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Thirty-Eight

Rhoswyn

I wake up, and my heart is missing.

I’m sure it must be there, but I can’t feel it. The muscles of my chest have seized around the dead organ. I can’t do more than lie there, held tightly against the warm body beneath me. There are birds singing. The sunlight is warm and soft on my bare skin… and yet…

It’s gone.

It’s gone, and I can’t breathe.

Beneath me, Caed stirs, the dawn painting his blue skin with all the wrong colours.

Because his tattoos are missing. All of them. There’s no rose over his heart. No knots or frames down his arm. No skull on his left hand.

No buzz wherever we touch.

“No,” my voice cracks as my fingers sink into the place where my own mark should be, like I can claw it back out of my veins if I try hard enough. “No, no, no. Please, Danu. Goddess. Please. Please !”

Caed blinks awake as soon as my voice rises above a whisper—and I keen low in my throat as I see the knowledge seep into his turquoise eyes.

Our mating bond is gone.

His oath is dissolved.

Caedmon Fomorii is no longer my Guard.