Honored Vow

because
    the priest allowed me to disrespect both of them. After a moment, Jamal
    Hassan took their place in front of me, and I lifted my hand for him to
    take.
    “Jin.” He smiled.
    “Have you seen Taj?”
    “Not yet, but we’ll have time while you prepare for the beginning of
    the sepat.”
    “Good.”
    Khongordzol introduced me to her mate then, and I met the semel of
    the tribe of Khertet and thanked him for his hospitality and for the
    kindness of his maahes, sheseru, and sylvan. He nodded and then stared at
    me.
    “You pride yourself, as does my semel, on the treatment of a tribe
    like a family. It had to have gone against your sense of maat to allow
    Amirah into your tribe. The actions of the semel-aten are regrettable.” I
    bowed when I finished, and he bowed back, deeper, longer, and I
    understood that he appreciated what I had said. It wasn’t that he needed
    forgiveness or would ever ask for it; the whole encounter was simply, as I
    said, regrettable.
    “You speak out of turn, reah,” Amirah snarled at me.
    “Mind your tongue, bitch,” Kushi Oyuun warned her, dark eyes
    flashing as she looked at Amirah. “We may all die tonight, and that would
    be regrettable. You die tonight and no one will mourn you.”
    Amirah took a breath to speak, and I lifted my hand. “We need to
    follow Khongordzol now,” I cut off her venom. “Let’s go.”
    And with that, Khongordzol took my arm in hers and led us in our
    fur capes from the pit. When we returned, the sepat would begin.
    “Jin!”
    But I didn’t turn around to look at Crane. I wasn’t that strong.

    168

    Mary Calmes

    Chapter Thirteen

    THERE were candles everywhere and braziers set up in each corner of the
    huge space of the pit of the tribe of Khertet. One end, I realized when we
    returned, had an enormous grate that rose and lowered on a winch. It was
    just like a coliseum in that respect. The heavy grate lifted, animals came
    bounding through, and you fought them. But this time, creatures did not
    escape out onto the floor—werepanthers did.
    We stood in a row, looking, just as I had quipped to Crane earlier,
    like sacrificial lambs. Above us, seated, looking down from a safe height,
    was the entire tribe and everyone that each mate had brought with them to
    the sepat. When I looked up, Crane, of course, was the first to lift his hand
    to show me where they were. The second hand lifted to me was Ebere’s,
    and I nodded at her as she smiled down at me. It answered my question:
    yes, the semel-aten had brought his mate.
    All of us, every mate who stood in the pit, had been bathed and
    scented with oil. The point was for purification but also to confuse the
    semels. We all needed to smell the same. We were also all dressed in
    white silk robes cinched at the waist with a tie. Even Amirah, who had
    walked in with us and taken her place in line, was outfitted the same.
    “This is very brave of you, reah,” Teresa, Gavin Medina’s yareah,
    told her as we all waited for the grate on the other end of the room to lift.
    “You might be torn to shreds along with the rest of us.”
    “You forget,” Amirah sneered back, “I’ve been here as long as they
    have. I’ve stood outside the cells of each of your mates, just beyond their
    reach, torturing them with my scent for weeks. I’ve had sex in front of
    them and watched them spill their seed with wanting me. None of them

    Honored Vow

    169

    will hurt me, they all want me, and any of them that come near me will
    tear you to shreds when you try to claim them,” she purred. “I’m a reah,
    and mated or not, mate or not, I can take them from you.”
    “But why would you want to?” I asked her.
    “My deal was struck with the semel-aten, if I help him turn semels
    into panthers; he renounces his claim over me as wosret. I have no desire
    to return to being his consort.”
    “There are other ways to secure your freedom,” I assured her.
    “I disagree but I see only animals anyway, it’s a simple task to turn
    your semels from you.”
    “They’re men first,” Yusuke said, and I realized how much I liked
    her voice. It was strong and husky and confident. “And men love those
    that make their homes a sanctuary. We’ll see what we see.”
    “Oh,” Katrina gasped, and we all heard the groan of metal at the
    same time.
    The roar of panther was next, followed by snarling that made my
    blood run cold as six werepanthers came running into the pit.
    We couldn’t shift and flee; I