Page 36 of Kingdom of Spirits

“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Marius said. “It’s not safe for you or Lady Fara to… It’s… Tahlia.”

He looked ready to explode. What was going on with him?

Holding out her hands, she said softly, “Marius, one day is all I ask. One day, then I leave with no more insults or begging or punishments required.”

She longed to make a flirty joke about the punishment, but he had made it clear he wasn’t interested in anything like that atthe moment. Though it cracked her heart into pieces, she wasn’t about to keep pushing him on that front like some jerk with her head up her arse. She only wanted to know why and what was wrong with him. She wasn’t sure she could refrain fromallflirting, but at least she was trying.

“Fine. I give up.”

His growl of frustration usually pleased her, but in this case, it only smashed the pieces of her heart into shards that cut her through and through. There was definitely something very wrong with Marius and she was going to figure it out.

Chapter 15

Marius

He was going to rip a tear in the world. This damned curse was the most frustrating experience he’d ever had. Pacing while Tahlia and Fara built up the fire, he tried to recall deciding to fly here on Ragewing. But there was only the moment with Tahlia in the stables, then… Then nothing. A fog. Darkness where memories should have been.

He went to Ragewing and set his head against the dragon’s side. Ragewing blew gently into Marius’s hair, tugging it from its leather tie. The warmth of the dragon was more comforting than sitting by the fire with the females. They had arranged two fallen logs near the flickering tinder. But here, with Ragewing, Marius didn’t have to look at Tahlia’s sweet mouth and pert nose or see the hurt in her dark honey eyes. Ragewing wrapped him in a wing, blocking the restless breeze of this dead kingdom. He could still hear the distant hum and howl of ghosts though. They were in the forest but, thankfully, seemed to be content to remain there. At least, for now.

In the dimness of his wing enclosure, he dragged the tip of his boot in the mud. He was just so tired. Damn Ophelia to theseven hells. Forever. Longer. He was going to strangle the female no matter what the consequences.

The toe of his boot made a line and brought to mind the notes he’d seen on Ophelia’s desk when he’d visited her. Notes about runic magic.

Wait. He straightened and Ragewing, noticing his change in mood, uncovered him.

“I can draw it in the dirt!” Marius hurried over to Tahlia and Fara, hope making everything seem brighter.

He stole a stick from the fire, not caring that the end was red hot and smoking. Crouching, he began to write in the mud.

“Marius? What are you doing?” Tahlia leaned forward, her jasmine scent filling his nose and alerting his body to her nearness.

He scooted back and kept on writing.

Ophelia cursed me with illegal ancient magic. If I touch you, you will die. I don’t recall why I came here, but now it feels as though the answer to breaking the curse lies in this terrible land. The curse won’t allow me to speak of any of this.

Well, that was what he tried to write. But instead of those words, his scrawling only produced unreadable combinations of letters and symbols.

Standing, he shouted in rage and tossed the smoking and muddied stick into the darkness beyond the fire. Facing away from the others, he shuddered and swallowed against his tight throat. The rolling hills and fog-laced land stretched into the night, seemingly endless and dangerously barren. Ragewing let out a grumble and the ground trembled slightly under what must have been a stomp.

“You promise to leave tomorrow, yes?” He couldn’t turn back around to look at Tahlia. It was too much. He felt as though Ophelia had snapped his ribs, reached into his chest, andremoved half his heart. The other half belonged to Ragewing and it beat sluggishly, dying a slow death on its own.

“Maybe.”

“Ah, right. You can lie.” He hadn’t intended for his words to hold the ire they did, but he was just so damned irritated with this curse.

“Easy now, HC. Don’t treat me like Maiwenn does. I’m not lying to you.”

“You said you would leave after one day. You already lied.”

“I didn’t say after which day.”

Fara snorted. “Now, that is the Fae side of you talking there.”

Marius ran his hands through his tangled hair and whirled to face the females and the dragons. “I’m sorry I’m behaving like a madman.”

“Not a madman,” Tahlia said as she stoked the fire, “just like someone with a big problem who takes it out on everyone around them.”

A pang of regret hit Marius’s already severely injured heart. “I said I’m sorry.”