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I conceded by sitting on the floor, leaning my back against the nightstand.
My chest and our tether ached. Admittedly, not only was I angry because she was jeopardizing our success… But I was wounded. She had rejected me when I’d vowed my life to her. Or at least tried to. Though I begrudgingly understood why, it didn’t make it hurt any less.
I had no idea what the symbol or words marking her skin meant other than recognizing the symbol of Death.Mors.The words written beneath were in a language I didn’t recognize.
“Do you know what the inscriptions on your marks mean?”
Another slight shake of her head.
“I’m sorry I fucked it up…”
Despite the pain that tore through it, a rough, mirthless laugh erupted from my chest. How wrong she was. It wasn’therthat had messed it up. It wasme.If I hadn’t been so ruthless and cruel to her… Perhaps she would have given me her vow. Maybe I would evendeserveit.
A better male would have been able to admit that. I didn’t even have to push the realization away because fear promptly took its place.
Fear that everything I had spent my life working for would be snatched away.
And soon after, my anger returned.
“Oh, don’t worry,maha mo’ina li’ili…You might be marked by The God of Death himself, but that suits our needs just fine because anyone or anything that stands in our way will be sent straight to him.”
Chapter
Thirty-Six
MAREINA
For hours, I’d laid in bed tossing and turning. By the time I did manage to finally fall asleep, I’d been welcomed by nightmares depicting so much death that even as desensitized as I’d become to it, it had driven out the contents of my stomach.
So after enduring hours of that, it had been rather befitting that the following morning, I’d awoken feeling very much like death.
Phaedra herself had been nowhere to be found, and I’d been as glad for it as I was to leave.
Waiting outside the tavern whilst Nakoa took care of our bill, my gaze fixed on the horizon as I tried to breathe away the tension drawing my body taut. We would return to hisolana kah’hei…to then head towards his mother’s, Vysinni, and then Bastrina.
My plan to escape Nakoa would apparently have to be… postponed for the time being. At least until we killed Zurie and overtook the throne. I had vowed to help him rule Atratus, but I’d promised nothing about committing my heart or my body to him. Perhaps I could help him achieve his dream of living out a peaceful existence in the Kahlohani Islands, just as he’d always dreamed.
Yet again, my mind drifted to Malekai, which only served to intensify the ache in my chest. Had he arrived in Vyssini yet? I couldn’t help but feel like I was knowingly walking us all into a trap. One in which Malekai could even be harmed…
Should I warn Nakoa?
How could I warn Malekai?
Nakoa’s voice snapped me out of my thoughts. Could he sense my turmoil?
“How do they feel?”
I twisted to find him examining my wings and extended them wide.
“Much better. Awkward, but not painful.”
I could hear the frown in Nakoa’s voice as he rubbed at my leathers near where the bone had burst out of my back and punctured my top.
“There’s blood all over your back still.”
I shrugged, now a sluggish and uncomfortable movement.
What difference did it make?
