Page 42 of Of Wind and Terror

Shock splays across her face, and she gapes at me, momentarily at a loss for words.

I want to tell her the truth about what she is to me—who she is to me—but now isn’t the time. Didn’t I decide that Kassie deserves better than a fae like me? She deserves to be romanced and wooed. When I tell her that she’s my fated mate, gifted to me by Gaia herself, I want the moment to be perfect. Romantic. I want her to walk away having no doubts in her mind about who she belongs to.

And who belongs to her.

“It seems as if you’ve had quite the adventure since I last saw you,” I whisper, yearning to place my hand on her cheek.

Would her skin feel as soft as it looks? I imagine so.

“I wouldn’t really call it an adventure…” She drops her hands and chews on her bottom lip.

It takes all of my self-control not to rip her lip away from her teeth. If anyone should be biting that plush lip of hers, it’s me.

“What do you call traveling into enemy territory with an evil ice prince and then ending up in a hidden village with an ugly oaf and an elf?” I tease, and a smile flits across her face, brief and fleeting.

Even still, I feel my breath catch. She’s beautiful normally, but when she smiles…

I go weak in the knees.

Me.

The man once notorious for bedding every female in his kingdom is now a simpering fool for one fae and one fae alone.

“It’s been a strange few days,” she confides at last, her gaze flicking towards her bicep.

Just beneath her sleeve, and above her mismatched gloves, rests a strange mark I’ve never seen before. It’s red and slightly raised, the edges appearing almost pink in the shadows.

“What’s that?” I reach forward to touch the discolored skin, but before my fingers can make contact, she jumps away with a startled cry, her back banging against the wall behind her.

“Don’t touch it,” she signs, her hands shaking and her eyes wide with something akin to fear. “I don’t know what it’ll do to you.”

“What it’ll do to me?” I parrot, canting my head to the side in confusion.

She hesitates, and once more, her teeth come down to nibble on her lower lip. “Have you heard of the Mark of Chaos?”

“The Mark of Chaos?” I frown. “Should I have?”

She shakes her head and flicks her gaze back towards the mark.

Understanding dawns.

“Is that brand on your skin…? Is that some kind of curse?” A strange feeling whirls in my gut the longer I stare at the puckered skin.

I’ve never heard of the Mark of Chaos before, but it doesn’t sound good.

“I need to get this mark off of me,” she confesses. “I don’t really know how else to explain it, but it’s dangerous. And the only creature that can help me remove it lives in Amorite.”

“Wait. Wait. Slow down. Back up.” I blink at her, attempting to assign some meaning to her absurd words. Dangerous? Amorite? “Is that where you three are heading? Amorite?”

She nods, the barest dip of her chin. “We’re going to pass through the Forest of the Damned to reach the Fall Court. From there, we’ll head straight to Amorite.”

“To remove this mark,” I say slowly. It’s not a question.

“Yes,” Kassie answers.

“Because the mark’s dangerous.”

“Yes.”

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