Jealousy, loud and clear. With a glance, Esh took him in. A guard, not a fighter, so maybe he lost money on a betting against Esh. Or maybe he was a fighter on the outside, one unable to get into the Tour, and now he was taking it out on the man known to have turned down several offers. Whatever the guy’s background, his tone was personal, and the guard had a hard-on for him specific, not fighters in general.
The bitterness was seeping out of the man, but there was cunning as well. This man wasn’t stupid. Too early to tell if this guard would harm Nalah to hurt Esh or not, but guard-boy needed to be watched. “I’m in training. What do you want?”
“There was a small problem with your female companion today. I found her wandering the grounds.”
“Is that all?” Esh began on the bag again. “She’s not a dog. Let her go where she wants.”
“That’s not the rules.”
“Right, since we’re rules followers here.”
Malice dripped from the man’s words. “So you’re okay with others sharing your woman?”
Esh quit the bag and turned, and the guard lost the smarmy smile. “Let me be real clear. My woman is mine. She is not to be touched, and I don’t care what your fucking rules say, I don’t care if she’s breaking them or not – if anyone touches her, I will rip their ribs out of their chests and beat them to death with ’em. And if any of you dumb-fuck guards get in my way, I’ll break so many bones no healer in the New Realms will be able to put you back together. Are we understanding one another here?”
The guard swallowed hard, but that was the only sign Esh’s words got to him. “Just get your woman under control.”
“I’ll talk to her. You talk to everyone else and tell them what I said.”
The guard got himself more under control, enough that he now gave a sneer. “Because you’re the Cage King, and we all jump when you speak?”
Esh went closer. The guard was his height, a little broader, but the man still cowered, still had that sneer. “Because I’m the Cage King, and you know what I can do when I want. Don’t you?”
“Yeah.” In a strange reversal, Esh’s words seemed to give the man determination, strength, because he straightened, meeting Esh’s gaze with a lot more fire. “Yeah, I know.”
“Heard you had an interesting day,” was how Esh greeted Nalah as he entered their apartment, and the sight before him slammed into his chest and stopped him short.
Nalah was doing nothing more than sitting curled in a chair, reading a book. It was how he’d often found her, always reading, her face mobile as she absorbed whatever words lay before her – frowns, smiles, sighs of pleasure, all normal and expected.
And he missed it, maybe more than anything else, because it was the best part of her and showed who she was – smart and sentimental and willing to let their reality go and keep searching for something better, never settling for crap and saying there was no other choice. More than anything, she was what had kept him going those early days. He never wanted her to lose this part of herself, would protect it with whatever he had in him.
“At least I made some new friends first. Tiffany and I are now besties,” Nalah said, not looking up from the book, but bringing her hand up, her first and middle finger twining together.
Gods, this fondness, it bubbled up inside and damned if he could stop the smile overcoming his face. “C’mon. We’re going walking. Beylor ain’t going to say shit if you’re with me.”
The bookmark went in and the book went down, the movement quick but protective. “Yay! I almost feel like we’re out of the Middle Ages.”
With a quick, “Stow it, smartass,” he ushered her out of the building and in short work they were walking around, her hand engulfed in his, the low-level warmth bubbling within him as they walked and talked like they had before she left.
They weren’t the only ones out, and Esh let Nalah take the lead so she could get whatever she needed. She studied everyone and everything, but there was never any look of real interest on her, nothing to say she felt anything more than he did. For that, he was grateful. They had enough dealing with this item she had to collect. He didn’t need any other headaches.
“Have you met Rorth?” Her voice was quiet, careful not to carry.
“Yeah, this morning. Did you get something from him?”
She shook her head, which was what he’d figured. He’d never heard of an orc being anything magical. “Not like that. We spoke for a minute though.”
“And?” Nalah wouldn’t have brought him up if there wasn’t something.