The new ways again. Through knowledge, andwords. And Maria fervently nodded as they approached their last stop of the day — another lawyer’s establishment, on the very outskirts of town. “This one is mine,” she said. “You’ll do a circuit again, while you wait?”
Gerrard nodded, and casually kept walking as Maria stepped inside. And after a short wait, followed by a smooth explanation on her part, the lawyer handed over a familiar thick packet of letters. And then accepted an even thicker packet in return, this one featuring Rosa’s neat writing across the outermost letter.
“And I’d like to arrange for yet another mailing, in another month’s time,” Maria told the lawyer, as she slid a small bag of clinking coins toward him. “I’ll have the next set of letters delivered to you shortly, as well as further payment.”
The lawyer agreed with gratifying eagerness, and even allowed Maria to burn her original letter-packet in his fire-grate. And when she walked out again, it was with a much-lightened step, and a near-giddy relief swirling in her chest.
It was done.
She’d defeated her husband. She’d delivered his incriminating signed contracts into the best possible hands, where they were sure to be immediately acted upon. And while Duke Warmisham would no doubt seek to go back on his word in multiple ways, Maria had most assuredly accomplished the forthcoming dissolution of their marriage, and had already acquired both her bounty and her inheritance, and squirrelled them safely away for future use.
And perhaps most importantly, she’d destroyed her original letters — and instead, their intended targets would receive a plentiful variety of Rosa’s well-written, thoughtfully argued treatises. A new way, with new words, telling the other side of the tales. Telling the orcs’ truth.
And throughout it all, Maria had made amends. She’d shown herself a true Skai. She’d honoured her mate, and her clan. She’d proven this, not only to Simon, but to herself.
And as she strode around the corner toward where Gerrard was likely to be, there was an odd, hopeful feeling, settling into her belly. Something almost like… peace?
Until a rough, powerful hand gripped at her arm, and dragged her sideways. Yanking her staggering, flailing body off the main street, and into a narrow, shadowed alley. And when Maria kicked and punched at the foreign force dragging her, it felt hot and hard, familiar but not, because wait,wait—
“Silence, woman,” hissed a deep, dreadful voice, as a huge hand circled tight against her neck. “Lest you wish todie.”
37
It wasUlfarr.
Maria gaped at his hovering, hulking grey form, appallingly large and scarred in the bright daylight. His chest bare, his eyes blazing, his hand clutched close against her suddenly frail-feeling neck. While her panic flashed sharp and fierce, the nausea spiking thick and sickening in her gut.
Ulfarr was here? In the middle of Preia?Kidnappingher?!
“What,” she gasped, “thefuck, asshole!”
Ulfarr’s hand on her throat clenched tighter, and he bodily dragged her further down the alleyway. “I saidsilence,” he growled, and when Maria kicked and flailed again, there was the distinctive, terrifying feel of pointed claws, digging into her skin. “You are mine now, woman. And you shallobey.”
Thehell?! Maria briefly froze against his deadly grip, long enough for Ulfarr to lunge them toward what looked to be a smallholein the ground. And in a swift, powerful leap, they were inside it, dropping deep into the earth —
And suddenly, all was blackness. Cold and clammy and far too close, and when Maria wildly kicked and thrashed, her legs only scraped on hard, forbidding rock. While Ulfarr kept dragging her deeper, further from the dwindling light above. No, no, this couldn’t be happening,no—
The panic was clanging, wailing and writhing against Maria’s ribs, but even stronger was the sheer disbelief, the pure pouring rage. After all she’d just done to help the orcs, to help finish that damned war for good, this prick was charging in like this and trying to ruineverything?!
“You can’tdothis, Ulfarr!” she shouted at him, her voice shrill. “You can’t kidnap a woman from the middle of the street in the middle of a city! What if someone had seen?! Don’t you realize you could have just destroyed our wholepeace-treatywith this stupid stunt?!”
Ulfarr abruptly halted before her, his voice barking something in black-tongue — and then Maria felt the shocking, stinging feel of aslap, striking hard across her cheek, snapping her face sideways. “Silence!” he ordered, so close she could feel his spittle on her skin. “You aremine, fool woman, and you willobey!”
The rage shot deeper, sparking in Maria’s hands and feet, thrumming into her bones. “I am not yours, and I willnotobey!” she spat back. “I am Simon’s mate! His!Notyours!”
There was an instant’s quiet, and then — Ulfarrlaughed. A bitter, mocking scrape, soaring harsh and terrifying down Maria’s back.
“No,” he said, slow, deliberate, sure. “You are mine now, woman.”
The certainty rang through his voice with brutal, unnerving strength, enough that Maria jolted to stillness, her eyes wide and unseeing in the dark.You are mine now. As if Ulfarr had arightto say that. As if it were true…
Because — wait. Today had been the day.Thatday. Simon and Ulfarr’s fight to the death.
And Ulfarr was here. Alive. While Simon…wasn’t?
Maria’s heart plunged deep into her belly, so forceful that she felt herself stagger sideways, her breath frozen and jagged in her lungs. No. That couldn’t be what he meant. Itcouldn’t.
“You — didn’t,” she gasped, “fight Simon today. Did you?”
