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

me another headache. I seemed to be getting those a lot lately and all the fighting and arguing wasn’t helping.

The potion Dev and Irna gave me did exactly as they predicted and wore off a little more than a week after taking it, eight days to be exact. On the eighth day, I began to feel whispers of magic flitter in my ear that turned into a headache. The headache would grow and grow, incapacitating me to the point of complete and total agony. Once I took the second dose, it all went away, the intense pain and the whispers of magic. It was relieving and heartbreaking all at the same time.

As I sat there trying to eat my breakfast, I began to feel a headache coming on and I tried to figure out if it was because of Alec or if it was my magic, but then I realized it had been eight days since I took my second dose, and it was time for my third. I didn’t know what would happen if I never took the potion again and that thought worried me a little, but for the moment, I knew it was necessary if for no other reason than I didn’t want to hurt.

“I need to go see Dev,” I told my mates as I rubbed my temples and closed my eyes.

They both seemed to understand what I was telling them in so many words and our plates and glasses were gathered as I was led out of the dining room by the hand.

I relaxed my body as much as I could to try and play it cool while I walked up the two flights of stairs to Dev’s caster lab. It seemed to take forever to climb two flights of stairs and when we got inside and the door was closed, I collapsed onto the nearest chair, curling forward, putting my head between my hands. The pain was so intense that even my ears began ringing. I almost didn’t hear Dev speak.

“Bon vorta tiamos.”

Devlin said the spell to seal us protectively in the room so the secret would stay well between us. He saw the state I was in and kept a better track of the days than I did, so as soon as the walls were protected, he was kneeling in front of me with a vial of his potion in front of him. With shaky hands, I took it from him and brought it to my lips, tipping my head back and letting the liquid flow down my throat.

I squeezed my fingers around the vial and closed my eyes as I waited for it to work. It took almost a whole minute for the sharp pain to lessen to a dull throb, then another thirty seconds or so for it to go away completely.

When I felt like myself again, I took a deep breath in and out as I relaxed against the chair cushions and opened my eyes. All three men were stationed around the room wearing matching looks of concern.

“I’m fine, guys,” I told them and handed the empty vial to Dev. “Thanks.”

I pushed up on the arms of the chair to stand, but he put his hand on mine, halting my movement.

“Rest.”

His eyes held something that looked like what a parent would give his child when he was worried about them. When he saw that I was going to follow his command, he patted my hand once more before getting up himself and placing the glass tube in an empty bin, most likely to be cleaned.

“That was close,” he said when he turned back around. “How long was it from the first moment you felt your magic return until you got here?” Dev looked from me to my mates and back again as he waited for an answer.

Matias and Xander both looked at each other thoughtfully before Xan answered.

“One, maybe two minutes. When she told us she needed to come see you we packed up our breakfasts and brought her straight up here.” The realization seemed to bother him because his eyebrows furrowed and he looked to me for clarification.

“It was a little longer than that,” I admitted. “I started feeling it at the beginning of breakfast, but that was also the same time you two were getting pissed off when Alec started looking at us. I wasn’t able to tell the difference between a stress headache and a… whatever this is kind of headache until after he left the room.”

“He wasn’t looking at us, little one, he was looking at you. As your mates, we have every right to defend our mate against anyone who threatens what we have.”

Matias stood rigidly as he spoke, and I could feel the need to maim and destroy rolling off of him in waves. I glanced over at Xan to see how he was reacting, although I had a pretty good idea. His rage was more subtle, but I could see his fists balled up at his sides while he stared out the ground, which made his hard jaw more pronounced.

I sighed and asked Devlin for help with a look. He shook his head and turned around to pretend to be busy. The traitor.

“What makes you think he’s a threat to what we have? I don’t want him. Why can’t you two believe me when I tell you that?”

“He wants you!” Xander exclaimed, his anger exploding out of him.

“And?! So fucking what?!”

I was on my feet and in front of both of them.

“I don’t want him! I never will!”

“We see the way you look at him! Don’t deny that you like him!”

“Oh my God! Are you serious right now? Because this is ridiculous!” I threw my hands up and turned in a circle. “Yes! I do like him! I admit it! He’s funny and nice and charming, but I don’t want to take him as a mate, or even a lover. If anything, I consider him a friend and why is that so bad?