Mark of Love (Love Mark #3) - Linda Kage Page 0,109

“Jesus. Indigo, no. You—you can’t be serious.”

“I am. And so, you’re not touching a hair on her head,” I promised my cousin. “I can’t allow it.”

“Let me kill her for you,” he entreated. “Once your mark fades after her death, your bond to her will die too. I can free you.”

“I’d sooner die myself,” I growled, pissed that he would even suggest what he had.

He shook his head slowly, then answered, “So be it.”

Lifting his sword, he charged. I parried and blocked easily, sighing in disappointment. “Still like the initial bold and direct attack, I see. You haven’t changed much.”

“Neither have you,” he countered. “You still critique every damn move I make.” Then he surprised me by flicking out his sword point and catching me in the side.

“Indigo!” Quilla cried out in worry, and Axel sneered at her.

I lifted my eyebrows and blew out a pained breath. “Better,” I congratulated him, only to catch him off guard right back, attacking his sword with a force that caused it to go sailing away from his hand. Then I backed him into a tree and held my blade against his throat.

“We don’t have to do this, Axel. Just step aside and let us go without a fight, and you’ll never hear from us again. She’s not a danger to the Outer Realms; I swear it.”

He snorted an incredulous sound and shook his head. “My father would kill me if I let her go.”

“And I’ll kill you if you don’t. Don’t make me kill you. Cousin, please. You were the only person in your father’s home who showed me any kindness. I don’t wish to hurt you.”

“I guess I’ll just have to kill you first before you can, then.”

“Look out!” Quilla shoved me away from Axel just as he pulled up a dagger and thrust it forward. The blade barely nicked my tunic as I stumbled to the side.

Suddenly freed from the sword I’d been holding to his neck, Axel shot toward Quilla, snarling, “Graykey whore! How could you? He was a good person. He was family.”

Melaina screamed as he lifted his dagger and slashed the blade down toward Quilla’s face. Except I caught him from behind and snapped his neck.

Letting out a choked sob, he went limp. His knife dropped away from her as he sagged backward into me. I caught him in my arms and cradled him gently before easing him down to the ground, where I laid his body in the grass and slowly stepped back, staring in a daze at his dead, unseeing eyes. Then I gripped my head in my own hands and muttered, “Goddammit, Axel. You idiot. It didn’t need to come to this.”

Holly appeared between my legs in her cat form, meowing piteously and winding around my ankles as if trying to comfort me. She sniffed at Axel’s body once, then hissed in distaste, and flounced away.

I glanced up to find that the other two dozen men who’d attacked us were gone, all having run away from the fire-breathing dragon.

Why the hell hadn’t Axel run too?

“We need to get out of here,” Melaina said. “Before they realize the dragon isn’t pursuing them, and they come back.”

I nodded. She spoke with reason—reason I should be having right now. But I couldn’t seem to think straight, so I just followed them when Quilla tugged at my arm gently.

Holly turned into a brown mare with a complete saddle ready for me to ride. I climbed aboard, not even thinking about how much easier it was to ride again with both hands unbound. She started after the other two horses, and we were heading toward the road again.

Quilla glanced at me, worry lacing her gaze. “Do we need to do anything with his body?”

I glanced toward my cousin’s corpse as it grew smaller the farther away we rode, and I shuddered with grief but shook my head. “No. His father lives nearby. They’ll find him soon enough and take care of him.”

She winced. “Will he know it was you?”

I shrugged. “Doesn’t matter. Either way, we’ll be long gone by then.”

Clicking my tongue, I hurried Holly’s pace and sent our party moving along a little faster.

Chapter 24

Quilla

“Wow,” Melaina muttered to me as she rode up alongside my horse. “Murder sure does make that one a downer, doesn’t it?” She lifted her eyebrows archly as she took in Indigo, trotting ahead of us along the path. “He’s been sulking ever since he killed that man. Probably wouldn’t even react at all if