The mark on Elder Mara’s neck glowed like a second heartbeat, golden, raw, and unmistakably mine.
Around me, the council erupted.
"Blood magic!"
"She cursed her!"
"No rogue dies marked unless claimed by something unnatural!"
I couldn’t breathe.
They were not looking at the body anymore. They were looking at me.
Maddox stepped between us in a blur of shadow and growl, teeth bared, his golden eyes flashing.
“Enough!” he barked.
The council stilled. Only Tarek dared to keep moving, circling slowly around the edge of the stone pit with the air of a man watching a fire he had started catch wind.
The air thickened, crackling with old power and older suspicion.
I could feel the heat of the mark on Mara’s corpse pulsing in time with my own heart.
Somewhere deep inside me, something st
