Until Forever Ends: A Dark Mafia Romance by Adelaide Forrest (free children's ebooks online TXT) 📕

Never again would I blame Hugo for what happened with Isa all those months ago. His penance would wipe his sins from his skin.

He'd be free to continue to work for me, without the disappointment of his failure influencing his future.

"Do you accept your mark?" I asked, staring down at him. He swallowed down his nervousness, his dark eyes glittering in the flames beside me that heated my skin. My own brands burned with the memory of skin melting, and I remembered what it had been to anticipate the first mark.

The terror I'd felt looking up into my father's eyes when I'd dared to cry as my mother burned. The same fire that burned her had been the flame to give my first penance.

"Yes, El Diablo," Hugo said, his voice carrying through the night air. Heads around me nodded their agreement, the soft acknowledgement of the ways that had been ingrained in our history for as long as I could remember. The tradition might have been barbaric to some, but it was ours.

And it was an honor to continue a tradition my people held to so strongly.

I picked up the glove and slid it onto my hand, reaching to the fire and grasping the handle of the branding iron in my grip. Isa's scream pierced the night as the doors of the house flew open. I watched in confliction as Joaquin grasped her around the waist, working to restrain her and keep her away from the pyre.

She struggled in his grip, yelling my name as if she could stop Hugo's penance. She didn't yet understand that it was as much for him as it was for me, or that he came to receive the mark willingly.

She would soon enough, when it was her who knelt at my feet to accept the penance for her betrayal.

14

Isa

"Let go of me!" I screamed, shoving at Joaquin's grip. "That's your fucking brother!"

"Isa, it is better that you don't watch," Regina said, stepping out from the kitchen to speak softly. "This is part of life here. Rafael does what he must. But you do not need to see it," she said.

I shoved at Joaquin's arms one last time, dropping to the ground when he released me suddenly. Looking back toward the fire, Rafael stood watching us and holding up a hand for Joaquin. The order was clear.

I hurried to my feet, glancing around the fire as I approached. My eyes widened as I realized that the majority of the men standing there wore the same scars on their chest as Rafael. The same tally marks marred their skin. I stopped in the space between Rafael and Hugo, putting myself between them.

"Isa no," Hugo sputtered behind me. He didn't move to touch me, not when Rafael watched us both with a stubborn set to his jaw.

"Move, mi reina," Rafael said as my eyes dropped to the red hot brand in his hands. To the mark that would soon occupy space on Hugo's skin if I didn't intervene.

"I won't let you do this," I said, shaking my head from side to side as men around the fire looked at each other in surprise. "Why would you even want to?" I asked.

His jaw clenched as his free hand grabbed me by the arm, jerking me to the side and away from Hugo. "Do not ever choose another man over me, mi reina. If you seek to protect him from my wrath, choosing him over me is the wrong move. You will sign his death warrant instead.” He paused, willing me to see the truth blazing in his eyes that seemed to spark with madness as the fire cast shadows on his face. “Hugo came to the fire willingly. He accepted his penance because he knows he failed me. Will you do the same when it's your turn?" he asked, making me flinch back from him.

"When it's my turn?" I asked as tears stung my eyes. "You would do that to me?"

Silence hung in the air as his men waited for his response, my heart in my throat as I watched him swallow. "Yes. You earned a mark for your betrayal."

"What betrayal?" I asked, staring in the face of a monster. The conversation I'd had with Regina and Joaquin that morning seemed a world away from the reality of who he was.

He was not a man who could love. He was not a man at all.

He was nothing but a nightmare waiting to drag me to the pits of Hell.

"You left me!" he roared, the sound of his anger echoing off the house in the background. His men flinched back, their faces shocked by the extreme display as Rafael lifted the brand. I stepped back from him, shaking my head frantically as he shifted his grip from my arm to my chin, digging his thumb and fingers into my cheeks. He squeezed tightly, holding my gaze as he moved forward quickly and pressed the brand into Hugo's flesh.

It sizzled beneath the heat of the brand, crackling as it melted and the smell of burning flesh filled the fresh night air. Gagging against Rafael's grip on my face, I fought to step back when he tossed the iron to the ground at his feet once he finished with Hugo. Those burning eyes never left mine, his glare intense as he turned toward me and forced me to turn my face down to Hugo's pained expression. "He allowed you to be drugged. He let you be nearly raped. This is his penance for that failure."

"That wasn't his fault," I sputtered. "How could you do this to people..." I gasped as his grip tightened more, reaching up my hand to touch the marks on his chest and caressing the skin there despite the harshness of his grip on my face. "When someone did it to you?"

"It's our way," he said, covering my hand with his as he walked me backward toward the house.

"It's