“I… fucking… did,” he growled. “You promised never to leave me and you left me. I’ve seen to it that will not f**king happen again.”
I knew my lips had parted and I felt the sting of tears in my nose.
Then I whispered, “I can’t believe you did that.”
“You gave me you of your free will, you are mine. And I gave you me, I am yours. I will do anything to keep you, my queen, believe that.”
“That’s like… stalker psycho.” I was still whispering.
“I have no idea what that means and I do not care. It is the way it is. And Circe,” his face got closer, his hand sliding up my side, over my chest, up my neck to cup my jaw where his thumb swept my cheekbone as he finished softly, “I will resurrect your spirit inside you. I will stop at nothing to do it. It will shine for me again. You can believe that too.”
Before I could stop him, his thumb swept over my lips, locked around my jaw and he held my head steady as his dipped down and his lips touched mine.
My belly clenched.
Then he lifted his head and looked deep in my eyes before his thumb swept back over my lips, he lifted up and kissed my forehead then he rolled off the bed and stalked across the room.
I got up on my elbows to watch him open the door and saw Twinka was there holding some bath cloths.
“Her warrior wives visit, you do not send them away. You let them in. If they do not, you send one of her girls to go get them. This is a command from their king and if one of them disobeys, any of them, wife or slave, they answer to me. Am I understood?” Lahn asked firmly.
Twinka looked at me and smiled huge.
“Meena, kah Dax,” she muttered, as she would because she knew this would piss me off and/or upset me and she was all for anything that did that.
“Dohno,” Lahn muttered and then he was gone.
I collapsed back on the bed and stared at the ceiling.
Twinka hummed happily as she took the cloths to the bathroom-type room.
* * * * *
I sat on a lounge chair on the roof, stared into the distance at the sun sparking off the gold on the Avenue of the Gods and I pulled the intricately knit, loose-woven shawl closer around me while wondering if there was some troop of slaves who went out every day and polished that gold. It always sparkled even mostly surrounded by sand and dust.
So I figured there was.
Ghost, as always since I got home, was at my side, now lying on her front, jaws to paws.
I stroked her absently and unfortunately my thoughts drifted from statue slaves to other matters that I didn’t want to think about but couldn’t stop myself.
When I’d been gone, Lahn had had a busy five months. Although I hadn’t seen my posse, I could not avoid my girls and they had told me all they knew.
Firstly, Lahn, Suh Tunak and the Keenhak warriors had ridden on Maroo as planned. Maroo had had their grisly message that vengeance would be sought by the Dax so they had planned for the invasion but they had no clue they’d also be facing the additional challenge by neighboring Keenhak.
Gaal, with bright eyes and scary excitement at telling her macabre tales, informed me that Suh Tunak and Keenhak had trounced Maroo and, in telling me this, she unfortunately went into some detail. Vengeance was sought and found and Maroo would not soon forget the lesson they learned.
“Not,” Gaal leaned forward, eyes wide and joyous, “for generations.”
If her stories were anything to go by, I believed this to be true. In a serious way.
Apparently, Lahn and his boys didn’t f**k around exacting vengeance.
Yikes.
This took all of about three months and Suh Tunak rode back into Korwahn bearing a shitload of Maroo slaves and booty.
The people of Korwahn rejoiced. As these riches rained down on them they felt it was irrefutable proof The Golden Dynasty had begun.