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“Then do it already,” she lashed out, at the end of her patience.
“I am!”
Huffing, I turned back to the unconscious High Clifter and knelt next to him again before lifting the blade above my head, ready to plunge it down into his still-beating heart.
I’m sorry, I whispered to him inside my head. But this was about survival. It was either him or me.
Okay, I was going to do this. On the count of three.
One.
Two.
“It’s curious though,” Melaina said, making me close my eyes briefly, grateful for the moment of reprieve.
Not that I could let her know I was thankful. So I ground my teeth and sent her an impatient scowl, keeping the dagger held high above his chest, poised to plummet. “What’s curious?”
“If he didn’t know you were a Graykey—”
“He didn’t.” At least he had seemed genuinely surprised when he’d found out. And why would he even want to feign that?
Melaina nodded, going with that theory. “Then why was he following you? I mean, there was no doubt it’s you he’s been after this whole week. Not me or anyone else.”
“What’s your point?”
“Why?” she said. “That’s my point. Why you? Aside from being a Graykey, you’re a no one.”
Wow. I just adored how she always made me feel like an unremarkable nonentity with the simplest of phrases. So very kind and considerate of her.
Ignoring the prickle to my pride, I shook my head. “I don’t know. And I don’t care. He’s a complication we can’t deal with right now. So he has to die.”
We had an amulet to find, a world to escape, and new lives to begin elsewhere. We didn’t have time for this.
“But aren’t you even curious?” she countered, sounding exasperated.
“No,” I answered.
Except, of course, I was. But honestly, I felt more scared than curious, so killing him was the best option. With him gone, out of our lives, the fear of whatever truths led him to my trail would be gone. And I could breathe normally again. So he really had to die. Because I enjoyed normal breathing.
“At least do me a quick favor before you off him,” Melaina said. “Tap on his tattoo there and see what happens.”
The dagger dropped suddenly to my side as if her words had taken control of my arm and rendered it useless. “Do what?” I gasped.
And yep, here came that spike of fear again. My pulse began to race and my head went a little dizzy.
“Five times will do it, I’d say.”
Shaking my head, I huffed out an incredulous snort. “Like hell.”
I knew all about the lore behind a High Clifter’s love mark. Their one true love could touch their tattoo five times, and it would crackle with an electrical charge, causing it to snap and sparkle. A High Clifter’s love mark could also help them track their mate, too. That was another thing I’d heard about their freaky tattoos. At first sight, it was like a beacon was planted, and from there on out, they’d be able to follow and find you. No matter where you went.
Creepy, right?
And though that hidden, fearful place inside me was already wondering about this very possibility, I gaped at my aunt with open-mouthed astonishment before shrieking, “You must be mad.”
She rolled her eyes. “Well, if he keeps finding you through every different glamour you wear, and he had no idea you were a Graykey, then how else—”
“Well, he…” I started, only to fall silent, because I didn’t have another answer. If he hadn’t been after me because I was a Graykey, then why had he been chasing me?
