The Touch of Salvation

23: Erebus Goliath Kostothinos

GOLIATH

"It would be much easier on you if you simply asked her to dance."

I can't break my gaze from Adalind long enough to look at Lux. The pain meds must have worked wonders because Adalind is dancing her heart away with anyone who wants to. A woman comes to her and she eagerly joins in a jig.

"Why do you say that?"

"Because even without my ability to feel how you feel, I would be able to tell that you're burning with jealousy."

"She's allowed to dance with whomever she wants."

"Obviously, but she-" she stops mid-sentence. Her gaze falls onto my face momentarily before diving to my back. "How long have you had that?"

"Had what, Lux?"

Her gaze screams urgency. She rushes away toward Adalind, whispering in her ear something that causes her to stop dancing immediately. Daario and Lucian come to her and all of them look at me with varying degrees of uncertainty.

I can hear Adalind excuse herself from her dance partner as she peels off of the ballroom floor toward me. She stops before me, her chest rising with a deep breath. "Have you gotten any other tattoos lately? O-on your back?"

The way she says it makes the hair on my skin rise. She looks nervous. I shake my head. Daario and Lux share a look. Lucian stares at me hard.

"We need to see it," Lucian says, suddenly. "Now."

Part of me wants to push back on his demand, but the other part is eager to learn what has made Adalind pale. We leave the ballroom again and head toward Demise's office. Demise and Grace have surely dipped away to partake in one another.

The door slams behind Lucian who is clearly upset by whatever has just happened.

"Could you remove your shirt, please?"

"And Adalind will try not to make a mess on the floor."

Adalind hits Daario in the shoulder as a flush climbs up her chest and over her cheeks. After removing my jacket, tie, and shirt, I turn around, only to hear everyone's heartbeat increase tenfold.

"How the hell is that possible?" Lucian.

"I don't know." Adalind.

"Maybe he's accepted the bond?" Daario.

"Without his scent on her? Impossible." Lux.

"What is it?" My patience is wearing thin. Uneasiness prevails, but then Adalind hands me a mirror from Demise's desk and goes behind me to hold another. On my back, where wings would have been, are delicately inked faeries wings. I'd know those wings from anywhere. They're Adalind's.

"It's her mark," Lucian says. "It's supposed to only be given once both of you have accepted the bond and consummated it through...a tradition of ours." The way he says it leads me to believe there's more to the story than he's admitting.

It's beautiful and the thought of her mark on me sends blood right to my cock.

"I don't know how this happened," she says.

"Well, it doesn't really matter. Now that he bares it, your heat will come soon enough and we are vastly unprepared for that."

"Heat?" Turning around, I can now see Adalind pacing back and forth.

"It's the time when females are the most fertile."

"Why are you all acting as if this is the worst news we have heard?"