Page 43 of Marked

Ace held his hands up. “As lovely as I’m sure the view is, I wouldn’t get your panties in a bunch. You were too far away for me to see anything. I was trying to figure out if it was you, or some sort of hallucination when your familiar barked.”

That was the lamest excuse I’d heard in a long time and said as much. “Why don’t you go bathe in the river? There’s a naiad visiting. I’m sure she’d love the company.” Maybe if I was lucky, she’d drown him.

Ace jerked back as if burned, his face turning white. “A naiad? Here?”

I nodded. “Super unfriendly, too, so you’ll probably hit it off.”

Ace cursed and turned around. He bent to retrieve the bag he’d dropped. “I’ll see you back in Perga.”

“That better be all you see of me,” I shouted after him.

He shook his head and stormed off into the forest.

The audacity of that man.

I scrambled out of the warm water and started to dry myself. Had Paul sent him here intentionally, knowing I preferred to bathe in the mornings or had this been an innocent mistake with Ace caught in the middle?

Scowling, I threw my towel down. Nothing my brother did was a coincidence. This had his meddling signature all over it.

17

As I made my way back to Perga, the calming sounds of the forest faded to a hush, replaced with the quiet murmur of the small town. The moment I passed through the old hedge that marked the entrance to Perga, a wave of nostalgia hit me.

I had walked through these hedges countless of times but the memory that always hit the hardest was the one from the first time I’d travelled this way, trailing close behind the queen and her guard. Fear had filled me, but another emotion had clung to my heart—an emotion I hadn’t dared feel before. As I clutched my brother’s hand and stepped into this town all those years ago, I’d been filled with hope.

The trees stood tall, and the leaves whispered in the wind. With Nala trotting beside me, I walked down the main street through town. Old cabins with thatched roofs lined the old road. Chimneys puffed out smoke into the crisp air and the overgrown grass along the side of the street swayed in the breeze.

Home.

Growing up in an orphanage, and later on the streets, I’d never considered anywhere home before Perga.

Some of the locals milled around outside and greeted me with nods as I made my way to my cabin on the opposite side of town. I was good enough to defend their forests and stock their storage house, good enough to acknowledge if they accidentally made eye contact with me, but not good enough for most of the town to befriend.

I was too different.

Too scary.

They didn’t understand my power, so most of them avoided it.

Maria stepped from the entrance of her bakery, her curls bouncing around her face. Despite her habit of throwing herself on Ace, Maria had always been kind to me. She didn’t know I had a past with the new hunter in town and even if she did, my history with Ace didn’t give me any claim over him.

Not that I wanted one.

“Back already?” Maria called out. “Didn’t you just leave?”

“And stay away from this charming place? Never,” I said. The charm being my bed, books, Sley, and my familiar. “Besides, I just left to bathe.”

Maria leaned forward. "Speaking of charming, is it true you’re involved with Ace? I couldn’t help but notice something between the two of you last night.”

“Me and Ace?” I shook my head and ignored the knot twisting in my stomach. “Absolutely not.”

Maria bit her lip as she visibly considered her next words. “That’s not what it looked like.”

“What did it look like?”

“Like you have history,” she said.

“I have no claim on him,” I said. Nor did I want any.