Honored Vow

in
    the wailing wind, head back, eyes closed, arms outstretched; I felt like I
    could fly. Stretching my arms wide, I jumped.
    I soared through the air, and as I neared the ground, I shifted so I
    could turn the falling dive into a leap and touch the snow. I got my feet
    under me and bolted forward, and the surge of speed took the velocity and
    channeled it so I was again streaking across the valley floor. No one had
    followed, could follow. I was the only nekhene cat in existence, and while
    that should have been sobering and sad, I belonged to my mate and my
    tribe, and so I could never be unclaimed and float away.
    But I didn’t want to be alone, so I ran sideways and leaped high,
    landing in the powder, falling into it and going still. There was only the
    wind and the blue sky and the snowflakes that fell like tiny diamonds,
    each sparkling in the light. The others appeared beside me after long
    minutes, and Jamal, because he was the only one who could shift fast
    enough not to freeze in the snow, even stronger than Taj, stood for a
    second to say that I was breathtaking.
    I shifted, naked as he was, and smiled at him.

    Honored Vow

    187

    “Your speed is phenomenal, Jin,” he yelled at me over the wind.
    “You might see one day if you could run over water—I bet you could.”
    I had been wondering about that myself but would never confess to
    it.
    Jamal shifted and so did I before we both froze, and we took off
    back toward the ger. As I charged back toward it, I saw Crane open the
    front door and lean out looking for me.
    He smiled when he saw me, and I saw a shadow move at the same
    time. Something was close to him, and I couldn’t reach him. I was too far
    away.
    I couldn’t save him. I wouldn’t be there.
    Again.
    He would die, and it would be the second time I failed to protect my
    best friend, the man who held a piece of my heart.
    My vision went white, and there was nothing.

    INHALING deeply because the smell, a mixture of pine, wet earth, and
    fire, was intoxicating, I let out a deep purr of contentment before I opened
    my eyes. Instantly, my bleary gaze met the golden one of my mate. Lifting
    my head, he growled softly, still petting me, stroking my muzzle with his
    razor-sharp clawed hands.
    “Oh thank God,” Crane breathed out.
    Turning my head, I saw him through the bars of the cell and
    wondered why he was locked up.
    “Not me, idiot,” he snapped irritably, reading my mind like he could
    sometimes.
    It took a minute before I realized that I was in Logan’s cell.
    “Jin.”
    Looking to the left, I saw the priest of Chae Rophon, and then I
    finally registered the others. Apparently in the dungeon of the tribe of
    Khertet, the cells were free-standing squares, not interconnected, and on
    all four sides of Logan’s were people and more people, jockeying for
    position to peer in at me. My mate and I were on display.
    I whimpered, and Logan was suddenly there, leaning against me, the
    claws buried in my fur, face pressed to the side of my neck as he simply

    188

    Mary Calmes

    breathed. His warmth, his scent, all soothed me, and I put my head down
    on my paws before returning my eyes to the priest. Logan crawled on top
    of me, arms and legs hanging down around me, and just let me feel his
    weight.
    “Listen to me,” Hamid said gently after several minutes. “Ammon El
    Masry sent two cats to your campsite tonight to kill your beset, as we had
    all heard that he was the one who had helped you with the control of your
    nekhene power. He had not thought, none of us did, that you could run up
    the side of a mountain and simply leap off and return so quickly.”
    There were whispers and murmurs from those crowding around us,
    and I got the idea that what I had done had been a bigger deal than I had
    registered at the time.
    “You and you alone arrived in time to save Crane Adams, though as
    beset of a reah, I truly believe that he could have easily handled two
    assassins.”
    “Agreed,” Crane groused, and when I looked at him, I saw his scowl.
    “We are so gonna talk about this.”
    And it was funny, really. Here was the priest and everyone, all the
    people that come with the semels, the semel of Khertet, the tribe of
    Khertet, everybody except Ammon, and Crane was there, like normal,
    giving me grief like it was just the two of us and he was pissed off. It was
    nuts.
    “Regardless, you eviscerated the assassins, and after they were killed
    and the alarm was raised, we found