Chapter 14
Zayd
The threat’s still out there, and it’s driving me insane.
I can barely sleep, and not just because of the cold. Every time I close my eyes, I get flashes of purple. Of soft hands, soothing, indistinct words, and the sweet scent of strawberry citrus.
And pain. So much blinding plain, the harder I try to recapture the memories, the faster my mind shuts down, but sends my protective instincts into hyperdrive with newfound determination.
That woman is soft, and kind, and…
Mine.
Glancing down at her doorstep, I frown. A dead bird and a couple of mice aren’t much, but should tide her over until I can hunt down something bigger in these damned, frozen woods.
After watching her home for hours, she eventually emerges, pulling to a sudden stop with a yelp. I leap up at the sound of her distress, and she stumbles back inside, clutching the door, but pauses a moment before slamming it shut in my face.
“Fates, you scared the hell out of me.” She places her free hand to her racing heart.
A low purr stutters to life in my chest, rusty from years of disuse. The thought of her afraid of me goes against every single one of my instincts. I was born to be a guardian, have been training since I could walk. Protection is in my blood.
Until you failed. The dark thought whispers through my mind, teasing the edges of faint memories. A phantom pain blooms in my stomach, so real I grunt and pull my wings in close to my body.
“Hey, easy,” that melodic voice I crave says, looking at me in concern. “Are you still hurt?” She starts to reach for me automatically before catching herself, almost as if she remembers at the last second that I could tear her throat out in an instant.
How the mighty have fallen. Even this small woman doesn’t consider me much of a threat. My family would be ashamed of me.
I’m ashamed when I flinch at the barest graze of her fingertips against my cheek, jerking away automatically and baring my teeth.
Electric shocks jabbing through the bars of my cage. Heavy shackles pinning me down while they try to rip my wing from my body to convince me to talk-
“Ssh, it’s alright. I won’t touch you, don’t worry.” But she doesn’t understand. I dream of the gentle glide of her fingers on my feathers. The press of her body against my side, tucked safely beneath my wing where she belongs.
But sphinxes that take up guardian positions don’t get mates; not unless they forsake their post to another.
We’re bound by duty, devoting our lives to protecting what little true magic is left in the world.
It would be an affront to the gods not to put a gift like a mate first in all ways.
They’d be in greater danger if anyone decided to use them against us because any male would sacrifice every treasure under his care to protect his mate.
And now that I’ve met mine? I’m not honorable enough to walk away from her. Yet, I can’t stand by and let him threaten everything I vowed to protect. I… I don’t know what to do. How can I protect both my homeland and my mate when I can’t even save myself?
My ragged purr stutters and dies in my chest.
She wrinkles her nose at the gifts on her doorstep. “I appreciate the sentiment, but even I’m not desperate enough to go there yet.”
I scowl at myself. It’s a pitiful offering, especially to someone as lovely as her.
I try to think back to what my sisters and mother preferred.
I can faintly recall sitting gathered around a long table, all of us feasting together, laughing and sharing stories.
Without a wing or tail in sight. That memory morphs into a more recent one of loading paper bags loaded with food into a truck, cursing at the flat tire and glancing anxiously at my watch, worried I was going to be late for my nightly rounds.
I never made it.
It hits me like a truck, and before I lose my train of thought again, I take off bounding into the woods behind her home, retracting my wings and shifting back before emerging from the other side.
People knowing I’m a sphinx puts my mate in danger. I repeat the mantra over and over again, hoping that when I’m dragged under again, a part of me will remember.
Shaking off the cold, I follow the scent of food until finding a building that looks vaguely familiar enough to risk stepping inside.
Blend in. Secure enough food for my mate and I to last the winter, then get out before anyone notices me.
Muscle memory kicks in and I grab a cart, biting back the urge to snarl at anyone that stares a second too long or gets within arm’s reach.
I throw things in at random until it’s overflowing and start to stride out when shouting erupts behind me and I whirl on instinct, reaching for my hip, but there’s no weapon there.
I can shift to tear them apart, but there are dozens of people openly staring now.
Knowing I’m a sphinx puts my mate in danger. I can snap the necks of a couple, but this many?
Too many hands to fight off. Brutal kicks to the ribs and a knife buried in my stomach, enough electricity coursing through my veins to knock me unconscious-
“Don’t call the cops, man, I’ll cover it. The guy clearly needs help, not a jail cell.” As the shouting turns into angry murmurs, I jump on the opportunity and escape with my bounty.
It’s the least I can offer my mate after she cared for me at my lowest. I may be a broken man, but with a treasure like her to protect now? I’ll scrape the jagged pieces back together into a guardian so fierce, no one will dare touch anything under my protection ever again.