The Mark of Fate: Book 3 of The Marked series by Ford, Rinna (romantic love story reading .TXT) 📕

My heaven. The only thing that would make it better… No. I closed my eyes and willed myself not to go there. We would find him. We had to. And when we did, I’d make him mine, just like I’m supposed to, with or without the prophecy.

“Get some sleep, little one. We have a busy morning ahead of us,” Matias told me. I picked my head up and looked at him with confusion.

He glanced over at Xander then back to me, realizing they had forgotten to tell me something because the only thing I had on my agenda for the next day was trying to figure out where Ronan was and how to fix my caster problems permanently.

“The rebellion is sending a group to investigate the holding facility my father told us about,” Xan said. “We’re teleporting to another rebel cell about a hundred miles from the location, then we’re going to travel to the facility and break in, gathering as much information as we can and freeing anyone who's being mistreated there.”

“We?” I turned my upper body, looking at Xander now with one eyebrow raised. “I’m surprised they’re letting me go.”

Both men looked at each other then back to me again. They were doing that a lot. I didn’t know if I liked it or not. I mean, I liked they were becoming friends and were familiar enough to have silent conversations, but not when it felt like they were trying to decide what to tell me and what to keep quiet about.

“They know you would insist on going, so yeah, they included you.”

“Even though I’ve been an unreliable mess?”

“Yeah, even with that.” Xander kissed me. “They know who you are and what you’re capable of, baby. They believe in you, even if you don’t. Besides, the leaders also knew Matias and I would be going too and you seem to be better with us than without us…”

“That’s because I am,” I replied quickly and snuggled back into Matias’ arms. “I’m always better with the two of you.”

“Make sure you keep telling yourself that whenever you think you need it,” Matias smiled and kissed my forehead. “Now, go to sleep. We’ll talk more about the plans when you wake.”

Exhaustion won over and I fell asleep quickly. The thought of a raid should have kept me up, but with my caster magic dormant and the fact I’d have my mates beside me, well, I knew I was in good hands, even if I didn’t trust the mission to go to plan.

* * *

“You ready, bitch?”

Camille walked around the corner and into Amos’ office, her eyes fixed on me. Since the fireball debacle, she had cut off what was left of her black to red locks. It was just above her shoulders, and as I watched her saunter into the room, I thought the look suited her more than her long hair did. Maybe it was me just trying to feel better about what I did, but she was rocking the new look like she meant to do it.

“I didn’t know that you were coming,” I smiled at her.

“Someone has to help your destructive ass,” she smirked and hip checked me before making herself comfortable in a chair around the large table in the middle of the office.

There was no one in the room yet besides Amos, Matias, and me. The two men were filling me in on what I’d missed with my memorable exit the day before.

Chei Yun gave them the plans of the facility, along with the general numbers and locations of guards present. He also said the majority of the guards were casters when he last visited, which tipped him off to the fact that something was different. He had pretty much everything we needed to get in and out of the facility easily and although I appreciated it, it all felt… too easy, just like I said the day before.

“Once we have the information we need, you are all to teleport back to the mansion. No stops, no detours, nothing. Do you understand, Emelia?” Amos stared at me authoritatively.

“Yeah, I understand. No detours.”

His expression changed to one of skepticism and all I could think was that he knew me a little too well. It wasn’t that I planned on deviating from the plan very much, but I wanted to know if Ronan was there. Or if he had been there. I needed to know he was alive and that I was on the right track to finding him.

Xander walked in, yawning, with two glasses of blood in his hands. He gave one to Matias and the other to me before plopping himself down in a chair.

“Thank you,” I smiled and looked at Matias. His eyebrows were raised in shock at the kind gesture and I wanted to laugh out loud. “Just drink it,” I told him and looked at Camille, who was silently watching us.

Since Grayson’s death, Camille had become hardened, confrontational even. I was having an argument with her when the fireball incident happened, so even though it was a complete and total accident, she took it as me attacking her. If it didn’t freak her out so much, she would have retaliated, for sure.

She really was having a hard time with it all, and I completely understood. If anything happened to any one of my mates…. I closed my eyes at the thought and willed myself to calm down. For a second there, I forgot I didn’t have to worry about my crazy caster side going apeshit and I sighed in relief.

“You seem calmer,” she told me, looking suspicious.

“I am. You won’t have anything to worry about, I promise.” My gaze shifted toward Amos when I said the last two words, showing him I meant it.

Chapter Five

The detention facility we were planning to invade was located in upstate New York, so Camille and a couple other casters teleported Matias, Xander, Amos, me, and several more people from the