Hearts in Zenith (Four Husbands and a Lover)

8. The Chase

Parneres turned to the angry scorpia. "This isn't what you—"

She slapped him across the mouth. "I warned you against talking to women, Parneres. I won't tolerate a wife interfering in my affairs."

I yelled in outrage, despite being paralyzed by my discovery, when red trickled to his chin. How could she treat someone so precious with such cruelty? Even reeling in outrage, my mind pieced together her words with the similarities in appearance between the woman and the man in front of me and their identical accents. It was more than both of them having a Far Southern look. They had the same slender limbs, the same shape to their noses and mouths, even to their ears.

Gala's mourning eyes! Parneres wasn't her lover. It was so much worse. The scorpia assassin was his close female relative. Perhaps even the closest one, like a sister. She could be the woman who I would have to plead with to give him away. There wasn't much chance of her agreeing to the match now!

"Be reasonable, I beg you. I caught the young woman stealing and wanted to settle things quietly." Parneres spoke in a cajoling tone, ignoring his split lip. "Just look at her, she's barely out of girlhood and not a woman of means. She can't afford a husband."

Alas, if he meant to relieve the tension, it had the opposite effect. The scorpia flicked her eyes at me. The expression she saw on my face—the expression beyond my control—confirmed everything she had already believed about my intentions for Pareneres. Too late had I snapped my gasping mouth shut and fought to look demure.

She slapped him again, even harder. "Stop lying."

He staggered into a thin temporary wall, nearly crushing it, hands raised in a pacifying gesture.

His plea put an amused smile on her face. It grew wider after she afforded me another look.

"My, my, Parneres! You are scraping the bottom of the barrel."

Offended or not by their dismissal of me as a woman, I was done standing by while she harassed the poor man.

I spat at her. "Maybe you have rights to Parneres, but striking a man is the lowest of the low things a woman can do!"

She pushed him further out of her way.

He slumped to the floor, his long legs across the tiny space, bent at the knees, so she had to step over them.

I should have used the minute he had bought me, but was too caught up in confusion.

Unlike the slaps, he pushed him in a familiar, almost gentle way. Was I mistaken about her being his sister? The touch was so intimate, so charged with the promise of future passion! And to think of it, the slaps also might have been a part of lovers' rituals. I heard of women who had such erotic tastes.

As I stood there losing precious moments, Parneres jerked his head, his brows, his eyes at me, in place of yelling a warning. Run, his pained expression said. For the love of the Divines and Nirvana, run!

His mute appeal wasn't what convinced me. I wanted to defend him.

It was the way the scorpia moved. Each step was a glide of an asp. It reminded me that, yes, we both were women, but she was a dreaded assassin, while I had attacked sacks of straw with an ax for my weapon training. If she killed me, I would never deliver Parneres from his bondage. Sometimes, a retreat is a strategic necessity.

I turned and ran.

Another shuriken whistled by, threatening to take off my ear. It wasn't a killing weapon for the scorpia. She was simply herding me away from the theater to some quiet lane where she could close in for the kill. Maybe even take her time killing me.