Chapter 21: The Mark He Left

I was intimately familiar with pain.

And, yes, much too familiar with it in these disgusting corridors. But what Kael had provided me with was not the burning slash of his fangs or the pounding hurt in my throat. No, something else, something much, much worse, worse than that.

The mark.

His mark.

I could still feel its heat pulsing against me as I turned to the mirror, gently pressing down on the collar of my dress. The bite, despite being healed, still pulsed softly as though it had seeped into me, an ache that would never fade away from me of my vulnerability.

It was just beneath the rim of my jaw, well enough concealed that no one would probably ever notice it unless they were standing close to me — but I knew, in the bottom of my heart, sooner or later someone would.

Someone always did.

I swallowed hard, attempting to seal the throbbing pulling within me, the guilt, the shame. I wasn't supposed to feel all this. I was supposed to be calloused, to shield myself from love like Kael's. But the problem was, that bite had burned more than my flesh.

It had burned my soul.

And there was nothing I could do to remove it.

My rooms were as still as a tomb the way they were, and I stepped back before the mirror. I could no longer see myself, couldn't bear to know what it was — how my body was open country to be crossed over, field of love and hate.

I wasn't meant to need him. I wasn't meant to desire the same man who'd taken me as booty, some trophy. And yet still I felt the sting of his bite, the memory that I was never anything but a captive. That no matter what I did, I belonged to him.

The idea created a poisonous cramp of anger churn through me, but I pushed it far, far down where I couldn't access it. Fragility was not tolerated in Kael's world.

Someone rapped on my door, one which jolted my Addled brain. I didn't move, the pain of the mark on my skin sending a shiver of tension through me.

"Come on in," I said, attempting to remain calm, the trembling voice betraying me.

The door creaked and one face I was accustomed to seeing entered.

Varyn.

Of course.

Kael's cold cousin had a penchant for showing up when I wasn't ready, this otherworldly presence hovering at the periphery of the room. His too-smooth, too-analytical eyes swept over me as if he was tearing apart every inch of me.

I bristled, involuntarily standing taller. I was not going to let him in on how intimidated he made me.

"Aha," Varyn drawled, his lazy smile sneering. "The little human toy, all spoiled for the day." He lingered too long on my face, his eyes a chastening gentleness, and I could feel them as a touch, nigh. "I must say, you are wearing the collar well. You were perhaps bred for it."

I ground my teeth, not wishing to let him rile me. "I'm not your pet, Varyn."

"Oh, no way," he growled, moving in. "You're Kael's toy. And we both know how much he enjoys bossing his toys around."

I pressed the insult to my lips downward, instead concentrating on level breathing. I could not let Varyn get the upper hand. He hadn't kidnapped me, anyway. Kael had.

But Varyn never let it get that far. He seemed to enjoy the thud of my heart, and the tension of my body as he leaned in too close.

"I confess," he went on, teasing eyes sparkling with amusement, "I couldn't resist noticing the hickey on your neck. Such a personal place for someone to have received a bite."

My heart skipped a beat and my hand went up involuntarily and I traced it over the skin of my neck, fingers tracing over the skin. His eyes were strangling, too observant. He'd witnessed it. He'd witnessed it.

I retreated from him as if to put myself between his eyes and the mark. "It's nothing," I told him, voice gruffer than I'd intended it to sound. "A scratch."

"Scratch?" Varyn's laughter was cold, mocking. "No, love, that is not a scratch. That is a claim. And not every man can leave such a mark." I fought to maintain a straight face, but his words cut deeper than I'd anticipated. "It doesn't mean anything."

He leaned over close so his presence towered over me, the warmth of his breath in my ear. "Are you sure about that?" His voice had gotten very quiet. "Because I think Kael would have some words to say about it. I mean, it does not happen just every day that a prince brand a human that way, even one he never met at all."

I ground my teeth together, suppressing the fury that brewed in my belly. "You don't know anything about him."

"Actually," Varyn said calmly, "I know precisely what he is capable of. And what he's done to you."

I scowled at him, arms crossed. I could sense the strand of my patience unraveling, but I would not give him the satisfaction of seeing me crack.

"Leave," I spat, the coldness in my voice colder than winter's breath.

Varyn's smile didn't waver. If anything, it increased. "Oh, I'll go. But listen Scarlett — you're not as safe as you think. The mark he burned on you. It's not simply a symbol of possession. It's a message. To all of us."

I swallowed my fear. "A message for what?"

His gaze flew to the door and back to me, his face veiling itself in mystery. "You'll soon enough."

That was it, him pirouetting on one heel and stroking off, a shiver coursing over me.

I couldn't help but feel something was fermenting. Something that would tear my whole understanding of Kael — and myself — apart.

Each passing day, I tried my best to keep my head down, concealing the bite from public view inside the court. It was increasingly becoming difficult to do so. The mark could not be easily covered up, a painful reminder of the heinous tie Kael had landed me in.

And then I understood, that the more I tried to conceal it, the more the individuals around me noticed it.

Varyn was right.

The nobles complained behind my back, their gazes resting a fraction of a moment longer when they knew I would not see. Even the servants looked at me suspiciously, their eyes flicking away when I caught them. It was only a matter of time before everyone in the court was aware.

And when they finally did, I had no idea how much longer I could keep up the charade that all this that was occurring was merely some game.

Because the thing of it is, I was afraid of it.

The truth is that Kael's mark was not merely a symbol of possession.

It was a curse.

And I had no idea how to reverse it.

To be continued...