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“He’s Melaina’s son,” I said. “Qualmer. Did you know that?”
Of course, he knew that. He had the entire family tree, five generations back, right here.
“I’m aware,” he said, nodding solemnly.
“And you never thought to mention this fact to us?”
“What fact? That I would literally slaughter your cousin if he happened to show up at camp for a mother-son meet and greet someday? Yeah, I didn’t think I should mention that, no.”
I shook my head and snorted. “And you wonder why we keep you chained.”
“Hey.” Anger contorted his features as he surged to his feet. Alarm raced through me. What did he think he was—
Oh shit.
He stormed forward, and my first instinct was to retreat. But I pulled my daggers, one in each hand, and crossed them threateningly, ready to slice off his head if he came any closer.
My threatening snarl didn’t intimidate him at all, though. If anything, his jaw set with steely determination, and his eyes filled with rage. Stepping right up to me, he voluntarily fit his neck against the blades. All I’d have to do is snap the knives together and he’d be about a foot shorter.
But he knew I wasn’t going to kill him, and I was forced to edge a step back. Then another. Soon, he’d have me backed against a tree, and I would have no way to escape.
Panic crawled up my throat.
He lurched to a halt. “I would never hurt you,” he swore with so much fervor that I swallowed hard. “You’re my blood, my soul, my destiny. I don’t care if you succumbed to bloodlust this very moment and murdered a dozen people, I couldn’t kill you.”
My heart fluttered against my will.
Just a little.
But I pushed the stupid emotion down and tilted up my chin defiantly. “Just admit it,” I growled. “If that mark wasn’t on your face, telling you who I was supposed to be to you, you’d have killed me a dozen times by now, wouldn’t you have?”
“I don’t know,” he said softly. “Maybe.”
I jolted in surprise, not expecting him to so openly admit it. His shoulders slumped. “But it is on my face, so I’m not going to.”
From between clenched teeth, I snapped, “Just go ahead and try. What’re you waiting for?”
Shaking his head, he repeated,
“I’m not going to kill you.”
I snorted. “And you’re still convinced we’re going to have some perfect relationship?”
He laughed softly. “No. There’s no such thing as a perfect relationship. The mark never would’ve paired me with anyone if it’d been looking for that. My mother always told me finding my soulmate would just be the beginning. It will still take a whole lifetime of work and effort to make our relationship work. And I suppose we’ll have to work through more than most. But yes, I’m convinced we will. Or that we at least can.”
“Work through more than most?” I sputtered incredulously. “You’re insane. I’m not working through shit with you. I want nothing to do with you. Your people are trying to indiscriminately murder and capture my—”
He kissed me. The asshole actually had the gall to lean in and press his too-soft lips against mine.
I still held the daggers scissored up against his throat. All I had to do was snap, and it’d be bye-bye, true love.
But my heart gave another stupid shudder. A piercing ache followed, and a part of me I couldn’t seem to control wanted someone to put in the effort. It wanted someone to love me and say words like Indigo had just said. Didn’t matter if he was totally the wrong man for the job, and he was only saying it because his mark was basically forcing him to, his devoted words were nice. So I couldn’t even say he startled me motionless when he sprang the kiss on me. I was still fully capable of cutting him or even just pushing him away. Yet I didn’t.
Because I didn’t want to. His lips contained an addictive pleasure I was incapable of resisting.
He was the idiot who messed it up by separating our mouths and pressing his brow to mine so he could talk some more.
“I’m sorry,” he rasped. “I know my countrymen’s—and my own—philosophy on how to handle the Graykeys is flawed, but you’ve got to admit we can’t just do nothing and let the curse continue. It’d eventually wipe out the entire Outer Realms with the killing sprees and wars it causes. I would’ve thought you’d know more than anyone just how destructive your curse is.”
