Page 32 of Angel Lost

“Rarely.” She turns on her heel.

“I am disappointed in you, Farrell Cuelebre,” she snarls as she struts away down the tunnel, leaving everyone gaping in her wake. Hewie rolls his eyes and trots after her, muttering about making sure she gets out.She damn well got in all by herself…

I stare down at my finger, rubbing it distractedly. The cool of the cavern seems to have seeped into me, and I shiver. Groaning, I hunch my shoulders and swing back to the others.

“We still need to test the bond and do the oath, right?” I ask. “Let’s get it over with.”

It’s like not one of them heard me. Each of them is stopped, like a statue, peering at their wrists.

Oh no. No, no, no. Not that.

With trepidation, I slowly turn my hand over, until my palm faces the mirrored ceiling. Taking a deep breath, I peer down.

But my allegiance mark is normal. Thank the goddesses. I couldn’t have coped—

“Welcome to the club, I guess.” Chano’s voice interrupts my thought. He claps a hand on Kai’s shoulder, his face a mixture of worry and excitement.

“Wait, what?” I ask.

The boys huddle around.

“You didn’t believe me.” Zephyr sniffs, waving his hand in my face. “Well, now you know not to doubt my abilities.”

His wrist is in my grip before I even think. All five corners of his pentagram are filled—an extra allegiance mark. A mark for Kai. No. I whirl on Chano. The same. My breath quickens. Farrell barely has time to react before I yank his arm close, fingers digging in. No! I fling his arm away from me like it burns.

“Whoa, chica, easy.” Chano wraps an arm around my shoulders. “I know you miss Naeve, and you don’t want this, but the Fates clearly have other ideas.”

I shrug him off, taking a faltering step away. “He’s not our allegiance,” I hiss. “I don’t have a mark. Zephyr iswrong. It’s a trick. I don’t have a mark.” I strain up into Kai’s face. “I don’t know how you managed this, but un-fucking-do it, right now!”

Farrell takes my hand uncharacteristically gently and flips it over. His fingers play over my allegiance mark. Very clearly Naeve’s spot sits, still empty, on my wrist. Naeve’s spot. Not Kai’s. Farrell frowns, confusion marring his brow.

“I didn’t do anything, I swear,” Kai says over Farrell’s shoulder, his tone flat, emotionless, as he flashes his own wrist. A stubbornly solid pentagram sits on his pale skin. Each spot filled. My icon, my avatar, glaringly obvious. “This is not something I would choose.”

Not something he would choose? To be in our allegiance. Well, that’s not how allegiance works, is it? More proof it’s wrong; Zephyr’s wrong.

“You screwed up the tattoo,” I say, my voice more confident than I feel. “Maybe not deliberately. But you said it—you’re still learning. And…well…that explains what Zephyr saw. He saw this fuckup. And jumped to a conclusion. The wrong conclusion.”

Both Zephyr and Kai glare at me.

“Don’t you dare try to wriggle out of this, Lorelei Bal,” Kai snaps.

I chew my lip. The slave bond is made. I can feel them all, somewhere in the back of my mind. Each of them has a heavy, oppressive presence. He messed up, but he did keep his end of the deal.

Palming my knife, I grimace. “I’ll still make the oath, Kai. I keep my word.”

Farrell steps between us, taking my blade from me. Naeve’s blade. “She’ll do it, but the oath wording will be altered. Should Lorelei be found out because your weird tattoo magic is screwed up, her side of the bargain is void.”

Kai’s expression hardens, his eyes flashing. I swear his cheekbones get higher, his ears longer, and his hair almost dances with a will of its own.He screws his eyes shut and presses his fingers to his temples, massaging in slow circles. Eventually, he releases a breath of air and with it, his anger dissipates. He looks normal again…tired, worn out around the edges…but normal.

“I thought, if I ever found an allegiance…I thought it would be different.” He passes a hand over his face. “To find even you don’t trust me, because I’m fae, that’s…disappointing.”

He shrugs suddenly, grabbing the knife from Farrell and slitting his hand open again. “No matter. I know my end of the bargain is good.”

It’s anticlimactic. Over quickly, and then Kai is out the chamber, following Camille’s long-faded footsteps. Zephyr slinks out behind him, not even bothering to glance at me.

What a day.

A blood oath, a pinkie promise, and a slave bond, plus some kind of allegiance mark fuckery, and to top it off, a pissy Zephyr. Goddess give me strength.

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