Page 128 of White Raven

“What the fuck is wrong with her?” the king shouted at Morrigan. “Why is she screaming like that? Do something!”

She scrambled up, moving to his side, her hands touching the prick of blood bubbling under his needle. Morrigan’s eyes widened, her feet shuffling back away from me.

“What? What is it?” Gavric’s voice thrummed with the music, everything crashing together in harsh surges.

“She’s—she’s already blood marked.”

“What?” The king went still.

“She’s already had someone blood bond with her,” Morrigan replied, swallowing nervously.

“How do you know?” His tone cold and deadly.

“I can sense it.” Morrigan shook her head, terror wrinkling her brow. “I know it shouldn’t be possible, but I can feel it.”

Rage pumped Gavric’s chest up and down.

“Whose?”

“I—I don’t know,” she whispered.

His gaze snapped to the tattoo on my neck, fire burning behind his eyes. “onyx! Come before me now!”

The crowd gasped and murmured, searching for the elusive hersir to step up.

“You know only a king has that kind of power, my lord,” Morrigan stuttered. “Huginn and Muninn could judge only you worthy of such dominion, my liege.”

“A king.” Gavric’s hands grabbed my shoulders, twisting me to my side. I felt a blade slice into my gown, the cool air snapping against my hot skin, the tip of the knife scraping down my spine, finding the mark of the raven below the Helm of Awe, in the middle of my back where our raven wings used to be.

Every Day Raven had some form of the Helm of Awe tattooed on our backs at a young age. It was the rite of passage, a symbol of our heritage, our people, our missing wings, but I had never felt any power from it except emotionally.

“Vorian bonded to his own daughter?” The king sneered in disgust.

My throat filled with bile, the idea making me want to crawl out of my skin. It was disgusting. The ritual was only between lovers, deepening the bond.

The White Raven was the one to rule by his side. But not like that. Gavric was wrong. I knew who shared his blood with me, and he was standing right next to the king.

“That seems the only possibility,” she reasoned. “What would you do to possess the White Raven, my lord?”

“Then, I will cut it out!” He regripped the blade, pushing me further unto my side. “I will bleed her of his mark!” His nose flared, something snapping behind his eyes. “She is mine!”

“Majesty, you can’t!” Morrigan exclaimed. “The deities will be angry. Huginn and Muninn might curse us, not just the land! We can’t take the chance. It’s a sacred bond.”

“Then she will be marked with my own!” He screeched once again into the night. “Mine will dominate, mine will own her body and soul!”

“No!” I screamed, my body thrashing and fighting against the restraints.

“You are mine!” He climbed up on the table, flattening me onto my back again, straddling me, his eyes burning. “No one will possess her but me. I am the destined ruler!”

“Noooo!” I bucked and snarled, knocking the blade from his hand, the knife clanking onto the stone surface.

“Stop it!” he roared, grabbing the blade again, his voice crazed, slicing the smock down the middle, exposing my breast as he untied his robe. “You will bear my mark and be filled with my seed!” he hissed in my ear, cutting the knife into his own skin, blood dripping down his chest as he carved just below my left breast.

Agony shrieked through me, but it wasn’t his cut I felt. The tattoo down my neck raged with fire, blinding me with excruciating pain. It throbbed like a heartbeat, like it was alive under my skin, bubbling like burning oil.

“Fucking hold still!” He curved the blade deeper and I bled, as his own blood dripped down onto me.

“No . . . please,” I whimpered. “You don’t understand.” Duty. Duty. Duty.