Games of Zeus 02- Silent Echoes by Aimee Laine Read Free Book Online Page A

up here.”
    Ian jerked back, lips pursed.
    “Now.”
    On a deep sigh, he raised his hands and set them on the table, like Taylor.
    “And take off the ring.”
    With a huff and a grab of his own ring, he slid it off.
    Taylor gasped. She rose from her chair. “What the—”
    Ian wiggled his fingers. I’m never going to get this woman out of my head.
    • • •
    Taylor couldn’t believe what reflected back at her from Ian’s skin. Her tattoo. Her mark.
    Her symbol etched into his finger.
    Under the gold and platinum, the same blue lines decorated his finger. “Please tell me … that’s … a real tattoo.”
    Tripp waved a hand toward Ian.
    Ian said nothing.
    Taylor caught each of their gazes.
    “Go ahead, Ian,” Tripp said.
    Ian still said nothing.
    Tripp ran a hand over his head. “You are hereby authorized to speak, Ian.”
    Ian wrote ‘Are you sure?’ on the paper, adding, ‘because you told me not to talk and, apparently, I do everything you ask.’
    The glare Tripp gave Ian had a smile brewing on Taylor’s lips. The two couldn’t have looked different, yet they acted like brothers.
    Tripp wrote back, ‘Yes, you idiot.’
    “What … is it?” Taylor asked. “What is this, Ian?” She pitched her voice low, pointing to her finger. “Why do you have one?”
    After a long while, Ian said, “I’ve had this on my finger forever, too. Since birth. It wasn’t an add-on.” He swiped a hand over his head.
    Not a tattoo. Taylor’s breath caught.
    “It’s called the branches of life.”
    Taylor lowered to her seat again, her body shaking with the fact that the man she’d thought of so much in the previous months sat in front of her with an insignia like her own.
    “It comes from the tree of life, an interconnection between all life on the planet.”
    She’d heard of that. “I thought that was depicted as a real tree, though.”
    Ian nodded. “That’s why I said sorta.” He reached for Taylor’s hand, but Tripp stopped him. With a frustrated sigh, Ian held out his own finger and pointed to the markings. “There are four circles going around my finger. Four distinct patterns.”
    Taylor brought hers closer to her face. As Ian pointed to the outer part and traced it inside, around and back, she did the same on hers. “It’s a closed loop, but it breaks and jumps over to another one.”
    He continued on, following the second line. It, too, completed a circle, ending on a line that moved it to a third. The third did the same. At the fourth, it stopped midway around.
    “Mine does the same.” Taylor traced her own. Her entire body, her entire being resisted what stared at her. The breaks matched without a millimeter of error. They stop at the same point. “Why doesn’t it reconnect?”
    Ian’s gaze didn’t shift from Taylor’s. “According to the guy who translated this for me, it’s a cycle of four. Lives, that is. Each of the three previous has ended before something happened that would allow it to reconnect with the other side.”
    “What did?”
    “He couldn’t tell me. Rather, he said it was unique to every individual. Like snowflakes. All of them. But … according to him, and he said he was an expert on this stuff, this is the last chance to rectify whatever happened the other three times.”
    “Why do we both have this?” Taylor asked.
    Ian shrugged.
    “There’s no way this is coincidence,” Taylor said.
    “And, there’s no way this is related to you being in jail, so, why don’t the two of you finish your conversation, I’ll play secretary, and we can all go home,” Ian said.
    A pang hit Taylor. She couldn’t go home right then, and of all times, she wanted to, just so she could do some research. “When can I get out of here?”
    “They’ve got you on the docket in twenty-four hours,” Tripp said.
    “Another day?” She couldn’t keep the incredulity out of her voice. A pull back of her feet and her leg restraints caused a clank against the floor.
    “Seems there