24. Ezra
Ezra
The moon was a sliver in the sky, but I could still see their silhouettes on the faint desert horizon.
I whispered encouraging words to my horse, and he charged faster.
My veins flooded with rage. If it had just been me, I know I would have thought twice about what I was doing—charging toward three Brestians—but this was about Eshe. No one was going to look at her like that and get away with it.
No one.
The beast beneath me moved her large muscles, her fur barely glimmering under the moonlight. I was just above the saddle as my chest kept low on her neck.
“Come on, baby,” I whispered for her speed.
She charged forward, the sounds of her hooves muffled by the soft sands. I jerked one of my scarves from the bag on the saddle and placed it around my head. Even though it was dark, I didn’t want to risk it anymore.
The moment I was close enough, I flung the dagger pressed in my palm at the man who was closest to Eshe. The one whose eyes I wanted to gouge out and shove them so far in his mouth that he would swallow every ounce.
The dagger landed in the man’s spine. I heard the split happen in his body.
He dropped to the ground, howling from the pain but unable to do anything about it.
He wasn’t getting up anytime soon, or ever.
I had aimed precisely so that I could maim his ability to move from the neck down.
He won’t be looking at any woman like that again.
I took the sword from my back now that my presence was known.
Gabriel and the third man remained on their horses.
Swords now in their hands. I glared at the new General of Brestan.
He has been their general for some years and took over the last general’s place, but I’d never met him until now.
Thank God it was dark, and I shaved my head only a couple of days ago, or else he might have recognized me from the royal family of Tehara paintings when he traveled in Crahst. His name grew some concern among the desert countries around because he had killed the last general in cold blood and stolen his place.
He was known for his ruthless ambition as he murdered his way up to a title only passed down through noble blood.
His light eyes, even in the darkness, showed no evidence of emotion.
“I knew that was all a lie,” Gabriel said calmly.
I shrugged, slowing my horse down. “Should have trusted your instinct.”
Gabriel and the other split ways, circling me.
“So, you are Atrovian.”
“One in the flesh.” I pointed the sword toward Gabriel. “And you have been a thorn in my side for some time now.”
Gabriel barely scoffed, as if he couldn’t care less. “So, who is the woman you had in your arms? I know she’s not your wife. And you Atrovians are too self-righteous for her to be your lover. The question is: is she another woman you stole from a man’s wedding? And why?”
I laughed, knowing he wasn’t too far from the truth about Eshe.
“We didn’t steal Norrah, Gabriel.”
Gabriel’s spine lifted a bit higher. Now he knew I knew who he was. The cards were out in the open.
“Norrah came to me, asking for protection against you. It’s not my fault she doesn’t want anything to do with you,” I spat.
His voice was controlled and eerily… calm. “Norrah doesn’t know what is best for her.”
But his horse became restless, unlike his owner, who didn’t look the least bit worried.
“I would argue that you don’t know anything about her, let alone what’s best for her.
You met her once—and I’m assuming that didn’t go well, did it?
” I was antagonizing him. I felt my muscles tense just thinking of Eshe, and the wool blanket wrapped over her naked body.
I knew they didn’t see anything, but the thought was still in their minds, and I wanted to permanently stop them from ever thinking about Eshe again.
I knew I didn’t have much of a choice but to cover our identities, but I hated going to that extreme.
With my free hand, I grabbed another dagger from my belt as I tugged my reins, circling Gabriel. One moment we were glaring at each other, and the next I flung the dagger toward his chest.
He deflected it with his sword, and the dagger went flying in the opposite direction. Before it hit the sands, I charged my horse forward, lifting my sword, and clashing against his. The sound of metal striking and sliding against each other pierced the night air.
On my other side, the third man swung his sword toward my torso, and I met his sword with my own. I pushed against it with all my strength, and the man was too weak, causing him to plunge from his horse and into the sands. That gave me enough time to save myself from the next strike.
Gabriel twisted his arm, and the sword slashed into my side, but I barely felt it as I lunged for his chest. His sword met mine, brilliantly, and I backed my horse a foot, hearing a sound to my right.
The third man was to my right—a flash of moonlight danced from his sword toward me.
Without a moment’s hesitation, I swung my sword across his throat and ignored the feeling of darkness wavering over my eyes.
The man’s head tumbled from his shoulders, blood painting the sand it landed on.
I threw my head back to Gabriel, who didn’t look quite as affected by it as any leader should.
In fact, he looked as if he might have enjoyed it.
Pulling on my reins, I faced him, my free arm at my side.
“Give Norrah my regards. I look forward to seeing her again.” Gabriel backed his horse up and galloped into the sands, dust clouding in the moonlight glow.
I would have finished what I started if it weren’t for the wound that gashed in my side. I was seeing dark stars in my vision and began slipping from my saddle.
Letting go of my horse, I approached the paralyzed man, hunger for death still ringing in my veins. The man’s eyes bulged out, his mouth pleading without saying a word.
The cool sands parted beneath my boots as I reached him.
I promised myself when I saw his eyes grazing over Eshe that his death would be mine. It was written in the stars right then.
I dug into his sputtering eyeballs and plucked them out with my bloody dagger.
He screamed and screamed but could do nothing to stop it.
I shoved his large white eyeballs into his mouth and locked his chin up, shutting out most of his screams as he choked.
Then, when I was over it, I plunged my dagger into his chest to stop his beating heart.
I didn’t know what bothered me so much about this man.
I plunged my dagger again.
Maybe it was because he looked at Eshe as if she were already his.
I lifted the blade from his heart. Blood bloomed across his chest.
Maybe it was because he was right. Not only had I never satisfied Eshe, but I would never be able to. Not now, not ever.
Not stopping, I stabbed him, again and again. There were no more sounds other than the thumping of the blade slicing through flesh.
I realized then that I would want to please Eshe, but I couldn’t.
Once an Atrovian, always an Atrovian.
Although, there was one young man who had escaped from being an Atrovian and no one had been able to find him since then.
It didn’t help that Atrovians purposefully maintained a different persona outside of it.
He was one of the best killers the Atrove had seen in a long time.
But this was almost nine years before I became one myself when I heard the story of the teenage Atrovian who had managed to slip from the laws of the Atrove.
No one believed he had died. He was alive, knowing full well everything about the Atrove, leaving us vulnerable. But what could we do?
Regardless of the young man, it was our vow. Our sacred duty to guard and protect, to conquer and spread. To place an order among the living. To rule behind the rulers.
We didn’t have time for relationships. In addition, caring for someone made you weak. It gave someone leverage over you.
Maybe I could admit to myself that I wanted Eshe. To own her, and not just her life, but her soul. That didn’t change anything except for the way my heart beats around her. Her life was mine, but her soul never will be.
After stabbing his chest more than I needed to, I picked up my reins and began to stumble back in the direction of Eshe.
After a while, my legs gave out, and I dropped into the sands, breathless. Stars began to really dance in my vision before all went black.
I heard my name in the darkness from the woman I unapologetically killed for.
Hands were felt on my core, and my awareness slowly came back.
“Ezra,” she whispered again. The voice was much more tender than I was used to.
Most likely, she was here for my horse. She wanted to leave. My eyes pried open a crack, and I saw her brows furrowed and worried. “You’re hurt. Ezra, can you get up? Here, put your arm around my neck.”
It took everything I had to pull my legs up to stand. The sand below me was drenched in blood. I hadn’t realized how deep the wound had gotten.
My head felt like it couldn’t sit on my shoulders straight, but I felt Eshe’s body hold mine closer as I walked one foot in front of the other.
The moon was well over us by the time we made it back to the tent, my body almost crushing Eshe. Her scent began bringing me to a more conscious state of mind.
“Let me see it,” she said as she reached for some cloths in the saddlebag.
I barked out a laugh, lingering in pain as I said, “Not a chance,” and pushed her to the side, but caught myself from falling again.
My fingers fumbled for some extra linens in my bag, adrenaline and painkiller tinctures, and I trudged inside the tent with Eshe tailing me, picking up the linens that fell from my arms.
“Why? Do you not trust me?”
“Nope.” I managed to open the flaps to the tent with the side that wasn’t in pain and entered.
Liquid medicine dripped from my mouth as I took a large gulp of both tinctures and felt the immediate effects trickling through my bloodstream.
Useful for situations like this when pain was something that was a nuisance and had to keep going.
Eshe’s jaw twitched. “If I wanted you dead, I wouldn’t have helped you in this tent. I was doing you a favor.”
“Not quite, sweetheart. You would have been killed too.” I slid my eyes over to her for a moment. “You helped yourself.”
“Mmm, I don’t think you got that right. I could have easily said you stole me—which you did,” she enunciated.
“You’re saying you helped me from the goodness of your heart?” I laughed mockingly and breathlessly, the words a joke in themselves as I tilted my skin bottle to the linen, drenching it.
I could feel the air become tight and electric.
“I didn’t want you hurt. So, if that means I was trying to help you out of the goodness of my heart, then go ahead and laugh at me all you want. I don’t care. Plus, I found you, didn’t I?”
My hand stopped the tilt of the bottle. I whipped my head to her. “You don’t want me hurt? Since when? You tried to kill me not that long ago, do I need to remind you?”
I searched her eyes.
Eshe fluttered hers away from mine and snatched the cloth from my hand. “I thought you killed my family.”
I had a headache from the blood that drained from me. “And now?”
“Now, I don’t,” she said with certainty as she met my eyes again. “Just sit down, will you?”
I fell down on the tarp with a grunt and slid the robe off my sticky shoulders.
I leaned back on my elbows as Eshe kneeled by my side, lifting the wet towel to my side.
My abdominals clenched upon contact, and so did my teeth.
Fuuuuck.
Stars filled my vision, and I blinked them away.
The gash was deep—nothing I wasn’t used to, but still. Annoying as fuck. I barely made it back to the tent when Eshe found me. Gabriel was a skilled fighter, something I didn’t encounter besides Atrovians.
“Looking at it will just make this worse,” Eshe warned while she brushed the excess blood off my skin. I hissed, closing my eyes, as she pressed a bit deeper, probably attempting to get all the debris from the sand out of the wound, but I imagined she did it on purpose.
Turning my head, I gazed toward the flap of the tents, remembering just earlier how she was wrapped in my arms. I gritted my teeth so hard, I was surprised my teeth didn’t crack right then and there.
The moment before they arrived, Eshe had snuggled deeper into me, and I felt her pulse race.
So did mine. I leaned in further and felt it flutter on my lips when I pressed them on her neck, grazing them higher behind her ear.
Without my consent, my hands spread between her warm breasts, reaching, wanting more.
She was warm and soft in my arms, if the men hadn’t arrived…
The thoughts in my head were not pure, and I hoped I wouldn’t have them again.
I wasn’t sure I could control myself if temptation kept pressing on my mind.
“What?” Eshe asked.
I realized I had drifted and been staring at Eshe.
“We should continue riding out,” I grunted, pulling myself up. She had finished cleaning a while ago and was sitting nearby. It’d been an hour or so—the drugs had taken effect. The cloth on me was no longer bleeding through.
“But we barely got to sleep,” Eshe argued with a frown. “And you’re hurt.”
“It’s a scratch, and I don’t need it now. I had plenty. If you need sleep, you can sleep on the ride. Gabriel will most likely be back around the area with more warriors.”
Eshe nodded and wrapped another linen tightly around my core. I couldn’t help realizing that if she hadn’t been here, I’d be having an entirely different night. Her body brushed against mine, and I thought of all the things I hated once more.