Crucible of Fate (7 page)

“I think you’re wrong.”

“Well, God willing, we will never have to find out,” Ebere offered, before her eyes glowed softly.

“So, will you have dinner with me later?”

“Of course.”

“Good.” She smiled as she moved forward into my open arms, coming to give me a kiss before she took her leave, giving Koren a little wave as she did so. The first time the servants had seen her do it, they had been stunned. Apparently she showed me greater affection than she had ever given her mate, the former semel-aten.

As she was going out, Samani was on her way back in, and the women clasped hands quickly as they passed one another.

“What?” I grumbled at my hathen, sitting on the edge of my desk as she moved to step in front of me.

“Nothing, I just wanted to tell you that everyone’s fine—the semel’s son just thinks he’s in love and was trying to sneak Salome out of the villa.”

“Which one is Salome?”

“The one with the dark black curls and green eyes,” she jogged my memory.

I couldn’t recall her, but that wasn’t surprising. I had met the harem once, and that was it. “Does she want to go?”

“Who?”

“The girl, the”—I snapped my fingers“—Salome. Does she want to go?”

“Well, yes, but—”

“Then let her go,” I said quickly. “If the semel’s son wants her, and if she wants to go, and if it’s okay with the semel—let her go. I’m trying to decrease the number, remember?”

“Of course I remember, but—”

“If there’s no harem, then you don’t have to be here and you can actually go and live your life out of this hellhole. Don’t you want that?”

“I—”

“Don’t you?” I pushed.

“I… you…,” she began. “It’s not a hellhole. We live in luxury, and I—”

“Domin.” Mikhail clipped my name as he walked in. “I need you in the courtyard immediately.”

“I am speaking to him,” Samani said indignantly, her voice rising as she glared at Mikhail.

“Am I invisible?” Koren yelled, throwing up his arms. 

“Is your concern a matter of life and death?” Mikhail rasped.

“I—”

“A simple yes or no will suffice.”

“No, but—”

“All right, then.” His eyes flicked to me. “I need you in the main courtyard
now
.”

“Why?”

“I was disciplining those that opposed me, and several have challenged me. You need to come be a witness.”

My stomach clenched. “Mikhail.”

“Just do it,” he said, heading toward the door and catching sight of Koren. “What are you doing here?”

“That’s my greeting?” He scowled at my sylvan. “You’re not happy to see me?”

“Why on earth would I be happy to see you?” he growled, charging toward the door.

“Since when does he hate me?” Koren was at a loss.

I snickered. “He’s always hated you.”

“He has?”

I gave him a patronizing nod.

Samani ran after Mikhail and caught his arm before he could get out the door. He stopped and their gazes locked.

“A sylvan does not fight in the pit. You have those to champion you,” she insisted.

“I do my own fighting,” he said through clenched teeth.

The animosity between them from the very first day had been palpable. They were like oil and water—there was no mixing. The hatred amused me, but Yuri said I was wrong, that what I saw as cold and frosty was everything but.

“You shouldn’t fight. What if—”

“I’ll be fine,” he muttered, easing his arm loose as he continued toward the door.

She slipped around in front of him, bringing him up short. “You cannot.”

“I need to,” he said firmly but gently.

Her hand lifted toward his face but stopped, froze and then lowered. “I could not bear it.”

“Don’t watch,” he ground out, stepping around her.

 “You should be careful!” She was almost shrieking.

He stopped again and leaned his head back like she was simply exhausting to deal with. “You should mind your station.”

She was still fuming as he left the room.

“Samani?”

“That man!”

Her anger startled me as she charged toward the door, picking up speed like she was going after him. “Why does he always have to prove something?”

Normally, she was unflappable. I didn’t even know she
could
get mad. The open hostility was really only ever directed at Mikhail.

“Samani?” I repeated.

When she was facing me, I saw that her lips were pressed tightly together, that her beautiful teak-colored eyes were red-rimmed, welling with tears, and that her hands had balled into fists.

“Why can’t he just give in? Why can’t he just… rest?”

Dear God, I was so blind. “You want him,” I whispered, thoroughly stunned.

She caught her breath. “More than anything.”

You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had completely missed it.

“Does he want you?”

“Yes!” She started crying.

I really needed Yuri there to deal with—

“But he wants me to see the world and complete my education that I started but was not allowed to finish because of my father’s debt. He hates me being here as your hathen. He wants me but he won’t allow me to settle.”

I gestured at the open door. “How is being with him settling?”

“Tell him, not me!” she complained bitterly.

“That’s why you won’t let all those girls—”

“I have to go see what he’s doing,” she rasped, rushing from the room without my permission.

I hurried after her and saw her bolting down the hall. Following fast, it took me a minute to realize Koren was running beside me.

“Your home is kind of exciting,” he teased me.

“You don’t know the half of it,” I muttered.

Because I was moving, suddenly everyone else was too. There were guards clearing the hall for me, and Kabore was sprinting at my side as well.

“Where are we going, my lord?” he asked pleasantly even while jogging.

“After Samani and Mikhail.”

“Excellent,” he said, like it was all perfectly normal.

Lush papyrus and shower trees trimmed both sides of the main courtyard, shading it in the afternoon. When I reached it, I saw Mikhail on one end and another man maybe fifty feet away. Taj was behind my sylvan, who was stripping off his clothes.

“Wait!” I yelled from the top step that led down to the cobblestone quad.

Samani was on the first landing, bent over the railing, crying. “Please!”

“I said no!” Mikhail barked.

I stopped beside her and put a hand on her back. “What?”

She was trembling. “I’m forbidden from going down there, and he can order me to stay here because a hathen is below a sylvan and so he—”

“I give you permission.”

She moved fast, wheeling around and then flying down the steps. I leaned over the side to watch her descend. 

“Do you love him?” I called after her. 

“Oh, you have no idea,” she shouted back as she reached the bottom and then ran over to him.

My sylvan pivoted around, and Samani froze, shivering, every part of her, I could tell, screaming for her to move, to go to his side.

“Mikhail, you dick!” I yelled. “Why didn’t you fucking tell me?”

All eyes on me, every single one.

“It was not my semel’s affair, and is still not,” he assured me as he yanked off his shirt, flung it at Taj, and then started on his belt.

“Who is the challenger?” I inquired as I came down the stairs, followed closely by Kabore. My guards kept Koren from trailing along.

“Traore Uago, Ammon’s old sylvan.”

I couldn’t see Mikhail for a few seconds while I descended the winding stairs before arriving on the sandy ground, but I heard him and started toward where he and my sheseru stood.

“Taj.”

He gave me his attention.

“Bring the old sylvan and his second down here.”

As he left, I saw Mikhail’s eyes flick to Samani.

She lifted her chin even as it quivered.

“Claim her now and I will strip her of her station as hathen and she will be only your intended mate, with no other duty. I will perform the ritual of handfasting when Yuri gets home, as the ritual, performed by a semel, must be witnessed by his mate. So says the law.”

“No,” Samani rasped, her wet eyes beseeching. “I have a say too.”

“Done,” Mikhail said, reaching out a hand to her. “Come and be mine.”

She was torn. If she accepted her demotion, she would be Mikhail’s intended mate, and no one but he would have dominion over her. But… she would have to do whatever he told her, follow whatever course he laid out. Most women did not accept the role of betrothed anymore, as it gave their intended the right to do with them as they pleased. Normally only those marrying semels accepted the ritual of handfasting—they already were bound to the semel whether by being a member of his tribe or by being his intended.

“Samani,” Mikhail said, and I saw his eyes soften in a way I didn’t think they could. I had no idea his gaze could ever melt at the sight of another.

She flung herself into his arms, and he clutched her tight to his heart. They were beautiful together: her dark skin compared to his fair coloring created a gorgeous contrast. The way he held her, as though she were a precious, fragile thing, pleased me. I loved seeing Mikhail’s heart beating out there in the open, enjoyed his vulnerability as he buried his face in the hair of the woman he loved. I wished Yuri were there to see it.

“You belong to me now,” Mikhail assured her. “And you’ll have the life back that Ammon El Masry took from you when your father sold you to him.”

I knew that part of the story because she had shared it with me. Her father had covered his gambling debts with the semel-aten by selling his daughter. She had been studying abroad when suddenly her werepanther life intruded on her human one, and she went to live in the home of the semel-aten, expected to be a harem girl and service not only Ammon El Masry but any of his guests as well.

“You don’t understand,” she wept. “I just want you, you ignorant man.”

He laughed softly as she coiled her arms around his neck and hung on for dear life.

I threw up my hands. “I miss everything.”

I noticed Koren chuckling as Taj brought Traore Uago and his second to me. Each seemed ready for his challenge.

“My sylvan isn’t going to fight today,” I announced. “I am.”

Several in attendance gasped, Mikhail’s head jerked up, and everyone started yelling at once.

“Silence!” Taj roared, and the courtyard, now filled with easily a hundred people, went quiet and still. “My semel jests.
I
will fight today.”

Even though I would have really loved taking Ammon El Masry’s former sylvan apart, it was not my place. I bowed to Taj, who came forward and started undressing.

Traore Uago scuttled toward me. “My lord,” the demoted sylvan began, hand over his heart. “I would have to be a fool to accept such a challenge as—”

“Yes.” I fixed him in place with my stare. “So, really, Traore Uago, do you wish to press this rebellion of yours, or will you swear allegiance to my sylvan and we’ll hear no more of disrespect masquerading as tardiness?”

He stared, and I held his gaze until it moved from my eyes to the ground at his feet.

“Forgive me, my semel.”

“My lord,” I corrected.

“My lord. Please forgive me.”

“Granted,” I said, bored, tipping my head at my sylvan. “Now ask for his.”

Mikhail pivoted to face the man, but I noticed he did not release Samani’s hand.

“Since when does Mikhail have a girlfriend?” Koren was dumbfounded, and when I glanced over my shoulder at him, I saw that Jamal was there as well. The phocal knew who Logan was and had probably made certain my men knew that the brother of the semel-netjer was no threat, thus allowing him down into the courtyard.

“What if he were trying to kill me?” I asked Jamal, indicating Koren.

“He would have been dead before he reached for a weapon, my lord.”

“So you say,” I muttered.

Jamal’s sigh came fast because he understood I was messing with him. It had taken a while for him to understand the teasing and sarcasm, but he did now.

“Domin—”

“No.” I faced Koren. “Don’t presume to speak to me as though we are friends.”

“Domin, I—”

“No,” I cut him off again and turned to Kabore. “See to Mr. Church’s comfort; have him quartered in the guest wing. I’m having dinner with my mastaba alone.”

“Yes, my lord.”

“Domin—”

“The semel-aten is addressed as ‘lord’,” Kabore educated my former lover.

I didn’t wait to hear what Koren said.

Chapter 3

E
BERE
was watching me pace.

“And my own mate kept from me that my sylvan and my hathen were in love!”

When I realized she wasn’t saying anything, I whirled around to face her.

She was knitting.

“What are you doing?”

“Oh, are you speaking to me?” She feigned surprise.

“Do you see anybody else here?”

Her grunt conveyed how annoying I was.

“Well, it’s no wonder your former mate preferred the company of other women if you were this interesting when you were married.”