I lean closer to the mirror and scan my body for any other marks. I catch a hint of black under my chin and tilt my head back to see what it is. On the underside of my chin, there’s a circle made of a thick black line. I drop my head down and step out from behind the screen.
“What do all of these mean?” I ask, gesturing to the new marks on my naked body.
Wekun looks over to me at my question and then slams his eyes shut. “Whoa, Falon. What the hell, are you trying to get me murdered?” he asks, covering his already closed eyes with his hands as though that will keep my nakedness from seeping in.
“Murdered?” I question.
“Yes, you know, from your warm and fluffy mates, who already look at me like I have ulterior motives when it comes to you.”
“What happened? I thought you were breaking the mate bond. I felt it snap with Treno and Ryn, and then all of a sudden…”
“Are you still naked?” Wekun asks me, irritated.
“Yes, because if I get dressed, then you can’t see all my runes, and I want to know what they are. We both know there’s no attraction between us, so stop acting like a baby and just tell me what’s all over my body so I can get dressed.”
“Fuck my life,” he growls.
I stand there, refusing to make this a big deal. Shifters get naked around each other all the time. Plus, I’ve seen—and worn—the barely there dresses that make up Gryphon and Ouphe fashion; there’s no way he can pretend to be overly shy when chicks here practically flash vagina lips on the daily.
He must sense my stubbornness, and with an exasperated sigh, he drops his hands from his face. I cover my breasts as much as possible with a hand and forearm, and drop my other palm to cover my vagina in an effort to save his virtue. Wekun looks over at me warily and quickly scans my body. He twirls his fingers, indicating that he wants me to turn. I do, moving my hand from my crotch to cover my ass crack as I go.
I stand with my back to him for a beat and look over my shoulder when I hear fabric rustling behind me, as though he’s climbing off the bed. Wekun comes closer, his eyes fixed on the lines of runes that run from under my shoulder blade to the top of my ass cheek on the right side of my back. He reads the symbols left to right like you would a book, and it confirms my suspicion that it’s some kind of written message.
“You can cloak,” he tells me, his tone shocked, and he runs a fingertip over a handful of lines on my back. “I’ve never seen anyone with these marks, but that’s definitely what they’re saying. Vinna has new ones too; the mixing must be creating new abilities,” he states contemplatively, still studying the lines like he’s triple-checking that he’s right.
“What does that mean?”
“That when you activate this sequence, you can blend into your surroundings to the point that no one can see you. I don’t know if that means invisibility all together or more of a chameleon effect?”
My eyes go wide, and I try to look down at the marks on my back, in shock. He touches my shoulder blades. “These are spears of some kind,” he tells me. “And these four bands are how you can slip through space.”
“Slip through space?” I question.
“Teleport...like you just did earlier when you disappeared for five hours. It looks like you can physically move from one place to another, like I can, but you’re also able to separate from your body and move around that way too. Sentinels call it projecting, and it’s very rare, although at this point with your Sept, that shouldn’t surprise me.”
He runs a finger down the thin bands of symbols on my forearm, and I turn to face him.
“These are shields. But interestingly, they shield you from outside attacks and also from yourself, you must have a weapon that takes a lot of skill to wield. Your runes will protect you from it.” His eyes drop to the rune garters high up on my thighs. “I’d guess it’s these. They look like symbols for long swords but different.” He shrugs as he crouches down so he can study them closer.
I’m feeling a little lab rat-y, with the way he’s looking at my runes. He vacillates between intrigued scientist and reverent worshipper, and I can sense he’s cataloging things while also wading through awe. I’m surprised by his astonished reaction altogether though. The guy can portal between worlds at will, but he thinks my runes are cool?
“These are your mate runes,” he identifies, pointing to my ring finger and the line of marks above my breast on the right side. “Treno has runes that allow him to control water. That’s what this line on your left side is. It’s not a natural elemental affinity, because it’s just for the one element, but it’s a strong mark.”
Wekun stands up and lifts my arm: between two of the thick bands of runes on my upper arm is another of Treno’s marks. It looks like something a kid’s Spirograph toy would make. I had one when I was little; I used to love putting my pen in the different pattern wheels and circling it around, making endless amounts of perfect spirals and
