Page 49 of All's Fair in Lion and War
“His blood is mine. His death is mine. He took my Tallix. He took everything. He made me nothing. He took my memories. You don’t understand.” Her fists pounded Saul’s chest, but he didn’t budge in the slightest. It was as if she wasn’t even touching him.
“You. Are. My. Everything.” He punctuated those four words like that was all that needed to be said. Like that was all that mattered. It didn’t.
Her pain was like a living breathing creature inside her and it wanted to get out and scream. It wanted to be loosed. It wanted to punish something. Anything at this point. “I hate this. I hate him. I hate myself. I want to kill him.”
She hit him again.
She swung a fist at his face, but he caught it and held her hand still.
But she didn’t remain still. She wrenched her hand free and tried to hit him again. He was blocking her from her goal. He was keeping her from her revenge on Rivian.
“I hate you. I hate that you glow for me. I hate that Fate decided to match us. I will never love you. Never.” She couldn’t look at him. She was saying everything she could to get him to let her go.
To give her up.
17
Saul
He didn’t blame her for saying what she did.
He didn’t hold it against her.
He also didn’t believe her.
But he did believe that she would hurt herself to escape the pain of her returning memories. She might never love him, but he wouldn’t let her give up on herself.
There was more to life than grieving for what had been lost. He’d been through that personally and found contentment and peace on the other side.
She hit his chest with her other fist. It was like a child trying to swat a fly. She was so weak. So thin. They’d starved her. Kept her bound until her muscles atrophied. But she couldn’t see it. She only saw the woman she remembered from Reylea. The woman she’d been before Rivian had taken her.
That was the woman he wanted her to live long enough to become again.
“Hit me.”
“I am.” Her voice was angry and desperate.
“Hit me harder. If you can get past me then I’ll let you go after Rivian.” He wouldn’t, but maybe he could get her to stay if it was a bargain. “If you can’t. Then you stay with the others as previously arranged.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.” Her eyes flashed gold, but only for a second.
“You won’t, Lorelei.”
“I’m a lioness. I’m a queen. Men bow to me.” Her fangs dropped to peek from below her top lip. She hissed out a challenge, but he stood his ground. She was his mate and her lion would have big issues with fighting him. Lorelei wasn’t thinking clearly enough to realize this.
“This is not Reylea. You are not queen here. They do not fear you. You don’t control a pride of loyal warriors. You are a woman alone in a country where nothing is familiar. We are alike you and I. We have both suffered tremendous loss. I believe Fate saw our shared pain and felt compassion for us both.”
Her fingers shifted into long dark claws. “I will hurt you.”
He shook his head and easily side-stepped her attack. Her weakened and starved body was slow and uncoordinated, like a male who’d drunk too much and felt the need to—as Naomi put it—beat his chest like an ape. He’d seen YouTube videos. It was a fair comparison.
Lorelei lunged again, but over-estimated.
Saul caught her before she face-planted and pulled her against his chest. Her warmth and softness felt good. She fit him and he wished for a moment that she would one day look at him as more than a curse. More than a painful reminder of what she’d lost.
She pounded on his chest. Then slapped his face.
The contact stung, but it wasn’t the pain that shocked him. More the surprise that she was still attacking him. She was so desperate.
