Page 62 of Savage Union (Brutal Universe #2)

61

JESSINA

T here were gasps and the people around him made way until Turk was able to shoulder his way right up to me.

“Turk!” I looked up at him, my heart so full I could barely speak. “You…you came!” I got out at last.

“Of course, I did. I love you, little bird!” He looked at the priestess. “I demand you stop this ceremony right now. I claim this woman as my Fated Mate, which means she cannot be Bound to another.”

More gasps from the crowd but Grr. Malofice wasn’t having it.

“Get rid of him!” he exclaimed, glaring at the priestess. “This male is an interloper! He can’t just claim the girl is his and take her away—we have already signed a Binding Contract!”

I felt my heart sink. He was right—the contract made everything air-tight and ultra-legal. But then I had a thought—just a seed of an idea, from one of the old tales I’d been reading on Turk’s entertainment cube.

“I claim Turk as my Fated Mate, too,” I told the priestess. “Isn’t there some kind of test you can do to prove that we’re meant to be together?”

The face that was awake looked thoughtful.

“Actually, there is, my child. Though no one has asked that it should be performed for many years.”

“Well, I’m asking now,” I said firmly.

“Jessina, you can’t do this!” Lyrah hissed from her place in the crowd behind me. “We signed a contract!”

“ No, you signed a contract!” I snapped, looking over my shoulder at her. “You sold me to Grr. Malofice for the promise of a new wardrobe of designer clothes. I never consented to this Binding.”

“You little liar!” she exclaimed. “You?—”

“Silence!” The voice—or rather voices—were thunderous. I faced forward at once and saw that all four of the Sympath priestess’s faces were awake now. “You will listen and not speak!” they all said, speaking in perfect harmony in that same, sonorous tone.

The sight and sound of all four of them talking at once shut everyone in the room up. We all just stated as the priestess continued.

“A test has been asked for—the Triuma Fatala! It proves the will of the Goddess—if two are meant to become one. And it supersedes all other Binding Contracts or agreements that might have been made before it,” she—or rather they —added.

“I really must protest!” Grr. Malofice blustered. “The money I have already laid out for this ceremony…”

He trailed off because the priestess was glaring at him with all four faces now. She was quite tall—almost as tall as Turk—and it was such a terrifying expression mirrored on all four of her visages that I didn’t blame him for falling silent.

“Now we shall proceed!” all four faces declared. “Bring forth the implements for the Triuma Fatala!”

There was a rustling behind her and a moment later two servants of the Holy House—also dressed in red robes—rushed up to her. One of them was holding a deep silver basin in both hands and the other had a stoppered vial filled with some kind of pale pink liquid. She was also holding a long, silver ceremonial needle, I saw.

“Very good. You—come stand by me.” It was only one face talking now and she was speaking to the servant holding the silver bowl. The girl came to stand by her side and held out the bowl submissively.

The priestess looked at me and held out one long, white hand.

“Give me your finger, child. I require a drop of your blood,” she told me.

I held out one trembling hand and she jabbed my index finger with the ceremonial needle. I gasped and fought not to jerk my hand away. We both watched as a droplet of my blood fell into the center of the silver bowl.

At this point, Grr. Malofice spoke up again.

“I really must object!” he exclaimed. “You haven’t even told us how this ‘test’ works!”

The burning red eyes of the priestess flashed.

“Be still and I will explain,” all four heads said in unison. “The proof is in the reaction. When the blood of two who would be Bound together mingles and is touched by the Tears of the Goddess, it will be made clear if they are Fated Mates or not.”

“But how will it be made clear?” Grr. Malofice demanded. “That still doesn’t answer my question!”

“If the two are Fated Mates, a reaction will occur,” all four faces told him. “If they are not, nothing will happen. Observe—I will demonstrate. Give me your finger.” And she held out her long, white hand to him.

“I don’t see what this is going to prove,” Grr. Malofice grumbled, but he held out his finger and winced as the priestess pricked it. A drop of his blood fell into the silver bowl, mingling with mine.

“Observe,” the priestess said again. Plucking the stoppered vial of pale pink liquid from the servant beside her, she drew out the cork and let a single drop of the pink liquid fall onto the blood.

Nothing happened.

“Well?” Grr. Malofice demanded, glaring down into the bowl. “What’s wrong with it? Why isn’t it doing anything?”

“Because you are not this girl’s Fated Mate. Nor is she yours,” the priestess told him. “You want her only to ravish her body—you do not care about her heart, nor do you have any love for her soul.”

Grr. Malofice’s face went red.

“You can’t talk to me that way! You’re lying!”

All four sets of glowing crimson eyes blazed in sudden rage.

“You dare to call a priestess of She of the Four Faces a liar?” all four voices boomed at once.

Grr. Malofice blanched and jerked back.

“No, I just…I was saying…I don’t…” He trailed off again, looking both embarrassed and afraid.

“Be silent!” the faces told him. “Servant, clean the bowl,” she added.

The servant with the silver bowl hurried away and came back a moment later. The bowl was clean and empty.

“Give me a fresh pin,” the priestess instructed. She held out her hand to me again. “Your finger, my daughter.”

She pricked my other pointer finger this time and I watched as another drop of blood fell into the bowl.

Then it was Turk’s turn. He held out his hand and I watched as the priestess pricked his finger and let our blood mingle in the bowl.

“Very good—and now for the Tears of the Goddess,” she murmured, taking the vial from the other servant again.

She let a single droplet of the pale pink liquid fall in the bowl and then we all waited and watched.

At first, nothing happened.

I felt my heart start to sink. I had been so sure—so sure— that Turk was my Fated Mate! I had always felt so drawn to him, and I knew he was drawn to me too. He?—

My thoughts were cut off as something started to happen in the bottom of the bowl.

It started as a faint pink wisp, a tiny trail of vapor that was barely visible. Then it began to grow—almost like the blood at the bottom of a bowl was a fire and it was giving off pink smoke.

The pink smoke drifted upwards and I felt my heart soar up to the ceiling with it. It was true! This must be the reaction the priestess had been talking about—this pink smoke must mean that Turk and I really were Fated Mates!

But the smoke wasn’t stopping. In fact, there seemed to be more and more of it billowing out of the bowl in big puffs. It had a smell like singed sugar—sweet and faintly bitter—and it was starting to fill up the entire Holy House!

And everywhere it went, it caused a reaction. I noticed it first in a couple to my left—a friend of mine named Beryl and her husband, a Brute named Kurt. As the pinkish, sweet smoke twined around their heads, the two of them looked at each other with wide eyes.

Then they started ripping at each other’s clothes and kissing frantically—like they were sexually starved for each other!

I watched in shock as the smoke spread—and with it, the intense sexual need. Everywhere I looked I saw couples making out. Kissing and groping—some of them were even making love right on the floor of the Holy House!

The smoke didn’t affect everyone, though—only people who seemed to be in love or at least people who had feelings for each other, I thought—were affected. I noticed that the smoke hadn’t done a thing for Lyrah and my Sire, who were looking around in astonishment but not even trying to get to each other.

I saw something else that surprised me too—Pria, the heir to the Chieftainship of Clan Vicious, and Rath, her bodyguard, were kissing passionately. They weren’t rough, excited kisses though. Rath had her face cupped in both hands and was bending over her. He was taking her mouth gently—almost tenderly—and she was kissing him back with shy eagerness.

Somehow they were the couple that caught my attention the most. The only trouble was, I was fairly sure that a relationship between the Chieftainess and her bodyguard was strictly forbidden. Of course, Pria hadn’t taken her mother’s place yet, but she would soon. So could she and Rath really?—

“My child, the test is positive. It is confirmed that the two of you are Fated Mates.”

I turned back to the priestess and saw that she was smiling with all four faces at me and Turk.

“Yes, we know.” Turk put an arm around me and pulled me close to his side.

“You should go now, while the reaction is still taking place,” the priestess told us. “Leave before anyone can try to stop you. And let me advise you to consummate your love at once. In fact, I recommend a Deep Seeding to Seal your Union—Bind yourselves together tightly so that no one can pull you apart.”

She cast a contemptuous glance at Grr. Malofice who was standing alone, coughing and choking on the pink smoke which obviously did nothing for him.

“We will!” I promised fervently, though I wasn’t quite sure what a “Deep Seeding” was.

“Truly, the two of you are blessed by the Goddess. I have never seen such a reaction in all my centuries of serving her.” All four of her faces smiled gently at us. “Now go, before it is too late.”

We went.