The Mark of the Executioner

"Don’t you dare touch me with the same hands that built my cage," I hissed, the words catching in my dry throat.

Rowan didn't flinch. He leaned over me, his shadow swallowing the small amount of moonlight filtering through the trees. His fingers, calloused and cold, gripped my chin, forcing me to look up into his molten gold eyes.

"The cage is already open, Lyra," he whispered, his voice a rough vibration that skipped across my skin. "But the wolves outside are hungrier than the ones you left behind. If you want to keep that child, you stop fighting me and start trusting the only man who knows how to hide you."

"Trust you?" I let out a jagged laugh, my hand instinctively shielding my stomach. "You were Julian’s eyes for twelve years. You watched me disappear piece by piece. You aren't my savior, Rowan. You’re just the repo man come to collect."

His grip tightened, not out of malice, but desperation. Above us, the high-pitched hum of a Council drone sliced through the night air. The red scanning laser swept the grass just five yards away.

"They’re here," he breathed, his face dropping to the hollow of my neck. "If they scent your Silver blood, it’s over. I have to mask you now. Do you understand? It’s going to feel like a violation, but it’s a shield."

"Rowan"

"Quiet."

He didn't wait for my permission. He sank his teeth into the pulse point of my neck.

The scream died in my throat as a violent, electric shock tore through my nervous system. It wasn't just a bite; it was an invasion. Our blood mingled, and suddenly, the wall in my mind, the one Julian had built with pills and silence, shattered.

I saw flashes of Rowan’s life: him standing over my father’s gambling debts, him weeping in a rain-soaked alley the night I was sold, and the agonizing truth that he had taken the Council’s mark on his own back just to be the one assigned to my "surveillance."

He hadn't been watching me to keep me in. He had been watching to make sure no one else got close enough to hurt me.

But as the bond snapped into place, a dark, oily sensation flooded the link. A reversal I hadn't expected.

"You’re poisoned," I gasped, my vision blurring as the silver light in my eyes flared.

Rowan pulled back, his lips stained with my blood. He looked sickly, a black tint creeping into the veins around his eyes. He slumped against me, his weight nearly pinning me to the forest floor.

"Julian’s dogs, the Chimeras," Rowan managed to choke out. "Their claws were tipped with Silver-Bane. I thought I could fight it off, but your blood is accelerating the reaction."

I stared at him in horror. The man who was supposed to be my protector was dying because he had tasted my blood. The very thing meant to save me was killing him.

"We have to move," I said, grabbing his tactical vest and hauling him up. "Rowan, look at me! Where is the safehouse?"

"Across the bridge," he wheezed. "But Lyra, look at the water."

I turned toward the Blackwood River. The water wasn't black anymore. It was glowing a bright, synthetic blue. Julian hadn't just sent guards; he had dumped a chemical tracer into the water supply. If we crossed, the sensors would pick up the reaction on our skin instantly.

We were trapped on the wrong side of the river with a dying Enforcer and a baby that was starting to kick with a frantic, rhythmic power.

Suddenly, the brush behind us exploded. It wasn't a wolf that emerged. It was a man in a pristine white suit, looking entirely too clean for the mud of the Vale.

Julian.

"You always did have a flair for the dramatic, Lyra," my husband said, flicking a speck of dust from his sleeve. He wasn't holding a gun. He was holding a remote detonator. "I see you’ve met my latest experiment. Was Rowan such a loyal dog, wasn't he? It’s a shame I had to trigger the fail-safe in his blood the moment he touched you."

My heart stopped. "You knew? You knew he would try to mark me?"

"I planned for it," Julian smiled, and it was the most terrifying thing I had ever seen. "The mark didn't hide you. It just linked you to his heart. And right now, I’m holding the trigger to his pulse."

Julian stepped forward, his eyes landing on the mark on my neck. "Now, be a good wife and step away from the dying man. We have a laboratory waiting, and I believe our son is ready for his first marrow harvest."

I looked at Rowan, who was slipping into unconsciousness, then at Julian. The fear that had defined my life for twelve years suddenly curdled into something else. Something cold. Something Silver.

"He's not your son," I whispered.

I reached for the dagger at Rowan’s belt, but my hand stopped. The mark on my neck began to glow so brightly that it hurt to look at. A voice that didn't belong to me, a voice of ancient, predatory Queens, echoed in the back of my mind.

Command him.

I looked at Julian, and for the first time, I didn't see a master. I saw a victim.

"Julian," I said, my voice resonating with a power that made the trees tremble. "Kneel."

To my horror, Julian’s legs buckled. His face twisted in shock as his knees slammed into the dirt. The detonator fell from his hand, rolling toward the edge of the river.

But as I moved to grab it, a second figure stepped out from the shadows behind Julian. A woman with a scarred face and a Council badge.

"The Omega is a Sovereign," Commander Vane whispered, raising her rifle. "Change of plans. Kill them both. We can harvest the womb from the corpse."

The laser sight settled right on my forehead.