Page 47 of Shadowlands Omega

“My…my Lord?” he says, seeming to remember to whom he speaks. Showing me an ounce of the respect he’d denied me previously.

I turn to face him fully. “Could you slit the throat of an aggressor coming for Kiandah? Could you throw your body between her and the blade as she would do for you and has done for all of you at least twice over?”

“Of course,” he says without hesitation, without blinking, and I sense truth.

“Good. And as you are her brother, her heat cycles will not affect you. You are best positioned for this task.”

He snorts — insolence runs in this family. “To be her human shield?”

“If you cannot wield a sword, then a shield will do.”

He smiles a little more fully at me then and I struggle not to return it.

“I can do that.”

“You’ll stick closely to her until the threat has passed. And when it is time to move you, you will not lose your colors. You will be folded into the Crimson ranks, wherever Dorsten seeks to place you. Do you accept?”

“Y-yes. Yes, of course.”

“Yes,what?”

His gaze narrows. Yes, there’s fire there. “Yes, my Lord.”

“Report to Dorsten just before sunrise, when the sky is still dark. That is when the Riders begin first practice. You will have your work cut out for you.”

He nods and clenches his fist, determination fueling him. His gaze is glazed and as it returns to me, I have a premonition of what he will say next.Revenge…“What happens if I catch another Rider trying to harm Kiandah, my Lord? Am I…” He swallows. “Allowedto kill them?”

“I’d like you to try to keep them breathing, but kill them if you must. I imagine you’ll have to. It’s difficult to keep a good fighter that you’ve maimed but alive, and all of my Riders will be better fighters than you.”

He frowns. “Is that what you did to the other guy? Kept him alive after what he tried to do to Kia?”

I grin to show a mouth full of beastly and razor-sharp teeth. Cyprus takes a half step away from me. “Oh yes,” I hiss. “I hope he lives. I hope he lives a long time and, if another Rider makes a similar attemptknowingwhat is in store for them, then I want them captured so I can take them to my dungeons where they will live out a very long, very painful lifetime.”

Cyprus’ face betrays his shock when he says, “Are you…mad?”

I bark out a laugh that surprises everyone in the room, myself included, and turn my back on him to collect the tray that Zelie has finished arranging so artfully. “Kiandah is hungry. I will be off. You, master Cyprus, will not trouble yourself with thoughts of revenge. Your allegiances now fall to Kiandah first, then to me as your Lord, then to your fellow Riders, then to your family, then to your people. Understand that and remember it when the time comes that those allegiances are called into question. And there will be a time.” I sweep my gaze over the group, settling it on Owenna. “Owenna. Walk with me. Select a wine for your sister that you think she’d like best.”

As Owenna retrieves a wine from the storage pantry, I bid farewell to her other family members. Her father grunts a goodbye, Mercy showers me with pats to the cheek and arms that I think are rather inappropriate but that I allow, Zelie whispers a soft goodbye and tells me to wish Kiandah well. Audet merely cringes and tries not to cry.

I carry the tray, laden with a large covered wooden bowl of the rice I helped prepare and another with a modest amount of chicken. I wasn’t sure how much of the chicken they offered me because they could afford to or because they felt they had to, so I wasn’t willing to take more than needed. Owenna holds a bottle of wine and a pitcher and looks as if she’s walking across a bed of nails as she follows me out into the hall towards the central staircase.

We walk for some time in silence, long enough for the sounds of clean-up in the kitchen to fall away and for voices from the great hall to echo through the walls as supper begins in earnest.

Quietly, I say, “It is impressive the number of people your family has been able to feed these past days, even when denied access to clean food, tools and support staff.”

Owenna doesn’t reply right away and when she does, it surprises me. “I didn’t believe we had a choice, my Lord.”

I smile with one corner of my mouth and glance down at the female with her hair neatly arrayed in a short halo of curls around her face. It’s a soft halo around a hardened face. Sharp lines she has not, but she carries a sharpness all the same.

“Is that why you have done what you’ve done? Because you did not feel you had a choice?” She does not reply. I do not need one. “That is what your sister believes because she is a very good girl, but that’s not the truth, is it? You are charitable with your family, but your real ambitions lie in the realms of power. I do not doubt that, had you ascended as Omega in that church instead of Kiandah, my Riders and I would now be a pile of ash. I also don’t doubt that if you had been the one to ascend, you might have considered new allies, like the Fates.”

She stares straight ahead, her lips pursed as she places one foot before the other. She doesn’t wear shoes. I wonder why. “Is there a question in that, my Lord?”

I laugh humorlessly and shake my head. “I have a theory that I want confirmed or denied. A dishonest reply will result in your return to the dungeons, alone this time, without your family. Do you understand me, Owenna?”

“Yes, Lord.”

“It was you, not your siblings or your parents, who brokered the deal — whatever nefarious deal was made between your family and Trash City.”

---