I twist my lips into a shy smile, which my mark returns. He stands, placing a coin on the bar and gesturing to my table. This is going to be easier than expected. I didn’t even need to work to get him to come over to me.
He holds my gaze, and there’s an arrogant confidence about him as he swaggers to my table.
“Excuse me, miss, are you waiting for someone?”
I grin. “Not anymore.”
He laughs and sits in the seat across from me. “Is that how it works for someone so striking? You wear an extraordinary dress and you’re never at a loss for eager company?”
“Something like that,” I say.
“I hope you’ll forgive my forwardness, but I couldn’t let another moment pass or I was certain you would have been set upon by at least a dozen other men. Those eyes put the stars to shame.” He reaches into his coat and hands me a white rose.
Excited fluttering fills my stomach. This is definitely my mark.
I smile as I take the rose. “Yes, well, I have my ways of dealing with men who see beauty as an invitation.”
He smirks. “I’m sure you do. What’s your name, lovely?”
“Stellaria.”
“As in the Divine who hung the stars or the harbinger of darkness?”
I lean back and take a long sip of my drink. “Why not both?”
He looks pleased by that response. “A woman who has it all.”
Everyone in Lunameade knows this myth because it’s the story of how the Drained were made. The Seven Divine beings who made our world were never supposed to fall in love.
Stellaria, the Divine of Stars, fell for Asher, the Divine of Endings, and their marriage blended their two magics so they could use both. When her father, Polm, the Divine of Malice, kidnapped Asher, Stellaria stormed into the mortal realm and poured her darkness over the land and all her father’s worshippers. Her wrath was even greater than Polm’s. She made the whole world dark for days while she grieved for her missing husband.
Polm was so angry, he cursed the ground where Asher was imprisoned so that no one of life or death could set foot on it. So, Stellaria breathed her magic and Asher’s into a man so he was neither entirely of life nor entirely of death, and sent him into the cursed land to free her love.
The couple were happily reunited, but the man Stellaria had animated couldn’t fit in with the living, nor could he pass through the veil of death. He was cursed to live in the land of the living with an insatiable thirst for blood, and eventually he became the first Drained.
I look at my mark. “And what shall I call you?”
“I suppose I should say Asher.”
There’s an ease about him. A confidence and intensity I wasn’t expecting. He looks back to the bar, where his friend has returned.Asherraises a mug of ale in his companion’s direction, and the man rolls his eyes and slumps against the bar.
“You’ve abandoned your companion,” I say.
“He’ll be fine. He’s just upset that I won’t let him lose any more of his money to me tonight, but I’ve had enough cards for the evening. And I suspect you’re better company in a dimly lit room.” He places a hand on my knee.
The heat of the touch sinks through the fabric, and he looks at me expectantly. A flicker of doubt bursts to life in my mind. A mark has never looked for approval to touch me.
A buzzing warmth spreads over my hand. I swear I see a hint of an aura around his skin, but the candle on the table gutters and I’m sure it’s a trick of the light. I brush my thumb over what I can only assume is a wedding band.
He tracks the movement. “It’s not what it looks like.”
“And what does it look like?” I ask, playfully tracing a finger across the ivy vine etching.
“I’m not married. It’s just something I wear so the barmaids don’t get too touchy for tips.”
“Of course.” I make it clear I don’t believe him.
He tenses as if waiting for me to tell him off. Instead, I interlace my fingers with his, and his shoulders relax.
