The Mark of Fate: Book 3 of The Marked series

by Ford, Rinna

  “Do you remember what happened when the Council came to collect you and your parents?” This time it was Jill asking the question.

  My eyes flit back toward the twins and I decided to ignore Ironshot the best I could for as long as possible. I didn’t want to be affected by his searing looks any more than I already was because staying cool and calm made me smart, and I needed to be smart.

  I shook my head. “I remember the horror in my mother’s expression when she saw me half changed in our backyard and then she rushed me into the house, but after that, I don’t remember anything.”

  It was completely true. I know what Devlin told me, but I didn’t remember any of it. I wished I could remember, I really did.

  The pair took turns asking me question after question about my life as a child in the supernatural society and in the human foster care system for hours. They were especially intrigued about the growth of my mark but thankfully, they didn’t ask to see it. I didn’t think I could handle having them touch me, and I knew they’d want to examine it closely. I needed to build myself up to the idea of it before they went there.

  Ironshot sat in his chair in the corner of the room without saying anything, and when the twins were obviously done asking their questions for the day, he got up in a huff and left the room. I didn’t know if he was satisfied with my answers, but the truth was, most of what I told them was real. Most of that information Ironshot had access to, so there was no point in lying. He had my mother as his mate for crying out loud, not to mention I was sure Alec filled him in on everything he’d not only learned about the rebellion but everything he’d learned about me too. Alec was the perfect Council plant, and I wondered if there were more like him, hiding inside the rebellion. I shivered at the thought.

  I told them what I felt they already kind of knew, only changing the stories a little bit depending on the point of view, and lying about things I felt they had no right to know about, like some of the things that happened in my human life.

  Kenny and Harris took me back to my cell, leaving me with another biscuit and a bag of blood, while Ronan was awake and pacing in front of his cell door. When he saw me safely back in my cell, he relaxed and sat on his mattress.

  He looked exhausted. By the look of him, I knew he’d walked back and forth from one corner of his cell to the other over and over again the entire time I was gone. I’d been gone for at least three hours.

  I broke the biscuit in half and shoved one piece of it toward him. “Please, eat,” I requested.

  He shook his head and looked toward the stairs. Like the biscuit from the day before, I ended up eating Ronan’s half too. I didn’t know if he was trying to protect me or if he was just too proud, but it concerned me and pissed me off at the same time. But what could I do? I couldn’t reach him to make him eat it.

  That was how the next three days went. Harris and Kenny would collect me in the morning and take me to the caster’s lab where the creepy twins would ask me questions while Ironshot watched and listened silently. They did examine my back, several times in fact, and I hated every second. It took every bit of my willpower to not kill them for touching me. But besides the questions, that was the only thing they did. No experiments, no potions or spells. I honestly left after those four days more confused than anything.

  I expected to be tortured, not asked about my life. I didn’t think he’d care about something like that. But I’d underestimated Michael Ironshot before and I wouldn’t count him out after four days of just answering questions. Everything he did was for a reason. We all knew it, I just needed to figure out what it was.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  The next morning, just like the previous four days, I expected to be taken to the casters’ lab but that wasn’t what happened. The asshole guards showed up like usual, but instead of coming empty handed, they each carried food and bags of blood. I was used to getting a single bag of blood and a biscuit, but this time Kenny handed over a plateful of food-bacon, eggs, sausage, and biscuits while Harris threw three blood bags into my cell then turned to walk away without a word.

  “Hey!” I yelled. “Where’s Ronan’s food?”

  “Emelia, it’s okay, lass…”

  “Ronan?” Harris questioned, a smug smirk on his face. “Why would we give that backstabbing traitor anything?”

  Ronan stood up from his mattress and approached the bars, his nostrils flaring. Harris, knowing he had the upper hand, walked to just the other side of Ronan’s cell and stared him down. It was obvious that they were, at one time, considered friends because Harris was beyond bitter. He was itching to harm Ronan, to put him in his place.

  “You’re an asshole, Harris! Leave him alone!” I screamed at him, trying to turn his attention to me instead.

  “Or what?” he laughed. “What are you going to do? What can you do? You’re worthless.”

  “Don’t you fucking…” Ronan growled out a warning between his teeth but I cut him off.

  “I’d like to see you come in here and say that to my face, you piece of shit.”

  Harris cut his eyes toward me, his smirk turning sinister. “You would like that, wouldn’t you, freak?”

  He turned on his heels and stalked toward my cell, all while Kenny watched on and Ronan yelled his own insults to get Harris’ attention back on him. It didn’t work, at least not the way Ronan wanted it to.

  Harris put his hand on the lock, and I prepared myself as much as I could without my supernatural strength. As the lock clicked open, he smirked back at Ronan and opened the cell door.

  “I’ve been waiting to do this for days…”

  He was on me in a flash with a backhand that sent me flying into the side of the mattress, pushing it aside. My head cracked on the concrete, making my mind spin, but I was still able to see the cork of the potion bottle sticking out from under the mattress. I’d put it there after the first day of questioning when I realized the twins would want to see my back or worse, so I decided not to keep it on me. The mattress was the only place I knew of that I could keep it safely hidden, so that night I ripped a small hole in the bottom with my fingernail and slipped the bottle down into it. No one ever went into my cell but me so I thought it would be okay. I should have really considered that when I challenged Harris.

  Before I could do something to hide it again, his hand shot down and snatched it, bringing the bottle up to his face to examine it. I tried to grab it out of his hands, but he was too quick for me as he held it up.

  “My, my, my what do we have here?” He showed it to Kenny before facing me again. “You want to tell me what this is? It must be something important for you to hide it in your mattress.”

  “Give it back or so help me…”

  “What? So help me… what? What do you think you can do to me, freak? You’re weak, pathetic.”

  “Leave her alone!” Ronan screamed in the background and beat against the bars in an attempt to get to us.

  “Give it back, now,” I growled, fury eating away at my restraint.

  Harris crouched down in front of me, holding it in front of my face.

  “Or what? You know, Councilman Ironshot will be very interested in this.”

  My eyes went wide as I thought about what he’d do to me because of it. If he learned it was suppressing my caster side… I had to destroy it.

  I snatched it out of his hands and smashed it on the concrete floor. “Now no one can have it,” I laughed maniacally.

  He reared back and hit me with the back of his hand again. “You’re going to pay for that, bitch,” he seethed. “You’re going to pay for that when the councilman gets a hold of you.”

  I touched the blood that seeped from the split in my lip and licked it, then glanced up at the furious idiot.

  “So you’re going to tell him then?” I questioned him, a small devious smile playing on my lips. “Because he’s not going to be happy with you for having it and losing it so foolishly. It was just a strength potion my uncle gave me, but you k
now the councilman will think it was more than that, and you lost it because you were being arrogant.”

  He screamed and lunged for me again but Kenny caught his arms and began dragging him out.

  “You’re going to pay for that, bitch!” Harris yelled. “You’re dead! So fucking dead!"

  “You shouldn’t have done that, you know,” Kenny said to me as he strained to keep a hold on his partner.

  “So fucking dead! You hear me? I can’t wait to watch you burn, you stupid fucking freak!”

  Kenny threw Harris on the ground then closed my cell door and locked it before pushing his friend up the stairs, all the while Harris screamed obscenities toward me.

  “You shouldn’t have done that,” Ronan sighed but my eyes stayed on the spot where the spilled potion lay on the floor, useless. “I can take care of myself against the likes of Harris Cooper, Millie. Why’d you do that?”

  I didn’t answer him, just stared at the wet floor. It was gone. My potion and the plan to go with it were gone. I didn’t have a week to get us out of there anymore, not with my means of keeping my magical side at bay for a little while longer. If Ironshot saw I could call on my caster side…

  Two days. That was all the time I had. We needed to act quickly, starting with gaining as much strength as we could. Both of us.

  I crawled over to the plate that still sat in the corner of the cell and moved it toward the bars that separated Ronan from me. I couldn’t fit it through the bars, so it sat on the floor as close to the bars as it could.

  “Ronan, I need you to eat.”

  My eyes firmly locked onto his and I hoped he could understand what I wasn’t telling him out loud. He stared back and clenched his jaw, shaking his head defiantly.

  “No. No, I won’t. They gave that to you for a reason. You’re going to need this more than I will for whatever he has planned.”

  I breathed in deeply and reached through the bars, pulling on his sleeve and leaned into the space between two bars. He moved closer to the space so we were close enough to feel each other’s breath, close enough to kiss... which is exactly what I did.

  It took him a second to react but when he did, it was fireworks. His lips moved against mine as our tongues caressed each other in a way I didn’t expect. So lost in the moment, I almost forgot what I’d intended to do when I started it.

  “Listen to me,” I whispered against his mouth between kisses. I wasn’t completely sure Ironshot didn’t have a way to monitor us while we were there, but I wouldn’t put it past him. “In a couple of days, something is going to happen to me.” His eyes went wide but I pulled on his hair, bringing his mouth further into mine while I continued saying what I needed to say. “I won’t be able to stop it once it starts, but when it passes I’ll be fine… hopefully.”

  “Millie...”

  I deepened the kiss, cutting him off.

  “When it passes, we’ll need to escape. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get us out but I won’t be able to carry you, so please, eat. I need you to eat.”

  My fingers untangled from his hair and I slowly began to pull away, pleading with him to listen but he wasn’t done. It was his turn to pull on my arms and he roughly kissed me back. His mouth went to my cheek and down to my neck, just above the choker.

  “Don’t you dare do anything to hurt yourself. I won’t stand for it,” he murmured against my skin.

  “I won’t be able to help it,” I breathed, my eyes closed as I took in the exquisite sensation. “It’ll happen whether I want it to or not.”

  “You really can’t stop it then?”

  I shook my head and lowered my mouth back to his.

  “No. Without that potion, I’ll be powerless to stop it.”

  The gravity of the sentence made Ronan’s kisses slow, until he backed away with one single kiss. He didn’t know what the potion did but he believed me anyway. Reaching down in between us, he picked up a piece of bacon and put it into his mouth, breaking off a piece and chewing it. A small, happy smile formed on my lips and he lifted the other half of the bacon to them, making me eat the rest.

  That was how it went. He’d take a bite, then I’d take a bite until the plate was empty. I jokingly offered him a bag of blood and he scrunched his nose in disgust.

  “No, thank you,” he declined. But then he crooked one finger, wanting me to move back toward him again. “One more kiss before you drink that foul liquid, if you please,” he smiled.

  I happily obliged. It was funny, I didn’t feel the pull of wanting to be near him that comes with having your mate close by. I didn’t feel anything at all and yet, I wanted to be near him. Yes, he was cocky and arrogant, but I still wanted him all the same. Just the thought of something happening to him made me want to burst into tears.

  He was my mate and as we continued to kiss as much as we could with metal bars between us, I knew I’d choose him even if he wasn’t meant for me, just like I’d choose Matias and Xander.

  Sure, the idea of three mates appealed to me as much as having two… at first, but since finding all three of these amazing men, I couldn’t imagine my life without any of them. I just hoped I wouldn’t have to put that to the test any time soon.

  The potion would wear off. There was nothing I could do to stop it, I just hoped that when the pain subsided, I could get us both out of there and take us home.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  “Get your hands off of her,” Ronan demanded, his voice stronger than before.

  Kenny came back down the stairs not long after I finished off the bags of blood, but Harris wasn’t with him. Another man, nearly twice the size of Harris, took his place. The new guy was even more sour looking than Harris was, if that were possible.

  The pair didn’t even hesitate before they opened my cell door and yanked me to standing. The new guy shoved me from behind, making me fall into the bottom step and dislocating my right shoulder. I cried out and glared at him.

  Kenny gave me almost a repentant look and helped me back up, but then the new guy grabbed me by my bad arm and wrenched me forward.

  “You’re a real shit, aren’t you, Dixon?” Ronan yelled. “Feel like a big man pushing around a woman who can’t fight back, do you? You fucking caveman!”

  The caveman in question completely ignored Ronan and continued to shove me further and further up the stairs.

  “Stay strong, Emelia!” Ronan called out. “Stay strong and come back to me.”

  Tears sprung to my eyes, but I refused to let them fall. I wasn’t going to let any of these assholes see me cry, even if it did feel like my arm was slowly being ripped out of its socket. I wouldn’t let them know I was hurt and I definitely wouldn’t let them know I was afraid. Last meals were given to prisoners for a reason and breakfast definitely felt like a last meal sort of thing.

  Dixon continued to push me down the hall per my normal route to the lab but instead, he turned left and up another set of stairs. We reached the second floor landing and turned right, passing by several doors until he stopped and shoved me into a room. Kenny followed me inside and stood in between Dixon and me. I held my hurt arm in front of me and glared at the giant asshole behind him, mentally adding his name to my list of assholes who were going to die a slow, painful death if I ever got out of there.

  “Councilman Ironshot requests you attend a dinner party this evening,” Kenny said, making my attention flit back to him. A fucking dinner party? Seriously? He saw the question and disbelief in my expression and decided to give me more instructions to clarify. “You are to clean yourself and when you are done, someone will come in to help you get ready. You cannot leave this room, so don’t even try.”

  He turned to walk away when I growled, “Can I at least get someone to come and help me push my shoulder back into place?”

  Kenny stopped and briefly looked over his shoulder. “Do it yourself,” he replied and walked through the door, closing and locking it behind me. I felt an added layer of magic surrounding the room and I knew I
was really and truly stuck in there.

  What a prick.

  I gingerly lay down on my back on the carpeted floor and tried to relax, as much as possible. It took several minutes before I felt my heart rate slow and my muscles loosen up. Taking my good arm, I took a hold of my other wrist and slowly began lifting it over my head. Pain like I’d only felt a handful of times shot down my arm and I cried out, unable to keep the noise in. With my arm over my head, I moved my hand from my wrist to my elbow and pulled it down even further until I felt a big pop.

  Immediately, I felt better but it would stay sore for a while, even with my supernatural healing abilities. I may not have access to the weapons that my beasts lend to me, but I still had their advanced abilities to heal. I knew it because the cut on my lip from when Harris hit me closed up within a minute of it happening.

  I rolled over and pushed myself up to my feet and searched for the bathroom. Kenny told me I was to clean up and despite the fact I had no desire to attend any kind of dinner party, a shower sounded divine. There were two doors along the same wall and I was sure one of them led to a bathroom. Still favoring my right arm, I went to the left door first and turned the knob to see a large, immaculate bathroom.

  Finding shampoo, conditioner, and everything I needed to get clean besides a razor, I turned the shower knob and waited for the water to heat up. Taking my clothes off, especially the sports bra that I wore when I was captured was especially challenging, and when I was finally completely naked, steam was filling up the bathroom.

  The water felt heavenly and I stayed under the stream for much longer than necessary, but it had been days since I’d felt even the slightest bit clean and I didn’t know when I’d get to do it again.