Page 31 of Moonmarked

Which I was sure he would know, but…the way he looked at me.

The way he suddenly leaned in a bit closer and sniffed the air, closed his eyes.

My instincts reacted. My first thought was torunbecause these men were not in chains, and they were not sorcerers, either. And the last time I’d been cornered like this, at the edge of a cliff, I’d felt so hopeless—but not anymore.

I’d forgotten the cavern in Mercove, but I remembered now. I remembered the heat that had gone through me, the power. Themagic.

No, I was not going to run again (partly because I was pretty sure they’d catch me if I tried, but still.)Something inside me clicked—warm and inviting, familiar, comforting.I breathed deeply, closed my eyes for only a moment, and I saw the pale golden light in the very middle of my chest.There you are.

I’d pulled mermaids out of water with that light. I’d made those tempest crystals float on air—for realbecause Rune had been there and he’d seen it.

I could pick these people up right now, too, if it came to it. That’s what I told myself, at least.

“What are you?” the man suddenly whispered, his voice low, dangerously low. And his friends approached immediately, sniffing the air as they came.

Those words Rune said before came back to me again—about werewolves and mortal flesh. So fucking hard not to be terrified.

“I’m—” Except they didn’t let mespeak.

“Have you been bitten?” the guy in the middle cut me off. The way those wide yellow eyes scrolled down my body…

I swallowed hard. “No, I?—”

“Have you been scratched?”

Well, fuck.“What’s it to you?”

He stepped forward. The werewolf moved to my side with a howl that didn’t even make me jump.

“Show me,” the man said instead. “Show me—now.”

Fuck me, I could’ve sworn he now looked desperate all of a sudden. On the verge of tears.

I looked down at the werewolf at my side, and she only glanced up at me once before she focused on the men again. There was no way to tell what that look meant, so I didn’t bother trying to decipher it. I just figured that these men couldmakeme show them if they wanted, and I really didn’t want them anywhere near us. And if I could get away from this without using the heat that was slowly intensifying inside me, I would.

So, I pushed up the sleeve of my jacket and raised my hand to show them my inner forearm. The four claw marks on my skin, calmer still than they had been the day before.

The men looked like they’d suddenly seen a ghost.

“No,” the one on the right with the buzzcut and the thick beard covering his jaws whispered.

“When?” the man in the middle said.

“Yesterday,” I said, wetting my dry lips to give myself a moment. “She saved my life, and I am not going to let you hurt her. I’ll warn you, though—I know how I look, but I beat a bunch of mermaids once. I-I-I’m not harmless.”

Goddamn it, Nilah!How in the hell was I supposed to sound badass if my voice broke on me at the last second like that?!

The men all looked down at the werewolf, who was no longer growling, but she hadn’t moved an inch, either.

“It’s okay. We’ll be fine,” I whispered, more for my own benefit. But I still had the magic. I felt its heat and I saw the light, and the moment I imagined it crawling to my arms and moving down to my hands, it would.

Wolfie finally looked up at me again, eyes wide, less tense than a moment ago.

“Trust me, okay? We’ll be fine.” I even sounded like I meant it.

“Did Maera do that?” the men then said—one or the other, I didn’t really care.

I looked at them. “She did, yes.”

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