22. Ezra #2
When I was around Atrovians, I shaved my head, revealing my tattoos. The Atrove began to recognize me with this look, keeping my identity hidden—for the most part, it had been working just fine. If they found out my Qahlship, nothing would change.
The Atrove was still mine.
Tehara was still mine.
Mine.
I glared at Eshe while I asked Amr, “What about Targon?”
He swallowed audibly before speaking, “He’s been seen by some of the older Atrovians.”
My head snapped toward him. Did I hear that right?
“What do you mean?”
“I—I’m not sure exactly what I mean. All I know is that his face has been seen in Zyriah by Shunai and Ismael,” Amr spat out, eyes wide.
“You’re telling me that Targon, who has been presumed dead for years, is suddenly back?”
Amr pursed his lips and threw his hands in the air. “Listen, I’m questioning it myself. If it were just Shunai, I would have kicked him in the balls and said to shut up, old fuck. But when Ismael the next day said the same thing…” Amr shook his head again. “I had to come find you.”
I brushed a hand over my short beard. “Where was he last seen?”
“From Zyriah traveling to Tehara.”
“What the fuck, Amr!”
“I know! That’s why I’m here, telling you!”
“Damn.” I found two of my fingers at the bridge of my nose, breathing controlled. “Keep an eye out. Maintain control. We need to know what he’s looking for—what he wants. There’s a reason he’s just appeared out of nowhere.”
I’m not giving up the Atrove, even if the bastard is back. If it really was him, he abandoned his people. He doesn’t deserve them.
“You got it,” Amr said with a distant look. He stepped through the threshold.
“And Amr?”
“Yeah?”
“If you see him, kill him.” That man deserved it. “I want his head. There isn’t room for two Atrovian leaders in these lands.”
Amr nodded and left without another word.
I inhaled another controlled breath. That fucker had been dead for years, and I was planning on keeping it that way.
“I heard you,” Eshe hissed at me as we continued deeper into the cave after the meeting with Amr.
“Not surprised.”
“You’re not taking me anywhere,” she snapped at me, twisting her elbow to release herself from me.
I didn’t respond. I could feel the heat radiating from her body.
My knee suddenly buckled forward, but my impulse was not to let her go when she kicked the back of my knee. We both fell forward, tumbling down on limestone, my skin scraping on the rock. My hand launched for my knife, and I saw at that moment she had one of mine in her palm.
God, a snake!
She had a knife below my jaw, but before I could give her this win, I jammed my forearm on her arm, causing the knife to fling from her hand. Eshe reached for the knife on the floor, but couldn’t when I flung her beneath me.
I pressed my body on top of hers.
“Is this what you wanted? God, you’re so predictable. All you had to do was ask.”
Her face reddened, her hand still reaching for the knife to the left of me. With my leg, I kicked it further, completely out of reach.
I wasn’t sure about her skills. Maybe whoever trained her taught her how to grow an extra arm.
The next moment, my balls exploded. Or that was how it felt when she threw her knee into them. I grunted forward into her hair, pressing my hips further to keep her from moving.
I’d never experienced so much pain in my fucking life.
The burning, excruciating sensation radiated throughout me, and I shivered in pain. I could throw up at this moment.
I would rather take the poison of a Silver Snake than feel like death from my balls being shattered.
“Weak men with weak balls,” Eshe mumbled, attempting to push my heavy body off hers.
“I fucking hate you, woman.”
I took a deep breath, and then two. Her fucking jasmine scent was all over my face. I hated it. I hated all of it.
When I was ready, I lifted her squirming body over my shoulder and barged into my chamber, throwing her on my bed. It was a sight I would have reveled in, but time was of the essence. She quickly got on her knees and crept toward the other side of the bed, far from me.
I pointed a finger at her face. “Stay there.”
Her lips pursed, and red splotched her ears.
The plan originally had been to find her with my men in the desert, take her from them and bring her where I wanted her—far from Kavid—so that she didn’t know who I was.
I grabbed a white cloth and threw it in her face.
Eshe’s jaw dropped, and I could feel her shaking with fury.
She was about to spew something out of her mouth, but I was faster. “Put that on.”
She probably never had anyone tell her what to do, and it showed. The spoiled princess was going to learn today.
“Why?”
“Because I said so.” I glared.
She glared back.
I clenched my fists. “If you don’t put that robe on, I’ll strip you bare and put it on you myself.”
Eshe’s eyes widen. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Provoke me.”
She read my eyes and gave a nervous laugh. “I’m only putting this on so that I can leave this sick, miserable place.”
“Keep saying that.” I smirked, hiding the fact that the pain in my balls still hadn’t completely left.
In a hurry, I packed a bag of valuables and another headscarf.
I walked over to Eshe, who had put on the overly large white robe.
Seeing her wearing my robe did something strange inside my chest. “And this.” I handed her the scarf. “Make sure you hide your face.”
Her teeth gritted, and the sight thrilled me more than it should have.
“Your plan didn’t go as well as you thought, did it?” She snickered.
“Actually, it went exactly as I planned, for the most part. Maybe my men would have liked to steal more from Kavid, but I got exactly what I was looking for. The only thing I didn’t plan for was you hurting my men—or to know I lead the Atrove.”
“Don’t hurt mine,” she mumbled.
I scoffed and rammed my pendant over my head, noticing she still hadn’t placed the scarf around her head.
“And you didn’t plan for my brother to escape from the hands of the Atrove, did you?”
“I couldn’t care less about your brother. But I do know he’ll be here again soon.”
I swung the heavy bag over my shoulder and wrapped the white scarf around my head, covering my tattoos.
She cleared her throat. “Where are you taking me?”
“Somewhere your brother will never find you.” I walked toward her, and she eyed the chamber door. I slowed my steps just enough so she would think she’d have a chance.
I liked a good chase.
“I belong with him. He’s my family.”
“You don’t belong to him.”
“I will belong to Casimir, though.” Her eyes met mine again, and I swear she said that to rile me up. It might have worked if she hadn’t darted toward the door. My arm flung out and caught her waist. Eshe let out a cry from my iron slam.
“Say that again,” I muttered and whirled her in front of me.
Her pulse quickened just under her jaw.
“I belong to Casimir.”
I took a step forward, barely containing my hands.
“Casimir,” she repeated.
My hand flew to her throat.
Eshe’s legs hit my bed, losing her stability as her back fell onto my dark covers. I leaned over her warm, trembling body.
Time stilled as I studied her. My hand was still wrapped around her delicate throat, feeling a racing pulse beneath my fingers.
Her eyes, the color of a festering storm, grew slightly wide, and her full lips parted.
For a moment, I forgot what had just been said, and I brushed my thumb across her pliable lower lip.
Her breath hitched.
Then I pushed down hard.
I imagined what it would be like to grab that lip with my teeth and bite the fuck out of it as punishment.
Hearing Casimir’s name on her lips as if she breathed for him was like nails breaking off on a rocky limestone wall. Felt worse than the balls she nearly busted in me. Though I couldn’t understand why, I couldn’t stand it, and it made my ears burn and bleed inside out.
“If I hear you say his name like that one more time, woman, I’ll lock you in a chamber until you’ve forgotten your own name.”
Her lips opened, but before she could retort, I announced, “We’re leaving.”
After covering Eshe as best as I could, I grabbed her by the elbow and pulled her out of my home.
I knew that Kavid would never find this place, but Eshe didn’t need to know that.
I wanted her to have hope that maybe, just maybe, Kavid would find her, and then it would be crushed into a million pieces when she finally realized she didn’t belong to him.
When we reached the end of the tunnel, I placed my hands in the ridges created within the boulder to force it to the side. Light peered through the crack as I rolled the boulder with all my strength. We slipped through, and I pushed the boulder back to where it naturally lay.
The desert sands lay in front of us, with my horse waiting at a nearby palm tree for the next adventure. The sand sank around our black boots a couple of inches as we approached, and I could feel the warmth of the earth at the soles of my feet.
Not wasting a moment, I placed my hands around Eshe’s waist to lift her onto the saddle, but she slapped them before I could.
A flush of heat spread through my body.
“I can do it myself,” Eshe said sharply. She grabbed onto the saddle and hoisted her body up, but not before my hands wrapped around the reins. She was too smart for her own good. I let her win this time because we didn’t have time for another lesson on obedience.
Once I placed myself directly behind her, and my arms secured around her small frame, I clicked my horse into motion. I dressed us in traditional Atrovian attire to deter any wandering, thieving nomads in the desert. Once they saw a glimpse of all white, most scurried in the opposite direction.
Without fail, the scorching sun beat down on our aching bodies. It had been several hours of blissful silence, though I could feel my muscles tensed with Eshe in my arms. I couldn’t relax with her this close to me.
Ahead of us, I noticed a rumbling storm of dark red brewing.
A dust storm.