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She squared her shoulders. “Does it look as though I’m teasing?”
The anger ripped through him again. He whirled around and clasped the wooden mantle with his hands, wanting very much to tear it from the stone fireplace.
“Please don’t hurt my house,” she pleaded. “I understand you’re mad, but—”
“I am not mad,” he said between clenched teeth. “I am furious. And I want to strangle you, Jade. Tanner too, for swearing you in.”
“It was my choice. Leave him out of it. I had to convince him to do it.”
“Why would you even want this?” he demanded. “After the wraith attacks? Goddamn it. You know how susceptible you are to pain, and yet you’ve gone and put yourself in the most hazardous position imaginable! Why?”
He couldn’t bring himself to turn back to her. She was smart enough not to try to placate him with a hand on the back or some other gesture. In fact, she was smart enough to keep her distance while his anger boiled in his veins.
“Slayers are born, not just cultivated,” she said. “I’ve always known I had the capability to fight—I was a natural from the first time I picked up a sword. But I needed more specific training, so I started working with Tanner months ago, after the fire wraith broke my hand and wrist. I didn’t like feeling so vulnerable, so I asked Tanner to help me. But that led to more advanced training, and then Walker got mauled and…”
She faltered, then took a breath before plunging ahead. “I knew I had to do something. The only expertise I didn’t possess that’s required by a slayer is the knowledge of how to kill a demon…and the ability to do it.”
Finally, he jerked around and glared at her. “The chicken?”
She nodded. “I ripped its throat out with my bare hand.”
The fury within him continued to mount. “Tanner’s idea of protecting you is to teach you how to square off with a shifter?”
“It’s something I need to learn, Darien. I am a slayer now.”
Holy hell. She intended to stand her ground with this suicidal idea. But he had a say in the matter. “You’re not a slayer until I sign the documents for the registry.”
She gasped. “You wouldn’t reject them.”
“Oh I most certainly would. I will.” He marched past her and collected his coat.
Scurrying after him, she said, “I don’t need your permission to do this!”
“But you need my signature to make it official. And Jade,” he said with a clear warning in his voice, “if you kill a demon without officially being a slayer, that violates my law.”
“And what? You’ll try me before a demon jury?”
“That’s the procedure for anyone who crosses that line.”
Glaring at him with an incredulous look on her face, she asked, “What if I’d killed the fire wraith?”
“That was different. You weren’t hunting it, it hunted you. But if you and Tanner seek out the shifter that attacked Walker, that makes you the stalker. I won’t be able to protect you from the ramifications.”
Of course, that wasn’t true. He was the king and could pardon her—particularly since the shifter had made the first move, with Walker. Yet he had to get his point across. The last thing he wanted or needed was to upset the current balance between the humans and the demons, even if it would always be a tenuous one. Nor did he want to lose confidence from his alliance because he’d shown mercy on someone who’d broken his rules.
Unfortunately, when it came to Jade, he’d found himself in an even more precarious situation than before. He wouldn’t back down though. Beyond the politics, her safety was at stake.
Shoving his arms into the sleeves of his coat, he said, “I won’t authorize the documents for the registry. And if you continue training with Tanner, I just might rescind his registration as well and strip him of his authority as a slayer.”
Her jaw fell slack. It took several seconds for her to recover. He waited patiently, prepared to respond to any retort.
When she’d composed herself, she said, “You can’t do that.”
Narrowing his gaze on her as he took several steps toward her, he asked, “What are those four little words you’re now forgetting?”
Her eyes darkened with her own anger. Visibly seeth
ing, she lifted her chin and said, “You are the king.”
