Change of Heart

him.
    There were others around us, Mikhail, Logan's father, Koren, and Russ. I saw Crane crossing the room to me.
    "I won't allow it."
    "You have no say," I told him.
    "My word is law!" he yelled, trying to grab me.
    I moved out of his reach.
    "Except in regards to your reah," his father corrected him, his voice soft, almost sad. "Jin's voice is equal to yours."
    "What are you talking about? Only my word has—"
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    "The commands of the reah equal that of the semel in all matters but tribal law," Mikhail told him. "You know this."
    "This is law!" he roared.
    "It's not," his father assured him. "It's an individual challenge."
    "We haven't had our mating ceremony," Logan yelled.
    "He's not my reah yet."
    "He bears your mark," Koren reminded him. "In the eyes of the tribe, by the laws and customs of all tribes, he is your reah."
    "I need to get out of here," I breathed, heading for the doorway.
    "Jin!" I heard Logan roar after me. "Don't you dare walk away from me!"
    "I'm not allowed to see you anymore," I said, taking hold of Mikhail's arm as I passed him. "You need to keep him away from me."
    "What?" His face drained of color. "Are you crazy?"
    "No," Logan's father yelled from behind me. "Hold your semel at bay, Mikhail. It's the law."
    He looked like a cornered animal.
    I tried to soothe him with my voice. "I have to be sequestered before my trial," I said softly as I moved by him.
    "It is your duty to keep me safe, to keep my path to the pit clear. I'm going back to my room. Keep your semel safely away from me."
    He was ashen, shaking. "Keep my semel from you, from his mate?
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    "It's the law," I said solemnly, looking at Logan over my shoulder as he was almost to me.
    "I don't under—"
    "Your semel accepted a challenge from a man that knows more about our laws than he does, and now he has been spared because I, in turn, know more than Domin. I will deliver your semel, and you need only to do your duty and keep him away from me. The next time he sees me will be in the pit."
    His face looked like I struck him.
    "I'm sorry," I whispered as I moved by him. "You have no choice."
    "Jin." Mikhail's voice cracked. "You cannot do this."
    "He did it by acting rashly." Everything was blurring suddenly, and I had to get out of the room before I broke down in front of everyone. I would not shame Logan with such a display of weakness. "Keep him away from me."
    "Jin!" Logan bellowed my name.
    Before he could reach me, Mikhail and four other men had him. He screamed for me, but I left the room without a backward glance. It wouldn't do either of us any good.

    * * * *
    I was on the covered balcony outside Logan's bedroom, sitting quietly with Crane on the chaise beside me. I was watching the snowfall when Peter Church found me. It was silent before he got there except for the howl of the wind.

    "Logan wants to see you."
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    "I can't. It's the law," I told him, not tearing my eyes away from the blinding whiteness, the mountains, trees, and ground all being relentlessly covered.
    He sighed deeply. "I never had him learn all the laws. He had no idea about the Law of Bast."
    "Or the Sons of Horus," I reminded him.
    "No."
    I nodded.
    "It's my failing, Jin, not his."
    "The failure was in his rashness," I told his father. "Had he consulted his mate, I would have explained the danger to him, and he would have turned down committing suicide. As it was, he didn't think about me at all."
    "He thought about his tribe."
    "And in so doing, would have gotten himself killed."
    "He's the semel, Jin. He's never going to think of you first."
    "A true semel thinks of his tribe through his reah, consults his reah as he would his sheseru or sylvan, and speaks his heart to his mate at all times."
    "How would you know?"
    "I feel it."
    There was no argument for that because he didn't know.
    The man had never found his reah. "He should have come to me first before agreeing to anything."
    "This union of yours is a day old, Jin. He needs time to change his thinking."
    "Unfortunately, he's not going to get it."
    Peter went silent for several minutes before he spoke again. "Tell me, is your father a sylvan?"
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    "Yes."
    "So he taught you all the laws."
    "Yes."
    "I should call your father, Jin, just in case..."
    He didn't want to say in case I died, but we both knew I certainly would. "Do as you like," I told him.
    "Tell