FOREVER KNIGHTS: #17 Marked As Mine

He collected the foal in his arms and moved through the fire back toward the window. The Nonis biting his legs didn’t deter him. He roared down at them. They recoiled. He lifted a boot and smashed one’s back. Making it cry and hiss. The others reared up. He reached the window and leaned out to set the foal on the ground. It collapsed to its belly. He leapt out behind it and picked it up again. Setting it’s front legs over his shoulder as though a child.

The familiar feeling for the little creature had it responding accordingly. It’s head dropping a cheek to his shoulder as its body eased and became the tiny thin form of a four year-old girl. Clinging thankfully to his neck.

And breaking his heart.

He turned a betrayed look to Zuriena. Feeling tears leaping to his eyes.

“Why?” He cried.

“Don’t you mean how?” Her green gaze narrowed on him. She reached up for her daughter but Mardichi twisted to keep the child from her reach. “Do not!” He ordered. Hugging the little girl close.

“Clearly you carried her when you left me.” His voice cracked. Confusion drowned him. Wondering how this tiny beautiful woman he loved so much could betray him in so many ways.

How much more can she shred me?

“Why? Why keep her from me? What did I…Why?”

“You-you would not have…Give her to me. Please.”

“No! Absolutely not! You will just take her from me again. I want to know her. To hold her. How much have I missed? How you have robbed me!”

He shook his head in disgust and walked from the burning hut. No longer concerned for his wife. Set on comforting his child. Of going somewhere quiet to savor the warmth of his child.

Something I’d thought perhaps I’d never feel again. He walked with her.

Liasa. That was what her mother had called her.

He followed the sound of burbling water until he was close enough to sit next to it. Comforted by the sound. He cradled the child in his lap. Letting her rest. She had a tiny round face. Lovely red hair that was long down her back. And thick red lashes resting on her cheeks. He yearned to see when she opened her eyes.

Wondering if she would have her mother’s beautiful green eyes as Liam had or the same shade of sky blue as Mardichi himself. A tiny bow mouth was slightly parted as she huffed heavily in slumber.

She woke with a yawn. Those eyes flickering under her lids. Until finally opening revealing bright blue eyes.

She’s my tiny twin.

“Hello, Little One.”

She smiled softly up at him. “Thank you for coming.”

“You’re welcome, Little One. Are you not frightened of me?”

She shook her head adamantly. Staring up at him from his lap. “No. You are my daddy.”

His heart jumped in his chest at the sound of that word. A word I never got to hear.

“How do you know that, Sweetheart?” He asked softly.

She smiled bigger. Blinking sleepily. “My mommy told me.”

“She spoke of me?”

“Always. She said you are ‘her love’.”

Then why? He wanted to shout. Tempted to stomp back to the tiny backstabbing wench and demand to know what she had done.

I’m nigh tempted to drag her by her hair, throw her in a hole somewhere until she is ready to talk. And to cease the fighting and love me. That thought made his eyes brighten. Made the rage in him calm.

Then he heard her voice…

“Mardichi!” She was furious. “You can’t take my child like that.”

“Like ye did to me!” He snarled. Twisting to shout through the woods.

Silence greeting his words told him she was duly chastised.

When her soft reply finally emerged, he nearly leapt up to catch her hair. “I never said she was yours.”

“Do ye truly think me dolt?”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Don’t ye dare play word games with me, Woman. I’m this close,” He pinched his fingers together to illustrate something small. “To” He dropped his voice so the child could not hear “throttling ye, ye betraying wench.”

“I did not betray you.”

“Ye stole my wife. Ye stole my child. Ye’re a thief and a betrayer.”

She looked as though he’d slapped her, and he felt his first moment of satisfaction. But he could admit that a trace of evil deep in him wanted to hurt her as she’d hurt him.

“Do you want to go on an adventure with me, Daughter?”

“Yes!” She cheered.

“No.”

“Yes.” He set the child aside, careful to set her a distance from the water. He rolled to his feet and approached Zuriena. “I’m taking my daughter with me.”

“You will not take her from me!”

“Yes, My Love.” He turned his head down and his jaw set. “Say goodbye to your daughter.”

“No!”

“Don’t make a scene and scare her.” He warned. Certain that his wife, though many devious things, was a mother at the forefront. Evidenced by her mad flight to the hut to save her child.

She stared up at him, shaking her head in horror. But when he only stood over her, blue eyes steady on her she knew it was a losing battle.

Rounding him without a word. She clutched her tiny daughter in a tearful hug. “Baby. I love you. I love you! I will come get you soon.” She tossed him a dark glower. But here pretty eyes were misted with tears.