Crucible of Fate

were semel-aten, Hakkan Tarek would already be dead and the question of why would have died with him.”
    “And how is that fair to a man who by all accounts was a good semel up until a year ago?”
    “I don’t—”
    “So thirty plus years of being a good leader is washed away by a year of horror?”
    “Yes,” Yuri chimed in. “I know you’re about life and forgiveness, my reah, but what was done, what might have been done, has to carry the most weight.”
    “Plus,” Taj said, yawning before he shared his perspective, “if you allow him to live, then he has to have that horrible realization of what he did to his family. It’s actually the greater mercy to simply put him out of his misery.”
    “It’s not a question of any of that,” Kabore said as he sat down.
    “I thought you were asleep,” I said.
    “I received word that Logan Church is on his way here from Sobek and came to let you know.”
    “Oh,” I said, turning. “Kabore heard… I wonder how?”
    Yuri rolled his eyes.
    “Could it possibly be that brand-new invention—a phone?”
    “It was an accident. I took the wrong one,” he reasoned.
    “Perhaps to make sure it never happens again, the one you have should be destroyed.”
    “I think Hakkan Tarek beat you to that.”
    “And you see,” I said to Jin, “yet another reminder of his indiscretions. You cannot simply disregard the law. It’s there for a reason. No semel is above it.”
    He was biting his bottom lip.
    “What’s wrong with you?”
    He furrowed his brow and gave a slight shake of his head.
    “Don’t be a pussy,” I instructed.
    He flipped me off and Kabore was flabbergasted.
    I stretched my arms wide. “Here it is: no matter where any of us go, no matter what any of us ever do, you are all my family and there will never be the law between us. So speak your mind.”
    “Even me?”
    I took in Koren as he sat up sleepily beside Jin. “Especially you, idiot.”
    He smiled that smile I had always loved: unguarded, genuine, all shining eyes and warmth. I leaned across the table and reached for him. He put his hand in mine and squeezed tight. Yuri grunted beside me, and Koren laughed, let my hand go, and reached for my mate.
    “Try not to bury the hatchet in my back, all right?”
    Yuri got up and walked around the table. Koren was up before he reached him, and I watched Jin tear up as the two men hugged.
    “God, you’re a soft touch.” I swallowed around the lump in my own throat.
    I got flipped off again and then gave my attention back to Kabore. “Yeah, I’m different; everything about me is. Are you sure I’m the guy you want to put up for the job you and I were talking about earlier?”
    “Oh yes. You’re who we’ve been waiting for, Domin Thorne.”
    “Okay,” I said as Yuri took a seat beside me. “What were you going to say?”
    “I was going to say that you have to take in all the factors of the life of Hakkan Tarek. You must have a trial so that everyone may speak,” Kabore answered.
    “Eat something,” Yuri prodded. “You need to keep your strength up.”
    “Yes,” Jin said softly, his voice smooth and rich, like it always was. “Please eat, Domin.”
    “Everyone sit down with me.”
    It was nice that they all did.
     
     
    W E SAW the lights first and then finally heard the sound of the Hummer coming up the two-lane road into Ipis. It stopped outside the square, and they came walking in, ten men in all.
    They had taken care, as my khatyu did, to make sure Logan didn’t stand out. He was dressed as they were, but the problem was that even in black cargo pants, black combat boots, a long-sleeved black shirt, a Kevlar vest, and a hat that reminded me of the ones the German army wore in the Second World War, I could still pick Logan Church out from the rest of them. His stride was longer and more fluid; he wasn’t used to moving in a formation with others but instead walking out front. He carried himself like royalty.
    It took me a minute to realize who the smaller man walking behind the others was. He was dressed in traditional Egyptian clothes, and I knew why. Nothing in the barracks of my khatyu or the Shu would fit him. At five nine, a fragile porcelain doll, he simply could not be outfitted for combat.
    “Fuck, what was Logan thinking?”
    It came to me then as I saw Jin’s cousin, Danny Rayne, a vision of what the reah would have resembled if he were smaller and his eyes and hair were brown. Danny was so sweet, so cute, it made