Oath Forger (Book 3)

by Nia Mars

  The girl is cheeky, but it suits her. “I haven’t kissed Dason yet.”

  “He’s sweet,” Olipha says. “And, stars, the muscles in his arms. Is he like that everywhere? I didn’t dare accidentally brush my hand over his thigh the other day at breakfast, but I really wanted to. I would have, if Tiam hadn’t been there.”

  A quick burst of laughter escapes me. “Everywhere.”

  Olipha groans as if in pain. “The boys at the Academy are so seriously lame. I could tell you exactly how lame, but I don’t want to make you cry.”

  “Thank you for the consideration.”

  She holds on to her next question, but only for two seconds, then she can’t stop herself any longer. “Why have you not accepted any of the kreks yet?”

  “How do you know I haven’t?”

  “I can feel the tension. It was worse today than the last time I was here. I think they’re at the breaking point.”

  Are they? “Can everybody feel it? Can the committee, do you think?”

  She takes time to think about it, her smooth forehead furrowing. “I tend to sense more in voice than most people. I guess I’m compensating.” She presses her lips together for a second. “But, Ava. It was obvious. Their words had so many edges, I thought I’d get cut just standing in the same room with them.”

  “Will the committee count it against me that I haven’t accepted any of the kreks yet?”

  “If you don’t have the committee’s favor? They might, even though they shouldn’t. They can’t expect you just to meet the five kreks, then instantly jump into bed with all of them.”

  I’m glad she can’t see my face flushing.

  “But could you start?” she asks. “And, please, leave Tiam last. Because I want to hear details, and I can’t go there once my brother joins in.”

  “I’m not sharing details of my sex life with an eighteen-year-old, and that’s final.”

  “I was prepared to make you my favorite friend.”

  “I’m going to live with the demotion to second favorite.”

  She tries to glare at me, but it just makes her look like a disgruntled fairy, and she can’t keep it up for more than a second before she’s grinning again.

  “Could we at least talk about Roax? That voice!” She groans. “How do you resist following him around, muttering ‘Yes, Master’?”

  I can’t help laughing as I shake my head.

  “It’s not easy. It helps that he’s such a jackass. My auto-response to obey him is tempered by the frequent and acute impulse to punch him in the face.”

  Olipha giggles. “Is he as hot as he sounds?”

  “Hotter.”

  “Body?”

  “Ridiculous.”

  She sighs. “Next time I come to breakfast, I’m going to accidentally brush my fingers against his butt.”

  “I wouldn’t recommend it.”

  She sighs. “Sorry. He’s yours.”

  Is he? Why do I like the sound of that so much? “He’s not mine.”

  “But he will be.”

  “Perhaps.” I try not to remember coming in a pulsing explosion of pleasure, rubbing myself over his hard cock in the garden. I was carried away. I wasn’t thinking right. Now I’m so embarrassed, I can barely meet his eyes. And every time he looks at me now, he has this knowing look on his face!

  Olipha falls silent for a couple of seconds, so I ask my own question. “Does anybody know yet why you were kidnapped?”

  “The assumption is that it was for ransom. Since all the kidnappers are dead, we can’t ask them.” She shrugs. “We might never know.”

  We talk some more, then Olipha takes off for the Academy, promising to visit me again soon, and I head back to my quarters. Which is empty for a change, no lurking kreks. Excellent.

  My gaze moves to the wall of windows. The garden outside is cast in shade, the sun hidden. The clouds are darker than usual. Does that mean rain? I love rain. On Earth, any kind of precipitation is increasingly rare.

  I call for Taly, and she appears in under five minutes, popping in just as I start examining my closet.

  “Madam.”

  I turn to her and frown. She looks pale, although, it might be just from the grayish light of the cloudy sky.

  “Are you all right, Taly?”

  She looks uncomfortable that I should ask. She always wants to be at her best. “Of course, Madam.”

  I tell her about my new social engagements, and from the way she beams, she approves the idea of me getting out of the palace and visiting with the people. She looks fine now. Maybe it had been just the cloud cover.

  “So...” I look into my wardrobe. “What does one wear to a masked ball around here?”

  The idea of the masked ball cheers her even more. “I’m going to call in the best designers. You’ll need dresses for the other two occasions as well.”

  She frowns.

  I wonder if my other two appearances are not to her liking for some reason. Before I can ask, she presses a hand to her stomach.

  “Taly? Are you sure you’re all right?”

  Even as she forces a smile, panic flashes in her eyes. I step toward her. There’s something drastically wrong.

  She bends forward as if someone smacked her back, and then she opens her mouth, but she can’t tell me how I could help, because the next second she’s vomiting a crimson waterfall.

  As she folds, I leap forward to catch her, and together we collapse in the growing pool of blood at our feet. “Taly!”

  Her scared gaze searches my face. Help! Her slim fingers gnarl into claws as her hands clutch at her stomach.

  “What is it?” I can’t do anything but hold her and panic. It’s the most horrible, helpless feeling I never ever want to feel again. I open my mouth to shout for the guards outside the door, but then the entire wall display flashes on, and my words die in my throat.

  LEAVE.

  LEAVE. LEAVE. LEAVE. Over and over.

  My blood chills. My heartbeat slows, then—thud, thud, thud—grows louder, beating in my ears.

  Taly is limp in my arms. Only a second or two have passed, but in that short time, her eyes have turned unseeing. A low keen works itself up my tightening throat. She’s gone. I have missed her last breath.

  The pressure in my head isn’t a slow build this time. It’s there in an instant. The crackling in my ears is so loud that I think I’m going to go deaf.

  And that’s before the explosion hits.

  The glass wall to the garden blows first. And then the giant glass cupola comes down and cuts me into shreds.

  Chapter Eight

  “DO IT!” ROAX ORDERS in the darkness as I float in pain.

  Where am I? What happened? I want to see. I need to see! I panic and flail.

  Strong hands hold me down the next second.

  “We’re here, Oath Forger,” Uthan’s voice promises. “We’re here. We’re not going anywhere.”

  “You will live,” Roax orders. Then, in a tone of desperation I’ve never heard from him before, “Do it, Dason!”

  A warm, tentative tongue licks my neck.

  Everything fades black.

  I AM IN THE MIDDLE OF MY BED, surrounded by five large, prone bodies, The Five, sleeping. Above me I can see the moon through the cupola’s glass.

  Glass.

  My memories rush back. The explosion. Pain.

  “Taly!” I bolt upright as I try to catch my breath.

  Hard, masculine bodies rise and push in, strong arms surround me.

  “Ava.”

  “Oath Forger.”

  “What happened to Taly?”

  Uthan takes my face into his hands. I can see the grief in his golden eyes, even in the dim moonlight. “She’s gone.”

  Pain howls through me. Tears roll down my cheeks. “How?”

  He wipes my tears away with the pads of his thumbs. “Poison.”

  A wide chest presses against my back. Koah. His arms circle my midriff to hold me safe. Tiam rises to press a
kiss to the top of my head.

  “The display came up again...” I swallow back a sob. LEAVE. LEAVE. LEAVE. It’d been all around me on the walls. Then Taly died.

  “We know. It was still up when we got here.” The words come in a dark, cold tone, as Roax takes my hands. “We thought you were dead. Don’t ever do that again.”

  I can feel Dason at my feet, his fingers closing around my ankle. He rubs the top of my foot with his thumb.

  I should feel crowded. Instead, I feel comforted.

  I catch my breath. “Do you know who?”

  “We will,” Roax promises in a tone of pure murder. “And then the bastard will be dead.”

  He really didn’t even need to add that last part. The kill vibe rolling off him says it all.

  “Taly died because of me.” Oh God. “Why? Why not just poison me, if someone hates me that much?”

  It had to be poison. The way she’d doubled over...the way she’d vomited blood.

  “For one, we’d track the bastard to the end of the universe,” Koah says.

  “So they just want me to leave.” I choke back a sob as grief and anger duel inside me. “It’s the Zebet. When I come into power, their own power will lessen.”

  Tiam shifts even closer. “I’m investigating that already.”

  “Give her room,” Uthan tells him. “Give her room to lie down.” Then to me, “You must rest. The doctors wanted to keep you in the med center for another day, but we couldn’t get into the bed with you there.”

  I look at him as I process that information. “How long was I out?”

  “Two days.”

  My breath catches as panic rushes back into every cell of my body, chilling me through. “So the hearing is tomorrow?”

  “We will demand an extension.” Roax’s tone brooks no argument.

  I argue anyway. “I’m not sure if I want one. I think I’d prefer to have the interrogation over with.”

  My brain is still sluggish. I can’t think about the hearing right now. I’ll think about it later.

  “I don’t remember anything after the explosion. Was there a bomb? Was anyone else hurt?”

  “Just you,” Koah tells me, and his words carry so much pain, it’s as if they’re bleeding.

  “We think,” Tiam says, “that someone filled the room with a kind of odorless, combustible gas, then somehow introduced a spark. It’s the only explanation we have come up with so far. We could find no trace of a bomb. No trace of any gasses either, but they could have escaped when the windows blew out.”

  My head is turned to the side. I’m facing Uthan. His expression is neutral, maybe too carefully so. I think he might know something the others don’t. He watches me in silence, his gaze searching, as if he’s trying to see under the surface.

  I close my eyes. Then I open them again, as a semi-coherent memory hits. “Did somebody lick me?”

  Dason’s fingers tighten around my ankle. “I did.”

  It doesn’t even phase me that much, considering everything else that has happened, but I can’t help asking, “Why?”

  Tiam answers. “Dason’s ancestors were beast masters. His people lived on a planet in a symbiotic relationship with giant beasts that had healing powers. Eventually, the beasts went extinct, but they passed their healing powers on to their humans. The power is weaker now, after so many generations, and it doesn’t always manifest reliably. It works through the healing compounds that’s in their saliva. Can’t be synthetized. I’ve tried.”

  Of course, he did.

  I accept his story, because what else can I do, really? Running screaming from the room isn’t an option. I’m too weak to run.

  “Why didn’t you just put me in the med unit?”

  “You spent hours in the med unit. And had a blood transfusion from Koah, because he wouldn’t let them give you artificial blood, even though the doctors tested you and said it would be safe.”

  “The med unit wasn’t enough,” Dason tells me quietly. “You had too much damage. The technology is good, but it’s not perfect.”

  So he licked me back to life. I don’t even know what to do with that thought. I can clearly remember his tongue on my neck.

  Then I remember something else, something Uthan had told me a while back. “Do you all have powers? Aren’t all kreks supposed to have them?”

  I’d meant to ask Uthan about that again, but I’ve been distracted by the whole committee confirmation and possible-exile-to-an-uninhabited-mining-planet thing.

  I turn to Tiam who lies over my head. “Dason has healing. Uthan is a mystic...”

  Koah comes up to his elbow. “He told you he was a mystic?”

  I snap my gaze back to Uthan, and flinch. “Sorry. Was that a secret?”

  Uthan gives me a reassuring smile. “It’s fine. You’re here now. We’re no longer enemies.”

  “I already knew,” Tiam scoffs. “I do have spies. I’m only surprised that you told her.”

  “I don’t have secrets from the Oath Forger.”

  I flinch again. “Sorry about my big mouth.”

  “Your mouth is perfect.” Uthan lifts my hands to his lips and kisses them. “Tiam has control over fire.”

  I suddenly remember telling Uthan that I was worried about the fire in the fireplace in the library, about the proximity of flames to priceless books. It’s Tiam’s thing, he had said by way of explanation.

  I just thought Tiam liked fire. I didn’t realize he controlled it.

  “Koah?” I turn my head to him. He’s right behind me.

  “Precognition. Extremely unreliable.” He pauses. “I think part of the reason I decided to attend that particular Zebet session was because I knew you’d be there. I had a restless feeling all day, as if somebody was coming, as if I’d forgotten an appointment. I checked my schedule a dozen times. Then you walked in, and it was like... There she is.”

  I store this, too, for later.

  “Roax?”

  He gives a grunt of reluctance. “I can, sometimes, compel people.”

  Okay, I probably could have guessed that.

  “We’ll talk more in the morning,” he says in his and-that’s-that tone. “Rest.”

  I try, staring up at the moon. The silver light looks cold, but the temperature in the room is comfortable. The fire in the hearth is warm enough so we won’t need blankets. “The glass is back in the ceiling.”

  “This time, it’s shatterproof,” Tiam tells me with satisfaction.

  “Should have been shatterproof in the first place,” Roax snaps at him.

  “We’ve never had attacks like this in Merim.” Uthan’s voice is both calm and calming at the same time. “Merim has always been neutral in every war. And the Oath Forger’s palace, specifically, has always been sacred.”

  “Regular glass is thinner and clearer,” Tiam explains. “It was chosen for aesthetic reasons when the windows were originally installed. But we’re not going to take chances with your safety again.”

  “Damn right, we won’t,” Roax mutters darkly. “Now that I’m here.”

  The way the men are lying around me, each one of them is touching some part of me. We are like a giant pile of puppies. Their nearness feels reassuring, and right in some primal way.

  “Senator Seke offered to return me to Earth,” I say into the semi-darkness.

  They all tense. Roax swears under his breath.

  “I told her I couldn’t possibly leave. My kreks are here.”

  Roax rises up onto his elbow and brushes a kiss across my lips before pulling back. The contact lasts only a second. Then Koah does the same. Then Tiam. Then Uthan. Then Dason.

  Dason leaves his forehead leaning against mine for a moment.

  “Thank you, Oath Forger,” he whispers.

  I lift my lips to his for a second kiss. “Thank you for saving my life, Dason.”

  Chapter Nine

  I WAKE UP IN THE MORNING enfolded in Koah’s arms, my head resting on his chest. For one second, I’m happ
y, then I remember Taly and my heart breaks all over again. As if he can sense it, Koah draws his arms tighter.

  We’re the only two in the bed, lying in the middle, the covers making a cozy, warm nest around us. I take this perfect moment and save it in my memories. I have a feeling I’m going to need it today.

  I shift against Koah. “Where did everybody go?”

  “Off to investigate the attack. They’ll be back. We thought one of us should stay here with you.”

  “And how did you decide who it would be?”

  “Tembrian swords. Blindfolded.” He clears his throat. “In the garden.”

  What else? I don’t even comment. I assume Koah would tell me if anybody was seriously injured or dead.

  But then, I can’t resist, after all. I move my head just enough so I can see his face. “How is that done, exactly?”

  Koah puffs out his chest, which raises my head. “First, the opponents are stripped.”

  “Of course.”

  “Then they’re dug into the ground up to their knees to hold them in place. At a distance so they can reach each other only with the tip of their swords.”

  “Shallow cuts.”

  He nods. “The style of duel was developed hundreds of years ago and used by the noble houses and royal families. This way, honor could be satisfied without anybody being killed.”

  “How do you decide who wins? First blood?”

  “First to forfeit. After a few dozen cuts, the pain accumulates.”

  I can only imagine.

  He looks very pleased with himself that he’d won.

  Men and their games.

  He brushes the hair back from my face, and the pride glowing in his eyes from his victory turns to concern. “How are you, my Ava?”

  “Heartbroken for Taly. I’m going to miss her.” I pause. “I’d like to meet her family, if I can.”

  Koah brushes a kiss across my forehead. “I’m sure they would like that. I’ll set it up. And I’ll go with you, if you don’t mind.”

  I plant a kiss on his chest. “Thank you. I’d like that.”

  Then I remember the woman with the lavender eyes at the informal confirmation committee meeting. That odd moment when she’d passed Koah at the buffet table, the palpable tension between the two of them. The things I’d learned from Senator Seke.