Saba dressed and gave her a bow. ‘Sante. Miral has your fee inside.’
With a nod, Saba dismissed the inker, who walked toward the lodge’s terrace doors, disappearing into its depths.
The fresh ink stung, and the scent of medicinal herbs and burning sage lingered in the air.
Saba’s hands went to her temples, which throbbed, as exhaustion weighed on her.
She’d been sitting still for hours, and now all she wanted was to lie down and sleep all afternoon.
Until a voice called out, and she sighed.
She’d almost forgotten about her witnesses to the tattooing ceremony.
From the corner of her eye, she saw her aunt and cousin Zsófia charging toward her.
She braced.
‘That went for far too long,’ her cousin groused. ‘I’m hungry.’
‘And I’m still outraged by this whole affair,’ Sylvana hissed. ‘The deception was sacrilege, and you’ve disgraced the family. Where is your bride price? That’s what we came for today.’
Saba twisted her head up to ice them with her eyes, her expression cold and unreadable. ‘Uncle can take it up with my husband.’
Her aunt stood with arms crossed, her narrowed eyes filled with thinly veiled disdain. Beside her, Zsófia curled her lips into a sneer.
Saba’s patience, already worn thin by the endless hours of the ritual, threatened to snap.
‘What are you still doing here?’ she murmured, laced with the weight of her new authority. ‘Thesaniifuceremony is over, so please leave.’
Sylvana ignored the question, stepping forward with an accusatory glare. ‘How dare you speak to me this way after the scandal you’ve brought to our house—the whispers, the gossip, how you snatched theŠarim’stitle from under your sister. Worse, the bride price, the only reason we allowed you to marry a Sauvage, has yet to be delivered. And now you fob me off?’
Zsófia chimed in, her voice dripping with contempt. ‘Rumors are that we tricked him. They’re spreading lies about my father, which is causing him grief and shame.’
Saba’s jaw clenched, the headache pulsing behind her eyes intensifying with each word they spoke.
Tewa was the one who’d strong-armed and threatened her sisters and her for years. If this was payback, he deserved every fokkin’ bit of it.
She was too tired for this. Too weary of their pettiness and their accusations.
The wedding and now the staining ceremony had drained her from both a physical and emotional standpoint, and the lastthing she wanted was to listen to venomous rumors and bare-faced allegations.
‘Enough,’ she muttered, as she held up a hand. ‘I have no patience for your sniping. While theŠaraccepted me, he is choosing to withhold the bride price, and there’snadaI canfokkin’do about it. What I can do is ask you to leave, so go. I am theŠarimnow, whether you approve or not.’
Sylvana’s face twisted in anger, but Saba cut her off before she spoke.
‘Koda!’ she called out.
The Sauvage sentinel appeared at her command.
He loomed tall, hair in tight braids over his skull, inked face and neck, and limbs and thighs as thick as trees; his presence was imposing.
He stared at Sylvana and Zsófia, and they swallowed, hesitating, as they realized their outburst had overstepped the boundaries of propriety.
‘Please escort my aunt and cousin out of the lodge,’ Saba ordered, her voice icy. ‘They are no longer welcome here.’
The strong man stepped forward, and Sylvana’s face flushed with humiliation.
‘You think beingŠarimmakes you untouchable?’ she hissed as Koda extended his arms to guide them out. ‘You’re a puppet, Saba, and the strings will snap one day. Mark my words.’
