She sighed, "Just getting information from my sources."
He sat up, rubbing a hand over his face. "I told you. They're determined to kill me. You'd be better off leaving."
She shook her head, "I'm not leaving you. Aras can't be revived."
His eyes narrowed. "I never revealed the Master's name.."
"Sources, remember?"
He shrugged. "I wish I knew why. I mean, is there a damn recipe these lunatics have to follow? A toad, a bat and a white wolf. Stir well and boil for an hour?"
"It's your markings," she answered quietly.
"My markings?! Are you kidding me?" His eyes went wide as he processed the information.
She shook her head as her phone pinged again. She sighed and texted back quickly.
"Fuck. Thought maybe it was something I could change." He pressed his hands into his eyes. "In that case, I have an idea…"
"What?" She raised an eyebrow.
"Kill me. Rob them." He looked at her head on. "End this for good."
She shook her head, "No. I'm going to take them down."
He growled. "This is foolproof. You have no clue if you can actually stop them. But if I die, they'll crawl back under whatever rock they came out from. They'll be permanently fucked over."
"Until someone else is born with similar markings.."
"Unless I'm mistaken, that doesn't happen very often. Otherwise, they wouldn't have spent over a decade chasing me, right?" He stood and moved to the window. "This might give you or someone else time to track the cult down and destroy them forever. And I can stop living in terror."
"You said you trust me, right?"
He took a deep breath, then nodded but didn't turn.
"I'm going to take you somewhere. It'll be safer than here and will give me a chance to make a plan."
"Will you be with me?" His eyes were desperate as they met hers.
"Of course, I'm not leaving you."
Relief flashed in his eyes a second before they rolled up and he started to fall.
She quickly caught him and laid him down. She sent a text and got some information before going to the kitchen and starting on a potion.