Season's Change Winter's Plight Book 1

21 Loyalty

Avi blushed heavily then he realized that the whole thing could very well have nothing to do with him at all. Maybe it was about those marks on her back, maybe it was something else altogether and more than that. "I'm sorry. Please, Can I have a moment to think?" He focused his mind on her pain because in that situation he had only embarrassment, but there was a pain in her eyes that threatened to tear him apart. He sat, staring at the fire, pushing his anger and his embarrassment aside and remembered what it meant to be a brother to his sister, what it meant to love someone outside of yourself unconditionally, not because you had to, but because you wanted to, and they deserved it. Katana deserved his friendship, his patience his understanding, his loyalty and that kind of love from him, the love he gives his family.

Katana hadn't taken her hands from his, though he had pulled his hands back into his lap to think. He raised them again as he turned to her. "Please?" She placed her hands in his. He didn't clasp them or forced her to stay where she was, she just did, trusting him with her life. When she touched him, he felt connected to her in a way he couldn't understand. He looked at her face and the way she had cast her eyes to the floor and away from him and then he knew. He knew what he didn't want to know. Knew that something horrible had happened to her, something that left her hurting still. He did not know what that something was, but he knew it had happened and most likely at the hands of a man. His anger boiled again. He wanted to scream and yell and throw things. He wanted to hunt down those that had hurt her and repay them their debt. At that moment he wanted vengeance and revenge more than he wanted or needed breath. He did not understand how anyone could ever harm another, he never would. He understood battle and he understood the need to defend, but he could not understand hurting anyone for your own personal gain. He just couldn't. If she would have looked at him, she would have seen his anger, his normally warm and kind eyes hard and cold, filled with hatred, not for her but for those that would hurt her. If she had looked, she would have been terrified. Instead, she felt the subtle temperature change in his skin and knew he was angry. She pulled her eyes back to his and saw a glimpse of his raw anger and for a moment she was terrified. His eyes softened as her eyes held them hostage.

"Perhaps," he spoke slowly his voice soft and low again. Gone from it was the anger and the ire, "Katana, you should tell me more of your time up here on the surface and the other humans you have encountered." By the time she finished telling him her story he had cried bitter tears of anger and frustration, felt hatred for his own kind, remorse and regret for crimes he did not and would not ever commit, and a sadness so deep he didn't know if he would ever recover completely.

He sat quietly in front of Katana and watched the tears roll down her cheeks. Those tears almost broke him. He always hated to see tears in the eyes of the ones he loved and cared for, the ones that held his respect and honor. She had saved his life. She had his honor, loyalty, and so much more. She had earned his respect and friendship. There was nothing he would not do for her. Well, there was just that one thing he could not do for her, though he knew it would help to heal the wounds he could not see give her that confidence boost and make her feel worthy of love. Every being has an ego and everyone he had ever known wanted to be needed and wanted in one way or another. He had seen the damage done by men to women, witnessed the broken and understood their lack of self-worth.

For the first time since he met her, he had a chance to help her and he felt completely helpless and at a loss. He didn't know what to do. He clasped her wrists and her eyes flashed to his. His grip was strong, but it wasn't too tight. She clasped his wrists and held on tight. Their eyes locked together, and they nodded. It was more of a promise than they could know.

"I am sorry that you were treated so horribly. That was wrong, very wrong. No one, not you or me or anyone ever deserves to be treated that way. What they did to you, it cannot be forgiven. It cannot. I will not forgive them." She cast her eyes to where his hands closed over her wrists and his finger overlapped. "They will pay for the wrong they have done you. It may not be with their lives, but they will pay." His eyes blazed hotter than the embers that burned in the firepit. "I cannot heal that hurt, Katana. I cannot take away the reason for your tears. If I could, I swear to you I would. I cannot make you forget that pain." His voice broke as he pulled one hand away from hers, placed it on her chin and lifted her eyes back to his. "Katana, you hold all the beauty of the wintery moon. You are grace and elegance. For as much as I would love to share myself with you, I am bound by duty and station, honor and moral, I cannot. But I can give you this." He paused his eyes held hers to them. They seemed to possess a light of their own. "I swear to you on my honor and my life. I will make them pay for the wrong that they have done you."