85. Clash of Stone and Steel
Clash of Stone and Steel
Samhail
He had no idea what made him do it. It was easily the stupidest, most ill-conceived thing he’d ever done, and he and Bressen had done some truly stupid things in their younger days.
But he hadn’t been able to help it. When Talyn said she was leaving, every fiber of his being had screamed at him to do something, to find some way to keep her from going, but he knew he’d made a huge mistake as he watched Talyn’s eyes widen impossibly large at the news she was now his wife.
Fuck. This was not going to end well.
To his shock, though, Talyn only laughed.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “Can you repeat that? I can’t have heard you right. I thought you just said that we’re now married and I’m your wife.”
He put as much apology into his expression as he could.
“Samhail?” she said, her tone growing more serious. “Tell me I didn’t hear you right.”
“You heard me right,” he said softly. “I’ve claimed you by Right of Primacy. By gargoyle custom, you now belong to me. It’s not a marriage per se, but it’s as close as gargoyles get.”
Talyn tried to lift herself from his lap, but he tightened his arms, trying to hold her in place. He wasn’t surprised when she ported away from him. She appeared next to the bed looking thunderous, and he dropped his arms now that they held empty air.
“I belong to you?” she said incredulously. “No. Absolutely not. Unclaim me now.”
“I can’t,” he said as he rose from the bed to face her. The chances were good she’d try to kill him again, so he should probably be ready. “The Right of Primacy doesn’t work like that. You can either accept the claim, or you can reject it and-”
“I reject it then,” Talyn cut in angrily. “I reject your claim.”
Samhail let out a long breath. “It’s not that simple. In order to fully reject the claim, you need to defeat me in battle.”
She blinked at him.
“In gargoyle society, we more or less live by the notion that if you’re powerful enough to do something, you can do it,” he said, hoping he might be able to explain before she snapped and attacked him.
“There are a few notable exceptions, but in general, if you want something, you claim it, including a mate. If that mate doesn’t want the bond, they can reject it, but they need to prove their superiority by defeating the one making the claim in battle. Only that can nullify the claim.”
“I’d have to kill you?” she asked, and her tone suggested she might be more than happy to do that right about now.
“Not kill,” he said. “Just defeat. You’d need to incapacitate me to the point I couldn’t continue. Essentially, you’d need to get me in a position where you could clearly kill me if you wanted to, and I wouldn’t be able to stop you.”
“Fine,” she said, glaring at him.
He was ready for it when she swiped her dagger off the floor and came at him. He dodged her swing and grabbed her wrist, then twisted her arm until she cried out and dropped the blade.
“There are rules,” he said with a sharp look. “And we need witnesses.”
Talyn narrowed her eyes at him, and she tried to wrench her hand free from his grasp. She ported a few feet away when he didn’t release her.
“How dare you!” she stormed, and he saw actual tears glisten in her eyes. “How dare you claim me like I’m some kind of object to possess?”
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I didn’t know what else to do when you said you were leaving. It was a mistake.”
“Well, it was all for nothing. Claiming me won’t get me to stay,” she said, and the bitterness in her voice crushed something in his chest.
“You have to defeat me before you go, or things may end up being difficult for you,” he said.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Look at your finger,” he said.
She raised her hands to look at them and gasped when she saw the faint markings on the middle finger of her right hand, markings that were a perfect miniature replica of those on Samhail’s wrists and forearms.
“What in the three hells is that?” she yelled, trying futilely to rub the gray markings off.
“It’s my mark,” he said, hating every word.
“It will become darker if you accept my claim. It will only disappear if you defeat me and the claim is officially rejected. As long as you have that mark, any gargoyle you meet will be obligated to bring you back to me so the claim can either be finalized or broken.”
Talyn’s face was a mask of fury as she looked between him and her hand. A moment later the markings disappeared as she used her powers to mask them, and she held up her hand in triumph.
“Looks like I’ll just have to keep them covered,” she sneered at him.
“No one may be able to see it, but if a gargoyle comes near you, they’ll be able to sense it,” he said.
He didn’t think it was possible, but her face darkened even more.
“You bastard!” she yelled, launching herself at him.
Any other woman would likely have beat against his chest, but Talyn came in swinging for his face. Her punch knocked his head to the side and sent pain shooting through his jaw. Her next fist landed in his stomach, and he grunted as his breath whooshed out of him.
Samhail let her punch, kick, and elbow him for several seconds without trying to defend himself until she pulled her knee back, presumably intending to send it into his groin.
Then he grabbed her and swung her around to pin her back against his chest. He expected her to port, but she only fought his hold as he held his arms over hers, trapping her still-naked body against his.
“How could you?” she asked when she finally stilled. Her voice was soft, but he heard every bit of hurt and anger in it.
“I’m sorry,” he said, just as quietly. “If I could take it back, I…Well, I shouldn’t have done it in the first place. But now that I have, you have a decision to make.”
She huffed an angry laugh and pulled away from him. He let her go so she could turn to face him.
“Some decision,” she said. “Accept your claim or fight you?”
He sighed heavily. “In theory, you could accept the claim and leave anyway. I wouldn’t stop you.”
Letting her go with his mark on her would be like having his entrails ripped out and thrown on the floor, but he’d do it.
“We’d be bonded, but you’d never have to see me again,” he said.
“So I’d just have to walk around with your brand on me for the rest of my life, reminding me that you own me?” she said, and he flinched at the venom in her voice.
Talyn looked down at her finger, the markings once again faintly visible.
Samhail looked at them as well, and something feral rose up in him at the sight, something that roared in his mind that she was his and that he’d die before he let her go.
He tamped the feeling down, knowing it would only make her angrier if she sensed the direction of his thoughts.
“What are the rules if I challenge your claim and we fight?” she asked, and something cracked open inside him.
“We need witnesses. Surgeon and Serise can do it,” he said.
“But you need to understand I can’t just let you win.
I have to try my best to defend the claim.
Invoking the Right of Primacy is a serious matter in gargoyle society.
One doesn’t claim it lightly. A gargoyle will generally only do it if they’re absolutely certain their potential mate wants to enter into the bond, and then sometimes not even then.
My parents lived together and raised five children without ever bonding through the right. ”
She raised a brow at him. “And you thought claiming me after all the times I’ve tried to kill you was a good idea? What part of holding your swords to your throat suggested I wanted to be bonded to you forever?”
“My mistake,” he said. “I clearly misunderstood you letting me live.”
He didn’t realize it was possible for her to glare any harder, but she did.
He wasn’t going to beg her forgiveness, though.
Claiming her had been a decidedly bad idea, but he couldn’t bring himself to regret it.
He wanted her. Letting her go was no more an option than cutting off his own hand at this point.
The irony was that, by claiming her, he’d all-but assured he’d lose her.
“So you have to try your best to defeat me,” she said. “I understand.”
“Do you? Because you’ve never fought me at my best, Talyn,” he warned her.
“I’ve always held back at least a little, but Surgeon and Serise know what I’m capable of.
They’ll know if I’m holding back this time, and if they judge that I’m throwing the fight, my life is forfeit.
Any gargoyle, including them, can kill me for tarnishing the right. ”
He watched the range of emotions cross her face, from surprise to anger to fear. That last one lingered, and he dared to hope maybe she didn’t really want him dead after all.
Talyn nodded. “Fine. I understand,” she said, her tone clipped but resigned. “When can we do this?”
“Tomorrow if you want. I just have to ask Surgeon and Serise to stand witness. They’ll determine the winner.”
She frowned. “Do you trust them?”
“Gargoyles have few laws, but those surrounding the Right of Primacy are among the most sacred. They’ll be fair because their own lives are on the line if they aren’t.”
Talyn blew out a long breath. “Is there anything else I should know?”
“If I win, the bond will automatically take hold,” he said. “Those markings on your finger will darken and become permanent.”
He saw her jaw clench, but she didn’t say anything. He knew it was time for him to leave, but he had one more thing to say to her.
He stepped toward Talyn, and her eyes dipped to his groin, the evidence of his need for her growing there again.
Her body tensed as she prepared to either fight him or port, but she didn’t move.
When he was right in front of her, he raised a hand to brush her cheek, but she pulled away from him and turned her head.
“Don’t,” was all she said, and he thought he heard her voice break.
“Talyn, please look at me.”
She didn’t turn her head, and he grabbed her chin to force her face around. He needed her to look at him when he said this.
“You’re unlike any woman I’ve ever met,” he said. “I may care for Cyra, but that’s nothing compared to what I feel for you.”
Her eyes flared at Cyra’s name, but she held his gaze.
“I’ve never met an opponent I feared to face in battle. I’ve never met someone I wasn’t absolutely certain I could defeat,” he said. “Until you.”
Something flickered in her eyes, but she kept her jaw clenched tight, refusing to speak.
“I’m never prepared for you,” he said. “I’ve never felt closer to defeat than when I face you.”
She swallowed.
“And I’m not just talking about your fighting ability,” he went on. “I claimed the Right of Primacy because I was facing defeat with you, and I had no other options. I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you, and you were slipping through my fingers.”
He saw the clench in her jaw ease, even as her body went still.
“Make no mistake,” he said, his voice hardening.
“I don’t regret claiming you, because I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anyone or anything in my life, and I think that’s been true since I met you.
But the right is brutal by nature, and I’ll have to hurt you tomorrow to enforce my claim.
I don’t want to hurt you, but I’ll do what’s necessary to keep you, even if it means you hate me. ”
He released her face, grabbed his pants off the floor, and strode out of her room naked. He only prayed no one was in the hallway because he wasn’t going to stop long enough to get dressed.
Thankfully he didn’t encounter anyone on his way back to his room, and he slammed the door behind him as he stalked in. He tossed his pants onto the back of a chair, then leaned over it as he tried to calm himself.
He looked down at his hard cock, standing at attention. Fuck. The woman drove him mad. She fought him every gods damned step of the way, but that only inflamed him more.
Samhail detoured to the bathing chamber to grab a small towel before laying down on the bed. He had to relieve this need, or he’d be tempted to go back to Talyn’s chamber and beg her to let him fuck her. There was no chance whatsoever she’d agree after all that, so this would have to do.
Samhail splashed some oil from a bottle near the bed on his hand and began to run his hand roughly up and down his cock.
Gods, what this woman did to him.
He groaned as he pictured her breasts bouncing while he thrust into her.
He loved to feel her beneath him, to hold her down while he fucked into her, but there was something so gods damned erotic about knowing he could only hold her there as long as she allowed it.
It brought an urgency to their fucking, a kind of razor’s edge he ran along because he knew she could be gone at any moment.
Samhail squeezed his cock tighter, and he came with a growl that rumbled around the room as he pumped milky white jets of his seed into the towel. He collapsed back on the bed when his muscles finally eased.
He needed to get up and find Surgeon and Serise to let them know they’d be needed tomorrow.
That was a conversation he dreaded. He wasn’t looking forward to admitting he’d dared to claim the Right of Primacy only to have Talyn reject it. The twins would laugh themselves hoarse.
Then he needed to find Bressen and explain what he’d done. Cyra would have to be on hand tomorrow in case they needed a healer, although he was afraid her presence might only make things worse.
Something Talyn said hit him all of a sudden. She’d already spoken to Bressen, and he’d not only told her he wouldn’t be sending her to Revenmyer, he’d told her what Cyra really was. Bressen never would’ve told her the latter unless he’d invited Talyn to stay.
Hope rose in his chest at the thought Bressen might’ve already offered Talyn a position in his war cabinet.
She’d clearly turned it down, but at least one hurdle was out of the way.
If he could somehow survive tomorrow and not lose Talyn in the process, there was at least a place for her here in Thasia.
A place for her with him.