Page 15 of Beast of Blood and Ash
My wings stayed folded tight in a conscious, burning effort. Here, I was a weapon on a leash, an Ignarath dog granted a kennel in the enemy’s camp. Every stare I met was a fresh accusation.
I cut a path through the crowd, looking for the only other warrior in this city I trusted not to stab me in the back.
Zarvash was sitting beside his mate, Vega, at a small cluster of tables near the back of the market, tucked into an alcove where merchants sold dried meats and potent, sour-smelling ales. If there was anyone in the city I could count as an ally, it was these two. Zarvash and I had fought side by side in the pit in Ignarath, while Vega posed as his slave and tried to learn as much as she could about the humans held captive in my former home.
He was all dark calm and patient eyes, scales burnished bronze, light flickering off the planes of his face. Vega perched at his side, smaller, paler, her gaze sharp as a blade, red hair twisted up and catching stray beams in a tangled halo. Human in stature, but with a force that made trainees step aside.
I’d suspected she was up to something then. I’d sensed the attraction between the two of them even while they played their parts. But the strength of their bond now was staggering, a current of affection and trust humming in all their glances and gestures. I didn’t see how I could have that. Not when Reika wouldn’t look at me for more than a heartbeat without fear jumping in her throat.
He sat with one arm draped possessively over the back of her chair, his scarred form a fortress around her. She leaned into his space, a small, fierce human who looked as if she belonged there.
I didn’t see how I could have that.
Not when my very presence was a source of terror for the one I was bound to.
Zarvash greeted me with a nod, his amber eyes sharp and assessing. Vega raised one of her expressive human brows, her gaze sweeping over me, missing nothing.
“You’re scaring the children.” Her voice was lightly mocking. She gestured with her chin toward a pair of younglings who had frozen mid-chase, their eyes wide saucers fixed on my scarred, red scales.
“The children could use a fright.” I didn’t bother to sit. The rage from the night before was still a live coal in my gut, and I felt too large, too volatile for the small space. I might have looked like an ancient monster, risen from some forgotten lava flow. Good. Let them see it. My tail flicked in restless agitation.
“Your Forge Temple acolytes,” I spat the word like a curse, “cornered Reika last night by the river. I don’t think they would have stopped with taunts if I hadn’t shown up.”
The change in them was instantaneous. Vega jerked, her casual posture snapping into coiled tension. Her hand dropped to the hilt of the wicked-looking blade she always wore. Zarvash’s eyes narrowed, the lazy possessiveness hardening into a commander’s focus.
“Who?” Vega’s voice was a low growl.
Zarvash held up a hand, a quiet command for restraint aimed at his mate, not at me. “The river is sacred territory. The Temple?—”
“Zarvash!” Vega shot him a glare, the kind that would have cowed a lesser male. He just held her gaze, his calm unflinching,but I felt the ripple of tension between them. Even the best pairs fought with knives drawn when their priorities clashed.
“It is true,veshari,” Zarvash said, his voice a low rumble meant to soothe her, but his gaze remained locked on me. “The Forge Temple is protective of its domains. She should not have been there without permission.”
A guttural snarl tore from my throat before I could stop it. The nearest merchant flinched, pulling his wares closer. “You think it is right to terrorize my …” I stumbled over the declaration.
My mate.
The words clawed at the inside of my mouth, desperate for release, but I choked them back. No one knew what Reika was to me, and I would not reveal it, not there. To name her as mine would paint a target on her back, to claim her in a way she couldn’t want.
It would make me no better than the brutes who had enslaved her. I forced the words out, each one scraping my throat raw.
“To terrorize the humans you give sanctuary?”
“Of course not,” Zarvash said, his tone clipped. “But the Temple’s reach here is long. Karyseth’s followers believe the Blade Council’s agreement with the humans is an abomination. They see it as a stain on Scalvaris. They will use any perceived transgression as an excuse.”
“You should have seen what they did to Orla,” Vega muttered.
For some reason, Zarvash gave her a remorseful look.
“They called her impure,” I said, the words tight with violence. “They spoke of cleansing her in sacred fire.” My claws dug into my palms, the sharp pain a welcome anchor. I imagined those claws sinking into the soft green scales of the acolytes, tearing, rending.
“They sure like that threat.” And there was another look at her mate. “But we’ll make them pay if they try,” Vega promised, her eyes blazing with a fury that mirrored my own. She looked at Zarvash. “Won’t we?”
“They will be dealt with,” Zarvash agreed, his voice dropping to a dangerous calm. “But not with a public challenge. Not with overt violence that will only fracture the Council further and give Karyseth the ammunition she craves.” He leaned forward. “You need to tread carefully. Karyseth holds much sway, and on the matter of humans, she has more in common with your people in Ignarath than she does with us.”
“Don’t call them my people.” I flung the words like knives. My throat locked. Ignarath was blood and scar tissue, home only to ghosts and memories I wanted to burn from my flesh.
Zarvash held my gaze, a flicker of understanding in his eyes. I had heard how he had once hated humans, a fervent follower of the Temple’s harshest doctrines. His bond with Vega had carved that hate out of him. He, more than anyone, knew the war I was fighting.
