Mark of Love (Love Mark #3) - Linda Kage Page 0,142

I went.

He was too quick and leaped back, bowing his body out to avoid a cut.

Dammit.

He stepped forward, his boot landing on the hem of my dress. We both paused and looked down at the ripping sound that followed as his move split the material straight up my leg, revealing a naked thigh. Then we looked up at each other together, both our eyes wide over the strangeness of how he’d managed to ruin my skirt like that by merely stomping on it. But then I used my new freedom of movement to jerk my knee up, hitting him right between the legs.

Eyes crossing, he grunted out a breath, clutched himself, and tipped over sideways. I punched him in the side of the head as he went down, to knock him out for good measure.

I messed up, though; I spent too long blinking at his mammoth, crumpled form, still in awe over the fact that I’d been able to best such a huge beast. By the time I sensed a presence behind me, it was too late. A solid bulk slammed into the center of my back, stealing my breath and knocking me to my knees.

With the wind punched from my lungs and my vision spinning with dizziness, I wavered upright for a second before pitching face-forward and landing slumped over the man I’d just knocked unconscious.

Pain paralyzed me, exploding freshly in my mouth and cutting open my lip as my face slammed into the earth, while the throbbing line across my spine seemed to immobilize my arms. Skirts tangled around my legs, trapping me further. I couldn’t even struggle as a rough arm grabbed my shoulder and spun me around onto my back so I was able to look up into the face of my attacker.

The stranger snarled down at me, saying, “Hello, black eyes,” before he straightened and lifted a club over his head.

I squeezed my eyes shut, bracing for impact. This was going to kill me. I just knew it.

But a male voice yelled, “Wait.”

Releasing a breath, I cracked open an eye as someone else with an air of authority about him approached. He didn’t even bother to remove his sword from its scabbard at his side, as if battling was beneath him.

“The reward will be larger if we keep her alive.”

Grumbling, my henchman lowered the club so he could reach down with his other hand to grab a handful of my hair. Then he lifted me.

I cried out when chunks of tresses tore free from my scalp, while others held firm as he pulled me up, far enough off the ground to leave my legs dangling and kicking out to find some kind of footing. Tears of pain filled my eyes as my handler answered, “But I thought they’d already caught one for the procedure. We don’t need to keep two alive.”

Another one?

Were they talking about Indigo?

Had they caught Indigo?

No!

“I haven’t heard confirmation yet that the other is honestly a Graykey,” the older man answered, stopping in front of me, and narrowing his eyes with disgust as he peered into mine that had to be pure black right now. Then he sneered and grabbed my arm, flipping it over to reveal my mark. “But you’re definitely a Graykey. Aren’t you, my pretty one?”

I didn’t answer.

He stepped closer. “You were probably the very monster who murdered my boy? Did you kill my son—my Axel—you little whore?”

Axel?

Oh dear God. This was Indigo’s uncle Everett, wasn’t it? The one who’d degraded him for being a High Clifter and turned him into a servant in his own family’s home? Who’d beaten him for trying to go to Warren to find me and threw him in a dungeon for days on end afterward?

Already hating the pompous windbag, I narrowed my eyes and growled, “Go to hell.”

He smacked me. High. Right across the temple, which seemed to break open a blood vessel at the top of my cheekbone and the corner of my eye.

“Answer me!” he roared. “What happened to Axel? Who killed him?”

I’d die before I let him know who truly took his son’s life. Trying to see him clearly with one eye swelling and blood dripping down my chin, I worked my mouth as I gathered saliva, and then I spit, nailing him right in the face.

With a roar, he walloped me on the side of the head again, causing more hair to pull free from my scalp and fresh pain to bloom across the length of my cheek as