Kiss of the Betrayer (A Bringer and the Bane Novel) by Boone Brux Page A

off of me.” Pain burned across her palms and she flinched. “Ow.” She yanked her hands back and shook them. “What did you…” The words died in her throat when she caught sight of suns etched into her palms. She raised her hands and stared. “What?”
    “Jade.” The seriousness in Luc’s voice dragged her eyes away from her hands. Gone was his usual arrogant confidence. Now he appeared uneasy, as if caught committing a crime. “We need to talk.” He cast a quick glance at the door and lowered his voice. “About you and Esmeralda.”
    She ignored him and turned her palms to him. “What is this?”
    “Tattoos.” He said nothing for a long time, as if waiting for her reaction. When she didn’t reply, he said, “Do you recognize them?”
    Her head spun. What had happened in the forest? The last thing she remembered was intense pain and an arrow protruding from her chest. Gingerly, she touched the spot where the arrow had been. Her skin felt raw and tender, but was nowhere near as painful as it should have been. The blanket slipped an inch and she realized she was naked from the waist up. With a quick tug, she pulled the blanket to her chin.
    “I don’t know.” She shook her head. “They’re familiar. What are they?”
    He paced a few steps and then turned to face her. “They are the marks of a Redeemer.”
    His words refused comprehension. “I don’t understand.”
    “A Bringer Redeemer.”
    Still, his meaning scrambled out of reach. “Then why do I have them?”
    He said nothing, his silence finally helping her understand.
    “You can’t mean that I’m a Redeemer?”
    Luc stood and paced “Did you not know?”
    Was this some elaborate ruse to punish her for her treachery? To create a bond between them that really wasn’t there? She shoved her palms at him. “Did you brand me as retribution?”
    Luc walked to the bed and leaned over her. “I know you distrust me, but surely you don’t believe me capable of taking advantage when you lay dying?”
    “Why not?” She slowly sat up, clutching the blanket to her, tightening against the deep aches in every part of her body. “Do you forget how well I know you? And you can’t deny being angry that I tried to kill you.”
    “You don’t know me. You know only what your sister has pounded into your head.” He smoothed his hand over the spot she had stabbed. “And no, I have not forgotten.” He slid onto the chair. “And it seems I never will—no matter what amends I make.”
    The accusations and years of anger poured forth like a dam that had weakened over time. “You? Try to make amends?” She sneered. “Since when does the mighty Luc Le Daun take responsibility for his actions?”
    “Could you please stifle your righteous indignation for a few minutes? We have more serious matters to deal with right now.”
    “You do perhaps, but not me.”
    He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Those marks are real. You are a Redeemer. A healer. The light that saves those on the brink of death.”
    There was no trace of humor in his words. She stared at the black suns on her palms. The skin around the tattoos was red and swollen, as if burned. “How could I have not known?”
    He sighed and the tension eased from his posture. “Do you know which of your parents was a Bringer?”
    She closed her eyes against the painful memories of their deaths, but they came anyway. “It must have been my father.” She opened her eyes. “My mother taught us simple earth magic spells, but Father was the one who told us stories about the Bringers. We’d fall asleep listening to his tales of the great battle between the Bringers and the Bane.” She smiled at the memory of her and Esmeralda pretending to be angels, saving their dolls from danger. “I even dreamt of being a Bringer when I was young.” She looked at him. “When I still believed in fairy tales.”
    “It seems you got your wish.”
    “I always imagined it to happen differently.”