Page 50 of The Fallen Kingdom

“I need one last night with you.”

I look at him, surprised to find his expression laid bare and vulnerable. Like he’s begging me.Stay. Stay with me.

One final night together before we go to find that Book and I lose Kiaran, one way or another. That vow he made to Sorcha is somewhere on his body. She’s marked him. Twice.

“Let me see it,” I say, voice hoarse. “Show me her vow.”

“Don’t,” he whispers. “Don’t do this.”

“Show me.”

With his jaw set, Kiaran roughly removes his coat and drops it to the floor. Then his shirt.

I suck in a breath when I see the new marks on him.

Kiaran’s torso is a map of swirled designs carved into his flesh and healed over into scars. The one that spans his entire back is the vow he made to Catríona, the Falconer he fell in love with thousands of years ago: his vow never to kill humans.

Sorcha’s mark used to lie over his heart in a mess of spiky branches that reached across his skin, expanding to the tops of his shoulders as if it wanted to cover every inch of him. As if it wanted to consume him.

And now it does.

His vow to Sorcha has woven itself around and inside his other vow, across his rib cage, up and up around the muscular flesh of his upper arms and shoulders.

I step around him to see that it continues across his back, disappearing beneath the waistband of his trousers, continuing high up toward his neck where it dips beneath his hairline.

Kiaran tenses when I touch him, but he doesn’t move, doesn’t say anything. I try to sense his powers, but all I can feel are Sorcha’s. As if she’s wrapped herself around him, forced herself beneath his skin.

This isn’t just a vow: It’s a mark of ownership. It says,You’re mine forever and I’m never letting you go.

I pull away from him, as if his skin burns. “I’m going to find a way to get that off of you,” I tell him tightly. “Whatever it takes.”

Before I can even blink, Kiaran takes me by the arms and he’s kissing me. It’s heartbreakingly slow at first, his lips light, tentative. But I want more. I kiss him harder. I put everything I feel into it, every part of me. Everything I can’t say in words.

“I’m yours,” he rasps against my lips.

He drags me against him, his fingers frantically pulling at my shirt to feel my skin beneath. I pull away only to let him lift it over my head and then his hands are everywhere, touching, stroking.

“I’m yours,” he says again.

His lips trail down to my neck, my shoulder. Each touch burns. His lips sear a path of heat down my body as he whispers those two words over and over and over again. A reminder. A promise. A vow to me, this one marked on his soul.

“I’m yours.”

It feels like he’s saying goodbye.

CHAPTER 24

KIARAN ANDSorcha are waiting in the antechamber of the palace the following morning. Their heads are bent and they’re in something of a heated discussion. Their voices are low, urgent. They both look up when my footsteps echo across the dark onyx floor.

Sorcha is wearing a stunning red brocade gown and boots with pointed heels, as if we were on our way to an assembly. She even looks like she’s wearing jewelry.

Good Christ, she is. It’s an elaborate necklace dripping with rubies. Like something royalty would wear.

“Are we intending to battle an ancient evil or going to a ball?” I ask as I approach.

Sorcha’s smile is slow, lazy. Victorious. It says,I have everything I want and I don’t care what you think. “I go into a war dressed for the outcome.”

I glance at her ruby necklace.I hope the Morrigan chokes you with it.

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