Mark of Love (Love Mark Fantasy Book 3)

by Linda Kage

  “Got it.” Questa rushed to gratefully slip the new necklace into place.

  Tightening her fingers around my hand, Aunt Taiki hurried after them as Aunt Melaina led the way outside.

  A scattering of servants took off running when they saw us, but otherwise, no one else was about.

  “It’s settled, then,” Aunt Taiki announced, sounding logical. “We can all still go through the portal. So, we’ll give an amulet to the three children, and you and I will just have to come back through when the bridge closes.”

  Aunt Melaina bubbled out an incredulous laugh. “Oh, I know you did not just suggest I leave my two teenage children alone in an alternate universe without any kind of adult supervision. Nice, Taiki. Real nice.”

  “Fine, then,” Aunt Taiki bit out. “You stay there with Questa and Quailen. Quilla and I will come back at the end of the transference.”

  Aunt Melaina didn’t answer for a minute. We reached the stables, and she shoved her children inside before spinning to grab hold of the front of Aunt Taiki’s cloak. Teeth gritted, she snarled, “You and I have been planning this escape for sixteen fucking years, and now you’re trying to tell me we’re not going to end up together? No. Fuck, no. I don’t accept that.”

  Tears glistened on Aunt Taiki’s cheeks as she tenderly cupped Aunt Melaina’s face in her hands. “I don’t know what else to do.”

  More blood appeared at the corner of Aunt Melaina’s eyes. “Easy. You give us a happily ever after where we end up fucking together.”

  Aunt Taiki sputtered out a tortured laugh and pressed her brow to Aunt Melaina’s. “God, I’m going to miss your awful sense of humor.”

  “I wasn’t joking.” Aunt Melaina squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “I can’t do this without you. I just can’t. There has to be another way.”

  “I’ll still be with you,” Aunt Taiki assured, her voice quieting to a whisper. “Right up to the very end when Quilla and I are pulled back to the Outer Realms, I’ll be right by your side.”

  Aunt Melaina sniffed and wiped blood from her cheeks. “Promise?”

  “Always and always. Now, go. We need to hurry.” She urged Aunt Melaina to enter the stable ahead of her, then she turned back to check on me.

  Remembering my presence, Aunt Melaina hissed and narrowed her eyes my way as we hurried past stalls full of horses. “I don’t see why she has to come, though.”

  “Because she’s an innocent child, and it’s the right thing to do,” Aunt Taiki reasoned. Then she ruffled my hair affectionately, as if to soothe the sting of the other woman’s bitter words. “Besides, I like her.”

  “You like her? How?” Aunt Melaina’s expression soured. “She’s annoying as hell. And we’re not even really saving her, you know. Without an amulet, she’ll just return here again, anyway.”

  “Well, at least she’ll have a better chance this way. It may be weeks or moon cycles before we’re pulled back. The reaping will probably be over by then. If she stays here now, someone else will get their hands on her and kill her. You know they will. And if someone who’s not immune to the bloodlust takes her powers, then how will this realm fare?”

  “Hopefully it’ll be destroyed,” Aunt Melaina muttered under her breath. “Like it deserves.”

  “Lain,” Aunt Taiki said, her voice full of warning. “Behave.”

  “Why?” Aunt Melaina shot back. “Tell me, what has anyone here done to help either of us, except stand aside and gawk while we were captured by the fucking Graykeys, and then turn a blind eye while we were held prisoner, forced to marry, and tortured for the past sixteen years?”

  “Well, we were each blessed with three children of our own,” Aunt Taiki tried, always one to look at the bright side of things. “And we found each other. So it wasn’t all awful.”

  “Right.” Aunt Melaina sliced a dry glance her way. “Three children each, to which all three of yours ended up being evil and were consumed by the reaping just now.”

  Aunt Taiki didn’t have a reply for that. Her inner brightness seemed to dim and wither as stark grief filled her expression.

  I didn’t think Aunt Melaina should’ve said that to her. Wanting to comfort her, I squeezed her hand. Aunt Taiki smiled sadly at me and squeezed back.

  “Where are we going?” I asked to distract her and because none of what she and Aunt Melaina had been saying made any sense to me.

  “We’re going to take a little trip,” Aunt Taiki explained as we followed Aunt Melaina into an empty stall where Questa and Quailen were waiting nervously. “And then you and I will come back while Melaina, Questa, and Quailen stay behind. Okay?”

  “But—”

  “Shh.” She smoothed down my hair. “Trust me, baby. We’ll be safe there; I promise.” Then she winked and let go of my hand.

  I watched as she stepped toward Aunt Melaina.

  Together, the two women stood side by side and lifted their arms toward the back wall of the stable stall. In unison, they began to chant in the magical tongue, and as they spoke foreign words that sounded dark and ominous, the outline of a round tunnel began to appear before us with crackling, electric white light rimming the entrance. They didn’t stop repeating the incantation until the entire portal was lit up.

  Then, the five of us just stood there before it, staring in awe, until Quailen murmured an awestruck, “Whoa.”

  “You first,” Aunt Melaina murmured, nudging Aunt Taiki forward. “I’ll go last and make sure to close the breach behind us.”

  Aunt Taiki nodded in compliance before handing her own amulet over to Aunt Melaina. Then she glanced down at me as if to say goodbye, and she stepped toward the glowing portal.

  “Wait.” Aunt Melaina grabbed her arm.

  Aunt Taiki paused and turned back.

  “Be careful,” Aunt Melaina ordered. “I’ll see you in a minute.”

  Aunt Taiki smiled at her. “I love you, you crazy heifer.” She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to Aunt Melaina’s.

  Aunt Melaina kissed her back before she pulled away, whispering, “I love you, too. You’ll be a better mother to them than I ever was.”

  Aunt Taiki’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What—?” she started, but she didn’t get a chance to finish the question.

  Aunt Melaina slipped the amulet back into the pocket of Aunt Taiki’s cloak and shoved her through the portal.

  “Mom!” Questa gasped, rushing forward. “What have you done?”

  Aunt Melaina merely shrugged. “What needed to be done. She’ll take care of you and your brother much better than I ever could. After I’m forced back here, she’ll be your new mother. Got it? And she’ll love you just as much as I do.”

  “But—”

  “Just go!” Aunt Melaina shoved her through the doorway as well. “You’re insane if you think I’m leaving this world without securing the safety of the people who mean the most to me.”

  Then she grabbed Quailen and pushed him into the glowing, crackling portal as well.

  After all three were gone, she blew out a long breath and slowly turned to glare at me.

  I shrank a step back.

  “I guess that leaves just you and me now, brat.”

  I gulped. “You’re going to make me stay behind, aren’t you?”

  With an amused smirk, she sniffed. “I wish.” Then she took my arm roughly. “But Taiki would murder me if I showed up without you in tow, so you better come with me, huh?”

  I nodded, feeling stupid and scared. Stalling, though I wasn’t sure why—I guess because I still had no idea where we were going—I peered up at her.

  “Did—was Qualmer not immune, then?” I asked of her middle son that I hadn’t seen since the reaping had begun.

  Her eyes narrowed before she smirked. “Of course not. Who do you think killed your mother?”

  My skin went cold.

  Qualmer had murdered Mama?

  Aunt Melaina stepped toward me, looming darkly. “Let’s get one thing straight, kid. Don�
��t cause problems for Taiki or either of my children, or I’ll end you, just like my son ended your dear, sweet mama. Got it?”

  I nodded, suddenly unsure if I should go with her or not. “G-got it.”

  “Great.” She tightened her grip on my arm. “Then let’s go.”

  Behind us, a voice roared, “There you are!”

  I glanced back to find Qualmer peering over the door of the stall.

  “Trying to leave without me, Mother?” He struggled with the latch. “That just earned you a death sentence right there. You too, cousin. I’m going to gut you both and then bathe in your blood before going through that portal and taking out Questa and Quailen and that fucking lover of yours.”

  He finally flung the door open and stalked into the stall with us.

  Reacting on instinct, I pushed him back with a propulsion of air, just as I had with Uncle Palmer. And beside me, Melaina produced a dagger from her cloak before she threw it at him. When she caught him right in the eye, he screamed and fell to his knees, clutching the protruding handle.

  My eyes widened as blood gushed down his cheek. “Is he going to die?”

  “I doubt it.” Aunt Melaina’s punishing grip jerked me backward toward the portal. “But let’s not wait around to find out, either.”

  With that, she swirled her hand, and the crackling edges began to darken and shrink, closing rapidly. Before the portal had completely compressed into nothing, she jumped into the dwindling gap and took me with her, leaving her enraged son behind.

  In front of us, a black hole loomed. We were sucked into it with a rush of wind. A pulling sensation gripped my skin, and it felt as if I were falling.

  Screaming, Aunt Melaina and I held on to each other for dear life as we left the Outer Realms behind and entered the unknown.

  Chapter 1

  Quilla

  EIGHTEEN YEARS LATER

  “Do you remember the plan this time?”

  The goading question caused me to cinch my drawstring bag closed with an irritated snap, momentarily imagining the pull cord was tightening around my aunt’s throat instead of the sack. Inside the burlap, the freshly baked loaves I’d just stuffed into it tumbled about uneasily.

  But do I remember? Really?

  Casting Melaina a hard glance, I ground out, “I told you, last time wasn’t my—”

  “Fault?” she finished for me, flashing that ever mocking and sardonic smirk of hers. “Yes, so you said, darling. Multiple times. And all I’m saying in return is that I don’t give a shit. Don’t fuck things up this time.”

  Flipping her mass of red hair behind her shoulder, she tipped her chin up like arrogant royalty. From the way she sat with a rigidly straight spine while smoothing the extravagant pools of her emerald green skirt over her lap, one might think she should be seated on a throne in a castle right now, ordering about a kingdom. But no, lucky me, I was the only subject she liked to boss around. And we were far and gone away from any kind of opulence that could even resemble a castle.

  The back alley we occupied smelled pungently of decaying cabbage—wait, make that horse shit, since her mount was currently lifting its tail and defecating between us.

  Melaina sent the horse a dry, unimpressed glance from atop the broken wagon that lay turned on its side where she’d perched herself, and she sniffed. “Rude.” Then she dismissed the animal with an arch of her eyebrows and turned her haughty expression back to me. “The goal is to sell all the bread, not give it away.”

  “I know that,” I muttered. “And I only gave away one loaf.” One. But she acted as if I’d dispersed our entire stock without any compensation whatsoever.

  “To a filthy street urchin,” Melaina argued. “Making all the other little ragamuffins loitering about and watching think it perfectly acceptable to take their own free loaves as well. Seriously, Quilla. How could you not notice when five more were stolen right out from under your nose?”

  With a growl, I unceremoniously tossed our bag full of wares I planned to sell in the market into the pushcart beside me and ground my teeth.

  The problem wasn’t that I hadn’t noticed the robberies; I just hadn’t put all that much effort—or any effort at all—into retrieving the stolen merchandise. But the kids had been so thin and half-starved to death. Being out the price of six stupid loaves wouldn’t sink us. And it had probably fed them for a week.

  “We’re not running a charity,” my aunt lectured. “That profit is our livelihood. How the hell are we supposed to go anywhere after this with no funds?”

  “We still turned a profit,” I argued, but not too heatedly because our so-called profit hadn’t been impressive. At all. It might cover the cost of meals for us, but it wouldn’t come close to paying for any kind of room and board along the roads. We’d have to sleep out on the ground in the open air and around a campfire every night.

  And neither of us enjoyed camping.

  Melaina cried out her frustration and tossed her hands in the air. “I swear, you are the most useless, incompetent—”

  “I just don’t see why I have to vend the bread,” I said.

  Fisting my hands down at my sides, I lifted my brows at my aunt and waited for an answer to that. I hated working in the market. She knew this. I despised crowds and people and price haggling. Melaina was the one who adored attention and being among the masses, somehow sweet-talking her customers into paying double her asking prices. Working the market-side of things was her skill. Not mine.

  “Because you stabbed the last gem dealer we sought in the thigh, dearest, and their kind talk amongst themselves. You and I both know you won’t be welcomed back into any of their shops with open arms again, not after that stupid stunt. So now I must be the one to talk to the jewelers, and you have to sell the bread.”

  Stupid stunt? Pfft.

  “I gave him fair warning.” He really shouldn’t have been so surprised by the wound. “I thought I explained myself very clearly when I told him he’d meet the sharp end of my knife if he didn’t keep his hands to himself.” Shrugging, I demanded, “How am I in the wrong for keeping my word?”

  It showed I was rather honest and trustworthy, if you wanted my opinion. I meant what I said, and I did what I promised. All good qualities.

  Wasn’t like I killed the guy.

  “People don’t like to be stabbed,” Melaina felt the need to explain. “For any reason.”

  “Then he should’ve kept his damn hands to himself,” I grumbled. “Like I told him.”

  “Oh, mercy.” With an exasperated breath, she rolled her eyes. “You’re such a prude. Tupping him wouldn’t have killed you, you know. In fact, getting laid every once in a while might help with some of those anger issues you have.”

  “You think?” I arched a censorious eyebrow. “Then why aren’t you the happiest woman alive?”

  She narrowed her eyes and pointed. “Don’t test me, you little bitch.”

  I sniffed. Anger issues, indeed. If I had anger issues, she was the reason I had them.

  Since the moment she’d dropped that amulet into Taiki’s cloak and shoved her through the portal to the other dimension, Melaina had been a thorn in my side. We might’ve gotten to spend nearly half a year with Quailen, Questa, and Taiki before we were sucked back to the Outer Realms again, but from there on out, it had been just me and her.

  Me and her disagreeing about every subject under the sun, constantly bickering, never seeing eye to eye, and sticking together anyway, living miserably ever after.

  Even after Melaina had broken her bond to her husband eight years ago and we’d been free to search for two more amulets so we could return to the others once and for all, life with her had still been hell. Melaina nitpicked about every breath I took, never missing an opportunity to put me down, and I’d learned to rail right back at her, slapping her into her place with pleasure.

  It had taken Taiki and Melaina sixteen years to procure four amulets last time. Melaina and I had been looking nonstop for half that time,
and so far, we’d only found one.

  Well, okay, that wasn’t technically true. Melaina wasn’t aware I’d gotten my hands on an amulet a few years back. She still thought we had two to go. But I knew her better than I knew anyone. If she learned we had one, she’d take it for herself and leave without me.

  She might be the most vexing woman I’d ever met, and she made it clear every day that she loathed the very ground I walked upon, but she was the only family I had. If she abandoned me here alone, I’d have no one. So, no, I wasn’t about to let her know we were halfway to our goal already. Not until we had that second amulet in hand.

  Melaina had gone back to see Taiki and the others for short trips throughout the years—since short trips were all we were allowed without amulets—and those few moon cycles without her had been a worse agony than all the suffering I put up with daily with her around. It was far better to have someone irritating and obnoxious in your life than no one at all.

  Every visit held such a high risk that I’d never chanced going back with her. There were about twenty-five percent odds we’d die in transport, like get dropped into the middle of an ocean and drown to death, or land underground and suffocate, maybe even be plopped in front of something speeding right at us and get run over and crushed. Anything could happen. That was why we needed to get our hands on another amulet, so we could go and finally stay there.

  And leave the Outer Realms forever.

  “Fine,” I exploded. “You deal with the damn gem dealer, then, and let him grope you six ways ’til Sunday while you find out if he has or knows where we can find another amulet.”

  He was the best lead we’d gotten in over a year. Rumor had it that he owned one. So I could swallow my pride and admit she was right this time; she should be the one to barter with him.

  “Oh, honey,” she purred, tapping her chin with a long-nailed finger and looking distinctly entertained. “I wouldn’t let him stop with a simple groping. I’d need far more than that. In fact, sex is a grand idea. Excellent suggestion, my dear. I should just give the poor darling a taste of Melaina, and he’ll be singing like a canary, eager to tell me all he knows or maybe even give me all he has. My God, why hadn’t I thought of that before? I should’ve been the one dealing with the gem dealers all along.”