Page 40 of Moonmarked

“Yes, I saw it. I felt it,” Maera said, and I felt her eyes on the side of my face as we walked, but I didn’t turn to look at her at all. “It’s fae magic, the same I smelled on you before I scratched you. Magic that should have killed you even if theprince accidentally transferred it to you with the life-bond.”

Ice-cold shivers washed down my back. “But it didn’t,” I whispered. “There’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for it, I’m sure there is.” It was the only thing that didn’t let me lose my mind for real right now.

“It’s okay. The stars make no mistakes. If you’re here, it’s because you should be,” she told me.

I laughed, but this time it was bitter. “What, like they didn’t make mistakeswhen they gave those thresholds or whatever to the fae to guard?”

For a moment, Maera walked in silence, eyes on the ground, lost in thought.

“We might have believed it to be a mistake at the time, but maybe…maybe the stars had planned for us all along. Maybe we were meant to become what we are since the beginning.”

It was certainly a way to look at it. “I’m mortal,” I insisted. “I’m a human being. My mother and father are human beings, and my sister is, too. And once I speak to the prince, everything will be clear and everything will make sense.”

I said all of it as if I really believed it.

“You think he is alive?” Maera asked.

“He has to be. I saw a knife sticking out of his chest, but it missed his heart—it had to. Because I’m alive, Maera. And those who are Lifebound die at the same time, don’t they?”

“They do,” she said with a nod. “But everything is possible through will and magic.”

Words I’d heard before—spoken by Helid, the same man who’d come to my home to convince me to come here.

Part of me thought I might regret that I ever accepted,but…did I, really? Could I ever possibly regret meeting Rune?

The thought of him opened a hole in my chest.

“What’s your plan, Nilah? The Seelie Court must be after you. It’s only a matter of time before they find you. You can’t run from them, not for long.”

“I’m not planning to run. I’m going to Blackwater to find a fae so I can send a message to someone in the Seelie Court. He’ll come find me, and he’ll know how to get me to the prince, how to get to the bottom of this. He’ll know.” Rune always knew.

“Where in Blackwater, exactly? It’s quite a big place,” said Maera.

My stomach fell. “Raja,” I whispered. “Her house is by a lake that is in the daylight part of Blackwater, surrounded by mountains and trees on all sides.” That was pretty much all I knew about the place where I was headed—which was pathetic all on its own.

“Do you have anything of hers? Something we can use for tracking?”

“No, I?—”

I stopped—speaking and walking and breathing.

I looked down at the ground, at the boots on my feet.Holy shit…

“I do, actually.” I looked at Maera, who’d stopped, too. “These boots belonged to her just a few days ago.”

Her smile was big and full this time. Even the yellow of her eyes lit up. “Then I’m going to need you to stand very still for a moment.”

Then she whistled.

At the same second, all three of the werewolves were running toward us.

Running.

My muscles locked down tightly and the scream was stuck in my throat, and I stared death right in the face while Maera continued to tell me that it was okay, that I didn’t have to be afraid, that they had to come close to me—extra closeso they could smell my boots.

Once again, I thought I passed out standing, and there were wolves at my feet, sniffing my legs, so close I could touch them. So close I understood exactly how big they were, how wide, howeasilythey could kill me.

Maera wasn’t concerned. When the wolves stepped back and I was able to blink my eyes, to look at them, to analyze their faces—their wide, yellow, intelligent eyes, teeth sharp and as big as my pinkies, ears perked up—she smiled. She just looked at me like one might a child they thought wascuteand she smiled.

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