Read Online Furyous Ink by Saranna DeWylde - Free Book Online Page B

barren wasteland except for a tiny bud that was shriveling, almost dead. His love for Galatea.
    Megaera latched on to that, found his guilt at not being able to protect her, to keep her safe, and made it bloom like a poisonous flower inside him, vines and tendrils winding their way through his veins, infecting his blood and tightening around the block of ice where his heart should have been.
    But his true punishment had already been set in motion. He would come to love Esme Payne—and be damned for it.
    The Amazons were poised to attack, but Meg didn’t want them to intervene. “What do you want from me, Frost?”
    “What do I want? I want Galatea back, you self-righteous bitch!”
    “Can I give her to you?” Meg asked softly.
    “No, but you didn’t have to take her away, either. You chose her. You! Not Athena. You !”
    “Perhaps.” Meg shrugged, unwilling to argue semantics of something he didn’t understand. Instead, she chose to tell him the same thing she’d been telling herself. “Galatea was an Amazon. At her core, in her heart, before I ever inked her skin or told her she’d been chosen. She made her own decisions and set her feet upon a path of her own choosing. I don’t bear any guilt in what happened to her, Nicodemus.” His jaw clenched and she spoke again before he could pull the trigger. “And neither do you.”
    “These bullets are blessed by Athena. They’ll kill you.”
    “Maybe they will. I’ve lived centuries. I’ve had a long life. Longer than Galatea. If it will make you feel better to pull the trigger, go ahead.”
    There was a certain determination on his face, but he didn’t fire. Instead, he slowly lowered the gun. “Maybe I’ll kill everything you love first. Let you live with that. So you know my pain.” Frost holstered his weapon and stepped back, a look of both sorrow and disgust on his face. He turned and exited the shop, his camel-colored trench coat billowing out behind him like dirty angel wings.
    And Meg sagged against her chair as relief flooded her. She hadn’t wanted to die, but she couldn’t have shown him any fear, any doubt.
    Then she shot to her feet and dashed to the door. Jerking it open, she yelled, “Esmerelda Payne is here.”
    He stopped and spun to face her. “Liar. I’ve searched for years. I would have sensed her dark magick.”
    “And Esmerelda was in service to Athena. So I hid her presence from you.”
    “Where is she?” he demanded.
    “She’s got a little shop on Thirty-Fourth.”
    “Why would you tell me this? You’re her friend. I know it’s not because you fear me.”
    “I don’t fear you. Let’s just say she’s going to be your ruin.”
    “She already has been, Fury.”
    Meg went back inside the shop and sat down, heart pounding from the encounter. She hadn’t believed any of her own words about guilt. She spoke them, but she didn’t feel them. She looked at her wrist and already the black toxin had worked its way farther up her arm. The veins stood out like tangled, rotten vines beneath her skin and were visible all the way up to her elbow.
    Her hands wouldn’t stop shaking. She couldn’t ink anyone like that. “I’m not feeling well. I’ll call the Mother House when I’m ready to reschedule your appointments.”
    “We know you’ll punish whoever killed our sisters. The tattoos can wait,” a brunette said, her mouth a grim line as they exited the shop.
    She pulled out her phone and dialed Marcus before she could think better of it.
    “Kage.”
    As soon as he answered, she could breathe again, but suddenly felt stupid and weak for bothering him. For needing him. She’d never needed anyone or anything in all her long years walking the earth.
    “Hey,” she said, hating the tremor in her voice.
    “What’s wrong?”
    “Frost came to the shop.”
    “Did he hurt you?”
    He’d shoved a gun in her face, but no, he hadn’t actually hurt her. But it fucked her up to know that he could have. “No,” she managed in