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When Crion begins shoving at the women, Elsy, the old healer, steps forward. Then Lorna joins them, creating an ever increasing barrier between me and the whip. Crion is left unsure as more serving girls line up.
A screechy voice fills the courtyard. “How dare you?” It’s Zola. “How dare you protect the whore who killed one of my sons and caused the death of another?”
“Your sons,” Yvette spits, “were scum. The world is a better place without them.”
That comment causes an uproar and my heart swells as more and more women join the fray, including the young girl, Farrana, and Niri, who must have followed us downstairs from her room.
“Enough!” bellows Teo. “The women will stand aside or be punished. Severely.”
Shouts of condemnation and approval break out from every direction. Trudy starts to wail, but Daysa yells for her to stay back with her brothers. As the furor increases, I start to feel faint. The lash on my shoulder aches with the fire of a hundred suns and my hands pulse painfully from the lack of circulation.
Then I hear the most beautiful sound I can imagine, the deep roar of Luka’s voice. “What, in the name of the Almighty Mother, is going on?”
I strain to turn far enough to see him as the crowd parts. There he is, the very embodiment of menace, prowling forward, his cloak swirling around him. He shrewdly takes in the whole scene and a jolt of mortification hits me at the predicament I’ve let myself fall into. But Luka’s stride never falters, not even when Trudy runs out, sobbing for her Papa.
As he passes Teo, a dagger materializes in Luka’s hand, and in the space between heartbeats, his uncle goes from standing there, holding the whip, to gurgling on the ground with a blade protruding from the side of his neck. Shock reverberates across the courtyard.
Crion stumbles back, away from the women, away from the eerily calm deve, who stops at his mother’s side. “You are well?” I hear him ask.
“I am now, my son. Please take care of your bride.”
Luka lifts his gaze to me, but somehow I can’t bring myself to do the same. Shame, hot and potent, heats my skin as he approaches. From somewhere, he produces another knife and cuts the rope on my right and my strained muscles force a pained puff of air from my throat.
“You will not falter, little raven,” he says in a low, uncompromising voice only for me. It’s an order, not a question.
“Yes,” I whisper, locking my legs to keep myself upright. My shredded dress is plunging perilously low in the front and I clutch at it with my free hand, a foot of rope still attached.
He cuts the other rope, but when he tries to rip it away from my skin I can’t hold back a whimper. I watch, feeling detached as he pushes my sleeve back and takes in the swollen, almost purple skin of my hand. It’s a bit gruesome and the tether holding back his rage snaps. “Lock this stronghold down!” His voice gains volume with each word until the last one feels like it shakes the very ground. “No one leaves until I know exactly what’s happened here.”
Chapter 22
Luka
Ifeel like shit for making her walk on her own. But to show weakness, even after what she’s been through, would be a mistake.
She trails behind me through the Great Hall. At least I hope she does since I can’t bear to face her. Never in my wildest imaginings did I believe my own uncle would go to such lengths to subvert my will. Sounding a false alarm? Sending my warriors on a goose chase? Gathering our people to witness the humiliation of my bride? Unfathomable. All of it. And as a testament to his stupidity, he didn’t even tense as I’d advanced on him. If the feel of the blade sinking into his neck wasn’t so fresh, I’d be hard-pressed to believe any of it had actually come to pass.
What a disaster. The image will be branded forever into my memory. Teo, standing there, a bullwhip trailing from his hand, and my beloved restrained and stripped to the waist, a bright red lash across her shoulder.
I send a bench flying with a kick. “Damn him!”
Rina squeaks with fear, forcing me to make a good attempt at reining in my temper. “Come, I need you settled upstairs before I deal with this . . .” I feel my lip curl as my arm waves toward the door. “Debacle.”
When I get no response, I finally set eyes on her. She’s huddled in on herself, gripping the front of her dress to her chest. Rage surges once again in my blood.How dare Teo do this?And what is wrong with her? Why is she so passive? Where the fuck is my little spitfire?
I march toward her and sweep her up in my arms. “I don’t have all day, princess.”
She gives me nothing but a sharp inhale of surprise, and I’m already up the stairs and at our door before I remember that she’s not a hardened warrior. That she probably needs soft words and gentle touches right now.
Setting her down on the bed, I ignore how battered and wary she looks. I have difficult things to attend to, so soft and gentle will have to wait. “Elsy will be up to tend to you.”
I turn on my heel and head for the door.
“You’re leaving?” she despairs in a whisper.
Without turning, I tell her the truth. “I’ll be back later.”
“Wait! Please check on Ion and Bron and Kata. I don’t know what’s happened to them.”
