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

tent, threatened to tell everyone the secret. The only thing I could think to do was challenge him.”

“That was your only idea?”

I looked up at him. “I wasn’t thinking. That was reckless, and stupid. I should’ve found another way.”

Cillian took a breath. Sighed. “It may have been reckless, but we are both well.” He knelt in front of me and cocked an eyebrow. “In any case, you won the challenge.”

“I could just as easily have lost.”

“Why did you challenge him if you were so unsure?”

“That’s just it. I didn’t stop to think of another way out of the situation. I didn’t even give a thought the possibility that he could beat me, and—you’re right—then what? He gets to do what he wants to me, with me…”

Cillian took my hand. “I never would’ve let that man anywhere near you.”

“I don’t think either of us would’ve had a choice. That’s not how things work around here.”

“Then maybe it’s time the rules changed.” He shook his head and looked off to the side. “I warned you about these people and their practices. They’re barbaric.”

“Hey,” I placed a hand on his cheek and made him look at me. “They’re my people, too.”

He nodded. “Of course.”

“If you want to be my mate, you’re going to have to throw your prejudices out. Trust me, if this is a culture shock for you, it goes double for me.”

“I am your mate. You made sure the entire village knew about that.”

My cheeks flushed. “I did. I was lost in the moment, riding on a wave of adrenaline.”

“I know what that is like.” He paused. “You just won a challenge. You need to eat and rest. But first we should talk about what it was that Praxis overheard.”

I nodded, took a deep breath, then exhaled. “It’s not all good news like I had hoped.”

“No?”

I looked at his hands. “You know how I feel about the past week or so, right?”

“I do.”

“What do you feel?”

“The last few days have been the best of my life,” he said, “I have never felt as free, or as comfortable, or as full as I am when I’m with you. You are strong, you are witty, intelligent… you are my equal in every way, and you are absolutely beautiful. I could not have asked for a better person to be with. I’m lucky you’ve chosen me.”

I swallowed hard, and the redness in my face deepened. “Wow… that’s—that’s more than I thought you were going to say.”

“Do you not feel the same way?”

“No, I do. I do. I just… hadn’t expected you to say such nice things.” I paused. “I don’t want this to end, Cillian.”

“Must it?”

“If we go through with the only plan we have available to us, it might. I don’t know what will happen, or how it will turn out.”

He took my hand which I’d placed against his cheek and kissed it. “Whatever it is, we will face it together.”

I nodded. “Are you familiar with… exorcism?”

Cillian shut his eyes. “I suspected you would reach this conclusion eventually.”

“You knew we’d get here?”

“It is the obvious choice. My brother has somehow become a malevolent, invading entity. The only way to get rid of him is through exorcism, but I don’t know the rituals.”

“Neither do I, but the moon children do.”

“They do?”

“Mel, Mira, and Gullie have been studying the problem all week. They think they know what they have to do, but I can’t stress enough just how dangerous this could be.”

“If you think this is the right way forward…”

“There’s more. I don’t know how the Veridian plays into all this, and by the sounds of it I don’t suppose you do either?”

He shook his head. “No.”

“Did your brother ever allude to anything? Did he let slip some surface thought you were able to pick up on?”

“Nothing like that ever happened. At first it was simply a sense. He, in his current form, came from there, somehow. How, I don’t know.”

“You never really told me what happened with him.”

“Because I don’t want to speak of him. I feel like by simply mentioning him, we’re inviting his presence into this room, and I don’t want that.”

“I know, Cillian, but we can’t keep hiding from him. Sooner or later, he’s going to come back, and we need to know as much as we can if we’re going to get him out of you safely. Please… I need you to tell me what happened. Maybe there’s a clue in the story.”

Cillian stood up, then sat on the bed next to me. He ran his fingers through his black hair, then moved them across his beard, taking a breath before speaking. “He is my older brother,” Cillian said, “My father’s first son, his heir, his favorite. I don’t have first-hand experience of his early years, but I know from what I have been told, he and my father did everything together. Hunted together, trained together, fought together. They were inseparable, and that continued well into his final days and nights.”

“And your mother?”

“My mother nurtured him, cared for him, but he was… too male for her. He was rude to her, disrespectful. His prejudice towards women manifested early, and my father did little to discourage it.”

“That’s common, isn’t it? Disrespecting females among your kind.” I shook my head. “Our kind.”

He nodded. “It is. Females, queens included, are there to breed and look after our infants until they can take care of themselves. For males, that happens sooner than for females.”

“You’re not like that.”

He turned his head to the side to look at me. “My mother would never have permitted me to disrespect a female simply because of her gender. Perhaps if I had spent more time with my father, my edge towards women would’ve been sharper, and colder, but he cared more for Radulf’s continuing development than mine. Radulf was to be his heir… he never even made it to his Royal Selection.”

A pause. “Why did he leave?”

Cillian turned away. I could tell he didn’t want to go into this,