Marked: A Two Halves Novella by Marta Szemik Page B

there. If it was so easy for the
seekers to summon her from the lair, what would prevent Aseret from abducting
her again? The guilt in knowing I was responsible for Aseret getting to her
tore away at my conscience. Should I have stayed away? She tried to warn me and
protect me. Perhaps if I didn’t see her, she’d be safe.
    Xela, where are you?
    Perhaps my last night unmarked would be better spent with
her before all hell broke loose.
    I can’t. I promised .
    Perhaps I could meet Mira and Eric in the underworld when
the time was right and be at Xela’s side until then.
    No, I promised Xela I wouldn’t come, and I swore to my
sister I’d be back by dawn.
    I clenched my jaw and propped my head on my hands, enjoying
the light breeze. Harlow, our falcon, stared at me from a rocky crevice twenty
feet above. His glistening eyes reflected the star-sparkled sky. “What do you
think?” I asked in his tongue.
    “I’m too simple to help you.”
    “You’re more than simple, Harlow.” I smiled.
    “I know that where there’s a woman, there’s trouble.” He
ruffled his feathers as if shrugging.
    “Yeah, you got that right. Trouble.” I laughed, and a
crooked smile tugged at my face. My thoughts wandered to the kind of trouble I
could get into with Xela, quickly swerving toward the underworld.
    A quiet rustle on the forest floor registered in my ears,
but I knew they weren’t the delicate feet of a woman I’d fallen in love with.
    Wouldn’t she understand a broken promise? Surely, a
black witch marked with a sphere could understand that. But I had a reason for
keeping my promises—if broken, they would haunt me. Worse than that, my broken
promise could hurt someone other than me.
    “Xander.”
    I heard the tart, sugar-coated voice in my head and couldn’t
mistake it with anyone else.
    “Xander.”
    I sat up.
    “Don’t do it, man,” Harlow warned.
    I ignored him, focusing my gaze on the ground below me,
though I knew she wasn’t there. The smell of roses invaded the nightly breeze,
but the floral aroma left a sharp, bitter taste on the tip of my tongue. I
pictured the roses turning black.
    “Come to me, Xander,” she murmured.
    I strained to see where she was before I realized she’d
called me from within. She was summoning me to the underworld. But it couldn’t
be; Xela had warned me to stay away, and I’d promised—and my promises were
almost impossible to break.
    “I miss you, Xander. Let me take your worries away.”
    I imagined what she’d do to me and unconsciously began
fiddling with the white gem again. Part of me wanted to squeeze it until my
hand bled, just so I could feel the rose-scented high. The other part kept my
fist clenched in my pocket as the gem cuddled against the back of my hand. I
turned my hand and let the crystal rest in my palm, keeping my eyes shut
—because as soon as I looked at it, I knew I would squeeze it when I saw the
promises Xela made reflected in its hypnotizing gleam.
    “I need you, my Xander,” she purred.
    But I promised.
    “Come to me, Xander. Be at my side.” The offer rode
on her soft breath, brushing my face, travelling from my ear and across my
cheek to touch my mouth. After teasing the corner of my lips, it squeezed between
them to settle into my lungs, warming my insides.
    The aroma of black roses entered my lungs and I wasn’t sure
when my fingers clenched the gem. I felt the spin of the vortex as it took me
through the forest, then into the underground. With my eyes closed, I breathed
heavily through my parted lips, ready for hers to crush into mine, expecting to
find myself facing my black queen at any moment.
    The swirling went on longer than usual. When it stopped, the
heat that hit my body made me think Xela must have added more logs to the fire
in her lair. I inhaled, ready for the sweet smell of roses to invade my nose,
but smelled only the stench of dirty old socks. My eyes flew open as the pull
to the underworld released me. Gone was the dark