I swallowed. “That song—it was beautiful.”
“It’s a ballad, sung in the old tongue. I don’t even know what all the words mean,” he admitted. His eyes glittered at me. The sunbursts were there, but they were darker than usual.
“It sounded sad,” I said.
One corner of his lips twitched up. “Most ballads are.” He hesitated, before asking, “So, are you going to do it?”
No need to ask what “it” was. “Yes, I think so.”
His eyes flashed white. “You aren’t going alone.”
“I’ll have Rafael, Anna, and Lucas with me.”
He took a long step toward me. “I am coming too. I told Cara I would. You’ll need someone that has your back.”
“Do you really have my back?” I walked up to him. He almost looked as though he’d move away, but stopped himself.
“Always,” he whispered.
Then he did back away, and I said, “I talked to your mother.”
He froze. “Havoc said you’d Jumped there.”
“Havoc is gone.” I winced—my words were laced with sorrow.
His mouth twisted. “He almost paid the ultimate price by coming after you. That matters to someone like him.”
It was true. Nothing mattered more to Havoc than his own life. There was a distinct lack of anger in Marcus’s voice. Did he no longer hate Havoc? “I told him to be free.” My voice choked on the last word.
His eyes flared again. “He should never have bitten you.”
I flinched. But then, I said, “I don’t want to talk about Havoc.”
He hesitated, and then asked, “What secrets did you think my mother would reveal? She knows nothing of what I have become.”
“Maybe not,” I said. “But she knows you.” I didn’t advance on him, but caught and held his gaze. “She said that if I wanted you, I needed to chase you down.”
His eyes flared gold, and then white. “I now know what is inside me. And it’s every bit as scary as I thought. You’re better off without me. You don’t want to be mated to this.”
“That isn’t your decision to make,” I said. “It is mine.”
His eyes were miniature lightning storms, flashing like crazy. “I know what Fate is telling us, but you can’t make me believe you want to be mated to that. Because there is no going back. I will never be what I was. This thing is a permanent part of me. And it’s freking dangerous.”
“Fucking.”
“What?”
“It’sfuckingdangerous.” I locked my gaze with his. Then I visualized what Vali had shown me in that book.
For just a second, nothing happened. Marcus blinked, and I saw the decision to leave enter his gaze.
And then, the first black scales broke out across my cheekbones and down my shoulders.
His eyes widened. “Riley—”
“I can match whatever you are, Marcus. And Storm Drakes can be either male or female, their choice. So I have no reason to fear you. And you have no reason to run.”
I grabbed the hem of my tee shirt, yanking it over my head and leaving me only in my bra. He froze, and I took another step toward him.
