15. FIFTEEN
FIFTEEN
THE MARK WHISPERS
I knew it was a dream, when I felt my feet sinking into the sand, but an unseen force drove me forward.
Everything was blurring. I couldn’t see anything clearly, but I knew I was running along a shoreline battered by a raging sea.
I blinked against sheets of freezing rain slapping my face.
Cold and shivering, my feet sinking into the clammy sand, I hunkered as best I could beneath the thin lace of my gown and surged ahead.
The gusting wind resonated like a banshee scream, driving me toward the distant glow of a flickering light.
Waves crashed violently, clawing at the shore, eager to drag me into their icy depths.
Ignoring my aching calves, I kicked up my pace.
Then a sound rose from the storm’s chorus—a sinister staccato rhythm that pierced my heart with terror.
The thudding resonance approached with disturbing speed.
I recognised the sound of hoofbeats ploughing through the sand. Fast and heavy. Fear pierced me .
I turned to peer through the roiling mist, but I saw only a dark, hulking shape.
A voice whispered, You need to see.
Gasping, I ran, trying to keep up, but my legs couldn’t match the terrifying shadow of the horse. My head whipped up toward the rider, and I glimpsed him—larger than life, cloaked in what felt like dark power.
His robe billowed like smoke, adorned with glowing sigils that pulsed with ancient authority.
Symbols of dominion and judgment shimmered across his sleeves, stitched with threads of shimmering gold and silver.
His face was hidden beneath a hood, but the dark air around him swirled with an aura of cruelty.
Terrified, I tried to see but the rider was catching up with a girl.
My heart raced, and suddenly, a sharp pain shot through my forehead.
The intensity blurred my vision, and I stumbled, clutching at the throbbing mark on my head.
The pain wasn’t like anything I’d felt before—it burned deep, as if the very essence of my being was being drained with each pounding hoofbeat.
The rider grew closer to the girl. I grew weaker. My legs turned to lead, and I dropped to my knees. Alarm surged through me.
The horse’s nostrils flared with each breath as the rider closed in on the female.
His presence was overwhelming. I tried to scream, but the storm swallowed my voice, drowning it in the wind and waves thrashing against the shore.
My forehead throbbed in agony and the pain in my head wouldn’t go away.
Just then I looked up, and through the storm, the clouds parted briefly, revealing a sky illuminated with swirling constellations and patterns of light. The stars formed a vortex, converging into a glowing symbol, the triangles that marked my head. For a moment, hope flickered in my chest.
The symbol shimmered with ethereal light, casting a radiance across the raging sea and the dark rider. The symbol’s light clashed with the rider’s darkness, I felt it in my bones, the stars were illuminating the skies for me.
I felt that help was coming for the girl as the glowing lights pierced through the skies splitting the storm apart.
But as I looked closer, the glowing light disappeared.
One part of the triangles turned almost black, radiating the same dark energy that surrounded the rider.
The triangles began to lose their glow as I saw the energy being sucked from the girl’s body, the radiant light dimming and darkening as it moved toward him.
Despair washed over me. The darkness was overpowering. My breath came in shallow gasps, my lungs burning, but I couldn’t stop. The girl couldn’t escape him.
For a split second, she looked back at me. Her face flickered, no longer human looking. It was as if the storm had stripped her down to a hollow skeleton, and her empty eye sockets stared through me with grief. She lifted a trembling hand toward me.
Her jaw moved, and suddenly, amidst the chaos of the storm and the pounding hooves, I heard a voice, loud and sharp, travelling through the wind and echoing in my mind.
“My light was stolen, and soon yours will follow. Flee while you still can!”
I bolted upright in bed, my heart pounding so fiercely that it took me several moments to calm down. Sunlight spilled across the room, and the cheerful melody of birdsong did little to calm the terror still gripping me.
I pressed my fingers to my temples, the mark burning beneath my skin. The pain lingered and then settled deep in my ribs like it belonged there.
This wasn’t right.
The triangles weren’t just symbols. They were warning me. Whatever lived inside me was trying to speak and I needed to understand it before it was too late .
I sat up too quickly. A wave of dizziness hit me like the tide in my dream.
“Did you have a pleasant sleep?” a voice asked, to smooth to be Cillian.
Startled, I turned toward the balcony. Torin stood in the doorway, sunlight catching the copper threads in his brown hair and emphasizing his arrogant smile.
He looked so much like Cillian that my breath caught in my throat.
They shared the same jawline and the same eyes, but that was where the resemblance ended.
There it was the jagged scar slicing down Torin's cheek, glinting in the light as if it wanted me to notice it. I couldn’t help wonder why they were marked so differently. Why did Cillian carry himself with restraint, while Torin radiated entitlement like a spoiled brat?
“What do you want? I asked, instinctively pulling the covers tighter. “I’d appreciate it if you didn’t come into the room uninvited. Do you have no manners at all?”
Torin smirked and stepped inside with a swagger that made my skin crawl.
I’d seen little of him over the past few days and had hoped that would continue.
His presence now felt like a violation. Maybe his intrusion was deliberate, like he wanted me off balance.
Or maybe that was just my paranoia waking up before I did.
“My dreams are my business,” I said, trying to sound firm. “Do I walk into your room while you’re sleeping?”
His grin widened. “Not yet, but the door is always open my lovely Tilly. I’d welcome the sight of your face when I awoke any day.”
I didn’t flinch. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. But the unease in my chest deepened. Even though Cillian had said I’d have time to choose, Torin clearly didn’t play by the rules.
“Well, since you decided to spy on me while I slept,” I said, “now that I’m awake, tell me what you want and leave. ”
Torin crossed his arms and studied me like I was already his. I sat up straight to let him see I wasn’t shrinking. Not for him or any of them.
“I wasn’t spying,” he said. “I was merely... observing. You looked so peaceful, bathed in the sunlight. I couldn’t resist looking at you.”
“You were watching me sleep,” I said coldly. “That’s not curiosity, it’s creepy. Don’t you think?”
He shrugged my rebuke off. His reaction too casual for someone who had crept into my room. “We all have our pleasures. Yours is art and nature. Mine? Well, mine is fine wine, sumptuous food, and exquisite women.”
“Don’t flatter yourself by including me in that list,” I snapped back.
“Oh, I haven’t. Not yet.” He raised an eyebrow, eyes gleaming. “I can see why Cillian is enchanted by you. You’re exquisite. But his mind is still that of a boy. You deserve more than a boy’s attention.”
“You’re the one acting like a child,” I said, voice low and fierce. “You’re the half immortal or whatever you want to call yourself, supposedly older and wiser, yet here you are, acting like a spoiled boy.”
Torin grinned. “And you act too old for a young woman.” he teased.
“You barely know me,” I said. “And your comments are stupid.”
He moved toward the foot of the bed and picked up the robe I’d intended to reach for. Toying with the silky fabric, he sniffed a lace-trimmed sleeve.
“Delightful,” he murmured. “I’ve always adored the fragrance of roses. How much better must the fragrance be on your skin, Tilly?”
I stared at him, unimpressed.
“You’re disrespectful beyond belief. ”
I turned away. I wouldn’t play his staring game.
He moved closer, the silk slipping through his fingers. “Am I?” he asked. “You don’t even know me. Although I do have many ways of making you tremble.”
I didn’t hide my disgust.
“Actually, I can imagine. And I have no interest in discussing your fantasies. Will you please leave?”
“You’re denying your feelings,” he insisted. “You find me a challenge. You crave the chase more than you admit. But the curse will leave you no option. Your eyes reveal what’s truly in your heart. Until now, you’ve never dealt with a real man.”
His words brought heat to my cheeks. I hated that he saw it. My scars had always made me cautious. Donte was the first who didn’t seem to notice them. But Torin’s intrusion wasn’t about connection, it was about control.
“You presume too much,” I snapped. “No woman wants to be treated like a pet. Maybe you should find someone who actually wants your attention.”
Torin chuckled.
“Oh, I needn’t search elsewhere. My focus is fixed on you. Intrigue and stubbornness, they’re magnetic, whether you own it or not”
“You see nothing,” I said.
“He advanced, close enough that I could smell yesterday’s old wine on his breath. “Then tell me, Tilly, what would change your mind? What is your deepest wish?”
“To be back home with my family.”
His lips curved, amused.
“You may ask for far more than that.”
“I already told you what I want. If that’s not enough, then my wish is to leave. I want nothing else you can offer.”
“Perhaps I have something else to offer. ”
The implication in his eyes turned my stomach. I felt like an insect beneath a telescope.
“You’re the most arrogant man I’ve ever known,” I said. “You swagger around like a drunk at dawn. If you think this is charming, think again.”
Torin’s rapt expression made my heart sink. My defiance only seemed to fuel him.