Page 49 of Marked

“Being a dick?” I raised my eyebrows. “I think I’ll skip those lessons, thank you.”

He shook his head. “Your bow work is phenomenal, but without it, you’re not as dangerous as you need to be to match that mouth of yours.”

“My mouth?”

His gaze drifted down to my lips, and I instinctively licked them.

“Your attitude,” he clarified, his gaze still fixated on my mouth. “It keeps getting you in trouble. Some things never change.”

“You might be good at hand-to-hand combat, I’ll give you that.” Begrudgingly. “But your manners suck.”

Something flashed in his gaze, but he quickly blanked the emotion away. Releasing my arms as if they’d suddenly caught on fire, he stepped back and created space between us. He ran his hand through his hair. “I shouldn’t have said that.”

“And?”

He frowned.

“Are you sorry?”

His frown deepened. “I said as much, didn’t I?”

I shook my head. His apologies were as good as my brother’s, which meant they were terrible. “Like I said, you could learn a few manners.”

“Why?” He started to walk along the trail again, and I turned to join him. “Would grovelling on my knees before you change the value of what I said or the intention?” he asked.

“I would like to see you on your knees.” I bit my lip. Maybe I’d like that a little too much.

He raised his eyebrows, his gaze cut to the side to watch me as we walked. “Is that so?”

“Not like that.” I added.

He scoffed and his knowing gaze told me he didn’t believe me. That made two of us.

“Crawl your mind out of the gutter, Mouse,” he said. “And explain why you were interrogating the queen’s messenger about a red scarf and then you can explain what we are looking for.”

“A red scarf was found in the storage house. It may or may not be connected to the thief or thieves who are stealing our town’s supplies.”

Ace pressed his lips together and nodded. “And you think Blake is involved?”

“Just following the evidence.”

“It’s pretty weak,” Ace said.

I blew out a long breath. “I’m aware of that, but aside from suspicions, it’s all we have right now.”

Ace shrugged as if my struggle to solve the storage thefts were of no consequence. He studied the forest around us. “And now? What are we looking for?”

“The rogue hunters.”

“Obviously,” he replied, tone dry and not conveying any appreciation for my forthcoming nature. “I knew that part.”

“Did you? That’s lovely,” I said. “I feel it’s safer not to assume a level of comprehension when it comes to conversing with you.”

“Allow me to clarify my question.” He scowled, his lips pulling back to expose his white teeth. “How are we going to find the rogue hunters?”

“We’re going to reverse track the hunters who attacked me and Nala.”

“I’m surprised you haven’t gone after the hunters sooner.”