ep that night

knew, arranging it the way I always arranged problems - systematically, the way you sorted

was cursed by old magic a

e differently than it

ken by Zoran's people from the forest's

n the great hall with the focused interest of

curse. What I actually was. Whether the burn

lived in my blood had be

had buried it beneath nineteen years of small c

like nothing unless you were afraid of what the

my fingers

was differ

udy. Sharper. Insistent. Like a sound build

And then -

washstand across the room,

. Where the b

ma

y a bruise was barely there

ines of it almost like a wound and almost like a brand and almost like s

in front of the mirror and

it was a

ot fully f

ing. Already beginning, without ceremony, without consent,

ted marking me the

even kne

t dawn because it was the onl

yes didn

l was always wherever he needed to be, which was a q

. Pointed. Wat

t very

More like a man seeing some

al

to examine the mark with

sion had changed in a wa

this start

. "The night he fo

iet for a l

," I said. It wa

ing," Kael said carefully. "H

rtial mark without a for

Kael said. "Before he did. T

began the proc

orbed

t be s

honesty of it was somehow m

would h

n know abo

holding something back. That sm

se," he said. "That's what makes him dangerous. And

me more,"

aid. "High collar. Always

I asked. "Sho

moment. In the early morning

losed impenetrable Beta and more like a man carrying somethin

everything changes. Make sure you'

y collar up. Walke

mewhere in the stable - he had been

stall with his

mall nod - the nod of someone who had heard everythin

es in the smallest, m

might be exactly o