. I clear my throat, blanking my expression, and nodding my head at him before turning back to the others.

“Eric here has been kind enough to bring over all of the books that contain rituals that the cults had written down. I remember seeing the magic siphoning ritual somewhere, so we should at least be able to find out what it is that they need for the ritual.”

Zaphyr gets to his feet and makes his way across the room until he’s standing beside the boxes. Bending down, he takes a minute to quickly scan through the material we have to look through. I can see the exhaustion on his face and remember that like me, he probably hasn’t been able to rest while all this has been going down.

That just means that we need to fix this shit soon because a tired Zaphyr can’t hold the darkness he was born with at bay. I don’t blame him for that though. He didn’t ask to be born with such complicated magic. He meets my eyes and the dullness there just shows me how far he has already slipped, not that he lets me think about it much before speaking.

“This is only around a third of the books you were looking through in your office. Are you sure that these will be the only ones we need?”

I can’t control the gulp as the sound of his gravelly voice fills my ears. It seems that he has slipped more than I originally thought if the darkness is beginning to leak into his voice. His eye twitches when he notices the concern on my face so I decide it’s best not to mention it right now.

“No offense man, but we don’t need all of their books to find the answers, we only need to find the shit they have on the ritual. The other books and scrolls were the things that they wrote down about their history with supernatural kind.”