Crucible of Fate

by Mary Calmes

  The color drained from his face, and I could tell that he was smart enough to know what was about to happen.

  “The temple of Satis will no longer house the priest of Chae Rophon, because from this day forward, there will no longer be a priest of Chae Rophon. I strip you of your title and station and banish you to the tribe of Mafdet, there to serve the semel-netjer. You will understand real power when you stand before him.”

  “I—”

  “Satis will become a school,” I said, my voice rising. “Where anyone may go to learn and live as they study the law. All the vaults and rooms there will be opened and the contents catalogued. No mystery will remain—all artwork and treasure found there will be shared, and any wealth hidden in Satis will be restored to the tribe of Rahotep.”

  The roar of approval made the priest shudder.

  “All staff at Satis will remain, as they will all report to Jamal Hassan, who will take the position of guardian of the law, or menthu, of Satis.”

  I was smiling as I did a quick spin on my heel and found Jamal staring up at me like he had seen a ghost.

  “You are worthy of the title,” I proclaimed, enjoying myself, “and the Shu will guard you and no longer serve me, the semel-aten. My sheseru and my private guard will see to my protection. They perhaps both thought I have lost faith in them, which I have not.”

  I didn’t even have to see Taj to know he would be struck by my faith in him and his khatyu.

  Almost.

  I had almost made the mistake of distancing myself from my own house, putting faith in assassins instead of those loyal to me. But now the Shu had their own commander to protect, and that would please them, as there was no longer a divided loyalty. I had reclaimed my own sheseru and my khatyu, and they would swell with pride. It took me a while sometimes, but I could make everything work.

  “I will no longer be the semel-aten, but as our beloved priest, Hamid Shamon, baptized me, will now truly be akhen-aten. I will change the direction of my reign and will bring about great change. The new era for Sobek will be Harmakhet, the new dawn.”

  The hall exploded with cheering.

  “We will sweep away the old Sobek and create a new modern city that will rise from the ashes of the old and be a mecca of prosperity. The outside world will be allowed in Sobek, industry will thrive, and nothing will be as it has been.”

  No one could hear a thing over the din of hundreds of voices raised together.

  There would be resistance, I knew, but the old Sobek was over and a new one was coming. It would take me years, I knew, but the building would start immediately.

  I needed werepanthers from all over the world to come and make their homes in Sobek. I wanted diversity and change, and because the city and all the land belonged to me (it was deeded to each and every semel-aten), I could make that happen. I would find the best people, the smartest, the most ingenious from every tribe in the world, and together we would build our new state.

  Of course, I had just put a giant bull’s-eye on my back, but change was scary. I would just have to be careful. The Shu themselves had tried to kill me and been unsuccessful; standing against anyone or anything else would be easy. I hoped.

  I descended to the floor and moved until I stood in front of Asdiel Kovo, only my khatyu and Taj keeping the crowd out of the small circle of men.

  “My lord, you—”

  “No.” I stepped in close so he could hear me over the joyous noise of the gathered throng. “Your time is past. We don’t need a priest of Chae Rophon anymore; we don’t need the same rules and penalties. The tribe of Rahotep is still just a tribe. It can’t function in this bubble anymore. Instead it will be like every other family headed by a semel the world over.”

  “You—”

  “We need someone to lead us out of the darkness, not keep us inside.”

  “You would annihilate every tradition! You—”

  “It’s over, it’s done. All of this that you and some of the others hope to keep alive does no one any good. If people were prospering, if everyone in the community was thriving, I’d say yes, keep it like it is, but that’s not the case. We have poverty and crime and homelessness. That is not acceptable, and I won’t have it.”

  “You won’t?” he roared. “And who are you to make these new laws for the rest of us? You are nothing! You are no one!”

  “I was the semel-aten, and now I am akhen-aten, who will lead us into our new day.”

  “You’re mad with power!”

  “I want what is best for my tribe.”

  “These people are not your tribe!”

  “They are more mine than yours,” I enlightened him.

  He moved close to me. “You may call yourself by this new title, by this ‘akhen-aten’, but you will not be able to deliver this city from—”

  “I will.” I signaled for Taj, who was there with a few of his khatyu immediately. “The priest has no family, that was the law, so you will go to Logan Church and—”

  “Did you think I missed the coming of this overthrow of my power, Domin Thorne?” he snarled. “Are you under some mistaken belief that I thought you an honorable man?”

  I frowned.

  “And while it’s true that I do not have the legions of followers that you do, there is still one I can count on, still one who will do my bidding.”

  “Tell me, please, who this is lost soul, so that I may go and save him or her from your mad delusion.”

  “You will know soon enough,” he confirmed. “When what you love most is taken from you, remember that it was on my order that it was done. I took from you. I ended his life.”

  Yuri.

  “He’s already dead.” he hissed.

  I never saw the knife.

  Chapter 6

  MY VISION went white. Everything hurt, and there was screaming and yelling and something hot flecked over my face before I collapsed. I couldn’t breathe; my heart was in a vise because all I could think of was Yuri.

  My mate.

  The city of Ipis, the tribe of Feran… Hakkan Tarek… he had my mate. He had Yuri. Men loyal to the priest, or at least to an antiquated law, had my mate. I had to get him back.

  The thought consumed me even as my body convulsed in pain.

  I had to shift. My body wanted me to shift.

  But if I changed into a panther, there would be nothing of me left. I was an animal. I needed to retain my faculties and….

  Werepanther.

  I could shift into my half-man/half-panther form, but that would take so much energy and I didn’t seem to have any, and….

  My vision changed, the angle dropped, and then there was only the sweet coppery smell of blood and the ripple of fear. I charged forward to kill it, whatever was weak and injured and ready to die.

  I was pushed down to the floor so hard that all the air rushed from my lungs and I was left gasping, choking, like a fish out of water.

  “Domin!”

  I was drowning and rolled to my stomach and vomited up blood.

  “Domin, you must shift!”

  But I could tell I had done it once already and I didn’t want to do it again. There was something wrong with my body. I was hurt, and I wanted to lie down even as I needed to get to Yuri.

  I had to save Yuri.

  “Domin! Shift!”

  It was a command from my maahes, and I bristled at his hubris. How dare he tell me what to do?

  “You’re going to bleed to death if you don’t shift!”

  The heaving continued and became retching that I could not control.

  “No, Jin!”

  Crane sounded frantic, which meant that to get me to shift Jin would not simply let his power rise as he’d probably done once already, but would this time use his power as a call. In my weakened state, I would respond to his pheromones, and the moment I desired him, I would be sucked through my shift, and yanked inside out in a violent, painful rush.

  I would not. I was the semel-aten and had just finally bapti
zed myself anew, as I had been considering for the past month. My only regret was that Yuri had not been there to hear what I’d announced. Just imagining the glow in his eyes….

  For the life of me, I could not pinpoint the exact moment when I had fallen in love with Yuri Kosa. I had said I loved him in Mongolia because those were the words he needed to hear for him to go with me. But I hadn’t really loved him, not then.

  But now… if he was there, if he were with me….

  “Domin, please!”

  Koren’s voice, as though that would—but I had to thank him and I’d almost forgotten. I needed everything balanced between us.

  “Koren,” I coughed because it was all I could get out.

  “Domin,” he said softly, and I felt his hands on my chest, on my throat, in my hair. “Oh, please.”

  “Thank you for standing beside me at the challenge,” I said, and then it was like my body was set on fire and my bones were melting under my skin.

  MY EYES blinked open, and I found Jin, Crane, and Jamal.

  They were stunned.

  I scowled, which made Jin’s face light up.

  “I had to remind the disbelievers that they were in the presence of a semel, not a regular cat. You do not shift enough; they have all forgotten about your power.”

  “Of course,” I said, clenching my jaw as I swatted at their hands and moved fast, much too fast, rolling to my feet in one fluid movement. “Did you call Yuri? Did he answer his phone?”

  I would have fallen if Koren hadn’t been there suddenly to catch my shoulder and brace me.

  “Domin,” he said. My name was infused with more feeling than I thought the man capable of. “Be careful, you lost so much blood.”

  “Did he answer?”

  “No, my lord,” Jamal responded. “We have tried; there is no answer.”

  I realized then that I was naked from the waist up, splattered in blood, with an enormous, puffy, red barely healed scar extending from my abdomen to my left pectoral.

  My eyes lifted to Koren’s clear olive ones.

  “The priest had a dagger,” he said. “You would be dead if it hadn’t been for Jin.”

  I looked over my shoulder at the mate of the semel-netjer. He was in a robe with nothing underneath, I was betting.

  “Thank you for saving my life.”

  Jin’s eyes glittered, the light in the clear gray eyes really something to see.

  “The wound in your stomach is deep,” Koren clarified as I held Jin’s gaze. “The knife was only dragged across your chest, the damage merely superficial, just a scratch in comparison. Had Jin not put himself between you and the priest, he would have had your heart.”

  “And what has happened to the priest?”

  “The nekhene cat dismembered him,” Jamal chimed in to tell me.

  The idea that the delicate man I was seeing—because even at five eleven he was still fragile—being strong enough or fearsome enough to rip through flesh, muscle, and bone was shocking. And there he stood, contained, even demure, staring at me from behind his mask of serene tranquility.

  “Did you frighten everyone?” I demanded to know.

  “I did, my lord,” he reported. “But when your wound was shown and the weapon discovered, I was less terrifying and more avenging angel.”

  “Good.” I exhaled slowly, realizing that I was drained and barely able to stand, but having a burning question for Jamal. “When did you start calling Yuri?”

  “The second we knew you would live, my lord, the moment we could stop focusing on you, we tried calling him.”

  “And he hasn’t picked up?”

  “No, my lord,” he slowly uttered. “His phone must be off.”

  But I knew they were trying to call a regular cell phone, not a satellite one.

  “Koren shared with us that Yuri had taken the wrong phone, as he heard a conversation that you and Ebere had about it.”

  I had forgotten Logan’s brother had been in the room as well.

  “So it could be anything, any interference between here and Ipis, but it could also simply be, as I said, off.”

  I absorbed that. “Jamal.”

  “My lord?”

  “Keep trying to call Yuri.”

  “Of course,” he said, sounding pained. “Now, would you please go to your room? If you could see the hue of your skin, you—”

  “It doesn’t matter about me. You have to find Yuri!” I yelled and exerting that much energy made my knees buckle.

  Koren pulled me close, bracing me with his slightly taller frame. “Put your arm around my neck.”

  I did as I was directed.

  “Lean on me, for once.”

  Something sarcastic and barbed lay on the tip of my tongue, but his face, turned into me, behind my ear, flooded me with comfort. It was instinctive, his nuzzling, one cat to another, but it calmed me, the man I was, not simply the animal. “I’ll take you to your room,” he said, his voice a sultry purr over my skin. “Let me.”

  I was light-headed.

  “We’ll be right behind you with water and meat,” Crane rasped, pushing Jin forward.

  “You’ll keep trying Yuri’s phone?”

  “Of course,” Crane gave me his word. “But please, Domin, you have to rest.”

  “But—”

  “Please,” Jin insisted.

  I tried to pull away from Koren. “I think I can walk on my own,” I said, sounding drunk as I accidentally bumped noses with him. “I don’t need your help.”

  “You’re going to have to take it,” he said, gesturing for Jamal to hook my other arm over his broad shoulders.

  Had Yuri been there, I would have been carried.

  It was just another reason to miss the man.

  IN MY room they placed me gently on the bed and propped pillows behind my back and under my feet. I wanted to move, but there was no way until I ate and drank. Sprawled out, I regarded Koren and Jamal.

  “What if he’s already dead?”

  Jamal shook his head. “No one in their right mind puts their hands on the mate of the semel-aten.”

  “But that’s the point—they’re crazy.”

  “Who, my lord? This threat of the priest’s, it could be empty.”

  “Then why isn’t Yuri answering his phone?”

  “There could be a million reasons,” Jamal said tightly. “You know that as well as I.”

  “I need to know that he’s okay.”

  “Of course.”

  “Send men to Ipis now.”

  “Your sheseru took it upon himself to do that, my lord. Taj is on his way to Ipis as we speak, with fifty men and ten of the Shu.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes, my lord, he left moments ago, when I convinced him that you would live.”

  “Why was he waiting to—”

  “He needed to know first” was all Jamal said.

  “Why?”

  “Why do you think, idiot?” Koren chided. “Because he’s your goddamn sheseru and he’s not leaving until he knows that you’re okay.”

  “But if Logan were hurt but Jin was in danger, then—”

  “Don’t compare Yuri to Jin! One is a true-mate and the other is an infatuation that will soon wane.”

  “Kor—”

  “If you were dying and Yuri was your reah or your yareah, all effort would be immediately made to bring him to the semel. After you and Logan went after each other in the pit that time, Mikhail went immediately to bring Jin to Logan.”

  “Yes, I—”

  “But Yuri is not your mate. Whatever name you want to call him by is fine, but two men, unless you happen to find another male reah somewhere, will never be maat.”

  I shook my head.

  “It’s not, Domin. Panther law does not recognize—”

  “I know what it recognizes, and I will change the law for all panthers, not just me.”

  “And you can, and you will, I have no doubt of that. But until then, a man like Taj, who places greater i
mportance on you than on Yuri, is going to wait to make sure you’re okay before he runs off into the night to check on your boyfriend.”

  “Whatever you want to say, he is my mate.” I coughed hard, which sent a wave of pain through my entire body.

  “Please, my semel,” Jamal began. “You need to—”

  “What if it’s Constantine?” The question was directed at Jamal. “What if he’s the one who’s going to kill Yuri?”

  “Constantine is a member of your khatyu, my lord. You must believe in your own men.”

  I didn’t trust anyone at the moment.

  “Constantine would lay down his life to protect Yuri. Look somewhere else for betrayal, not at your own house.”

  “My own house?” I snarled. “Are you fucking kidding? Like my house is so sacred and secure? Like I’m so beloved that no one would try and hurt me? Are you listening to yourself?”

  “My lord—”

  “Elham El Masry had the nice lady that brought me breakfast, lunch, and dinner try to poison me. If it wasn’t for you, I’d be dead.”

  Koren gasped, but I didn’t care. Let him be shocked.

  “Yes, I—”

  “So don’t give me the whole ‘in my house’ bullshit. Anyone could be trying to kill him. Anyone! I trust you, Kabore, my sylvan and my sheseru, my mastaba—oh.” I had a sudden thought because my brain was firing all at once and I couldn’t keep anything straight. “Did someone call Ebere and tell her that Crane won the challenge?”

  “No, my lord.”

  “Well, for crissakes, she’s gonna want to know.”

  “Yes, my lord.” He sounded pained. “But would you please just—”

  “Anyone in the tribe of Feran could be trying to kill him.”

  “My lord, aren’t you forgetting who Yuri is?”

  “I don’t understand what—”

  “He’s not some weak creature easily overcome; he was a sheseru and one of the strongest panthers I have ever seen. He will not be easily dispatched, my lord.”

  “Unless he’s taken by surprise.”

  Jamal shook his head. “I’m sorry, but I see him as far too capable.”