Out of the Ashes (Maji 1)

“It’s okay,” I said, trying to calm my rapid breathing. “I wasn’t calling for you. I was thinking of you when I noticed my ribs were healed, and I guess I just said your name out loud without realising it.”

Surkah lowered her hands to her side. “I healed you quickly. You had three nasty breaks and a couple of cracked ribs too.”

I rubbed my healed ribs.

“Yeah.” I snorted. “They felt pretty messed up.”

“You harmed the human female greater if it helps your pride?” Surkah offered. “Her left eye socket was shattered, and her jaw was severely broken. It took longer to heal her.”

That didn’t make me feel better at all.

I winced. “I didn’t mean to do that… but she attacked me.”

Surkah nodded. “Kol informed me of the incident. It is why we have separated you from the other humans. You don’t have to share a quarters with them anymore.”

Kol.

“Where is your brother?”

“The bridge.” Surkah shrugged like that was an obvious place to find him.

“Can you call him for me?” I asked politely. “I need to speak to him.”

I needed to find out why he attacked poor Vorah, and if he would kick me off his ship for attacking Echo when he gave me an order to leave her and her sister alone.

“I have already hailed him,” Surkah said, blushing. “He ordered me to do so when you awoke.”

I nodded but said nothing.

Surkah wrung her hands together, and after a minute of silence, she said, “Will you be my friend again?”

I wanted to correct her and tell her we weren’t true friends in the first place, but I didn’t.

“Why?” I asked with my shoulders slumped. “I’m not exactly good company.”

I was miserable to be around if I was being honest with myself.

“I care for you greatly,” Surkah said. “I have bonded with you very fast.”

She said that to me the last time we spoke, too.

“Would you have lied to me if Kol hadn’t ordered you to do so?”

“No,” Surkah said instantly. “I would not have.”

Surkah’s face was too expressive for me not to see the truth in her words.

“I believe you,” I said. “And I do want to be your friend, but I just don’t know how to be a good one. I’m not very good with others… as you already know. I’ll try my best, though, so yes, if you want me as your friend, you’ve got me as your friend.”

Surkah let out a little cry as she quickly crossed the room and gathered me in her arms.

“I am so glad, Nova.”

I was a little hesitant, but when I put my arms around Surkah, it felt right.

“I am too,” I told her, and I meant the words. “I’m very sorry for upsetting you.”

“It was I who upset you, so I deserved your anger.”

We only separated when the door to the room opened. When my eyes landed on Kol, I narrowed them almost instantly.

“You’re a huge bully, do you know that?”

Kol looked over his shoulder to—surprise—Mikoh and said, “What did I do now?”

“To annoy that female, your heart beating would surely do it.” He grinned.

I scowled at Mikoh, and so did Surkah.

“Why are you upset with me?” Kol asked, regaining my attention.

I scoffed. “Do you want the list?”

He raised his brows. “There is a list?”

I rolled my eyes.

“You beat up Vorah, who is only a kid and was doing your bidding by searching for an intended, you shouted at me on the bridge and that both upset and scared me, and then you put me back in a room with Echo—who attacked me by the way. I wasn’t exactly innocent in the build-up, but I didn’t throw the first punch either.”

“Why do you care what happens to Vorah?” Kol growled. “He is not your intended.”

I gaped at him.

“Out of everything I just said, you focus on that?”

Kol growled at me once more, and I fought off the urge to throttle him.

“You’re the most trying person… being… Maji I have ever met!”

“Do you care for Vorah?” Kol pressed.

I face palmed. “You’re unbelievable, Kol.”

“Answer me!” he demanded.

“I care for him as I would a new friend!” I angrily shouted. “I don’t know him at all, but he seems very sweet, and he didn’t do anything wrong, but still you hurt him. It’s not right, Kol. You can’t just hurt someone because their motives don’t suit yours!”

Kol’s stared at me, his expression hard.

“It is the Maji way to challenge a male for the intention of a female.”

I sucked in a breath. “Excuse me?”

He was not saying what I thought he was saying!

“You gave your verbal consent to test a bond with Vorah, and I had to challenge him and beat him to break that consent and restore your status.”

“My status?” I repeated. “My status as what?”

“A single female.”

“Hold on a second,” I said and held my hand in the air as I stood from the medical bay bed. “You beat up Vorah to break my consent to marry him? Is that what you’re saying?”

“That’s exactly what he’s saying,” Surkah murmured from my side.

“How can that be legal?” I shouted. “It’s up to me who I pick as a husband, right?”

“Yes.” Kol nodded. “But if another male challenges your intended male and wins, then the challenger wins your intention.”

“That is barbaric!” I shouted.

Kol shrugged. “It is the Maji way.”

“I can’t believe this,” I said with a shake of my head. “Are you telling me that you are my… intended?”

Kol smiled. “Yes.”

My heart slammed into my chest as I sat down.

“No!” I bellowed. “No, you will not take another choice from me. I picked Vorah!”

“And I beat him!” Kol snarled, the smile vanishing from his face. “I could have killed him to end the intention, but I didn’t because I knew he didn’t know that I had the intention of having you.”

I was glad I was sitting on the bed when he finished speaking because I had a strong feeling I would have otherwise collapsed on the floor at his declaration.

“Since when did you have an intention for me?”

“Since the very moment I first laid eyes on you, and you fainted before me.”

That was almost romantic, but I refused to show I thought that. I got up from the bed, spun away from Kol, and hugged myself with my arms.

“You’re a prince,” I reminded him. “Shouldn’t you be married to a nice noble Maji female?”

“Nova—”

“Won’t your parents, your society, expect the royals to keep their bloodlines pure?” I pressed.

“You let me handle my parents and the people.”

That meant yes.

I swallowed. “I don’t know if I can do this.”

I noticed that Surkah had moved away from me, and when hands touched my shoulders, I knew they weren’t hers.

“I will be a good mate,” Kol said softly. “I will care for you, I will provide for you, and I will make you happy. Just… just give me a chance, shiva.”

My eyes welled with tears.

“I’ve been so horrible,” I cried. “Why do you want an awful human like me?”

He turned me to face him and swiped his thumbs under my eyes.

“Because I have never known a female so fierce or one with so much pride. Because I have never seen true beauty until my eyes rested on you. Because you challenge me, fight me, and treat me like a regular male, and not a prince of the people. Because your stubbornness matches mine, and because I have never wanted a female in my two hundred years in the way that I want you, shiva.”

I brought my arms around his waist and pressed my forehead against the top of his sto

mach.

“I’m so scared, Kol.”

I’m terrified that I have growing feelings for you.

He tipped my chin up until I was looking up into his eyes.

“I will take your fear away. I promise, shiva.”

I licked my lower lip. “What does that mean?”

“What does what mean?”

“Shiva,” I said. “You’ve called me it a few times.”

“I hadn’t realised I have been calling you it,” Kol blinked, “but the closet words in your language are ‘my treasure’.”

I sucked in a breath. “That’s so sweet.”

Kol smiled down at me and brought both of his hands to my face where he stroked his thumbs over my cheeks.

“Will you accept me as your intended?” he asked me, his voice soft.

I squeezed his waist. “I thought you won the right to be my intended?”