Page 84 of Steel Rain

“No!” He growled, coming around to place himself between me and Eoghan. He gasped when he finally saw the lash in Eoghan’s hand. It wasn’t a whip – but more like a riding crop, with a small metallic shard at the end of its leather bit.

Ajax pushed an arm out, as if he was trying to cover more space between me and Green.

“I’ll give you what you want.” Ajax turned to Eoghan, his body looked like it was vibrating as the raindrops beat down on his hot flesh, steaming in the sparse moonlight. “I’ll join you.”

Eoghan looked at his cousin at his side, then to Ajax. He looked shocked, his mouth hanging open.

With a loud growl, his knife came down on the rope, releasing my right hand. Then the left. They didn’t stop him.

“You’ll take the pledge?” Eoghan’s voice came low, quiet. Almost as if he was unsure. Though I knew that he was never unsure of anything. His expression matched my own. Shock. Surprise. Disbelief.

“No,” Ajax said. “But I’ll pledge myself to her.”

He reached out and grabbed my left hand, pulling me up towards him.

“Then her allegiances become my own.” He looked at our joined hands, as I huddled behind him, burying my face into his back. “That’s the deal, right? I handfast to her, and her oath becomes mine. Her wants become my needs. My life becomes her life. Right?”

Dairo smirked, putting his hands behind his back.

“That’s right.” Dairo seemed proud. Had they talked about this? Had he explained handfasting to him? “Marriage is often thesolutionto a problem.”

What the fuck was that supposed to mean?

Eoghan stared down at his palm. Even though he was married, he hadn’t handfasted. His palm was missing the diagonal scar that intertwined a man and woman in our clan. He looked back to Ajax with a lifted brow, “You understand that if you handfast to her–”

“That it means more than marriage.” Ajax interrupted him. “That if I am unfaithful, she can have my life taken.” He turned his head to the side, looking at me, “And vice versa.”

Everyone held their breath. No one interrupted Eoghan. Not without some dire circumstances.

Then again, no one ever stopped a flogging before. Not like this.

“What are you doing?” I said under my breath so only he could hear. But he ignored me. “You’re giving up your life!”

Ajax didn’t respond but continued to look at Eoghan.

I felt like I was skiing down a steep mountain, building up momentum and unable to stop. I was freefalling out of control.

“What do you say, Eoghan Green?” Ajax said. “I pledge to her, and we call off all of this.” His hand waved at the ropes and the tree. “Me, fighting beside her. InourArmy.”

Chapter 40

Ajax

Thisplanwashalf-bakedand badly formed. But not so off-the-cuff that I didn’t have my karambit strapped to my belt. The knife that meant more to me than any piece of jewelry. More holy to me than a cross.

Did I think that this was a possibility? Maybe. Had it been planted in my brain by those Irish pricks? Likely. But I was in too deep to try to get out of it now.

“If I let her go,” Eoghan said, his expression cold, and those black eyes hollow. “Then you pledge now. Right here. In front of all these witnesses.”

He meant his black-clad foot soldiers, looking like a poor imitation of a villainous army in a sci-fi B-movie.

“And if you break these vows,” Eoghan said as Dairo edged closer together to him. “Any one of them can go after you with impunity.”

I tightened my hold on Sin’s wrist. I loved feeling her press into me. She was letting me defend her, and somewhere deep in my aching soul, it felt right to stand with her. It was me and her surrounded by these pricks.

“If I break these vows,” I countered, “I’ll slit my own throat.”

“Really?” I heard Sin grimace. “We’re getting this dramatic? I’d rather take the flogging.”

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