Marked by Blood: Book 2 of The Marked Series Ford, Rinna (books to read fiction .TXT) 📖

looked up at my giant of a father. Worry was written all over his face.

“Do you think I can?” I asked. “Reach peace?”

His face softened as he took in my worry as well. “Daughter, I know you can. You are the strongest person I’ve ever known. But just remember, there are those you can lean on. Don’t hesitate. Let them help you and you’ll succeed.”

“Like my mates?”

“Yeah, like them. And others. Family and those who will become like family. You are meant for such great things, Emelia. Don’t forget that.”

I fell back into his arms again and buried my face in his shirt.

“I’m scared, Dad,” I admitted with a sigh. “I’m scared of so many things and I don’t know if I can do it. I don’t know if I can be strong enough to find my peace, even if you think I can.”

There was a long pause as my words sunk into my father’s head.

“It’s okay to be scared, Emelia. If you’re never scared, you wouldn’t have the chance to be brave. Bravery comes when you’re scared of something, but you do it anyway. Be brave, sweetheart. Always, be brave.”

I nodded my head, understanding what he was telling me.

I needed that peace he promised me, but in the meantime, I would thrive in the chaos. All I needed to do was be brave.

I felt my body begin to wake and I hugged my father tighter. These dreamscape visits were few and far between, but I savored every single one.

“There’s one more thing I need to tell you, Emelia,” my dad said, this time with a light chuckle.

“Yeah? What’s that?” I asked.

“He’s not as bad as he seems. And make sure you tell him ‘Meathead says hi’.”

“Who? What? Who’s Meathead?”

Chapter Eight

“Emi, honey, who’s Meathead?” Xan asked me in a groggy voice, waking me up.

“What? Oh.” I must have been talking in my sleep. I rubbed my tired eyes and blinked them a few times. “My dad, I think. He told me to tell someone ‘Meathead says hi,’ whatever that means.”

I snuggled further into my mate’s warm chest and moaned contently.

“How long have you been meeting your dad in a dreamscape?”

I shrugged my shoulders. I didn’t realize I hadn’t told him about my visits with my dad. It wasn’t like I was keeping it from him, it just never came up.

“Since my first shift. But he doesn’t visit me very often. Not nearly as often as I’d like.”

“That’s how they work.” Xan put his finger under my chin, guiding my face up toward his. He gave me a single slow kiss and pulled away looking down into my hooded eyes. “What did he have to say?”

I sighed and rolled away, sitting up on the side of the bed. Xan was a dragon, so he knew about how we could communicate with our ancestors in our dreams. But did his dead relatives only give him super important information? I didn’t want to tell Xan what my dad had just told me. How could I? He was already stressed with the idea of protecting me. How could I tell him things are probably going to get much, much worse in the near future? How could I tell him I needed him and Ronan if I were to make it out of this thing alive?

I felt Xan’s warm hand on my wrist. “Emi. What did your dad say?”

I sighed and slumped in defeat. I couldn’t lie to him, but I couldn’t tell him the whole truth either. Besides, I didn’t know if the things my father told me would come to pass. So far, everything my father told me had been cryptic, at best. Different people would interpret the messages I’ve been getting from my dad in different ways, so it was hard to tell what they meant. However, some things were clear.

I sighed again.

“My dad talks in riddles most of the time, but I think something’s coming, Xan. My dad told me I needed to be brave and I should trust my instincts, whatever that means.”

Xan pulled on my wrist making me turn to face him. The look in his eyes could only be described as serious.

“Was there anything else? Tell me exactly what he said to you.”

His expression told me he believed whatever we learned in our dreams would come to pass. He was hanging on every word, every thought.

“He said every journey has bumps in them and I’m getting ready to hit some big ones. That I needed to trust my instincts and the people who I felt were trustworthy. He told me I needed to let the people around me help because I won’t be able to do it all on my own. He said it was my mates, my family, and the people who would become my family would be the ones to help me, but there was peace at the end if I was brave enough to survive it. That’s it, besides the Meathead thing.”

Xan looked down at his fingers wrapped around my arm and released them. He sat straight up in the bed and put his head in his hands.

“That didn’t sound very cryptic to me. That sounded pretty specific to me actually.”

“Well, that’s my interpretation of it. I could be wrong, I mean, when he first came to me, he told me he would sound like a fortune cookie. He wasn’t lying about that. It’s mostly vague prophecies of the future that I don’t know for sure will happen.”

“Oh, it’ll all happen,” he retorted and slid off the bed. He put his hands on his hips. “One thing you should know about being a dragon, your ancestors don’t speak in half truths or lie, like, at all. They tell you what they can to help you on your journey, but it’s always the truth. When your dad says things are going to be happening soon, he means very fucking soon. Are you sure you told me everything?”

Feeling completely chastised, I lowered