Crucible of Fate

dispatched, my lord.”
    “Unless he’s taken by surprise.”
    Jamal shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I see him as far too capable.”
    But I couldn’t see him at all; that was the problem. I needed to gaze into his eyes with my own, put my hands on him and feel his heart beating under my ear as I laid it on his chest. “I swear if I we both make it out of this, you are never leaving my side again.”
    “My lord?”
    I had spoken the words between clenched teeth. “Just—okay, if whoever is after him doesn’t try and kill him, what else could they do?”
    “What are you talking about?” Koren was irritated, but I hadn’t been asking him.
    One of the best things about Jamal was his willingness to hypothesize with me and think about the worst-case scenario. All the others went on and on about not dwelling on what could happen or on bad things, but Jamal would go with me down the dark and twisty road in a heartbeat. It was a splendid quality.
    “I believe the greatest concern would be if, for whatever reason, the tribe of Feran tried to conceal him,” Jamal enlightened me.
    “Conceal him?”
    “Yes.” He nodded. “If they were to take him into the catacombs of Abtu to hide him or simply abandon him there, then for us, who are not familiar with the caverns, it would be highly unlikely that we could locate him. The cave is vast. You would have to cover so much ground to secure him—I don’t know how we would be successful before he died of starvation or dehydration.”
    “Why would you say that to him?” Koren was indignant. “That’s not helping.”
    “Yes, it is,” Jamal asserted. “My semel prefers to be prepared for every eventuality and to make himself ready, if he can.”
    My mind was working. “So we would need speed in that instance.”
    “Yes,” he agreed.
    Speed.
    “Here,” Crane said as he walked into my room carrying a huge basin of water, followed closely by Jin, who carried a platter of sliced meat. “Shift, Domin, and let’s get this all down you.”
    “Jin,” I said, meeting his gaze. “I need you to come to Ipis with me in case the tribe of Feran hides Yuri in the catacombs of Abtu.”
    “Of course.” He smiled like it was the sanest request in the world.
    “I know that Logan will be here soon, but—”
     “I wouldn’t let you leave the villa without me anyway,” Jin stated. “And I couldn’t leave here without seeing Yuri. I wouldn’t.”
    Logan was going to kill me.

Chapter 7

     
    W E WERE still fighting.
    “I forbid it.”
    “Have you lost your mind?”
    “You’re the semel-aten, for crissakes, Domin!”
    “Technically I just named myself akhen-aten,” I mentioned drolly, trying to inject some levity into the situation.
    “Call yourself what you want, but the world knows you as the semel-aten, and as the semel-aten, it is completely irresponsible and selfish of you to put yourself in danger!”
    “We’re talking about my mate,” I reminded him.
    He spun around and pointed at me as I lay there on the bed. “Do not start this shit again. No matter what you try to say, Yuri Kosa is not your mate!”
    He had no idea about anything.
    “You don’t just give up on us for… that.”
    “You lost me.”
    “Domin,” he said softly, soothing. “How do you go from years of us to taking Logan’s sheseru into your bed?”
    “He wanted to be there, I wanted him there… I’m missing the question.”
    “Domin—”
    “You want me now because I’m the semel-aten.”
    “No.”
    “Oh yes.” I laughed softly and it hurt, so I tried to stop. “Yuri just wants me . We can live in a shack on a beach somewhere, and he would be perfectly content.”
    “That’s because you’re beautiful and—”
    “It’s the chase, the hunt you crave, Koren,” I said honestly, for once. “I understand, but I don’t want to run anymore.”
    “How can you give up on us? On me?”
    “ You gave up on me !” I yelled, finally sick of his bullshit. “You left me! You have never known what you wanted, and I kept—no.” I deflated. “Not again.”
    He stalked back over to the bed and flopped down beside me, placing a warm hand on my cold chest, still clammy from the shift, my body still trying to regulate itself and heal at the same time. I needed to sleep, but I wanted Yuri more. If anything happened to him….
    “Domin!”
    I flicked my gaze back to Koren.
    “I know that you don’t want Yuri to get hurt, but there’s a world of difference between that