Honored Vow

Narae. His
    face said everything, and when our eyes met, he gave me a slight bow of
    his head. Every line of his face showed regret, and I knew if he could turn
    back the clock, he would. In a frenzy of heated anger and bloodlust, he
    had changed his life forever. He had to take a new yareah, and maybe, just
    maybe, the one he’d had was the only woman he would ever love. To
    know how close she was, simply in Logan’s quarters, and yet never be
    able to speak to her again, had to be an inconsolable pain. I hoped one day
    he would heal.
    “Here we go,” Crane breathed out.
    The priest called the challenge to order, had us all look down as the
    four panthers came into the pit: Ammon El Masry and his maahes, Rector
    Vincent, bounding fast, Logan and Domin padding in slowly, holding
    close together.
    “The victor is the semel who lives,” the priest announced. “Normally
    the challenge is one on one, but the semel-aten wished for his new maahes
    to stand with him.”
    And I knew why. Ammon was going to kill Domin fast and make
    Logan suffer.
    “Should the semel-aten be triumphant, he may put under the knife all
    those who have challenged him.”
    Which meant the priest as well as Logan, myself, and anyone else he
    felt should be executed.
    “Should another semel prevail, he will be the new semel-aten, master
    of Sobek. The semels in the pit are allowed to shift to their werepanther
    form, as this is ordained by law.”

    248

    Mary Calmes

    “Your Grace,” Danny said, rising. “May I ask for clarification?”
    Why?
    “You may.”
    “The semel who kills the semel-aten, he then becomes semel-aten;
    this is the law, is it not?”
    The priest looked confused. “It is.”
    “Thank you, Your Grace.”
    When he sat down, I looked at him.
    “As my semel asked of me,” he said with a smile, “so I have done.”
    And he was speaking in that way that we all did when we read the
    law: formally, with purpose. What the hell?
    “The challenge for the seat of power begins now!”
    It looked like every challenge I had ever seen in the pit. The panthers
    flew at each other, snarling, roaring; the clash of tooth and claw came fast
    and furious, slashing, biting, power and bloodlust filling the arena.
    I held my breath, terrified, knowing that whatever happened, my life
    would change. As I had stood with Logan outside the ger before he left, I
    had kissed and hugged him with every drop of love and desire I had in me.
    He had to know that he was everything, my whole life, and when he
    nodded, unable to speak, I was certain he did. But now, as I watched him
    bleed, I felt my heart squeezed in a vise of pain.
    “Logan’s stronger than both of them, Jin,” Crane assured me under
    his breath. “Don’t doubt it for a second.”
    I took a breath and heard Yuri do the same on my right. I didn’t turn
    to look, couldn’t, my eyes riveted on Logan even as I was sure my
    sheseru’s were riveted on Domin. I had not seen the mark that Domin had
    put on him, but I had watched him reach behind his neck and touch what I
    was sure was a hell of a scar, raised and silver with scar tissue, on the back
    of his neck. He could not keep his fingers from tracing over it, and if it
    hurt, Yuri didn’t seem to care. I was scared for him, what it would mean
    for him if Domin died. I felt my power rise, and that fast Crane’s knee was
    against mine, his hand on my back.
    “Hold on, Jin, this is gonna be alright.”
    But if Logan died, what would I do? What would I become?
    Ammon shifted to his werepanther form, and I was breathless with
    anticipation for Logan to do the same.

    Honored Vow

    249

    Seconds ticked by.
    Why didn’t he shift?
    He had to shift!
    What the hell was he waiting for? Ammon would tear him apart! The
    half-man/half-panther form was the strongest of all!
    Logan!
    “Wait,” Crane said suddenly. “What’s going on?”
    And I was as confused as he was. As the four panthers circled each
    other after the last vicious attack, instead of Logan squaring off against
    Ammon, he had taken a small half-step back so Domin could rush forward
    to meet the semel-aten. They hadn’t even looked at each other, but it was
    like… it was planned.
    “Oh shit,” I whispered as Domin shifted to his werepanther form and
    the entire gallery gasped at the same time.
    Domin.
    “What the fuck?” Crane exhaled, and when I turned to look at him, I
    saw how big and round his eyes were.
    “Logan’s not going to do it,” I