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

“I can smell her, so she’s still here, but I don’t know where she could be.”

“I’m going to kill her,” Xan sighed. His threat didn’t have any heat behind it so I knew he didn’t mean it, but it still made me feel awful.

I sent out calming vibes toward my mates, hoping to let them know I was alright and unharmed, at least at the moment, and crawled up further onto the roof. I just couldn't face them. Not after the way I behaved.

Chapter Three

I sat up on the roof for a few more minutes, listening to my mates and others in the house as they searched for me, then they went back inside. The sound of the churning ocean was all that I was left with and I closed my eyes, willing myself to come up with some answers.

“You have a lot of people worried about you, ya know.”

I felt the air become tighter around me then pop just seconds before, so I wasn’t surprised to find my uncle sitting beside me on the roof. However, I was surprised he found me so quickly.

“I’m such a bitch,” I sighed. “I’m just… not handling things well. I never do. But, this caster thing, Ronan, Ainsley, Chei Yun, the prophecy…”

“What do you mean Chei Yun?”

“He’s here. Or at least he was here. He brought some ‘valuable information’ to the rebellion about a holding facility or something like that. I’m surprised you weren’t involved in the meeting, actually. I just teleported from the room after insulting Chei Yun for the like, the fourth time and almost fell off the cliff when I landed. That’s why I took your potion like I did. I can’t control it...”

Dev’s eyes were huge and he looked away, thinking about what I just told him. After a few seconds, he shook his head, clearing the fog and looked back at me.

“Firecracker, it’s okay to feel sad and angry. Just don’t shut out the ones who want to be there for you and help you. Those guys are tearing the house apart as we speak because they can’t find you.”

“Seriously?”

Before he could answer, I heard a crash that sounded like a door being kicked open and a loud roar after it. Oh boy.

Dev held out his hand and I hesitated only a second before taking it. When our palms touched, he teleported us to the living room of the house where indeed, the room had nearly been demolished. My uncle shrugged his shoulders and walked away toward Amos’ office, or at least that was where I imagined he was going. I bent over to right the couch when a pair of familiar tattooed arms were wrapped around me and carried us at vampire speed.

I was deposited onto a bed, my bed, bouncing a couple of times before settling on the mattress. Both of my mates were looking down at me, eyes blazing with relief and quite a bit of anger.

“Where did you go?” Xan growled. He made no move to approach me and I didn’t know if I should have been relieved about that or upset.

“I, I took Dev’s potion,” I replied. “Then I went to be alone.”

“What potion?” he growled again, annoyed with my answer.

“A potion to suppress my caster side. Okay? When I teleported out of the room I nearly fell off a cliff! I just can’t stand it anymore! I’m sorry I scared you, I’m sorry I yelled at your dad and embarrassed you, but I’m not dealing with my shit very well right now and you two bearing down on me isn’t helping!”

“Then tell us what we can do! Because you walking into a room and yelling at everyone, then running off when you don’t like something isn’t healthy, baby.”

“Oh, and tearing a house apart because you can’t find me is healthy? I needed to be alone to get my fucked up head on straight, but I can’t do that because you two are tearing shit apart!”

“You want to be alone?!” Xan roared. “You got it!”

He threw the bedroom door open wide, making it loudly bang against the wall, then stormed out. When I couldn’t see him anymore, I turned my gaze toward Matias. He looked at me with a sadness I couldn’t quite place, and he followed Xander out the door, leaving me alone. Like I wanted.

* * *

I spent the afternoon cleaning up the house that my mates destroyed. Thankfully, there was a lot that was salvageable. That made me feel at least a tiny bit better about it. I worked alone, not seeing even a single soul as I went from room to room, righting furniture, books, whatever they overturned in order to try and find me.

It was getting close to dinner time when I made it to the indoor pool and began turning over lounge chairs and tables when Amos found me. He walked in and leaned against the wall, watching me work.

“You know that you were completely out of line back there,” he eventually said.

“I know.” I kept my eyes on the job at hand. “I’m sorry, Amos. I just, I don’t trust him. I don’t think I’ll ever be able to, no matter how many good things he does. He ruined my life.”

“Did he? You have two men who love you. I’d say that isn’t what a ruined life looks like.”

I slammed a chair onto its legs and stared at him angrily. “He took away my parents, my dad was executed! My life was shit for so many years because of what his actions caused! I just can’t forget that and move on because certain aspects of my life are looking up!”

Amos sighed. “If it wasn’t him, it would have been someone else. He thought what he was doing was right because that was what he believed at the time.”

“You’re defending him?!”

“I don’t know anymore,” he sunk further into the wall, defeated. He was damned either way and he knew it.

“You