Page 53 of Marked By the Dark Lord
Ipushed open the door to Korr’ok’s quarters but stopped short of disappearing into my room. Was it my room? Or a glorified prison cell?
Does it matter?
“I don’t understand,” I said, spinning on him and crossing my arms.
Korr’ok just looked at me, waiting with that annoying stillness that belied a patience level I could only ever dream of. Why couldn’t he show atinybit of interest in what I was about to say? Grrr … men!
“You said I would be punished,” I told him. “When you stopped the Gray Knights. You said I would have to take whatever punishment the Court gave me. I was expecting solitary or lashing, hell, maybe a public execution. But all they gave me was … more house arrest and supervision under you? That puts my entire ‘punishment’ back into your hands.”
“Yes, it does,” Korr’ok rumbled, my chest glowing faintly with the outline of the magic he’d branded me with. I flinched at its heat. “So be good.”
“No promises,” I said, trying to ignore it. “But you made it out like I would receive more. Much more. But I didn’t. Why not?”
Korr’ok looked away. “Because I gave Dannorax something he wanted more than to punish you.”
“You did? What did you give him?”
“My spot on the Jury,” Korr’ok replied evenly, his face turning to stone, preventing me from determining just how he felt about it.
“What? He wanted that?”
For a moment, the glow of his eyes dimmed ever so slightly. “Yes. For some time now.”
“Why?”
“Because I am the only one who could conceivably challenge him for the spot as Judge,” Korr’ok explained. “Dannorax knows who I am. Well, perhaps notpreciselywho I am, but what I am. He knows he would be unwise to challenge me. The outcome would not be a guaranteed win for him. Or me.”
“He fears you?”
Korr’ok snorted. “Dannorax is adragon, Mila. He fears few things. Even mostgodswould do well to avoid him. But he does respect my capabilities in battle. As I do him. The Place Behind is his domain and has been for a long, long time. Ever since he and—”
My eyebrows went up. “Ever since he and …?”
“No,” Korr’ok said firmly with a shake of his head, changing the subject back. “The point is, he’s happy to have me gone, even if I had no intentions of ever trying to take his spot.”
“I still don’t get it,” I said. “Why do it, then? Why give that up?”
“For you,” he said with heavy gravity, the words slamming into my chest like a cannonball, shaking my legs. “You are mine, Mila. Not his, not any of theirs, butmine.”
The last word was like a bullet, cracking the sound barrier as it filled the air around us. Korr’ok’s eyes burned with an intense scarlet flame that I’d never seen before, turning the space around us into a thick soup of heat. My lips parted slightly, my lungs working harder to breathe.
Nobody had ever tried to claim me before. Certainly not that way, not so passionately. How did one respond to that? How wouldIrespond?
“O-oh,” I managed to stammer, eyes still locked with his.
Quick, think of something else to say. It doesn’t have to be an address to world leaders. Just say something!
“Th-thank you,” I said a little more evenly that time, trying to ignore the fire spreading down the back of my neck. “I appreciate you doing that for me.”
We were standing several feet apart in the middle of the common room, but the stillness of everything made it seem like he was right there. In front of me, mere inches away, like when he came to my solitary cell. Just me and my monster.
Only there was nothing to stop him. Or me.
A fresh wave of prickling spikes of anticipation rolled through me, settling swiftly between my legs. Was it really going to happen? Hours ago, I was ready to leave him, to run away and never look back.
Now, after knowing he’d given up something important for me, I was changing my mind?
Or was my mind never really made up to begin with? Was it Korr’ok I was running from or this entire place? Do I really know? And now he’s leaving it voluntarily. For me. Because of me. Which is it? Does it matter?
