Page 109 of Scarlet Wars
Was it wrong that the thought didn’t scare me?
That part of me—maybe the worst part—hopedhe would?
The thought alone was dangerous, so I latched onto the first distraction that came to mind. “Did you see his tattoo?” I blurted out.
Caden’s frown deepened. His eyes flicked from me to the corpse at our feet. “Where?”
“His wrist.” I swallowed, forcing my focus away from the blood pooling near my shoes. “Golden snake, obsidian orbs, red chains.”
He crouched beside the body, movement smooth and practiced, the way only someone used to this kind of aftermath could move. He took the limp hand and turned it over, inspecting the wrist. His jaw ticked once as he stared. “This one?”
I nodded. “Yeah. He told me I could only see it if I was ‘sworn in.’ What do you think that means?”
Caden rose again, straightening to his full height. “I can see it just fine,” he said, tone even. “And I haven’t been sworn into anything in my life.”
Unease prickled at the back of my neck. “Does it mean anything to you?”
He shook his head, brows furrowing slightly as if he was replaying every symbol he’d ever seen. “No,” he said, almost to himself. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Before I could push further, the outside door slammed open, hard enough to rattle the hinges and send an echo down the alley.
Caden reacted instantly. One arm hooked around my waist, pulling me tight against his chest, the other braced out in front of us. The move was so fast it stole my breath. My palms flattened against him as he shifted his stance, his body a living shield between me and whatever was coming through that door.
Metal groaned, footsteps scraped, and I was suddenly very aware of how close we were, the steady thud of his heart under my hand, the faint scent of iron and heat that clung to him.
Jackson’s voice cut through the night. “The hell are you two doing out here? It’s freezing.”
His gaze dropped to the decapitated body. “Jesus. Is that Levi?”
Crap.
“Can you see anything specific on his wrist?” Caden asked, tone flat, like they were discussing dinner plans.
Jackson blinked. “I’m sorry, I’m a little distracted by thesevered headnext to it.”
Without so much as a sigh, Caden flicked his wrist, and Levi’s head dissolved into nothing. “Better?”
Jackson gave a dry laugh. “Hardly, but thanks for the nightmare fuel.” He crouched, squinting at the corpse. “I don’t see anything particular.”
“No tattoo?” Caden pressed.
My broody friend frowned. “No. Should I?”
I crouched beside him, peering closer. The edges of the wrist were blurring, turning translucent. “It’s fading,” I said quietly. “It’s fading as we speak.”
The outside door slammed open again, the sound cracking through the alley. Caden reacted instantly, translating what was left of the body out of sight before anyone could see.
“There you all are,” Sean bellowed, too loud, as if his eardrums had taken permanent damage somewhere along the way. He looked at me, then at Caden. The shift in his expression was immediate: confusion first, then suspicion, then concern masked as irritation. “The hell happened to you?”
“What?” I asked, far too quickly.
“What do you mean, what?” Sean’s arms flailed like a man trying to conduct an orchestra only he could hear. “You’re both covered in blood!”
Double crap. Apparently, decapitation had more of a splash radius than I’d accounted for.
In one smooth motion, I translated it all away, every smear, every dark patch soaking through fabric. “Better?”
Sean blinked at me, still frowning like I’d just done a card trick instead of erasing a homicide. “Wanna explain what the hell just happened?”
