Love Mark Fantasy Book 4: Wait for Love

“What’s that?”

At my question, the young man sitting on a fallen tree log across the campfire from me jumped in surprise and guiltily jerked his attention up from whatever peculiar-looking object he was writing on.

Eyes widening in surprise when he found I was still awake and had vacated my tent, he immediately snapped the mysterious item shut by slapping the two halves together until it folded in on itself and compressed into a smaller version of the original.

Then he cleared his throat and discreetly tucked the gadget under his thigh as he asked, “What’re you doing out of your bedroll, my lady?” Once the item was out of sight, his nervousness seemed to dissipate, and he lifted his eyebrows with reproach before more sternly adding, “It’s late; you should be asleep. Tomorrow will be a busy day.”

Tomorrow. Ugh.

My stomach roiled at the very notion.

But now that the time was nearly upon us for me to start there, I felt very unsettled.

Indigo hissed out a long, tired sigh. Then he patted the log in invitation. “Come.”

Since it brought me closer to the intriguing thing he’d hidden from me, I eagerly gripped the skirt of my nightdress, lifted the hem to just above my ankles so it wouldn’t scrape across the ground, and I scampered around the crackling fire to plop down next to the knight-in-training.

He was a handsome young man, six years my senior at age eighteen but seven years younger than Ollie, with thick, dark hair and a smile that always made me feel as if I were being let in on a secret joke.

When Olivander had been interviewing soldiers from his father’s royal army to escort me to the academy, I had immediately clicked with Indigo. He irritated me constantly with his unfailingly dutiful ways, he always found something to tease me about, and he was almost as overprotective and stifling as Ollie was. So of course, I adored him and already thought of him as the annoying big brother I was supposed to have.

“Now…” he started, clasping his hands and setting them on his lap, where he tapped his thumbs together in thought. “Tell me what’s troubling you, Little Bug.”

I rolled my eyes. “I do wish you’d stop calling me that. I’m about to become a learned lady, you know.” And learned ladies wouldn’t dare stand for being called Little Bug.

He’d taken to labeling me the obnoxious term about halfway through our journey because—as he put it—I bugged him constantly with my interested inquiries.

But who could figure anything out without questioning it first? Honestly.

With a roll of my eyes, I muttered, “I should’ve had Ollie assign you to pig-slop duty instead of being my escort. You’re quite impertinent, you know.”

Home to Olivander.

Indigo glanced over at me and blinked. “Go home?” he repeated in surprise before his eyes glinted in the firelight with understanding and he began to nod. “Ah, so that’s what’s caused the sleeplessness. You’re worried about tomorrow, are you?”

“But—”

Indigo merely grinned before hissing out a sigh and shaking his head. As his gaze moved to the crackling fire, he said, “Do you know why he couldn’t come with you to Tipton?”

But still…

It felt like a fist to the stomach. Olivander was my soul mate; the marks tattooed to the side of both our faces said so. And soul mates were supposed to stay together.

“Not me,” Indigo corrected. “Olivander.”

“Ollie?” The air whooshed from my lungs.

But why—why would Ollie not want to be with me?

“But I—I don’t know who I am without him,” I confessed in a hoarse voice.

When a tear trailed down my cheek, Indigo patted my hand. “And that is exactly what he wants you to discover,” he said. “It’s time for you to grow up now, Little Bug.”

“But…” Shaking my head, I looked to my escort for guidance. “I’m going to miss him so. How will I breathe without him?”

“You’ll breathe,” was all Indigo said.

I frowned, not comforted.

How it throbbed like an open wound in the center of my soul.

For some reason, I hadn’t even thought of how it would hurt when I’d left home two days ago. I had sensed a great sadness bleeding off Olivander when he’d seen me off on my journey, but I assumed it had to be because of something terrible his father had done again. Now, I understood that he’d already been missing me. The entire time he’d hugged me goodbye, kissed my brow, and then waved as my carriage rolled away, he had known it would ache like this for us to be separated.

I suddenly felt stupid and small. If only I had realized then how the distance between us would feel, I would’ve hugged him longer. Breathed in his scent deeper.

Actually, I probably would’ve refused to go entirely.

Which had to be exactly why he hadn’t told me.

Scared and intimidated by the notion, I gulped painfully. Before, I’d always thought growing up meant I’d get to do more and someday be old enough to finally marry Olivander. But now—now it was starting to feel more like a heavy, burdensome responsibility.

What if I couldn’t handle the weight?

From the trees surrounding us, the echo of a man’s snore rose to a crescendo and then fell away again, tearing me from my troubling thoughts.

Nearly a dozen armed men were traveling with us to Tipton, but only Indigo, the assigned leader of the caravan, was allowed to come within the camp with me and sleep so near to my tent.

When he and I glanced at each other, both of us having heard the snore, he snickered, and the contagious sound made me snort out a small laugh too.

But it was short-lived because laughing without Ollie present felt rather empty.

I looked at his waiting fingers and then noticed the object he’d set down earlier, lying on the log unattended.

Failing, he scowled and dropped his hands, while I grinned in triumph.

“Unity, I’m serious,” he tried reasoning, his expression turning grave. “Give me the book back.”

“Nothing.” And it was promptly ripped from my grip. “Now off to bed with you, Little Bug. No more shenanigans.”

I huffed and sent him a mean look, even as I obediently turned away. “Fine. But you’re not being very nice. I just wanted to look at it.”

As I tore open the flap and crawled into my protected sleep space, my aggravating escort taunted back.

But he wasn’t, and as I crawled under the thick blankets and snuggled in, the knight-in-training’s words taunted me.

I twisted to face the other way, trying to wish his playful heckling away. But no matter how I tossed or turned, his words stuck, swimming through my head with haunting persistence.

So finally, I flopped onto my back with a disgruntled huff and just glared up at the ceiling of the tent, where the flickering reflection of the campfire swirled lazily like dancing stars through the thick material.

Sparks crackled as I listened to Indigo feed more wood to the flames. Not that he needed to; it was already unbearably hot here in this canvas prison. Perspiration beaded my brow. I wiped it away with the sleeve of my nightgown and decided enough was enough.

“Indy?” I called.

I bit my lip before just giving in and asking, “Do you really think I’m uppity?”

When he chuckled at the question, I glowered in his general direction, hoping the sting of my irritation reached him through the fabric wall separating us.

“No, you are not cruel or vicious or vain,” Indigo agreed quietly. “You have a good, kind heart, my lady. You do.”

I blinked, confused by his admission. Turning onto my side to face the direction his voice was coming from, I wound my hair around my finger as I said, “Then why did you call me uppity?”

“I don’t understand.”

“Well, you’re only twelve,” he said kindly. “I didn’t really expect you to.”

“Because I’ve seen the world outside your castle walls and met people from all walks of life. And I know that the true worth of someone does not come from the fact that they just so happen to be mated to a powerful prince.”

My lips parted in shock over the gall that he would dare say something so bold to me. “But I—I can’t help that my mark paired me with Olivander.”

“I…” I blinked, not sure what he meant. But I answered, “Well, no. Of course not.”

Earlier, he’d watched in amusement as my maid had brushed and braided my hair for sleep. At the time, I had wondered why he’d looked so entertained by my instructions to her, and I’d had many since she wasn’t the usual maid who always tended to my nightly duties and thus had no idea how to do it right.

My stomach tightened in dread as I realized I’d done something wrong, though.

“Do you know why I accepted this role as your escort?” Indigo asked suddenly, making me jump.

I shook my head. “No.”

And I wasn’t so sure I wanted to know, but he went on anyway. “When Olivander interviewed me for the position to escort you to your fancy new academy, even though I’m still just in training, he treated me with respect, as if I were his peer. That’s when I knew he was a man of true worth and that I would be honored to serve him in any capacity. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was a prince.”

But I didn’t do that, did I?

So I blinked repeatedly up at the ceiling of my tent to fight off the tears.

I’d even learn how to brush my own hair.

Realizing these next few years were not going to be as easy as I had originally anticipated, I gave a hard swallow and whispered, “I’m not like Ollie, am I?”

Indigo chuckled yet again, but it sounded more like a fond sound than something demeaning.

For some reason, I hoped he was right. Because it didn’t sound like he liked me all that much as I was now. And I wanted him to. I quite admired Indigo.

When he wasn’t being a bore, that was.

And besides, I wanted to become a woman who actually deserved to be the mate of Olivander Bjorn, Prince of High Cliff, second son to King Ignatius, and top scholar in the entire kingdom.

With a wistful sigh, I said, “I hope you’re right.”

“I am,” Indigo assured. “All will be well, my lady. Never fear.”

Nodding, I closed my eyes. Except sleep still didn’t come. I wasn’t sure I was up to this challenge. What if I never learned the lesson I was supposed to learn? What if I was doomed to be uppity forever?

After a time, I gave up on trying to rest, and I called, “Indigo?” hoping he could bore me into unconsciousness with one of his stories about his knight-in-training duties. But he didn’t answer.

Oh, this was too good to resist. Smiling devilishly to myself, I pushed back my covers and crawled to the opening of the tent. After carefully easing the flap aside, I poked my head into the night and found Indigo wrapped up in his bedroll, eyes closed and breathing deeply.

Perfect! I hurried through the doorway and scampered silently on bare feet to his pack of personal possessions.

Keeping one eye on him, I tugged on the cinch string keeping his satchel closed, and then I plunged my hand inside the gaped opening, grinning the moment my fingers met smooth leather.

Yes!

I pulled the book out and backed toward the log that Indigo and I had been sitting on earlier. Then, while watching my sleeping escort’s face to make sure I didn’t awaken him, I lowered myself onto the tree trunk until the book was perched on my lap.

I mean, if he didn’t want me to look inside, he really needed to place a leather-string lock bound around it to keep people out.

Maybe he’d learn that eventually. But for now…

Holding my breath, I opened the thick leather casing, only to exhale in a huff and frown out my disappointment.

So a book must merely be another version of a scroll, then. Ugh. How utterly unexciting was that? Like I cared what Indio wrote about in his personal journal.

I started to close the outer shell.

Except a certain name caught my attention, stalling me.

Lips parting, I glanced toward Indigo and shook my head.

Lifting the top piece of parchment to reveal another sheet, I saw names and dates for more Graykeys. But this genealogy contained details.

Very explicit details.

“My God,” I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands and gaping at the words written before me. But this was simply barbaric.

Risking a glance toward Indigo to make sure I hadn’t woken him with my horror, I went back to reading, unable to stop there.

Gagging, I clutched my stomach and gaped at the words before me. But seriously, I had no idea such monstrous people even existed. This was worse than awful.

So I kept reading...

Only to learn that Marvello was eventually killed by his firstborn son, Novak, who also hanged his two brothers, Nestor and Norton, in the 8th reaping so he could take control of the crown of Lowden.

“Wow,” I whispered into the night.

I flipped through more stories of Graykey family members until I came to stories of a totally different nature.

Indigo quite suddenly stopped writing about death and darkness and began to share tall tales about his great-grandmother Amelia that he’d heard about from her son: his grandfather.

“An airplane?” I murmured, frowning toward the sleeping Indigo and shaking my head.

What the devil was an airplane?

And yet utterly fascinating.

So fascinating, in fact, that I finished his “book” before I was ready to. Once I reached the end, I sighed, wishing I could hear more about this alternate world his great-grandmother had come from, where people had things like electricity to light their lamps, and telephones—not ravens or pigeons—to instantly message people from a great distance away.

After I returned the book to Indy’s pack and crept back into my tent to lie down, I fell into an exhausted sleep, only to dream about airplanes and telephones and Graykeys—with blood dripping from sharp fangs—who came along and destroyed all the marvelous, otherworldly inventions.

One of them was charging toward me—arms outstretched to capture me and sink their teeth into my flesh—when a hand gripped my arm and shook.

“Unity,” Indigo urged. “You need to wake up now.”

I screamed and bolted upright on my bedroll.

Eyes wide and chest heaving, I gasped, “What’s wrong? Is it the Graykeys? Are they here?”

They were attacking the camp, weren’t they? We were all going to die.

“Because your book—” I started without thinking, only to stop and gape at him as I realized I’d just incriminated myself.

Gulping, I cringed, wondering how severely he would punish me. But I couldn’t lie, either. Bowing my head shamefully, I regretfully admitted, “I—I might have done so.”

“Ah, hell.” Blowing out a breath, he plopped down on the ground beside me and cupped his head in his hands, muttering, “Olivander’s going to kill me. You’re going to have nightmares for the rest of your life, and he’s going to blame me entirely. He’s going to dismiss me from training—if not have me outright hanged—and I’ll never be able to go anywhere to look for her again. Why didn’t I just put a damn lock on—”

“We don’t have to tell him,” I cut in quickly.

Indigo dropped his hands and arched his brows significantly. “You don’t want him to know?”

I mean, if he found out or asked me pointedly, I wouldn’t lie. But I didn’t see why we had to tell him preemptively.

“I broke into your pack,” I admitted on a cringe.

Indigo nodded slowly and watched me carefully. “You did,” he agreed.

“And I—I disobeyed your direct order to leave the scroll book thingy alone.”

“Yes.”

“Well, I… I very much regret my indiscretions and apologize for them earnestly. So if you could find it in your heart to forgive me, I-I don’t see why we need to bother Olivander with the issue at all.”

“Me too,” I said readily. “Besides, it—it was probably only fanciful writings anyway. Right? Nothing to give me lasting worries in the least. None of that was actually true…” I tipped my head down and lifted my eyes, watching him steadily as I added, “Was it?”

Indigo sighed. “Ah, Little Bug. Sorry to disappoint, but my imagination just gets the best of me sometimes, and I—well, I like to write my thoughts down before I forget the ideas. Might make fun stories to scare and entertain my grandkids with someday, don’t you think?”

My stomach instantly plummeted.

The rest of my life.

It was time for me to grow up now.

All fabrications of evil Graykey bloodlust killings and amazing Earth tales were immediately forgotten as I realized he was right. Today was the big day.

As soon as he left the tent to give me some privacy, my fingers fumbled as I rushed to prepare myself. And everything I’d read the night before was wiped clean from my thoughts.

It was time for me to become Unity, a learned lady and the worthy mate of Olivander.