No, no, no. Not like this. If it was anyone other than the sahad, she’d be executed on the spot. She wouldn’t even have these last few precious days.
He moved closer as he pulled his belt through the loops and dropped it on the floor with a clank. Her legs tensed, her adrenaline pulsed. Her only hope was to get across the room, to maybe use the candles as a weapon…or something from the bed? A spring…anything?
Shit. Oh, shit.
If she screamed, anyone walking by would just assume the sahad was finally giving her what she’d been sent here for. The guard slinked around the far side of the tub, pulling off his armor as he moved until he was dressed in just the black pants and thin shirt he’d worn underneath. And as Kavin watched with wide eyes, her hand inched out along the edge of the bath, her fingers wrapping around the jar of bath salts.
Her heart raced while she waited for him to move closer still. He toed off his shoes, his eyes never leaving her, then he stepped down into the pool, obviously not even caring about his pants. “Come here, jarriah.”
Kavin breathed hard. Waited. And just before he reached her, she hurled the contents of the jar into his eyes.
He swore, his hands rushed to his face, and a menacing roar erupted from him. She didn’t wait to see what he’d do next. She rushed through the water to the other end of the pool and tore across the floor toward the bed.
“You bitch!”
She scrambled over the bed, then bent down and grabbed the frame, flinging the bed up and over onto its side as a barrier. Metal clanged against the cement floor. The guard found his footing, pushed his legs through the water. “You’ll pay, whore. I was going to go easy on you, but not now.”
Kavin’s adrenaline spiked. She grabbed a candle from the table beside her, then pulled her arm back and hurled it toward him as hard as she could. It hit him in the forehead. His head snapped back, and his feet faltered. He swore again. Kavin reached for another candle.
But before she could grasp it, he was over the bed, his hand tightening over her wrist, the other closing around her throat. “Fucking bitch!”
Her eyes flew wide. He slammed her back against the cement wall. Pain spiraled out from her skull, radiated through her body. Air choked in her lungs while he squeezed. The candle fell from her hand.
He released her wrist. Reached for the button on his pants. Spots fired off behind Kavin’s eyes as he continued to squeeze her throat, cutting off her air. She lifted her leg, tried to knee him in the groin, but he moved out of her way. Tears rushed to her eyes. She swung out with her arms, tried to pry his hand free, but he was too strong. Gasping, she struck his face, clawed at his eyes. But nothing stopped him.
No, no, no. Not like this…
His pants dropped. He pushed her legs wide. A sob caught in her throat as her vision came and went.
Somewhere close, metal clanged. Followed by a voice. A male, familiar voice. “You son of a bitch.”
The pressure around her neck released. His body was pulled from hers. Sucking in air, Kavin dropped to the floor, her hands rushing to her throat, her body convulsing as she tried to breathe.
Slowly, she became aware of a struggle in front of her. Looking up, she watched in wonder and surprise as the champion towered over the guard, clutching his shirt in one hand, slamming his fist into the guard’s jaw again and again and again. Chest heaving, he finally stopped and dropped the guard to the ground, but there was no missing the hatred in his eyes as he stared down at the bloody mess at his feet. “If you touch her…if you so much as look at her again, I will fucking kill you. I don’t care what they do to me. I’ll find a way to rip your miserable throat out.”
The guard’s eyes were filled with stark, raving fear as he scrambled back, pulling up his pants in the process. Voices echoed from the hall, and Kavin looked that way just as another guard and the champion’s mu’allim moved into the cell.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Malik demanded.
The sahad didn’t answer, instead tore a blanket off the bed and turned toward Kavin, draping it over her naked body.
His eyes met hers briefly. Hard, cold, enraged eyes. But lurking inside them, she saw what she’d seen earlier. Compassion. Strength. Resolve.
Her breath caught.
He moved in front of her, putting himself between her and the others. “The guard tripped.”
The room spun as Kavin looked from the sahad to Malik and back again. She knew what he was doing. If he was found guilty of attacking a guard, he could be punished, or worse, executed for the crime.
Malik glanced at the overturned bed, then to the guard’s bloody face and finally to his armor, belt, and shoes strewn across the floor. His gaze snapped back to the guard, and in his eyes, malice burned hot and bright. Malice that made Kavin swallow hard. “Is this true?”
The guard opened his bloody mouth to answer, but a low growl from the sahad drew his attention. Fear rushed back into his eyes as he stared at the champion. After several long beats, he swallowed hard and slowly nodded. “Y-yeah. I tripped.”
Malik looked toward Kavin for confirmation. Unable to bear his gaze, she shivered and glanced down, wrapping the blanket tighter around her. To the guard behind him, Malik barked, “Gather his gear. And take him to the infirmary.”
The second guard’s eyes were wide with disbelief, but he did as Malik instructed. As the two shuffled out of the room, Malik said in a softer voice, “Jarriah, are you okay?”
Shame burned hot through Kavin’s veins. Shame and anger that she was here, that others had to see her like this, that she was at the mercy of all these males. She nodded, unable to muster up the words.
Silence echoed through the room, then Malik’s shoes sounded, followed by the snap of the cell door closing.
Relief pulsed through Kavin as she fought back the tears suddenly burning behind her eyes. She’d lived. She hadn’t been raped by that guard. But her chest rose and fell with quick breaths as if she were still in the midst of the attack. Why was she about to lose it now?
Metal groaned as the sahad tipped the bed back onto its legs, but Kavin barely cared. Her entire body shook, sending a chill over her skin and a sob rushing up her throat.
“It’s over now.” The sahad’s voice was soft. Close. Comforting. And then his arms were around her. Lifting her from the floor, cradling her gently against him, carrying her toward the bed.
She didn’t fight him. Didn’t even think to. All she could do was focus on breathing. On slowing her pulse. She sank onto his lap as he sat, and when he tugged her face down to rest in the hollow between his throat and shoulder and rubbed his hand up and down her back and hip and leg, she let him.
“Shh…you’re okay now. No one’s going to hurt you.”
He’d saved her. The thought revolved in her mind as her adrenaline rushed out on a wave. Not only that, but he could have been executed for doing so. The reality of that stole her breath all over again.
His body was warm against hers. Warm and big and a thousand times stronger than that guard’s, but she felt safe with him. Safer than she had with anyone else…ever. And she couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d just done.
Slowly, she swiped at her eyes, then finally lifted her head to look up. His square jaw was covered in a thin layer of scruff, his skin was the color of caramel, his eyes a rich ebony. And his hair, black as night and hanging almost to his shoulders, looked so soft she had the sudden urge to run her fingers through the thick locks. “Wh-what is your name?”