“Right you should because they didn’t want you dead, they wanted you alive. They want all Halflings alive. That’s why a band of Watchers came for you.”
“Quit spinning tales, Enar. All in my village knew that if a child was born with magic, the Draconi would come to take them away and kill them. It’s why I was supposed to be hidden.”
“I can’t leave you here. Draconi females are supposed to be protected.”
“I...am...NOT...Draconi! And leaving me here never bothered you or anyone else before. Don’t change on account you noticed my birthmark.” She rose to her feet, weaving a bit. One arm extended, pointing to the door. “Go. Take your woman and leave. Stop spinning tales and telling lies.”
Taking a deep breath, Ayla walked through the beaded curtain into the hall, leaving Lily alone with Enar.
Leaving sounded good. Leaving this place, this people, those scary-eyed men. Great idea. Best one she’d heard all day. Using Enar’s shoulders to heave herself to her feet, Lily headed toward the door. Enar still knelt, watching where Ayla had disappeared. A whisper of a thought crossed her mind, he wanted to chase Ayla down and take her with them.
“Then take her.”
Enar whipped around, eyes wide. “If I could I would.”
“What’s stopping you?”
“Her necklace. If she leaves without Father, then she will die. It’s part of the magic.”
“What kind of messed up magic is that?” One hand touched her necklace and for once she was glad the thing was broken.
“I don’t know. It keeps the woman here or with her Watcher. I never questioned it.” He rose to his feet and grabbed her arm. With his other hand, he slung the knapsack containing her clothes over one shoulder and pushed open the door. “We need to pick up my things and then we need to go to the Temple.”
“Why?”
“Quiet.” Enar dropped the metal bar into its resting place, locking in the claims. “Eyes down, remember. I’ll explain later.”
Lily’s head spun as she followed Enar to his room. What else had he not told her? How many more revelations could she take in a day?
“Stand here.”
Lily raised her eyes, only to see a row of wooden doors. Enar opened one of them and motioned for her to stand in the doorway while he grabbed his packs off the floor. The bare room with its bed, chair and stone floor exuded loneliness despite the bright sunlight drifting through the window.
And he’d rather stay in this room by himself than with her?
“Come. The sooner we leave here the better.”
At least they agreed on something.
Playing the meek-mannered claim, Lily slung her bag over her shoulder and followed Enar through the town gates, trying to decide what she felt more: anger, fear or surprise. Enar must have been dealing with his own issues as he remained quiet, setting a quick pace once they left the confines of the village walls.
Not so quick a pace she couldn’t pepper him with questions. “Why did you leave me there?”
“I told you. That’s where claims stay.”
“Well, I didn’t appreciate being left in that house.”
“I didn’t have a choice.”
“You always have a choice.”
“All right. I choose to walk faster and make it to the Temple sooner.” His stride left her almost jogging to keep up.
If she jogged, she couldn’t talk. And standing in the middle of the road yelling at his retreating back didn’t do anything except give her a sore throat.
Men.
The sun beat down from its apex and still Enar remained silent, marching along like a soldier on a mission. When the stone walls of the Temple appeared on the horizon, he slowed his stride. Good thing too seeing as her legs ached from the effort to keep his pace. If he thought distance made her questions disappear, he had another thing coming.
“Hey!”
Enar turned, one brow cocked. “What?”
“Why get so upset Ayla is part Draconi? Shouldn’t you have gotten upset over the way she was treated, which had nothing to do with whether or not she’s a Draconi?”
He looked at her for a moment, his gaze turning into ice-blue rocks. Lily shivered.
“As a Watcher, we are trained to revere Draconi females. Not to the extent a Draconi male would, but enough to value her. Draconi females possess a lot of magic and it’s said the Goddess dwells in them. For my Father to claim one is despicable. It’s not done.”
“So it’s all right for other women to be abused like so many of the claims are? How could you let those women live like that?”
His jaw tensed. “I never said I liked it. You of all people know I don’t agree with it. But it’s the way of things. I can’t take any of them out of there. I can’t even free my mother. What do you expect me to do about it?” Fists clenched, he stopped to face her.
Lily took a step back. “I don’t know! But something needs to be done. They can’t live like that!”
“I’m doing something now! We’re getting my mother out of there. She’s Draconi, they’ll take care of her. As for the rest, I don’t know.”
With a glare, he turned on his heel and strode down the road. Four steps later he stopped and whirled back around. “Taking a claim is part of being a Watcher. And if I hadn’t claimed you, you’d be back in your village. So you should be glad Watchers take claims.”
Lily watched him stride off. After four strides, she jogged to catch up. “You would have taken me anyway. Even if you had a claim.”
“You’re the perfect embodiment of a claim. White hair, white skin, light eyes. You’re right. I had to take you. And I had to show you off. Show everyone that I,” he whacked his chest, pride infusing his words, “I claimed you. So yes, you’d still be here even if I had another claim.”
Something snapped inside her. “So you took me because I looked perfect? It had nothing to do with me?”
“Woman, I just said it had everything to do with you. Do you not listen?”
“Me not listen? I’ve heard every word you said, every lie you told me!”
“I’ve never lied to you. What’s wrong with you? You’re...upset.”
“Upset? Upset? Why wouldn’t I be upset?” Anger pulsed inside her, a snake coiling in her veins. Her normal even-temperament welcomed the rarely used emotion.
The one person she trusted, who she loved, betrayed her. So, yes, the description fit.
“I said we’re going to do something about my mother. And maybe the Draconi can do something about the other women too.”
“Great! I’m sure they’ll all be happy to know the only reason anyone is doing anything is because one of them was a Draconi.”
“But you’re still upset.”
“Of course I’m upset! How can you think I’d be otherwise?”
“I said I’d ask the Draconi to do something about the claims.”
“This has nothing to do with them! Why can’t you understand?”
If his teeth got any closer together they’d fuse. “I’m trying. You’re not making sense.”
She knew anger consumed her, knew to continue speaking would only hurt matters, but really, how much worse could they get? And some part, granted a very small, and yet loud spoken part, wanted to make him hurt like she did.
It embarrassed her to know the small part won.
“That’s because you’re not listening! You don’t care! You’ve never cared!” Even through her temper, she knew that wasn’t true, but she was on a roll. “I thought I meant something to you, but you lied to me about everything. About being a claim, about where I’d stay, about your mother, your father and everything else about you. And you don’t understand that I’m upset?”
Birds squawked and flew out of the trees at Lily’s escalating voice. Enar blinked, all other parts frozen as he stared at her.
“Lily...”
Thank the Goddess the Temple was directly ahead because she could barely see for the tears pooling in her eyes. If she could only make it to the Temple then she wouldn’t have to see him again.
She ran, the stupid white dress she didn’t bother to change out of catching between her legs. Yanking it above her knees she ran faster and darted into the Temple Courtyard, Enar so close behind her she felt his breath on her neck.
He grabbed her arm. “Lily. You belong to me. You wear my necklace. You will always be mine.”
“Oh you think? Well, you died and the necklace fell off.” She pulled hard and the shoddy repair work snapped. Pitching the necklace on the ground she pulled a hand across her eyes. “There, have your bloody necklace. I don’t belong to you anymore.”
With a sob she ran through the Temple doors, calling for the High Priestess, Aryana.
Chapter 23
Enar stood staring at Lily as she ran away from him, her necklace in a broken heap at his feet. Pain spread throughout his chest like a kick in the ribs, and he sucked down a lungful of air in a vain effort to soothe the ache. When he blinked, his vision wavered as if he looked through smoke. Rapid blinking followed by a swipe under his eyes solved the problem.
The priestesses and acolytes stared at him with confusion or pity before lowering their eyes and scurrying off, leaving him alone with the necklace and the sounds of chirping, happy birds. Blithering birds with their happy little songs. He picked up the necklace and fired it at the branch holding the closest trilling avian. Startled, the bird flew to another branch and continued to sing.
So much for silence.
He picked up the necklace, running his fingers over the round stones. He should run in after Lily, but she clearly didn’t want him and he couldn’t blame her. He’d lied to her, left her alone with his mother and allowed other Watchers to leer at her, all to show her off. All to prove he was as much a man as the next Watcher.
And what did he get for his pride?
The loss of his woman.
He knew he’d lose her if he took her back to his village, but thought the loss worth the acceptance he’d see in the other Watchers’ gazes and the pride he hoped to see in his father’s eyes.
Now that he’d visited the land of been-there-done-that, he realized her loss wasn’t worth it.
He lived with the shuns and taunts his entire life, along with his father’s hate. Why hadn’t he stayed with Thoren and Keara instead of taking Lily back to the Watcher’s village where he knew he’d lose her—dare he say it—love?
No, he’d had to bring her home, to follow tradition, to assuage his pride.
He was a blithering idiot.
Once he got her back, and he would win her back if it was the last thing he did, they’d settle here, among the Draconi. Who apparently were his blood too.
And wasn’t that a scary thought?
Which brought him back to the reasons he came to the Temple in the first place. His mother seemed to be a Draconi and a group of Watchers planned to kill their Draconi wards. In the grand scheme of things, both of those little niceties should rank higher than chasing a woman, but neither seemed as important as getting Lily back. Without her necklace on, he no longer owned her as a claim, which meant he needed to persuade her she belonged to him without using his persuasive magic.
How did one go about seducing a woman without using magic?
Goddess’s toes, he’d hung around Thoren too long and was turning into a simpering male pining for his female. Oh, wait, maybe all that pining was because he had some Draconi blood in him.
Enar cursed.
He wanted Lily but needed to find Thoren. His friend would know what to do about all his dilemmas. Provided Thoren wasn’t locked in his room with Keara. Why hadn’t he thought of that before he came to the Temple grounds?
A disturbance shivered the air around him and Aryana appeared. Her green eyes narrowed, she took two steps toward him and slapped him across the face.
“What in the name of the Goddess was that for?” Enar rubbed his sore cheek. Who knew the female could wield a slap that hard?
“How dare you upset Lily! I can’t even get a word out of her, she’s sobbing so hard.”
He rubbed at the ache that grew in his chest with her words. “So how do you know it’s my fault?”
“Who else’s fault would it be?”
She had him there. Not that he’d admit it. “I need to talk to Thoren.”
“Thoren’s busy with Keara. You’ll be lucky to see either of them for a week. Who you need to speak with—”
He cut her tirade off in mid-sentence. His news being more important than her rant. “Some Watchers are talking about killing Draconi in order to stop guarding them and my mother has Draconi blood.”
Ari paused, one finger hanging mid-point, her narrowed eyes growing wide, her mouth gaping. In two heartbeats, her mouth closed, her hand fell and she started blinking.
“What?”
“I said—”
“I heard what you said! I don’t understand. Explain.”
Enar told her everything he knew, which wasn’t much. The longer he talked the more disturbed she looked, her face turned red, steam wisped out her ears, the corner of her lip pulled back into a snarl.
Beware the she-dragon.
“What? I can’t believe they would do that! Are they crazy? I can’t decide what part of that bothers me the most. They’re both...By the Goddess.” Ari put both hands to her temples and ran them backward over her head as she took a deep breath. “The first thing that needs to be done is to safeguard our people. We’ll need to speak with the Council.” Her tone of voice suggested eating rotten trash had more appeal. She shivered.