Page 50 of Marked By Night

He glances over at me and his grin lights up his whole face. He palms the shifter in his hand. “Hang on. This is going to be a wild ride.” His husky chuckle sends a thrill right through me.

My stomach lurches as we fishtail out of the parking lot, tires squealing and kicking up dust in our wake. One of my neighbors runs outside to check on the commotion, clutching their metaphorical pearls as we zoom past. I laugh a genuine laugh. It’s a freeing sound that I haven’t heard from myself since Skylar died.

Kaos King is right. This is going to be one hell of a wild ride.

If only I had known exactly how wild.

22

Sadie

Kaos takes us down so many back roads that all the twists and turns start to blur together after an hour or so. It’s pitch black outside with the only light coming from the small crescent moon and our headlights. We wind through trees and more trees. Everything is freaking trees. That’s the downside to this area, it’s kind of bland. Sometimes there are small clearings and valleys, but everything looks the same to me.

I trace the hand embroidered trident on the armrest for the millionth time, lost in thought. The ride has been relatively silent thus far. Mainly because I think Kaos is trying to give me space to sort through the storm of emotions swirling inside of me. He’s extremely intuitive.

I don’t know how I feel about this whole fated mate idea. Yeah, Kaos and Dante and even Elian, are three of the best-looking men I’ve ever seen, but I don’t know anything about them.

Do you have to?The less rational side of my brain pipes up. Actions speak louder than words after all and they have saved my ass more times than I can count tonight. Other than Elian’s abrasiveness, they’ve been extremely kind.

Food for thought, I guess.

The familiar sight of the Jeep a couple of paces behind us in the side mirror gives me a small sense of relief. When we hit the four-lane, Kaos signaled for a race and surprisingly Elian obliged. It was one hell of an adrenaline rush, but a Jeep is no match for a Maserati, and Kaos won.

Now we are literally in the middle of nowhere and it would be extremely easy to do whatever they wanted with us. For all I know, they could be taking Ash and I out to dispose of our bodies, but I highly doubt that. Especially after everything they’ve done to keep me safe thus far. Don’t get me wrong, I’d put up a hell of a fight but three well-trained magic users against one human and one magic user that had no clue she had magic until a few hours ago?

Yeah, not much of a fight.

Enough with the morbid crap, Sadie. Enjoy the scenery.

Kaos lifts his hand from my leg to adjust the radio volume, humming along to a song that I know every lyric by heart. During my teenage angst phase, I used to listen to it on repeat. I smirk, turning the volume up a few more notches to belt my favorite line.

He chuckles at my antics. “I’ll give you fifty bucks right now if you can name the artist and song on this one.”

I scoff. “Get ready to lose fifty bucks, sucker.If It Means a Lot to Youby A Day to Remember.” His mouth pops open. “And I’ll do you one better. It’s off theirHomesickalbum.”

He gives me an appreciative once over before digging his wallet out of his back pocket and tossing me my winnings. “What do you say if we make a game of this?” he asks, his dark blue eyes flashing challengingly.

Color me intrigued.

“All right, I’ll bite, but what happens if I don’t know one?”

He taps his chin in thought. “How about—”

“You know what,” I interrupt, letting some cockiness seep into my tone. “It doesn’t matter, because I don’t plan on losing.”

“You’re on, Little Flame.” He shoots me a devious grin. “Here, connect my phone to Bluetooth.” When I get it connected, he hits shuffle on his playlist labeledFavorites.The first song blasts through the speakers.

I smirk. “That one is too easy.Situationsby Escape the Fate.”

Kaos nods, tossing me another fifty which I stuff into my bra with my other money. I’m not sure why he seems to be so rich, but honestly, I don’t care. I’m sure he’ll tell me sooner or later.

“Bonus points if you can tell me which singer,” Kaos says after a few moments.

Without missing a beat I say, “Ronnie Radke, obviously.”

He laughs, giving me the side-eye as he navigates a particularly nasty curve. “ETF was never the same after Ronnie went to jail. Thank fuck he started Falling In Reverse.” When we’re on a straight stretch of road again, he tosses me a twenty. Even without the money, getting to know Kaos through music like this makes me extremely happy. Because the fact he likes the same music as me? Swoon.

Fucking swoon.

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