Page 41 of Kenan's Mate
He moves in front of me and grasps my chin. “How do you know his name, Laylah?”
Liquid fear churns through my insides. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Kenan so angry. His eyes darken further with icy rage. My hands shake at my sides, and it’s all I can do not to collapse on the ground, my legs are trembling so.
“I-I don’t know,” I say. If I admit to having daily conversations with Heggal, the servant will be sent away. “I must have heard you call him by his name.”
The fingers pinching my chin squeeze tighter. His eyes narrow and his nostrils flare. The vein on the side of his thick neck bulges. He looks scarier than in the visions Heggal showed me, when he threatened to kill the doctor.
He’s caught me lying, and he’s none too pleased. I know I should’ve told the truth, but if there was any chance of not getting Heggal in trouble, I had to take it.
“How long have you been speaking with Heggal? Has he touched you every day?”
Tears cloud my vision and my heart beats a frantic rhythm inside my tightening chest.
He grabs my shoulders and shakes me hard. My teeth rattle together and I’m momentarily dizzy.
“He’s my friend!” I scream, clutching onto Kenan’s forearm. “He’s my friend, and you mustn’t send him away.”
He drags me onto the patio and shoves me into a chair. “Stay there and don’t fucking move. If you move from this chair, your beating will be so much worse than I’m already planning. I mean it. Don’t fucking move.”
Raw fury emanates from Kenan’s tensed muscular form. His eyes are livid, all black with rage and no hint of the bottomless purple depths I’ve come to love staring into.
Emotion has my throat clogged so strongly, I can only nod. I’m quaking so hard I doubt I would be able to move anyway.
Heggal doesn’t attempt to run away from Kenan, but in my mind I’m screaming for my friend to run into the forest and get far away. But he only bows his head slightly upon his master’s approach, looking adequately chastised. Kenan grabs him around his throat and drags him into the house.
I clutch the arms of the chair and sob.
What if Kenan doesn’t simply send Heggal away? What if Kenan hurts him, or, God forbid, kills him?
I don’t hear screams coming from the house, but then Heggal can’t utter the smallest noise, not even a gasp. I asked him once, and we had a good laugh over it. As I sit here and cry, guilt ridden for causing probable pain, or worse, to one of my only friends on Tallia, I can’t remember why it was funny. But I remember giggling and sensing the tickle on my brain as Heggal joined in my laughter.
All the vibrant colors of the forest fade to black and gray.
Covering my face as my sobs deepen, I don’t think I’ll ever laugh again, let alone smile. I’m going to lose Heggal, and Kenan is going to beat me. The image of the woman covered in bruises and with thin red welts from the town flashes in my conscious, as well as the picture of Katrina lying unconscious on the bed, her eyes swollen shut and the sheets stained red. Will he flog me bloody? Use his fists?
I jump when a hand closes over my shoulder. It’s Kenan, and he’s panting. Whatever he did to Heggal caused him to expend a great deal of energy. I send up a prayer for my gentle friend who didn’t deserve the violence visited upon him.
“Where’s Heggal? What have you done with him?”
He yanks me up by my hair and his lips brush across my ear. “Heggal’s condition is the least of your worries, little human. You not only disobeyed an order, but you lied to me.”
“There’s nothing wrong with speaking to a servant!” I scream. “He’s been kind to me. He’s showed me things. He showed me what happened after the attack on theStargazer, when you carried me to a medical tent. He showed me how anxious you were over whether or not I’d live!”
The hand in my hair clenches, making my scalp burn. “Heggal wasn’t there. Anything he showed you could have been made up. His kind are great deceivers. It’s why they were conquered long ago and sold into slavery.”
“You threatened to kill the doctor if he didn’t save me! I saw it in my mind. Did that not really happen?”
He jerks my face toward his. His skin is dark-red and splotchy. I’ve never seen it this shade before.
“Yes,” he says, in a strangely quiet tone. “It did really happen. However, he wasn’t there to witness it with his own eyes. To possess that memory, he slid his mind into someone else’s. Someone else who was there that day. Probably one of my soldiers. He must have briefly touched the soldier who flew the hovercraft up the mountain after the attack. The man came inside for a while. But it’s no matter. I will send Heggal far away after he wakes up.”
His words make my blood run cold. “After he wakes up? My God, Kenan, what did you do?”
He doesn’t answer, but he finally releases me. I rub the back of my head, my scalp still screaming in pain. “Walk upstairs to our bedroom and strip off your dress. Kneel on the floor and await my arrival.”
“Kenan,please. I only lied to you now because Heggal is my friend, and he said if you found out we communicated you would send him to serve your relatives on a faraway mountain. Don’t send him away, please.”
“I should have beaten you harder that first time you disobeyed me, Laylah.” A cold darkness enters his livid gaze. “If I had beaten you harder, we wouldn’t be standing here having this conversation, and you wouldn’t have dared to lie to me.”
