Kevork chuckled and grabbed me once more. “It is my right, geghets’ik,” he sneered, leaning in close. “I shall touch you as I like.”
I jerked away from him again. “I am not your wife yet,” I seethed. “And I will do everything in my power to keep your hands off of me even when I am.”
His face hardened, his ugly face contorting with rage. “Watch your tongue woman,” he growled. “Or I will have it for dinner.”
I took a step away from him, walking backwards. “You can try.”
Oh, he was going to kill me.
He lunged forward, faster than I expected his old age to permit. His wrinkled hands wrapped around my upper arms, crushing down hard enough I knew I’d be bruised later. Before I could even scream, he dragged me to the side, behind the tents.
With wide, terrified eyes, I realized we were in an empty alley.
I could see it in his eyes, exactly what he intended to do to me.
“No,” I said, gritting my teeth. “Do not lay your hands, or any part of you on me.”
“It is my right, geghets’ik,” he said with a wicked grin.
I turned to run, but he grabbed me, shoving me against a wall. My head hit with a crack and little lights burst in my vision.
He flipped me around, and his disgusting hands greedily groped at my skirts.
“No,” I muffled, still dazed. “Get…get off.”
He hauled my skirts up and I heard the sound of buckles and fabric.
“No,” I said again, blinking to clear my head.
I searched. My hands swept at the stone wall I was pressed against, looking for anything to fight back with.
“Step away from the woman!” a voice yelled.
My vision cleared, my thoughts less foggy.
A second later, Kevork was ripped away from me, just as I felt his warm skin pressing against private parts of me.
A possessed yell, scuffling.
I was frozen for just a moment as I realized just how close he’d been to being inside of me. Of how close he’d been from taking that one thing from me that I only had once to give.
So close, he was practically there.
Beneath me, I felt something sharp. My hands wrapped around it.
A piece of metal. Long and slender.
I turned, lifting its weight.
The two men were fighting, but all I could see was Kevork. I raised my weapon, and I brought it down through the air.
It easily found its way. Split his skin. Cracked bone. Pierced through tissue.
I embedded the rod through Kevork’s chest.
He made a small gasping sound. His eyes swung over to me, wide, shocked.
And then he collapsed to the ground, further impaling the rod though his heart. He made one more gasping breath.
And then he was dead.
I was filled with horror. I was.
But I just stood there, stone faced, looking at his dead body.
“Are you…” a shaky voice asked. “Are you alright?”
I remembered that there was someone else in this alley, someone who had pulled the man off of me.
My eyes slid over, and met the most dazzling ones I’d ever seen. I get lost in those eyes. Green, dark green. Like the trees just before their leaves change color. Leaves in the forest at night.
He was medium height and build, but he looked strong. Lean arms and trunk. Hands that seemed powerful, powerful enough to stop Kevork.
His dark hair was thick and wild from the scuffle.
And his lips. The most beautiful lips I’d ever seen. The top one was slightly fuller than the bottom.
“Are you alright?” he repeated the question, his eyes full of fight and worry.
I nodded. I was still slightly numb, perhaps in shock that he’d very nearly raped me, and now he was at my feet, dead.
“Thank…” my voice came out rough. “Thank you.”
“Did you know him?” the man asked.
I swallowed once, tasting blood. I realized I’d bitten my tongue at some point. I nodded. “My parents promised me to him.”
I couldn’t quite read his expression. I was still in too much shock.
“Did you love him?” he asked.
My stomach was actually ill at the suggestion. I shook my head.
The man nodded. He looked down at the man. “You tell them that he was robbed. That he tried to fight, but the robber killed him, and you escaped.”
I could feel it, the numbness wearing off.
And surprisingly, it felt good.
I felt good.
I nodded. “What is your name?”
He met my eyes again. They were still difficult to read. “Cyrus,” he said.
I took him in then. His ratty clothes suggested he was little more than a hard laborer. But he carried himself in a way that said he could handle himself. There was a humble confidence in the lift of his chin and the gaze in his eyes that I’d never seen before.
“Thank you, Cyrus,” I offered. “I’m in your debt.”
He shook his head. “It was only the right thing to do.”
I shook my own head. “Most would not see it that way.”
“A person is a person,” he said. “No matter if they are a woman or a man.”
I smiled, something fluttering in my stomach. No one had ever said such words to me.
“I’m Sevan,” I said.
“Like the lake,” he said, smiling.
I decide then that it was one of the most beautiful smiles I’d ever seen.
I nodded.
“It’s very nice to meet you, Sevan,” Cyrus said, bowing his head just slightly, but keeping his eyes fixed on me.
I smiled, feeling my cheeks warm.
Chapter 17
Hesitantly, I watched the hut from around the corner. The streets were fairly quiet out here on this far side of town. But I stood there, still. I hardly even dared breathe.
I saw him once last week. He spoke with a man, engrossed in the conversation. And then the man stepped into his shop, and dragged out a dead dog. Cyrus took it, and carried it back to that hut.
Two days ago I happened to be walking down the same road. And without looking up, I ran straight into a firm body.
It was him.
With smiles and hesitant words, we spoke.
He invited me to come see his work. He was studying to be a physician.
But that dead dog… The nearly exiled location…
I hadn’t found the courage just yet. So out here I stood. Watching.
I rocked forward onto my toes. My body said go. My heart wasn’t sure why he cared to say the things he’d said.
Go, every part of my body said.
I stepped forward. I crossed the street.
My heart was somewhere in my throat as hesitantly I called his name outside of the hut.
The fabric parted and there was Cyrus’ face. “Sevan,” he said in surprise.
I smiled, so nervous. “You invited me, so here I am.”
“I was afraid you wouldn’t come,” he said as he stepped aside and let me in.
The space was dark. It smelled of blood and decay.
Slowly my vision adjusted, but instead of looking around, I looked at him.
I smiled hesitantly as he stood in front of me. I searched his eyes, and I was sure that it was genuine happiness to see me.
“I worried my work might scare you off.”
I turned then, observing the small space.
That dead dog lay on a table. It was cut open, its organs set here and there. Beside it, there was also a piglet, cut open similarly.
In truth, his work did scare me a bit. Cyrus was studying to be a physician, but here were these animals, gutted. And physicians were men you only saw when you’re at death’s door.
“Come,” he said, turning. He places a hand on my shoulder, ushering me in.
What I could not see before is now clear.
There was a mat on the floor, and on it, was a woman. Her skin was pale, damp. She looked so sick.
Beyond her, against the far wall, there was a table. On it lay a man.
He was dead. I knew it because his chest was cut open, and some of his insides were lying on the table beside him, instead of inside where they belong.
“Cyrus,” I said in horror as I began turning, my stomach rolling. “I don’t…”
“Please,” he said, holding onto me. “The things I’ve learned today, I promise, they’re fascinating. I will be able to help so many people now.”
Warily, I looked up into his eyes. I wanted to run. To erase what I’d just seen from my memory. But there was so much excitement in his eyes, so much hope.
I couldn’t deny him.