Page 139 of Centaur Bolt

“He marked you,” he breathed.

“It might not mean anything—”

“That’s a mating bite,” he snarled, pushing me away. “You’ve made your choice.”

“But the dreams—”

“Maybe this was never more than that.” He spoke through clenched teeth that had grown long and sharp, and his eyes glared through a ring of dark scales. “I can’t even touch you without turning into a demon.”

“No! Marcus, this was meant to be. Fate—“

“Fate has never done anything other than abandon me,” he said. “And now you’ve betrayed me, too.”

He spun and stalked down the hall.

My heart felt as though it were tearing in two. But I let him go.

Nothing I could say would bring him back to me. He needed to come back on his own.

Or not at all.

* * *

My thoughts were in chaos when I re-entered the suite.

Cara shot me a long look, and her brows dropped. Havoc stood with his back to the wall. He seemed to be locked in a staring contest with Tyrez.

“He won’t tell us where Isobel is,” Tyrez growled.

By the wild look in the red Dragon’s eyes, I had better intervene. “Tell them, Havoc.”

His copper glare transferred to me. “Not until they remove the fucking collar.”

“This woman,” snarled Tyrez, “is killing thousands of innocent people.”

“No one is innocent.” Havoc’s words were barely coherent, and his wings had burst free from his shoulders. Cara’s suite was at risk of becoming an open-plan concept.

I reached out to place my hands on his arms. Everyone in the room froze, as if they expected him to explode.

He did flinch, ever so slightly. But he let me touch him.

“You can trust these people,” I told him.

“I trust no one,” he hissed.

“Do you trust me?” As soon as I said that, I held my breath.

Those remarkable eyes flared. “No exceptions,” he growled, but he looked away from me.

My fingers tightened on his tree-trunk arms. “I give you my word that they will keep theirs.”

He stiffened, but then he turned to Cara. “You swear to me?” he asked.

“I do,” Cara responded.

He exhaled, and his lips peeled back from his teeth, as though the words had to be forced through them. “She’s holed up in a castle on the outskirts of the town of Murnia. In the Gafriki realm.”

Tyrez spun to leave, but Cara warned him, “Isobel might already be gone. Marcus said she wasn’t at the ambush at the Watcher’s cottage. Or at the one earlier. She’s been up to something requiring her full attention, and she has to know her location might be compromised.”

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