Chapter 7: Mark

I followed his taillights all the way back to the county line with both hands white on the wheel.

My brother's face kept coming back to me, pinned to that door frame with his feet off the floor.

I had never been strong in my own house.

I had only been useful.

Ash was waiting on the porch when I pulled in.

I got out of the car and walked up the steps.

"It was never Felicity's," I said. "The Stone wakes for me."

"I thought it might be that."

"You thought." My voice cracked. "You thought, and you let me sit in your truck telling you I'd cursed it."

"I wasn't sure. I wanted the Moon-reader to say it, not me."

He looked at me steadily.

"I won't put words in your head, Sigrid. You've had enough of that."

I looked at his hands.

They were shaking again.

"I don't want to talk anymore," I said.

"Then we won't."

"I want you to put your mark on me."

I watched it land.

His whole body went tight.

"Tonight," I said. "Now. I know what I'm choosing."

"I know Rowan's clasp is still on me. That isn't why."

"Sigrid."

"I want you. I've wanted you since the truck."

"Since that doorway at the hall, if I'm honest, and I never knew what it was."

"Don't make me say it twice."

He took my face in both hands and kissed me.

It wasn't careful this time.

He kissed me like he'd been holding his breath for five years.

I opened my mouth under his and pulled him in by the shirt.

We got through the door somehow.

He kicked it shut behind us, and my back hit the wall.

His mouth went down my jaw to my throat.

I tipped my head back and made a sound I'd never made before.

"Zipper," he said against my neck.

"Back. Pull it."

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