Sixteen
If Istar hadn’t spoken — if Bariq hadn’t immediately moved away from Amber — Idris felt sure he would have stepped forward and landed a blow on the bastard’s chin. How dare he assault her like that? And Amber…he didn’t know what had just occurred, precisely, but she was soaking wet in a tank top and shorts, shoeless, her hair dripping and her face white with fear.
“How dare you interrupt me in my territory?” Bariq thundered, no doubt trying to look and sound as impressive as possible.
However, Istar only raised her eyebrows a calculated fraction of an inch and said, “We are elders, Bariq al-Dawud. We do not ‘dare’ anything. And besides, since you have taken a Chosen, this is not, strictly speaking, your territory any longer. You are here on sufferance, no more.”
Anger still fla
