Honored Vow

shift to anything but a panther, that was true,
    but the power that I released could be whatever I wanted it to be. And
    while my nekhene power was feral and angry, my reah power would not
    touch my tribe, would not hurt what was mine or what I loved.
    I had felt cursed. I had wanted to be free of the selfish, wild nekhene,
    wanted the power to submit to the reah that I truly was. But at that
    moment, I was thankful, so deeply, desperately thankful.
    I let down all my barriers, all the careful checkpoints in my head that
    Crane had helped me build, and let the nekhene burst forth wild and
    wanton. This was not the moment to punish, it was the time to lure and
    then exact the toll. My power, which I had worked to empty of heat and
    seduction and raging carnal appetite, I allowed to embody all those
    qualities once more. I called every panther in the home of the semel of
    Khertet to me.
    Where was the mate of the most powerful cat in the world? He
    needed to show himself!
    The challenge was there as I felt electricity crackle around me, ripple
    the air, split it, charge everything, and spark over my skin.
    The instant the panthers wanted me, the second they thought to
    respond to the call, they were sucked through their shift.
    Screaming roars came fast as the pile that had covered Crane and
    Andrian sloughed off and revealed the two bloody and beaten panthers.
    The air heated, got heavy, sticky, and oppressive, making it hard to
    breathe. I watched some of the khatyu run from the pit in panic, not even
    wanting to taste my power, and saw the cats that had been attacking Taj
    leap away from him as though burned before they fell to the dirt, their fur
    looking as though it were bubbling. As Taj lay panting, he could have
    been attacked anew. But no one got close. No one dared; instead they just
    stood there in wide-eyed shock and dread.
    The ones who ran were smart.

    Honored Vow

    221

    A moment later, everyone who remained who did not belong to me
    was on the ground writhing in pain.
    What had started as a search for a mate—I knew, because it had been
    my thought when I started—had become punishment.
    Painful, debilitating punishment.
    The nekhene power became a fist of judgment, and I dragged them
    all through their shift, turned them inside out in a horrendously painful,
    wrenching action. It was like having skin flayed off, bones broken,
    muscles torn, and all of it happened in a scalding, burning, squeezed-in-a-
    vise second.
    Logan. I had to see him, reach him, and touch him. Turning, I saw
    him straining against his bonds, desperate to get free, to get to me.
    Taking a breath, shifting back to human, I took two steps to Logan
    and put my hands on his chest. Looking down into his eyes, I saw how
    pained they looked, how full of longing.
    “My mate,” I said and realized that my voice was not my own. It was
    low and full of gravel, broken.
    He whimpered and tried to lift up, and I felt my pulse leap at his
    struggle. Here was what I needed, and it was being kept from me. The
    frustration rose in me, and instead of trying to gentle it, as Crane had been
    coaching me to do, I let it out and drowned the room again in blistering,
    scorching power. I would annihilate them all if my mate was not released.
    “Jin!”
    How dare they restrain the mate of the nekhene!
    “Jin Rayne!”
    I shifted back to my panther form and faced every panther in the pit.
    “Reah of the tribe of Mafdet!”
    My head lifted, and I saw the priest of Chae Rophon above me. I saw
    no other man or woman close to him, only panthers. Turning my head,
    panning right, I took in the gallery. There were so many panthers; the
    entire tribe of Khertet, it seemed, had succumbed.
    As I followed with my eyes, I saw Domin. He was on his knees, and
    beside him was Yuri and then Mikhail. No one else was there, only
    animals.
    “Jin!”
    I looked back to the priest.

    222

    Mary Calmes

    “The trial of the heart is over; your semel is free!”
    My eyes never left him even as he balled up his fists and began to
    tremble ever so slightly.
    “Your semel returns to you, reah, and to his human form.”
    What? I must have misheard.
    “All semels are relieved of their werepanther form.”
    How? They weren’t supposed to be men until after the final trial,
    semel-aten against semel to determine the new master of Sobek.
    “The contest is moot if no one can participate.”
    The nekhene had rendered the exercise obsolete.
    It was over.
    I exhaled, and when I