MARK OF LOVE (Lovemark #3)

Prologue-2

Glancing past Aunt Melaina, I realized more had arrived with her. Two of her children—Quailen and Questa—stepped from behind her and tugged on her arm. “Someone could catch us out here any second; we have to go.”

I backed nervously away, eyeing my cousins the entire time. They didn’t look as if they’d been gripped by the urge to kill, but I wasn’t willing to take any chances. It was rare for one person in a family to escape the bloodlust, so it didn’t seem possible for three of us to have avoided it.

Since they were both older than me—already teenagers—they could probably kill me easily, too. If they were infected. But when they glanced my way, they looked just as cautious and uncertain and afraid as I felt about them.

“Quilla,” Aunt Taiki called, turning to me suddenly and waving me forward. “Come.”

“Quilla?” Aunt Melaina repeated in confusion before she spotted me scurrying toward them. Immediately, her eyes narrowed. “No!” Grabbing Aunt Taiki, she yanked her protectively away. Then she lifted her hands toward me, prepared to dispel magic. And probably not the good kind that could make my hair pretty and eyes extra shiny, either.

I squeaked and skidded to a stop. Uncle Palmer might’ve always scared me, but Aunt Melaina downright terrified me.

“Get back!” the red-haired woman ordered.

“No. Stop!” Aunt Taiki leaped forward, dodging in front of me as she grasped Aunt Melaina’s arm and pushed it down. “She’s harmless. Just look. The girl’s immune.”

Aunt Melaina shrugged her off, sniffing. “Impossible.” Her disgusted gaze focused on me yet again as she pushed red curls out of her face. “Two of mine are already immune.”

“Then there are three,” Aunt Taiki reasoned desperately. “Because I’m telling you, Quilla is innocent.” She tugged the other woman back another foot. “Melaina, please. She’s just a child.”

“She’s a Graykey,” Aunt Melaina snarled, her accusation slicing into me until I wanted to drop my face in shame. “And her abilities are insanely powerful. You’ve said so yourself. She’s probably stronger than anyone else in this whole godforsaken realm, which makes her more dangerous than the rest of them.”

“She just saved my life,” Aunt Taiki insisted, causing Melaina to pause and finally turn her critical glare from me so she could glance at the other woman, one eyebrow lifted.

“Did she?”

“Yes. She did.” Aunt Taiki plopped a hand against her hip. “And besides, I think I can determine who’s immune and who’s not. I just watched two of my own children tear each other apart, for God’s sake. And I’m telling you, Quilla is not like them.”

Aunt Melaina shuddered and seemed to relent, only to pierce me with a deep scowl. “Well then, so what? What exactly do you expect us to do with her?”

Relaxing, Aunt Taiki held her hand out to me. “I expect us to bring her along.”

“Impossible,” Aunt Melaina scoffed. “She can’t come with us.”

“She is,” Aunt Taiki countered and grasped my fingers. “Now come on.” And she took off jogging down the hall toward the back exit of the manor, towing me along with her.

Aunt Melaina dogged our heels. “The hell if she’s going anywhere with me! I don’t trust the brat. There’s no room for her, anyway. We only have four amulets on us to complete the ritual. That leaves her s**t out of luck.”

Behind us, something crashed to the floor and shattered.

Both Aunt Melaina and Aunt Taiki slowed to a stop before glancing around to where Questa had tripped and fallen to her knees. A broken amber crystal lay scattered in pieces on the ground in front of her. With her face paling and eyes widening, she looked up and winced. “Oops.”

“Make that three amulets,” Aunt Melaina ground out from between clenched teeth before wailing, “f**k it all, Questa. That was your ticket to freedom.”

“I-I…” The teen’s face crumpled as she sobbed out a quick hiccup. “I’m sorry. It slipped.”

“Of course it did.” Cursing under her breath, Aunt Melaina stormed back to her daughter and jerked hold of her hand, yanking her back to her feet and starting forward again. She stalked past us with Quailen hurrying after them. “Now keep this one around your f*****g throat or I’ll wring your neck with it until you stop breathing, got it?” she instructed as she tugged another amulet on another chain up and over her own head before she irritably thrust it at her daughter.

“Got it.” Questa rushed to gratefully slip the new necklace into place.

Tightening her fingers around my hand, Aunt Taiki hurried after them as Aunt Melaina led the way outside.

A scattering of servants took off running when they saw us, but otherwise, no one else was about.

“It’s settled, then,” Aunt Taiki announced, sounding logical. “We can all still go through the portal. So, we’ll give an amulet to the three children, and you and I will just have to come back through when the bridge closes.”

Aunt Melaina bubbled out an incredulous laugh. “Oh, I know you did not just suggest I leave my two teenage children alone in an alternate universe without any kind of adult supervision. Nice, Taiki. Real nice.”

“Fine, then,” Aunt Taiki bit out. “You stay there with Questa and Quailen. Quilla and I will come back at the end of the transference.”

Aunt Melaina didn’t answer for a minute. We reached the stables, and she shoved her children inside before spinning to grab hold of the front of Aunt Taiki’s cloak. Teeth gritted, she snarled, “You and I have been planning this escape for sixteen f*****g years, and now you’re trying to tell me we’re not going to end up together? No. f**k, no. I don’t accept that.”

Tears glistened on Aunt Taiki’s cheeks as she tenderly cupped Aunt Melaina’s face in her hands. “I don’t know what else to do.”

More blood appeared at the corner of Aunt Melaina’s eyes. “Easy. You give us a happily ever after where we end up f*****g together.”

Aunt Taiki sputtered out a tortured laugh and pressed her brow to Aunt Melaina’s. “God, I’m going to miss your awful sense of humor.”

“I wasn’t joking.” Aunt Melaina squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. “I can’t do this without you. I just can’t. There has to be another way.”

“I’ll still be with you,” Aunt Taiki assured, her voice quieting to a whisper. “Right up to the very end when Quilla and I are pulled back to the Outer Realms, I’ll be right by your side.”

Aunt Melaina sniffed and wiped blood from her cheeks. “Promise?”

“Always and always. Now, go. We need to hurry.” She urged Aunt Melaina to enter the stable ahead of her, then she turned back to check on me.

Remembering my presence, Aunt Melaina hissed and narrowed her eyes my way as we hurried past stalls full of horses. “I don’t see why she has to come, though.”

“Because she’s an innocent child, and it’s the right thing to do,” Aunt Taiki reasoned. Then she ruffled my hair affectionately, as if to soothe the sting of the other woman’s bitter words. “Besides, I like her.”

“You like her? How?” Aunt Melaina’s expression soured. “She’s annoying as hell. And we’re not even really saving her, you know. Without an amulet, she’ll just return here again, anyway.”

“Well, at least she’ll have a better chance this way. It may be weeks or moon cycles before we’re pulled back. The reaping will probably be over by then. If she stays here now, someone else will get their hands on her and kill her. You know they will. And if someone who’s not immune to the bloodlust takes her powers, then how will this realm fare?”

“Hopefully it’ll be destroyed,” Aunt Melaina muttered under her breath. “Like it deserves.”

“Lain,” Aunt Taiki said, her voice full of warning. “Behave.”

“Why?” Aunt Melaina shot back. “Tell me, what has anyone here done to help either of us, except stand aside and gawk while we were captured by the f*****g Graykeys, and then turn a blind eye while we were held prisoner, forced to marry, and tortured for the past sixteen years?”

“Well, we were each blessed with three children of our own,” Aunt Taiki tried, always one to look at the bright side of things. “And we found each other. So it wasn’t all awful.”

“Right.” Aunt Melaina sliced a dry glance her way. “Three children each, to which all three of yours ended up being evil and were consumed by the reaping just now.”

Aunt Taiki didn’t have a reply for that. Her inner brightness seemed to dim and wither as stark grief filled her expression.

I didn’t think Aunt Melaina should’ve said that to her. Wanting to comfort her, I squeezed her hand. Aunt Taiki smiled sadly at me and squeezed back.

“Where are we going?” I asked to distract her and because none of what she and Aunt Melaina had been saying made any sense to me.

“We’re going to take a little trip,” Aunt Taiki explained as we followed Aunt Melaina into an empty stall where Questa and Quailen were waiting nervously. “And then you and I will come back while Melaina, Questa, and Quailen stay behind. Okay?”

“But—”

“Shh.” She smoothed down my hair. “Trust me, baby. We’ll be safe there; I promise.” Then she winked and let go of my hand.

I watched as she stepped toward Aunt Melaina.

Together, the two women stood side by side and lifted their arms toward the back wall of the stable stall. In unison, they began to chant in the magical tongue, and as they spoke foreign words that sounded dark and ominous, the outline of a round tunnel began to appear before us with crackling, electric white light rimming the entrance. They didn’t stop repeating the incantation until the entire portal was lit up.

Then, the five of us just stood there before it, staring in awe, until Quailen murmured an awestruck, “Whoa.”

“You first,” Aunt Melaina murmured, nudging Aunt Taiki forward. “I’ll go last and make sure to close the breach behind us.”

Aunt Taiki nodded in compliance before handing her own amulet over to Aunt Melaina. Then she glanced down at me as if to say goodbye, and she stepped toward the glowing portal.

“Wait.” Aunt Melaina grabbed her arm.

Aunt Taiki paused and turned back.

“Be careful,” Aunt Melaina ordered. “I’ll see you in a minute.”

Aunt Taiki smiled at her. “I love you, you crazy heifer.” She leaned forward and pressed her mouth to Aunt Melaina’s.

Aunt Melaina kissed her back before she pulled away, whispering, “I love you, too. You’ll be a better mother to them than I ever was.”

Aunt Taiki’s brow furrowed in confusion. “What—?” she started, but she didn’t get a chance to finish the question.

Aunt Melaina slipped the amulet back into the pocket of Aunt Taiki’s cloak and shoved her through the portal.

“Mom!” Questa gasped, rushing forward. “What have you done?”

Aunt Melaina merely shrugged. “What needed to be done. She’ll take care of you and your brother much better than I ever could. After I’m forced back here, she’ll be your new mother. Got it? And she’ll love you just as much as I do.”

“But—”

“Just go!” Aunt Melaina shoved her through the doorway as well. “You’re insane if you think I’m leaving this world without securing the safety of the people who mean the most to me.”

Then she grabbed Quailen and pushed him into the glowing, crackling portal as well.

After all three were gone, she blew out a long breath and slowly turned to glare at me.

I shrank a step back.

“I guess that leaves just you and me now, brat.”

I gulped. “You’re going to make me stay behind, aren’t you?”

With an amused smirk, she sniffed. “I wish.” Then she took my arm roughly. “But Taiki would murder me if I showed up without you in tow, so you better come with me, huh?”

I nodded, feeling stupid and scared. Stalling, though I wasn’t sure why—I guess because I still had no idea where we were going—I peered up at her.

“Did—was Qualmer not immune, then?” I asked of her middle son that I hadn’t seen since the reaping had begun.

Her eyes narrowed before she smirked. “Of course not. Who do you think killed your mother?”

My skin went cold.

Qualmer had murdered Mama?

Aunt Melaina stepped toward me, looming darkly. “Let’s get one thing straight, kid. Don’t cause problems for Taiki or either of my children, or I’ll end you, just like my son ended your dear, sweet mama. Got it?”

I nodded, suddenly unsure if I should go with her or not. “G-got it.”

“Great.” She tightened her grip on my arm. “Then let’s go.”

Behind us, a voice roared, “There you are!”

I glanced back to find Qualmer peering over the door of the stall.

“Trying to leave without me, Mother?” He struggled with the latch. “That just earned you a death sentence right there. You too, cousin. I’m going to gut you both and then bathe in your blood before going through that portal and taking out Questa and Quailen and that f*****g lover of yours.”

He finally flung the door open and stalked into the stall with us.

Reacting on instinct, I pushed him back with a propulsion of air, just as I had with Uncle Palmer. And beside me, Melaina produced a dagger from her cloak before she threw it at him. When she caught him right in the eye, he screamed and fell to his knees, clutching the protruding handle.

My eyes widened as blood gushed down his cheek. “Is he going to die?”

“I doubt it.” Aunt Melaina’s punishing grip jerked me backward toward the portal. “But let’s not wait around to find out, either.”

With that, she swirled her hand, and the crackling edges began to darken and shrink, closing rapidly. Before the portal had completely compressed into nothing, she jumped into the dwindling gap and took me with her, leaving her enraged son behind.

In front of us, a black hole loomed. We were sucked into it with a rush of wind. A pulling sensation gripped my skin, and it felt as if I were falling.

Screaming, Aunt Melaina and I held on to each other for dear life as we left the Outer Realms behind and entered the unknown.