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Halfway down the corridor leading to the towers, I paused at the opened doors to the great hall. Destin said all were welcome. Cy said I ought to seek out familiarity. Kage said I should trust the blood in my veins.

Blood was pulsing.

Foolish. This was absolutely idiotic, but the thought had festered like a bit of rot in my mind until I was convinced I would suffocate if I did not act.

Guards strolled lazily beside two windows down the corridor. I kept to the shadows of the hall, peering over my shoulder, then ducked beneath the long table. Idiotic. I’d do well to leave it alone. It was coated in wards that had flattened me.

Still, I could not peel my gaze off the gold arm ring on its pedestal. So simple, so uninspiring, yet it called to me. A damn obsession from the moment I’d seen it. Somewhere in the back of my skull, something like a hidden thought pounded against my mind, begging to be free.

If I belonged here, if this was truly the place of my birth and had merely been shielding from me, then didn’t the ring belong to me?

With slow, cautious movements, I gathered my skirt and approached the Ravenwood arm ring. Before I could curl my fingers around the coiled edge of the arm ring, a hand curled around my wrist. A cruel laugh echoed off the walls.

“What do we have here?” A man—dressed in a Kappi tunic with the oak on the breast—had bloodshot eyes and a reek of ale on his breath and pulled me away from the arm ring.

He wasn’t alone.

Two more men—one wrapped in a heavy fur cloak, the other clad in a guard’s tunic like the first, tipped back curved horns, sloshing in their cups. They laughed at my horror.

“Such a pretty thing?” The Kappi dragged his finger down my cheek. “But I’m not so convinced she’s even a mage.” His hand went for my skirt. “Maybe we ought to have a look at those brands underneath.”

“Be sure she’s not a . . . an invader,” said the man in the cloak through a few hiccups.

“Don’t touch me.” I swung a fist.

He caught my wrist, drawing out slurred, sloppy laughter from the others. He drew his face closer. “Let’s have that look.”

CHAPTER 16

Adira

I couldn’t scream.The guard waved his fingers and the sensation of a needle and thread tugged at my lips. They stitched closed, as though gagged.

I clawed and bit and kicked. To work for a Las Vegas shark meant knowing how to toss a few punches. Then again, I’d never fought while dressed in a damn bodice with spools of fabric wrapped around my legs.

I’d never battled three men who shot back with spells that knocked my feet out from under me, spells that magnetized my damn hands to the floor.

Panic tightened in my chest when the first Kappi stood over me. “We won’t hurt you.”

I returned a muffled curse behind my stitched lips.

From the center of my back tattoo, a strange burn boiled beneath the surface. Flashes of brutal desires filled my head. Desires to watch blood spill from their throats and stomachs. I wished for them to choke on their own fluids.

The man in the fur cloak propped one knee on the dining table bench, grinning through his slurred words. “We merely want to make certain your marks are of the mage, lady. You see . . . you see,sometimes the demon folk are marked, or the water serpents, or . . . who else is marked?”

“Days since you arrived and you’ve not shown you’re a mage,” the first Kappi said, ignoring his companion. “For all we know, you manipulated the flame, and we need to protect our prince.”

Fire lanced through my palms. I did not know what was happening, only that I wished I’d snatched the arm ring a moment sooner. As though it would’ve made any difference.

The burn didn’t ease, and when the Kappi leaned over, a dribble of blood peeked from one nostril.

He didn’t notice or didn’t care.

Knuckles grazed my cheek. I wrenched my face away, screaming through the gag spell.

“No need to fear, it?—”

I did not hear what else he said. Only screams and cracks and sick snaps followed.