Honored Vow

and only then would
    Yuri be allowed from the locked cell.
    “Am I in panther form?” he asked me.
    “No, you’re you.”
    His brows furrowed. “Jin, they’ll tear me to shreds.”
    “Not if you’re stronger than they are,” Danny told him. “You have to
    show your panther blood in human form. It’s hard.”
    “No shit,” he growled, annoyed by the obvious.

    Honored Vow

    111

    “You’ll do it,” Mikhail told him. “I’ve seen you.”
    Yuri shook his head. “Don’t you remember when Jin was attacked in
    the kitchen by those cats last summer? If I was so strong—”
    “That was before Sobek,” Mikhail reminded him, “and before Jin
    was discovered to be a nekhene cat. He’s different, and so are you because
    you’ve had to adapt to him.”
    I watched them stare at each other.
    “You’ll do it.”
    Yuri nodded. Always Mikhail was the voice of reason, and because
    he made sense, Yuri heard him and absorbed his words.
    The second test, or trial, was that of law. Mikhail would recite any
    law that he was asked for and have to interpret it and defend it.
    “And the last test?” Crane asked me.
    “It’s heart,” I told him, turning. “Logan will be tied down or
    shackled, or, I dunno, but he won’t be able to move, and other khatyu led
    by someone will try and get through me, and you, and Domin, and one
    other.”
    “Me?” he asked.
    “You’re beset of a reah,” I reminded him. “You stand with me. We
    just have to decide who, along with you and me and Domin, will be in the
    pit.”
    “Domin.”
    We all turned to look at Koren. All the color had drained from his
    face.
    “I thought the only reason he was going was to watch over Logan
    until the sepat.”
    “No.” Danny shook his head. “Domin is in the pit with Logan and
    Jin. If the semel is killed, then, in essence, his household dies but not his
    house. The mate is put to death, and the maahes, because the new semel
    would want to choose both for himself.”
    “I—”
    “At least that’s the logic behind it,” I told him. “You would only be
    able to claim whoever else was at the sepat—Crane, Yuri, and Mikhail.”
    “But if Logan is killed,” Danny told Koren, “then Jin and Domin are
    killed immediately after.”

    112

    Mary Calmes

    Koren took a breath, and I saw his eyes bleed to the dark olive green
    that normally only his iris was. “You’re telling me that that man walked
    out of here, without a word to me, knowing that he might never, ever see
    me again?”
    “Yeah,” Yuri said flippantly. “But why the fuck would you care?”
    “I care!” he roared at Yuri, and we all saw, finally, some passion
    from him where Domin Thorne was concerned. “I care more than you—”
    “He was not allowed to tell you he was leaving.” Danny tried to
    soften it for Koren. “Just like Logan was not allowed to call Jin. They just
    have to leave.”
    “They both yelled at me from downstairs,” Yuri snapped at Koren.
    “Logan called me.” He took a breath. “And so did Domin.”
    “But you were in the house, I was out.”
    Clearly Yuri was too disgusted to say another word to Koren and
    stalked over to the fireplace. He was brooding and silent, and I wasn’t sure
    why.
    “Does Domin know?” I asked softly, stepping in closer to Logan’s
    younger brother, “or does he still think that you’re holding open auditions
    for the love of your life when it’s obvious to all of us that the man’s been
    right in front of your face this whole entire time?”
    “I—he—”
    “Oh,” Crane said, nodding. “You broke up with Domin. I wasn’t
    here for that. What the fuck for, man? How are you doing better, heir of
    the tribe of Mafdet, than the prince of the tribe of Mafdet?”
    “Oh.” Danny sounded so sad.
    “What?” Koren snarled at him.
    “No, just—if Domin Thorne were your mate, maahes or no, he
    would not have been allowed to attend the sepat. Mate to the heir trumps
    maahes.”
    And I remembered that. “Shit,” I groaned, my eyes on Koren.
    He was shaking just a little. “You’re saying if I’d just claimed him,
    he would have had to stay.”
    “Yes,” Danny assured him. “The mate of the heir is bound to your
    side just as is the mate of the semel bound to his.”
    “Fuck!” Koren yelled, the fury rolling over all of us as he charged
    across the room, striding to the window, staring out at the falling snow.

    Honored Vow

    113

    After a minute I joined him. It took many more for him to