We rode back to the compound faster than caution allowed, engines screaming through the dark, and by the time we cleared the gates my chest had gone tight with a dread that only worsened when I saw the number of people gathered outside Marcus's room, faces pale in the porch light.
Mabel met us at the door, her usual composure cracked in a way I had never seen from her, hands stained faintly with something dark that made my stomach drop.
He's alive, she said quickly, before either of us could ask. Barely. But this wasn't the fade, Ronan. Someone did this to him deliberately.
Ronan pushed past her into the room, and I followed close behind, and what waited inside stopped both of us cold. Marcus lay on his cot, chest rising in shallow, labored breaths, but the symbols painted across his ex
