This darkness is slowly consuming me. Fucking Gage had more consequences than I could have ever foreseen. Maybe this is all a mistake. Maybe I'm just looking at this all wrong because my head is clouded with this stupid prophecy that can't possibly be true.
It's amazing to me that Kane was the one to break whatever spell I was under. If anything, he should have pulled me farther into the darkness.
"Start from the beginning," he murmurs before pulling back to press his lips to my shoulder, kissing the spot he bled and healed with the same venom.
"I don't know. I went to bed and woke up in front of your house with dark hair, crazy eyes going wild, and now I've got a little bit of a hangover."
I expect him to laugh, but he just studies me, regarding me with all seriousness as he brushes a blond lock from my face.
"Did you use your dark magic or something?"
It's actually nice he doesn't know as much as about me as everyone else seems to. It's as though we're on the same page at the beginning of the book so many others have already read. He hasn't been keeping daunting prophecies a secret.
Whatever just happened, it really was dark. I pray it has nothing to do with what Gage and my parents told me. It can't. But the terrible thoughts streaming through my mind during my moment of temporary insanity now come crashing back and make me visibly tense.
"Not that I know of, but I used a lot to kill Sylvia. It could be coming back to haunt me or something."
I shrug, pretending I'm not as shaken about it as I am. My fingers start tracing the outline of the newly acquired tattoo he got in order to keep spirits from possessing him. As I do so, a flash of another tattoo comes to life on his chest - one with a foreign language and symbols - but it fades almost just as quickly. I don't even have time to fully glimpse what it is before it's banished from sight.
"What was that?" I ask while pointing to the spot of skin that is hiding a secret.
He tilts his head, studying me more intently. I'm starting to worry I've gone completely crazy now.
"What was what?"
"There was something... a tattoo of some sort."
Dark hair, sleep driving, a sexual assault on a night stalker, ridiculous clothes, and now I'm seeing things.
His eyes narrow as he stares at me with a different sort of amusement. "You saw it?"
Oh thank God. I'm not that far gone in crazy land.
"So it's real? What is it?" I ask, strumming my fingers over his chest once more, trying to provoke the secret mark.
He sits up, making me slide off of his chest as he does so.
"It's a hexer's curse. No one's supposed to be able to see it. How did you?"
A hexer? I thought they only cursed witches and warlocks.
"What sort of curse is it? Why did they curse you?"
He shakes his head, leaning back to let his eyes focus on the ceiling. His hand slides over the hidden spot as he shrugs.
"Castine has a lot of enemies out there, but she's too strong for people to take on. So, they use her bonded changelings instead. I can only assume Castine did something to provoke her, because I had never seen her before. I suppose when she failed against Castine, she came after the youngest changeling she had at the time... me.
"She cursed me, but I don't know what it means. Nothing has ever really changed for me, so I'm assuming she either really sucked, or it doesn't affect me, just like a witch's power doesn't affect me."
I frown, worrying now what the curse might mean.
"What did she say?"
He looks down to meet my eyes, seeming unaffected by the whole conversation. "Her exact words?"
I nod, silently urging him to speak.
"If the light fades, darkness will come." He pauses for a minute, and then he continues with, "The rest was in a dead language I've never been able to translate. And believe me, I've studied every old book I could find. But, like I said, nothing ever happened, and that was a long, long time ago."
I sigh out slightly, trying to crack the riddle myself. It's too vague to cipher.
"What about the mark? A hexer's mark shows the words. I bet Drackus could help you translate."
Kane laughs, finding my words hysterical apparently.
"First of all, no one can see it... except apparently you. She was a bitch like that and hid it from view. I can't even see it. So, unless you can get a better, longer look, then that is rather pointless. Secondly, Drackus wouldn't exactly want to know why you were scoping out my chest close enough to see a hexer's hidden mark."
I frown, realizing he has a point. Still, I would risk it. Drackus is in the business of mending fences right now. He wouldn't do anything to Kane simply because he knows I'd never speak to him again if he did.