whispered. "How did it get burned on your skin like that?" She met his gaze, her brow furrowed "I thought I was supposed to get the marks?"
"I think you did." This time, when he clasped her wrist and moved her arm, he did look down. Alice bent her head next to his, her hair soft against his cheek.
On her arm was the partial outline of his mace, just like a sheva should have, reflecting the three and a half stages they had completed. But it wasn't the thin silver lines of a sheva mark that would have had him leaping up in victory and shouting his pride to the entire world. No, it wasn't that at all.
Instead of being a smooth, delicate consummation of their bond, the lines were dark, angry burn marks that had charred the skin so badly that they were puckered and raised. The flesh was black and damaged, and smoke rose off her skin. Sparks flickered and sizzled, as if the mark was still on fire. The fact that it had burned its image into his palm suggested that it still was.
It was his brand, yeah, but it didn't look how it was supposed to.
It didn't look like a sheva mark.
To him, it looked like the dark, angry brand of a demon.
Holy shit. What had he done?
* * *
Alice didn't have to ask to know that something had gone egregiously wrong. The shock on Ian's face sent a cold chill right to her core. "Ian? What happened?"
"They're supposed to be silver marks that blend with your skin. Like tattoos painted by angels." He gestured to the charred flesh and the burns etched into his own palm. "Not this. I've never seen it like this."
The bile of fear rose in the back of her throat. "What is it?"
"What does it look like to you?"
There was only one thing she could think of, only one time that she'd smelled that exact scent of burning flesh before. "Demons," she said. "It looks like demons."
Ian closed his eyes for a brief moment, and she felt his adrenaline surge. "Yeah, that's what I thought, too."
"Demons?" She couldn't keep the squeak of fear out of her voice as she quickly looked around the room. "But how?"
"I think—" Before he could finish his answer, the room filled with a brilliant turquoise glow. Ian swore and immediately unsheathed himself from her body. "Jada's coming."
Alice shivered as Ian broke the physical connection between them, and her legs trembled as Ian lowered her to the floor, helping her fix her shorts before he yanked his jeans back over his hips. They were barely dressed when Jada appeared in the room.
She was an ashen-gray mist now. The blue seemed to have faded into the pallid pallor of a gravestone. "You're ready to go?"
Ian moved in front of Alice, tucking her arm out of sight behind his back. Why was he concealing it from Jada? How bad was it? What had he been about to say? And demons?
Trepidation rushed through Alice, and she folded her arms under her breasts, tears burning in her eyes when her tender, charred skin brushed against her shirt. Gone was the high of that place Ian had taken her to when they'd made love, replaced by a rising terror she couldn't contain. Why had she finally gotten his marks? And why did they hurt so much? And demons?
"Yeah, we're ready." Ian held out his arms to show his cuffs. "These are your assurances we will return?"
Jada nodded. "Exactly seventy-two hours from now, you will be recalled to this room. Chloe will be here waiting for you. You will have ten minutes to save her. If you don't, you will die." She smiled at them, a smile of grim reality. "You would have died last time. You know I can do it."
Alice thought of the young half-angel, and her heart started to ache. "Can I see her?"
"No," Jada snapped. "You've betrayed your kind enough."
"How do you know she'll still be alive when we get back?" Ian asked.
Jada met his gaze. "I know. That is all the information you need."
Alice closed her eyes, filled with regret for the young woman who didn't belong. An angel who was so barely an angel that she shouldn't have been subject to the same fate as the Mageaan. "I'll give the pearl to her," she said softly. "I'll offer it to her—"
"It won't work on her," Jada snapped.
Alice opened her eyes to study Jada. She'd felt Chloe's energy. There