“Someone marked you before I ever found you.”
For a moment, I forgot how to breathe.
The monitor beside my bed caught it before anyone else did. Its steady beeping jumped into a frantic rhythm, loud enough to make Mom flinch.
Damon’s eyes snapped toward the screen.
“Arielle,” he said quietly. “Look at me.”
I did not want to.
I wanted to look anywhere else. At the rain. At the fire. At Mom’s shaking hands. At the stupid IV in my arm.
But not at him.
Not when he had just told me that someone had marked me like I was a piece of property left behind for another person to find.
My fingers tightened around my phone.
Who?
The word appeared on the screen beneath my trembling thumb.
Damon read it.
His jaw locked.
“I do not know.”
That should not have scared me.
It did.
“You said so
