Page 66 of The Warrior
Devlin pulled her into his arms and they both looked at me. “Julia is right,” he said. “We can’t get enough of each other. It was love at first sight.”
My jaw dropped at the sincerity in his voice. I’d been chasing this man for three weeks, thinking he was violent, brutal, and a danger to the Motlanders. And then it turns out that he was in a consensual relationship with a woman who saw him as a gift from heaven. It was mind-boggling to me that Devlin could declare his love for Julia without hesitation. How could it be so easy for him to say when Magni couldn’t get those words over his lips?
Clearing my throat, I addressed him. “You’ll need to go back to the Northlands.”
“I’m not going anywhere unless I can take Julia with me.” He tightened his grip around her, and she reciprocated by clinging to him with her arms around his waist.
“I’m sorry but it’s not up to me.” I could tell him to apply to become a permanent resident here, but there was no way the Council would allow someone with a criminal past to move here.
“If you try to split us apart, we’ll do something drastic,” Julia declared.
“Look, I’ll give you time to say goodbye, but there’s no way I can let you stay with her.”
Devlin sighed. “You could pretend that you didn’t find me here.”
I shook my head. “Others are coming.”
“Then you could let me and Julia leave together. I could take her back to the Northlands.”
“Devlin, it wouldn’t work. Julia will have to apply to marry you the official way.”
“But how long will that take?” she asked with a pout.
“I don’t know.” For a moment I took in the two lovers. My mind had a hard time catching up from seeing what I had perceived as his raping her to the image of the two of them standing in each other’s arms. “I suggest you take time to say goodbye. I’ll be waiting outside.”
Leaving the house, I chose a strategic position that would allow me to see if they tried to escape out a window.
My head was about to explode with all the impressions from what had just happened. But I kept my promise to Magni, and called him up.
As soon as his hologram appeared above my wrist, I blurted out what I was most proud of. “I found Devlin, and I took him down.”
Magni looked worried. “Where is he now?”
“He’s still in the house saying goodbye to Julia. She’s the woman he lived with these past three weeks. Turns out she was one of those women from the border. She’s been hiding him, and you’ll never guess what I walked in on.”
“What?”
“They were having sex.”
“You saw them?”
“I thought he was raping her. Otherwise I would’ve never gone in by myself.”
Magni’s expression hardened. “You went in by yourself? Where are the others?”
“They are on their way.”
“Tell meeverything!”
I started from the beginning and told him what had happened.
“Why the fuck would you use a shovel instead of one of your guns?”
I closed my eyes, realizing my mistake. “Because I didn’t have my weapons. Isobel took them from me when I first arrived here. It’s illegal to carry lethal weapons in the Motherlands.”
His eyes bulged. “She left you defenseless?”
“No, they gave me a numb gun and the net gun. Except I didn’t have them on me.”
