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"What?" Nari asked even as I shoved between them.
"Please," I tried, holding my palm up to keep the woman back. "It was an accident and no one was hurt. We're sorry to have interrupted, Priestess."
The woman just yanked at the throat of her dress, pulling it down far enough to expose the collar of lace at her throat. "Do you see this? The Path of the Word. I have spent my entire life earning this, and now, because of you, I've just been reassigned!" Her voice was getting louder, echoing off the marble walls around us. "Teaching!" she roared. "All the research I've spent the last five years on doesn't matter. Because you couldn't make up your mind, I'm going to be teaching a primary class!"
"I had nothing to do with that," Nari tried to tell her.
"No, you just couldn't make up your fucking mind," the woman spit back. "Twice, they gave you the chance, and when your lace still wouldn't choose, you refused to do it for the rest of us. This is what they said would happen. You think that you've found a way around the system that has kept this temple running for six hundred years, but all you've done is screw over the rest of us."
"What are you talking about?" I asked, reaching back to make sure Nari was still safely behind me.
"They've been trying to understand why your lace is wrong," she said. "The Adepts of the Word have found that seventy-nine percent of women are unable to handle pressing decisions. Productivity increases by forty-three percent when they're put into less taxing roles. Because of this, I am now instructing primary students so that I'm not overly taxed with difficult projects."
"Kinen did that!" Nari yelled back. "That is not me. That is your High Priest. He's the one you should blame."
"He never would've had to if you would've just picked a fucking Path!" she roared, surging forward.
In that instance, I no longer cared that she was a fellow priestess. It didn't matter that she was having a very bad day and was grieving her dream as it crumbled around her. The moment she moved towards Nari, my mind stilled and my blood ran cold.
The dagger was in my hand before I even knew I'd reached for it. The other caught her arm, spinning her around until her back was to me. I pressed the edge of the blade to the side of her neck and held hard while she struggled against the restraint.
"She is my desire," I warned, my words coming out as cold as ice. "I will kill you if you lay a single finger on her. Do you understand me, Priestess?"
"Fuck you," she grumbled.
So I pressed the blade harder, aware of the crowd starting to form around us. "Do. You. Understand?" I asked again.
"So she gets to ruin my life and I can't even slap her?"
"You should be lucky I allow you to look at her," I breathed, trying to decide if I should just kill her now. "The Priestess of Temptation is my responsibility, given to me by Zeal himself. I don't care if you do or don't believe in our god. I do. She's proof of it. The High Priest is trying to deny it, and he's distracting you. Fight him, not the woman trying to help."
"Trying to ruin the temple!" the priestess screeched.
I looked over her shoulder at Nari, who was breathing just a little too hard. Her eyes were locked on my hand, and she knew I was serious. I would kill anyone who tried to hurt her. That was how I kept from failing her. I stopped being nice and polite, and started being the kind of monster willing to destroy for the woman I loved. This foolish bitch just didn't know how close to the breaking point I was - but Nari did.
Then a calm voice called my name. "Talin?" Of all the people, it was Lurel, my old friend from our primary years. "I'll restrain her. You get your desire home, ok?" I looked over to find Lurel with her palms up and facing me as she carefully walked closer.
"I'm done letting people attack her," I warned. "This priestess tried."
"I did not!" she insisted.
Lurel just chuckled. "Oh, trust me. If Talin has a blade on you, then you were not being very nice." Then Lurel grabbed the woman's arm. "I got her. I give you my word that I will not let her follow you."
But I didn't want to let go. I didn't want to give anyone a second chance to hurt Nari. My eyes jumped back to my desire only to see her nod, and that changed everything. The ice of my fury began to fade and I lifted the blade. It took me a second longer before I could convince myself to step back.
Just as I let her go, I told Lurel, "My bond got stronger."
She nodded at me. "I can see that. Now take her home, Talin. Try not to kill anyone on the way there."
Turning to Nari, I sheathed my dagger on my belt, then hooked my arm around my woman. I knew this simmering anger wasn't mine. It was hers, and I was simply channeling it. There was a feeling of helplessness mixed into it all, which was what made me willing to go as far as I had to, because Nari should nevereverfeel like that again.
"That's not your fault," I told her as we turned towards the Body side of the temple.
Nari stopped, doing her best to face me. "Did you hear her?"
But my arm around her waist kept her moving. "I did."
"No, but did youhearher?" she demanded. "Talin, Kinen ruined her life and she blames me! I'm on their side. My Path is to fight for them, but how the fuck am I supposed to fight against that?"
