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

it again, his hand shot down and snatched it, bringing the bottle up to his face to examine it. I tried to grab it out of his hands, but he was too quick for me as he held it up.

“My, my, my what do we have here?” He showed it to Kenny before facing me again. “You want to tell me what this is? It must be something important for you to hide it in your mattress.”

“Give it back or so help me…”

“What? So help me… what? What do you think you can do to me, freak? You’re weak, pathetic.”

“Leave her alone!” Ronan screamed in the background and beat against the bars in an attempt to get to us.

“Give it back, now,” I growled, fury eating away at my restraint.

Harris crouched down in front of me, holding it in front of my face.

“Or what? You know, Councilman Ironshot will be very interested in this.”

My eyes went wide as I thought about what he’d do to me because of it. If he learned it was suppressing my caster side… I had to destroy it.

I snatched it out of his hands and smashed it on the concrete floor. “Now no one can have it,” I laughed maniacally.

He reared back and hit me with the back of his hand again. “You’re going to pay for that, bitch,” he seethed. “You’re going to pay for that when the councilman gets a hold of you.”

I touched the blood that seeped from the split in my lip and licked it, then glanced up at the furious idiot.

“So you’re going to tell him then?” I questioned him, a small devious smile playing on my lips. “Because he’s not going to be happy with you for having it and losing it so foolishly. It was just a strength potion my uncle gave me, but you know the councilman will think it was more than that, and you lost it because you were being arrogant.”

He screamed and lunged for me again but Kenny caught his arms and began dragging him out.

“You’re going to pay for that, bitch!” Harris yelled. “You’re dead! So fucking dead!"

“You shouldn’t have done that, you know,” Kenny said to me as he strained to keep a hold on his partner.

“So fucking dead! You hear me? I can’t wait to watch you burn, you stupid fucking freak!”

Kenny threw Harris on the ground then closed my cell door and locked it before pushing his friend up the stairs, all the while Harris screamed obscenities toward me.

“You shouldn’t have done that,” Ronan sighed but my eyes stayed on the spot where the spilled potion lay on the floor, useless. “I can take care of myself against the likes of Harris Cooper, Millie. Why’d you do that?”

I didn’t answer him, just stared at the wet floor. It was gone. My potion and the plan to go with it were gone. I didn’t have a week to get us out of there anymore, not with my means of keeping my magical side at bay for a little while longer. If Ironshot saw I could call on my caster side…

Two days. That was all the time I had. We needed to act quickly, starting with gaining as much strength as we could. Both of us.

I crawled over to the plate that still sat in the corner of the cell and moved it toward the bars that separated Ronan from me. I couldn’t fit it through the bars, so it sat on the floor as close to the bars as it could.

“Ronan, I need you to eat.”

My eyes firmly locked onto his and I hoped he could understand what I wasn’t telling him out loud. He stared back and clenched his jaw, shaking his head defiantly.

“No. No, I won’t. They gave that to you for a reason. You’re going to need this more than I will for whatever he has planned.”

I breathed in deeply and reached through the bars, pulling on his sleeve and leaned into the space between two bars. He moved closer to the space so we were close enough to feel each other’s breath, close enough to kiss... which is exactly what I did.

It took him a second to react but when he did, it was fireworks. His lips moved against mine as our tongues caressed each other in a way I didn’t expect. So lost in the moment, I almost forgot what I’d intended to do when I started it.

“Listen to me,” I whispered against his mouth between kisses. I wasn’t completely sure Ironshot didn’t have a way to monitor us while we were there, but I wouldn’t put it past him. “In a couple of days, something is going to happen to me.” His eyes went wide but I pulled on his hair, bringing his mouth further into mine while I continued saying what I needed to say. “I won’t be able to stop it once it starts, but when it passes I’ll be fine… hopefully.”

“Millie...”

I deepened the kiss, cutting him off.

“When it passes, we’ll need to escape. I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to get us out but I won’t be able to carry you, so please, eat. I need you to eat.”

My fingers untangled from his hair and I slowly began to pull away, pleading with him to listen but he wasn’t done. It was his turn to pull on my arms and he roughly kissed me back. His mouth went to my cheek and down to my neck, just above the choker.

“Don’t you dare do anything to hurt yourself. I won’t stand for it,” he murmured against my skin.

“I won’t be able to help it,” I breathed, my eyes closed as I took in the exquisite sensation. “It’ll happen whether I want it to or not.”

“You really can’t stop it then?”

I shook my head and lowered my mouth back to his.

“No. Without that potion, I’ll be powerless to stop it.”

The gravity of the sentence made Ronan’s kisses slow, until he backed away with one