Defy (36 page)

“Okay, then,” Uncle Gabriel said. “Maddock,
initiate the exchange of pairing vows.”

Tate allowed Maddock to reach down and lift
her right hand. He held it palm-up. Then he placed his right hand
palm-down on top of hers. His mouth opened.

“Have you all lost your damn minds?”

Tate’s eyes widened at the words and shifted
to her right, toward the source of the question. She found her
first genuine smile in almost two weeks.

Sparky
.

He strode right between the remaining
Gloresti, passing through the spot Maddock had vacated. Reacting to
Sparky as he would any other intruder, one Gloresti who wasn’t
rooted in surprise and confusion tried to stop him. Without even
breaking stride, Sparky did something to the other male’s hand that
had him on his knees and shouting in pain with one flick of his
wrist.

Muttering something like, “You still
telegraph your moves, Peter,” he walked up to Tate and Maddock.

“You would actually let her choose with whom
she pairs?” he asked, looking at Uncle Gabriel. He yanked Tate’s
hand from under Maddock’s and positioned himself between them.

“Hey—” Maddock started to object.

In a move so fast Tate couldn’t even react,
Sparky reached down, grabbed a dagger from Maddock’s thigh
scabbard, whirled her around, held her head back and jerked the
dagger across her throat without actually touching her skin. Then
he shoved the gaping Gloresti back a few feet and flung the dagger
at the ground. It landed with an ominous thud just in front of
Maddock, the handle quivering.

“She would be dead right now if I had
intended it,” Sparky said in a voice rigid with fury as he once
again hauled her behind him.

His gaze moved back to Uncle Gabriel, who now
stood just a few feet away with his arms crossed over his chest.
Tate realized her father and Uncle James were right beside him.
None of them looked happy, but she had to take it as a good sign
that they didn’t just kill Sparky.

“
These
are the Gloresti you selected
to pair with her?” Sparky asked. “Do you not know her at all? She
picked the one who agreed with everything she said. The first
chance she gets, she will convince him to let her go off somewhere
on her own.”

Tate flushed as the eyes of her family
shifted to her. That thought hadn’t consciously entered her mind as
she made her decision, but there was probably some truth to it. She
acknowledged to herself that what had actually made her decision
was the fact that Maddock looked more like Sparky than the others.
Of course, with Sparky’s wildly disheveled hair and constant
glower, there really wasn’t anyone just like him.

She would never admit that to her family, of
course. So she just bit her lip and shrugged.

“How did you get through the protections?”
Uncle Gabriel asked.

Tate noticed his eyes remained their calm
blue-gray, telling her he didn’t perceive Sparky to be a threat.
Since she had explained everything that occurred during her time
away, she supposed she managed to convince her uncle to give Sparky
the benefit of the doubt.

“I walked,” Sparky answered brusquely.

“You’re Zachariah?”

Tate glanced at her mom, who had asked the
question. She stepped away from Aunt Amber and Aunt Olivia and
approached the center of the circle, the gauzy skirts of her pink
sundress molding to her round belly as she moved. As always, Tate
couldn’t help but want to sigh in envy over her mother’s natural
grace. Her long hair billowed gently around her in the soft breeze,
giving her a sweet and innocent look. She came to a stop in front
of Sparky, her curious, light blue eyes intent on his face.

When Tate looked at Sparky, she realized a
rather remarkable change had come over him. He watched her mother
with an expression between awe and bafflement. Rather than studying
her face, which was the typical reaction of males who first saw
her, he stared at her belly. His head actually tilted in
consideration, as though he was wondering why it was so
distended.

Then her mom reached up and touched Sparky’s
uncontrollable hair. He flinched, but otherwise remained rooted to
the spot. Her face lit with a radiant smile.

“I see,” she said with a nod. Then her smile
faded as she caught Sparky’s gaze. She stepped closer and put her
arms around him in a tight hug. “Thank you for saving my daughter’s
life.”

Tate was torn between teary-eyed emotion and
undeniable humor as Sparky looked down at her mother’s head planted
somewhere in the middle of his chest. He held his arms slightly out
to the side as if perplexed as to their function. He looked up at
Uncle Gabriel with an expression that clearly said he needed some
assistance.

Her uncle just quirked an eyebrow.

His face falling into a more characteristic
glower, he gave Uncle Gabriel a good glare. Then he looked again at
her mother. Sighing in resignation, he awkwardly patted her head.
The action had Tate’s emotions tipping in the teary direction.

After another moment, Sparky said, “Your…” he
trailed off in apparent thought, then continued, “stomach…is
kicking me.”

Giggling, her mother finally let him go. “I’m
sorry. The babies are very active at the moment.”

Her mother stepped away and moved to her
father’s side. They shared a look. Tate knew they were exchanging
thoughts. She found herself wringing her hands while she awaited
the outcome.

Sparky had yet to look at her. He hadn’t
acknowledged her presence outside of grabbing her, tossing her
around, pretending to kill her and generally making her sound like
an impulsive twit who would have been dead by now if left to her
own devices.

She was so glad to see him her chest
hurt.

Her father finally looked back at Sparky.
“Why are you here, Zachariah?”

There was a long pause. She watched his eyes
pan across the many beings staring back at him. He hesitated when
he reached Malukali. Tate imagined he was considering the fact that
the Orculesti elder could read his thoughts.

“She needs protecting,” he grumbled at
last.

“What, exactly, do you think we’re trying to
do here?” Uncle Gabriel asked dryly.

“Pairing her with fledglings like these is
not protecting her,” Sparky countered. “It is setting her up to be
killed. I could best all of these—”

“Yes, but you’re no longer a Gloresti, are
you?” her father interrupted.

Sparky stiffened, but responded, “No.”

“Yet you appear to be suggesting that you’d
make a better protector for Tate than any member of the class whose
purpose is that of defense,” Uncle Gabriel said.

“I would.”

The assertion was met with another wall of
silence. Tate watched her uncles and aunts exchange more looks
reflecting shared thought. Eventually, her father nodded.

“You’ve more than proven yourself by saving
Tate’s life,” he said. “We’re grateful enough for your efforts that
we’re open to the idea of you attempting to pair with her if she
accepts it.

“But first, you have to undergo Malukali’s
scan.”

Zachariah had known this would be a
possibility when he disregarded every argument he had with himself
over the past couple weeks and deliberately brought himself back
into Tate’s world. He had known he would be subjecting himself to
the most intrusive, soul-baring invasion any being could undergo.
He had known his deepest thoughts and memories would be mined and
made the shared property of
archigos
Malukali and anyone
with whom she wanted to share them.

Yet here he was.

Despite knowing better, he had opened his
senses and followed his latent instincts as well as what remained
of his connection to Tate to bring him to her. He couldn’t explain
how he had been able to get through the heavy protections around
her home. Even when he had been the Gloresti second commander, he
had required
archigos
Gabriel’s mental permission to enter
the realm in which he lived. Somehow, it was as though the
protections didn’t exist for him now.

He had arrived earlier that day and skulked
in the cover of the forest as he debated just how to make his
presence known. He continued his mental arguments, trying to
convince himself to leave. Tate had lived almost eighteen years
without him. She probably didn’t want him around. Her parents would
never accept him—a Mercesti—in her life. He had been removed from
Estilorian society for too long to try to reintegrate. His life
would be much simpler with only Nyx as a companion. Tate came with
family. What the hell did he know about family?

When he overheard Tate’s cousin, Sophia,
speaking with Quincy about the pairing ceremony, his internal
debate continued. Tate’s parents intended to pair her with a
Gloresti. She would be protected and live a normal existence
without him in it.

The thought had caused an inexplicable pain
in his gut. But he had used the knowledge as fuel for the part of
himself arguing that he needed to get back to his old way of
existence and forget about the bouncy-haired female who had
disrupted it. He would make sure she was properly paired and then
return to Nyx, he decided, never thinking of her again.

That had lasted until he watched her interact
with the ten pairing candidates. From his position in the forest,
he hadn’t seen her emerge from her home. He did, however, have a
clear view of the Gloresti males when they spotted her for the
first time. Their expressions were all dumbstruck. When Tate
finally moved into his range of vision, led to the candidates by
her parents and aunts and uncles, he took one look at her and knew
there was no argument in the world strong enough to keep him from
her.

And he wanted to kill every one of the
Gloresti chosen to possibly pair with her.

Now, he held her father’s gaze. He felt Tate
shifting behind him and knew she was anxiously rubbing her hands
together. Because he still inexplicably sensed some of her
emotions, he knew she was anxious about what he was going to say.
It was because he had felt her unbridled joy when she saw him again
that he now ultimately dismissed his better judgment.

“I will undergo the scan,” he said.

A few murmurs arose from the crowd. Behind
him, Tate stilled. A low-level wave of shock and elation flowed
through him, and he knew she was pleased by his response. For some
reason, that made what he was about to endure a bit easier to
bear.

Malukali stepped forward. Although her dark
green eyes were kind, he couldn’t remember ever fearing another
being more.

“I will do what I can to—” she began.

“Just get it done,” he interrupted.

Blinking over his abruptness, she quickly
regrouped and nodded. Then she reached up and touched either side
of his face. He felt her in his head the moment she touched him.
Knowing they would only make things more difficult, he tried to
lower the mental barriers he had erected over the centuries. His
efforts were unnecessary, however. She laid waste to any
resistance.

And before he was really ready, the memories
he had thought were gone flooded back.

“
We should be near the Mercesti camp,
sir.”

Zachariah looked over at Gerald, one of the
Gloresti chosen to accompany him on this trip to the mainland. The
group was young and had enough arrogance and self-centeredness
among them that they often made him want to bash their heads
together, but they were well enough trained that they had earned
the ability to leave the main base. He knew he’d train the
arrogance out of them soon enough. As the Gloresti second
commander, he had been in charge of this part of the Gloresti
orientation for a number of centuries. He enjoyed it.

What began as a routine training session
quickly morphed into something more urgent, however. A Waresti
contingent came across a large group of Mercesti hunting for
transitioned Corgloresti forms. One of the Waresti scouts found
Zachariah and asked for aid, as the Mercesti had now split up into
three groups. Using the information provided by the scout,
Zachariah and his Gloresti soon found the trail leading to one of
those groups.

Rubbing his head to ward off a headache,
Zachariah nodded at Gerald. “Make certain everyone is armed and
ready to engage. The moment the Mercesti make a move toward a
Corgloresti transition point, we must be ready to defend against
them.”

“
We should go in after them now,” Gerald
argued. The insubordinate comment wasn’t his first. “We can use the
element of surprise—”

“
They have not done anything to warrant an
attack,” Zachariah interrupted, fighting the urge to shout at the
promising but hot-headed Gloresti. “If you kill one of them without
cause, what do you suppose will happen to you?”

Understanding Zachariah’s point, Gerald drew
himself up and nodded.

They didn’t have long to wait. Just before
dawn, the Mercesti made their move. Zachariah led the
counterattack. He immediately found himself engaged in battle.

“
Your trainees are pitiable,” said the
Mercesti he faced. It was Angius, one of Grolkinei’s top
commanders. “They are an embarrassment to your class.”

Never one to find conversation during battle
productive, Zachariah didn’t reply. But he couldn’t stop the
thought that Angius was right. Out of the corner of his eye, he
watched two of his Gloresti fall against their opponents. A third
one let out a cry of pain. It didn’t appear as though any of the
Mercesti were falling. Rage such as he had never known surged
through him.

Shaken by the intensity of the foreign
emotion, he shook his head to clear it and focused on the
confrontation at hand. Angius was remarkably skilled. Destroying
him would be a great accomplishment for all Estilorians.