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I glared at Von. “It’s an impossible thing to give.”
He smirked, a brow raising in challenge. “Is it?”
I threw my hands up in anger. “You unsufferable males and your deals. It wasn’t enough that I had to make one deal tonight, now you tell me I’ve made two? At leasthedidn’t tattoo me after.”
Von’s smugness abruptly shifted to something much more sinister. The shadows even seemed to peel away from him. “What do you mean bytwo deals?”
I looked at Harper for backup, feeling every bit of the foot I had just crammed in my own mouth.
Harper feigned a quick stretch and an obnoxiously loud yawn. “I think I’m going to go to bed. Good night, you two. Play nice.” She scuttled away faster than I could ask her to stay. I shot a withering glance at her as she dodged around the corner and out of sight.Traitor.
Suddenly, Von was beside me, the apple gone. His finger swept under my chin, guiding me to look up at him. “What other deal did you make?”
I swallowed. Hard. “The king’s advisor said he will find Kaleb’s location and give it to me.”
“What hasheasked for in return?” Von demanded. Even though his touch was soft, I could feel the heavy tension clinging to him. It was strange seeing him like this—he was always so controlled all the time.
“He wants to court me, or rather, one outing.”
Von scowled. “And you agreed.”
“Of course,” I replied defensively. “I didn’t have any other option.”
Snarling, he said, “Youalways have options.”
“Do I?” I raised my arm for him to see. “Then why is this on my arm?”
His hand gently captured mine, softly guiding it towards him. His fingers swirled around my wrist, gently turning it over, studying the sprawling tattoo. “If I explain it now, I will sound like a jackass,” he said, his fingers drifting over the vine, his touch so featherlight, so intimate, it made me shiver. His eyes met mine. “But there will come a time you will understand why this was necessary.”
I let his words sit with me as my gaze drifted up his long, ringed fingers to his wrist, to his forearm. There, over top of the other tattoos, in fresh, black ink was the twin to my own—although they were not identical.
Like yang was to yin, his was the masculine version to my feminine one. Where mine was all elegant, dainty details, his was more vicious looking with its thick, claiming vines and sharp, menacing thorns.
Seeing it there filled me with an inexplainable satisfaction. Something that had started as a push and pull between us had quickly teetered to a constant pull faster than I could fathom. What was the magnetic force that was bringing us together at such an intense, impossible speed? And why did it feel like Von knew?
I watched as he repeated the same gentle brushing strokes, but my attention drifted to the remainder of his tattoos. I had once thought of them as a messy canvas that somehow resembled art, but now they seemed more like a map, charting his dealings throughout his life—gods, there weresomany.
My fingers slid just above the one that twinned mine to a woman’s hand holding a lush, red apple, a snake wrapped tightly around her arm, its mouth stretched open, revealing its fangs. “Is this one from a deal you made?”
“Yes,” he replied, his voice a smooth, dark bourbon.
I sat with that for a moment before I asked, “How many of your tattoos are from deals?”
“All of them.”
I swallowed. “You have to fulfill every one of these?”
Looking into my eyes, he replied, his tone dropping an octave with each spoken word. “Every last one.”
Silence fell between us. The weight of his words, the way he said them, the way he looked at me—it reminded me of the way a groom spoke to his bride, stating his vows just before they were deemed man and wife.
Why did it sound like he was making a promise?
I looked down, eyes roaming over the various tattoos, searching them for answers, but there were so many of them, I didn’t know where to start. “Isn’t that overwhelming?” I asked, curious how he could walk around with so many reminders of the deals he had made stamped all over his body.
“Never.” His hand cupped my cheek, and he looked at me in such a way that I believed every word that followed. “When I’m lost and out of my mind and waiting formylight to return, they are the very thing that guides me through the darkness.”
Like a curtain pulled back, the mask he wore lifted, revealing the truth beneath. There, in the gaze of those starless eyes, I understood where the stars had gone—they had fallen.
