“I think by the end you’ll be begging to tell me exactly why you’re here,” he growls. His hands are suddenly everywhere, and I am paralyzed. I can’t move, can’t breathe, can’t get away from those greedy hands…
“I believe the lady said no.”
My hearts leaps into my throat. His voice is smooth, melodic, and unbearably casual for the scene he’s walked into, but it sends a full breath of oxygen barreling into my lungs. Shaw.
Shivhai freezes above me, whipping his head to the tent entrance, where Shaw is leaning against one of the support beams with his arms crossed. Dried blood is smeared across one side of his face and his shirt and pants are torn, but otherwise, he looks decidedly alive. His face is uninterested, and his body is relaxed, as if he regularly comes across shackled Similian girls in the middle of his enemy’s camp.
I have no idea how he escaped the yamardu alive or how he made it through the vast number of soldiers to this tent without being killed, but his presence makes me want to cry out in relief. Whatever Shaw’s flaws, he has never tortured me. Or forced himself on me. And at the moment, that’s worth a lot.
Shivhai doesn’t remove his hands from my skin, but in his distraction, the needle has fallen to the side. If I can just work my body slightly to the left, I might be able to reach it. To do what with, I have no idea, but being armed is certainly better than not.
“Who are you?” Shivhai growls, his eyes narrowed in irritation.
Shaw ignores him completely, addressing me instead. “Do you enjoy being chained up or something?” he asks me sardonically, tilting his head. My relief at his appearance is swiftly overtaken by annoyance. Of course he’d choose now, when I’m pinned to the ground by a mad man, to be a smug, arrogant bastard. “Because if you do, just let me know and I’ll stop interfering. No judgements,” he adds with a mischievous grin, and I vow to stab him as soon as we’re both free from this wretched camp.
Only a few centimeters remain between my fingers and the needle. Shivhai watches Shaw warily, apparently trying to decide whether Shaw is incredibly dangerous or incredibly stupid. He seems to notice at the same time I do that there are no longer shuffles or grunts outside the tent. There is only silence.
Shivhai’s face turns murderous. “Where are my guards?”
Shaw doesn’t bother to look at him. “Well, Lemming. What’s it going to be?”
“You’re an arrogantbastard,”I scream at him, wildly and without reserve. I use my outburst to shift my body, stretching my fingers a little further until they finally touch the foreign metal of the needle. “If you hadn’t kidnapped me in the first place, I wouldn’t be here!”
Shaw winks.Winks.
And then he nods, imperceptible to anyone but the girl who has been watching him and learning his every tick for the past week. He knows I’ve armed myself. I grip the needle in my fist.
“Who are you and how did you get in here?” Shivhai barks, unused to being ignored. He rolls off me, threading his fingers through my hair once more. Pain, hot and sharp, radiates from my scalp as he yanks me to standing. Tears stream unabashedly down my cheeks now as I work to get my feet beneath me. To keep hold of the needle behind my back.
Shivhai yanks a pistol from his hip and presses it roughly to the back of my neck. “And I suggest you speak quickly, or it will only be worse when I get back to your girl.” He sneers. “Maybe I’ll make you watch.”
Shaw doesn’t even flinch, his face pure stone as he finally draws his gaze to Shivhai. “She is no more mine than the ground we’re standing on and I hold the same level of indifference about them both,” he says, casually peeling himself from the beam. He holds his hands up, proof he isn’t armed.
Anunarmed,arrogant prick. Wonderful.
Shivhai shoves me down roughly in front of him. A shriek escapes my lips as the gravel digs painfully into my knees. Fingers still threaded tightly in my hair, Shivhai points the pistol at Shaw. It’s the second time I’ve seen a gun pointed at him, but this time I’m privy to what was veiled by darkness the first night we met. It starts in his eyes, the ice blue blazing as if a true fire rages somewhere deep inside him. He says it’s darkness that lives within him, but this is something different—something wild and uncontainable that burns. His lips are twisted into a grin, but it isn’t a handsome one. It is barely bound madness.
Shivhai clicks the bullet into the barrel, having not taken notice of the transformation in Shaw. I wonder how he misses the predator that gazes out of the man, feral and hungry. I am no longer afraid, as if the darkness inside Shaw has somehow soothed my own. Transforming it from something suffocating into a weapon to be wielded.
“Do you know who’s camp you’ve stumbled into?” Shivhai’s voice is dangerous. He bares his teeth. “Do you know who I work for?”
Shaw’s eyes flash. He takes a measured step toward Shivhai. “I really don’t care.” Quicker than Shivhai can react, quicker than my eyes can even track, Shaw launches himself toward us.
ChapterFourteen
Mirren
Shivhai’s fingers loosen in surprise, and I duck with a yelp, as the two men go crashing into the metal table behind us. I scramble to my feet, just in time to see Shaw crouching on top of Shivhai, one of his daggers buried in the other man’s neck.
Shivhai coughs, a wet, sloppy sounding thing. Blood coats his lips and pours from his wound, losing itself in the red of his uniform.
Shaw grabs the bottle of amber liquid from the cart and lifts it just as Shivhai’s eyes widen. His face pales as if he’s seen a specter. “You,” he gurgles, his voice almost reverent.
Shaw brings down the bottle and Shivhai goes still. He removes his knife from the man’s neck with a practiced flair and turns to me.
I stare at Shivhai, the mountain of a man now a crumpled heap on the ground, with my mouth open. I try to form words, something to encompass the cacophony that swirls through me. Anger and hurt. Shock andrelief.But before I can say anything, Shaw grabs hold of my upper arm and hauls me out of the tent.
“Where are we going?” I ask desperately.
