Crucible of Fate by Mary Calmes Page A

everywhere else in the world, it would be reported that the maahes of the semel-aten had easily dealt with a challenge to his seat. Had Crane lost, had anyone but Jin been in the pit for him, for me, it would have meant a coup. Not within a day or a week, but surely within the month, I would have been dead. My reign would have come to an end. I would have been overthrown, and a new semel-aten would have been crowned. As it was, as events had transpired, my position of power had been upheld, and really, another attempt was unlikely. This had been their best chance; they had been so certain that they had tipped their hand at sedition. It had been a mistake.
    Everyone waited hours for me. I sequestered myself in my quarters, in what I called my office but was honestly a large receiving room. Had Yuri been there, I would not have had to make calls. As he was not, there was only one place to go for counsel.
    “Hello?”
    She sounded good even on the satellite phone. “Delphine.”
    “Domin.” She sighed and then squeaked. “Oh no, I mean, my lord—I mean—”
    “Please just let me be Domin,” I directed her. “Please.”
    I heard a soft chuckle from her, then, “Yes.”
    “May I speak to Logan?”
    “Oh Domin, I’m so sorry but we’re frantic here and it’s the middle of the night and—”
    “Please.”
    Silence and then muffled voices and sounds before Logan answered with his usual charm.  “What the hell do you want?”
    I grunted. “I have your mate, semel-netjer.”
    Long silence, and I knew, because I’d grown up with the man, that Logan Church was calming himself down before he said another word. It took a lot to get an explosion out of him.
    “I’m sorry?” he rasped.
    “You heard me. Crane needed Jin, he called Jin, and Jin came, because we both know he honest to God thinks that you don’t need him there right now.”
    Deep breath. “I’m going to choke him to death with my bare hands.”
    “Are you?”
    “I swear to God, yes,” he muttered irritably.
    “Will that be before or after you fall down at his feet and worship him?”
    He growled. “I don’t worship my—”
    “Yes, you do. We all do. He’s like some Egyptian god made real. For all we know, the stories about the gods are instances of sightings of werepanthers. Jin is the only link to our divinity, and even more so… he’s your mate, my friend. He’s the other half of you.”
    “The other half of me is being ridiculous.”
    “But that’s because he has no clue about true parent/child relationships. Jin actually believes that there can only be one primary love; he doesn’t know that nothing changes between you and he. He doesn’t get that you can add your son to your heart and how you feel about him doesn’t diminish in the slightest.” He started chuckling, and I was annoyed because I thought mine had been a very sage observation. “Fuck you, Logan.”
    “Jin knows all about the love between a parent and a child, Domin. He’s just got his feelings hurt because, like you said, he thinks I don’t need him here right now. He thinks that my son and I are fine.”
    “And are you?”
    “What do you think?” he snarled. “My mate should be in my bed every night. I can’t be me if he’s not right here.”
    “What about your son?”
    “My son is now past the imprinting stage and needs to feel a power greater than his own to soothe him, to basically make him.”
    “Make him do what?”
    “Submit. He’s an infant, his power rises, and he knows that whoever is holding him is weaker. He pulled Markel through his shift yesterday.”
    I was stunned. “You’re serious?”
    “Very.”
    That was terrifying. “Markel was my sheseru.”
    “I know.”
    “What are you going to do?”
    “I guess I’ll get on a plane and come fetch my reah and the beset of my reah.”
    There was no way to hold back the huff. “And if I will not release Crane Adams?”
    “You will. You must.”
    He couldn’t just be allowed to tell me