Page 29 of An Oath at Midnight

Just as a wolf was compelled to howl at the moon, a crow was compelled to hunt—and kill.

This was who I was, what I was born to be.

I was a crow.

A warrior.

A killer.

Which meant my job was perfect for me and my brothers. We fulfilled a necessary service, and we fed the dark need inside us.

Rook came forward, taking Payne’s place. He gripped the top of my head, tilting it to the side and pressed his tattoo gun to my skin. “Say their name,” Rook growled low.

The ink loaded in Rook’s gun was laced with blood. Every soul I sent to the afterlife, a piece of them would stay with me in the markers I’d carry on my skin, that was my burden.

It was the price we paid for embracing what we were, but this one, I wanted it. He deserved that disgrace, and I hoped his soul burned for eternity.

My lips peeled back from the hatred filling me before his name could pass my lips. “Brody,” I snarled.

No, tonight wasn’t my first kill, that was in the Thornheart cemetery two and a half years ago—when I killed the male holding a knife to Magnolia’s throat.

When the fighting ended that day, before his body had been taken, I’d collected Brody’s blood because deep down I knew this day would come. I wished I could add a marker for Clayton Whitlock as well, and hated that Warrick had killed him before I could.

The buzz of the gun, the bite against my skull, had me breathing hard. Not from the pain—no, I welcomed the pain—it was from the fucking rightness of it. Payne’s hand came down on my shoulder and squeezed.

Again, I wondered what Mags would think if she knew the truth. I wasn’t afraid she’d hate me or fear me because I killed, I was more worried about her looking into my eyes—and seeing how much I liked it.

Rook finished and quickly cleaned the gun and loaded the new ink laced with the blood of another of my kills.

I said the next name, and the next, and I kept on saying names until I had eight markers on the side of my head.

Maeve had come out to watch and was sitting on Talon’s shoulders.

“What do you think?” he asked her.

She pressed her hand against the shaved side of Talon’s head, something she often did to Payne as well, since she was a baby. “I like it. I’m gonna be a warrior too when I’m a grownup, like Daddy,” she said and wrapped her arms around Talon’s neck, resting her chin on top of his head and grinning. “I’ll have more markers than all of you.”

Payne muttered a curse.

Talon gave her leg a squeeze. “Yeah, you will, little feather.”

Rook chuckled low as he wiped the side of my head with a damp cloth.

Payne strode over and held out his hand. “How do you feel?”

I took it, and he pulled me to my feet. “Good. Right.”

He nodded. “Stay and have a drink with us to celebrate.”

“Yeah, maybe.” I checked my phone, I’d forgotten to turn the sound back on after we’d been hunting. There was a message from Mags. I listened to it, then called her back. No answer. She was probably asleep. “Another time,” I said to Payne. “I need to get back.” Mags had no idea what just happened here, what it all meant, but I needed to be close to her, now more than ever.

I needed to be close to my mate.

The only female I wanted—that I would ever want.

* * *

I ran my fingers over my hair, nerves firing inside my gut.