Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
EUN
"Don’t take this off," I said, sliding the fourth ring onto her other hand. She lifted both hands, turning them slowly in the sunlight. The four silver bands gleamed like twin moons, symbols of a bond we’d just sealed with skin and ink and breath.
They were supposed to go on each of our four hands, but both of us only had two.
We were standing outside the building. The foot traffic to the area had vanished, and the street was empty of cars, a brief moment to ourselves where I could take out the rings and give them to her without any passerby intruding, sliding them onto her two hands to symbolize that she was taken, protected.
That she was mine.
I looked down at where the silver circled my own fingers, a sight I’d never expected.
My parents would be livid. They would be furious that I married a prey species.
The thought sent a spike of rebellious pleasure through me, bright and sharp, cutting through the moment. It was followed quickly by fear.
I couldn't let them find out.
"I love them," Leija said, holding her hands up again, the silver rings gleaming as she beamed at me, her smile a spear of sunlight, piercing through into my chest, reeling me back to her.
My heart gave a painful twist, like an old knot being released suddenly, the ache of wanting something and not wanting it at the same time, all twisted up so much that it had gone numb from the compression.
My parents had pressured me to get married for years, and I had pushed away from it, going so far as to risk my entire inheritance by disobeying them and leaving the family home.
In all the years I spent feeling trapped, feeling like I was being forced into something I didn't want, I never allowed myself to feel the numb space in my heart that yearned for a partnership, for that joining of two hearts and four hands.
I wanted it with her.
"I love you, Leija," I told her, my words soft.
Movement caught the corner of my eye, and I reacted too slowly, turning as the car door slammed open and three of my parents' goons stepped out of the very expensive top-of-the-line car.
Bulletproof and licensed to ascend to the highest levels of the city's skyscrapers, I'd recognize its shiny, nondescript surface that screamed of anonymity and wealth, smeared together.
"Young master, your parents insist on meeting your new bride," one of the goons said.
I didn't recognize him, but he was the same poisonous species as my uncle, with red scales instead of green.
He had to be a new hire, unlike the other two.
They stayed well away from the reach of my hair, even as they circled around us to cut off any avenue for escape.
Grathin had a new scar down across his eye, angled out to the side like someone had tried to take it from him but failed, the skin around it was puckered and pink, and it didn't look like any of the fur was growing back.
Ignoar had the same bored expression on his scaled face.
"Someone notified them," I said, shooting a glare back at the building. I'd chosen the largest facility I could find, hoping that my marriage would get lost in the shuffle.
"Someone always notifies them," Grathin said.
I glanced around at the empty street. It wasn't a moment of peace in the middle of the busy day.
Knowing my parents, they had the street blocked off to prevent my escape.
My eyes drifted back to the new hire. The look on his face was eager and hungry as he stared at my new bride. His tongue snaked out to taste the air.
He wouldn't be looking at her like that unless...
"We've been told to treat you and your bride with utmost respect... as long as you're cooperative," Grathin confirmed my suspicion, providing the context with the words he didn't say.
If I fought them, they would hurt her.
"Leija," I tightened my grip on her hands. "Would you like to meet my parents?"
The bright smile on her face was an arrow through my heart. I should have moved faster. The moment the paperwork was approved, I should have taken our copy, picked her up, and run from the building straight to the spaceport. I shouldn't have taken the moment to give her the rings.
"I would love to!" she said, all excitement and happiness, not knowing that everything I had promised her was about to disintegrate around us, like bones breaking down into mush in a bucket full of lye.
I couldn't tell her. If she was afraid when she met them, they would smell that fear, and it would be over.
"We will accept my parents' gracious invitation," I told Grathin.
"I don't know..." the new one said with a chuckle, stepping in closer to us. "Seems to me as if you are a bit reluctant to go."
I didn't hesitate.
I lashed out with my tail, catching him around the throat.
He didn't have time to react more than a brief widening of his eyes before I tightened, twisted, and the sharp crack in the air signaled the cervical dislocation I had gotten good at over the years.
The new guard fell to the ground, his body twitching with the throes.
"Idiot," Igonar said, and I knew he wasn't referring to me.
"Master Eun, if you'll be so kind as to get in the car first," Grathin said, staying well out of reach.
I didn't worry about him. The two of them, along with my uncle, had been my bodyguards for years. They would wait until I got in the car on my own, because they knew that I wasn't planning on fighting them, not unless they gave me a reason like the new guy did.
"Why did you do that?" Leija's voice was tight. She had seen me fight before. She had seen me chained to a wall in the throes of addiction, and hadn't been afraid of me then. Why was she looking at me like this now, like she had never seen me before?
"He planned to hurt you," I said, reaching out to brush her hair back from her face and cup the side of her face.
"So you killed him?" she asked.
"I will kill anyone who even thinks about hurting you," I told her, raising my voice for the benefit of the other two.
She stared up at me for a long moment, her eyes sharp and unreadable.
"Good," she said, her voice as hard as if she had been born a predator instead of prey.