Crucible of Fate

number, remember?”
    “Of course I remember, but—”
    “If there’s no harem, then you don’t have to be here and you can actually go and live your life out of this hellhole. Don’t you want that?”
    “I—”
    “Don’t you?” I pushed.
    “I… you…,” she began. “It’s not a hellhole. We live in luxury, and I—”
    “Domin.” Mikhail clipped my name as he walked in. “I need you in the courtyard immediately.”
    “I am speaking to him,” Samani said indignantly, her voice rising as she glared at Mikhail.
    “Am I invisible?” Koren yelled, throwing up his arms. 
    “Is your concern a matter of life and death?” Mikhail rasped.
    “I—”
    “A simple yes or no will suffice.”
    “No, but—”
    “All right, then.” His eyes flicked to me. “I need you in the main courtyard now .”
    “Why?”
    “I was disciplining those that opposed me, and several have challenged me. You need to come be a witness.”
    My stomach clenched. “Mikhail.”
    “Just do it,” he said, heading toward the door and catching sight of Koren. “What are you doing here?”
    “That’s my greeting?” He scowled at my sylvan. “You’re not happy to see me?”
    “Why on earth would I be happy to see you?” he growled, charging toward the door.
    “Since when does he hate me?” Koren was at a loss.
    I snickered. “He’s always hated you.”
    “He has?”
    I gave him a patronizing nod.
    Samani ran after Mikhail and caught his arm before he could get out the door. He stopped and their gazes locked.
    “A sylvan does not fight in the pit. You have those to champion you,” she insisted.
    “I do my own fighting,” he said through clenched teeth.
    The animosity between them from the very first day had been palpable. They were like oil and water—there was no mixing. The hatred amused me, but Yuri said I was wrong, that what I saw as cold and frosty was everything but.
    “You shouldn’t fight. What if—”
    “I’ll be fine,” he muttered, easing his arm loose as he continued toward the door.
    She slipped around in front of him, bringing him up short. “You cannot.”
    “I need to,” he said firmly but gently.
    Her hand lifted toward his face but stopped, froze and then lowered. “I could not bear it.”
    “Don’t watch,” he ground out, stepping around her.
     “You should be careful!” She was almost shrieking.
    He stopped again and leaned his head back like she was simply exhausting to deal with. “You should mind your station.”
    She was still fuming as he left the room.
    “Samani?”
    “That man!”
    Her anger startled me as she charged toward the door, picking up speed like she was going after him. “Why does he always have to prove something?”
    Normally, she was unflappable. I didn’t even know she could get mad. The open hostility was really only ever directed at Mikhail.
    “Samani?” I repeated.
    When she was facing me, I saw that her lips were pressed tightly together, that her beautiful teak-colored eyes were red-rimmed, welling with tears, and that her hands had balled into fists.
    “Why can’t he just give in? Why can’t he just… rest?”
    Dear God, I was so blind. “You want him,” I whispered, thoroughly stunned.
    She caught her breath. “More than anything.”
    You could have knocked me over with a feather. I had completely missed it.
    “Does he want you?”
    “Yes!” She started crying.
    I really needed Yuri there to deal with—
    “But he wants me to see the world and complete my education that I started but was not allowed to finish because of my father’s debt. He hates me being here as your hathen. He wants me but he won’t allow me to settle.”
    I gestured at the open door. “How is being with him settling?”
    “Tell him, not me!” she complained bitterly.
    “That’s why you won’t let all those girls—”
    “I have to go see what he’s doing,” she rasped, rushing from the room without my permission.
    I hurried after her and saw her bolting down the hall. Following fast, it took me a minute to realize Koren was running beside me.
    “Your home is kind of exciting,” he teased me.
    “You don’t know the half of it,” I muttered.
    Because I was moving, suddenly everyone else was too. There were guards clearing the hall for me, and Kabore was sprinting at my side as well.
    “Where are we going, my lord?” he asked pleasantly even while jogging.
    “After Samani and Mikhail.”
    “Excellent,” he said, like it was all perfectly