Siren's Mark

Chapter 63

How did I ever live without her?

"Anyways," Kami says. "She also had a fiancé—Count Krisztian Schauberg, total d-bag. The spineless bastard, he... he killed her."

I close my eyes and take a deep breath as I try to fight off the flashbacks.

"Oi, mate," Finn says softly. "That was not your fault. Humans can be... well, they can be fucking monsters. You aren't responsible for what they did."

"That's not the whole story," I say with a heavy sigh.

Ava turns to me with confusion. I knew Kami didn't tell her everything. Honestly, I did my best to hide it from Kami too, but I've always wondered if she knew and just never said anything.

As I look at Kami, she gives me a soft, knowing look telling me that we didn't have as many secrets between us as I had hoped.

"I killed him," I say, my voice low and flat. "I killed Krisztian."

I'm terrified of what Ava will think of this new information. Will she now see me as the monster I know myself to be? I can't bear to look at her. I don't want to live with the memory of what it looks like when she falls out of love with me.

I feel a hand at my back, that same familiar gesture of comfort. She rests her head on my shoulder and the tightness in my chest instantly subsides.

"For Asmodeus, that was an unforgivable offense," Kami adds. "He was angry, but without anyone to take out his rage on. So he did what in his mind was the next best thing: he burned the city to the ground."

Kieran and Finn both look at me with solemn faces and uncharacteristic silence.

I look to Ava, who is looking up at me with the same love and devotion as always. It's the first time in a long time I've considered that my sins may not be so unforgivable.

"We had already left town," I say. "I thought I had covered my tracks. Now and then, I would hear rumors about Asmodeus---his new lovers, acts of gruesome torture---and some of them would mention his interest in me. It was never more than a passing thought, that he was asking about me or keeping an eye on me. After decades passed, I got the impression he had let go of his grudge."

"Asmodeus never lets go of a grudge," Kieran says.

"But why now?" Finn asks. "What changed?"

"Ava," Kami says, confirming my worst fear.

"Me?" Ava asks. "What did I do?"

"You didn't do anything," Kami says. "Asmodeus likes to think of himself as a sort of patron saint of marriage."

"What??" Ava asks. "Marriage?"

"He likes to claim that he is responsible for the modern institution of marriage," Kami explains. "It's bullshit, but he's one of the oldest living beings so it's not like anyone can question him."

"But what does that even mean?" Ava asks.

Fuck. I don't even want to think about this.

"Since he's the demon of lust, he feels that he's entitled to a taste of every newly-married woman," Kami says. "Basically he's a fucking creep."

"But we're not married," Ava says, gesturing between us.

"To him you are," Kami says.

She takes Ava's wrist and turns it over, tracing the lines of her mark beneath her tattoo.

A growl rumbles through my chest at the uninvited touching and Kami pulls her hands back.

"To Sirens, that's as meaningful as marriage. Maybe more," Kami says. "And it tells Asmodeus that Zane has a vulnerable spot."