I hit the ground before I fully understood what had happened, and, even then, I did not grasp the entirety of the situation. My shoulders ached, as they were the first to make contact with the hard stone road, but there was a shooting pain in the center of my chest. I reached up to press my palm against my pectorals, and I felt something sticky and warm. Pulling my hand back, I saw dark maroon blood coating my fingers.

I had been shot.

Lena was screaming a wordless scream, her voice carrying through the air to the palace walls and echoing into the empty desert surrounding Ka-li’ket. She dropped to her knees beside me and grabbed my face, jerking my head toward her.

“Khrel!” she shouted. Her eyes stared into mine in search of consciousness.

“I am fine,” I groaned, pushing her back gently with my unbloodied hand and easing myself into a sitting position.

The other A’li-uud and humans mingling around had scattered, some diving into booths while others pressed themselves up against the palace. Several warriors had leaped into action, barreling past me toward the shooter who I had yet to see. As I blinked in the blinding sunlight and gathered my composure, however, I realized I recognized the face glaring at me with pure hatred.

“No,” I boomed out to the warriors as they surrounded my assailant. They paused, weapons poised. “Let her be.”

Unlike Xam, who had a habit of questioning my orders, the Dhal’atian warriors retreated instantly. They spread out to either side of the road, though they remained near enough to provide support if needed. I climbed to my feet, Lena clinging to my arm as if to help me up though she was not nearly strong enough, and dusted myself off. My chest was aching, but I already knew I had not been shot with a gaar’kon or anything fatal. It was nothing more than a flesh wound.

“How are you, Ola?” I asked icily.

The female A’li-uud flung her wispy platinum hair over her shoulder. It billowed out behind her like a sheet before settling around her waist in perfectly straight strands. Her skin, vividly blue and as smooth as the dress that had fallen from my hands, was nearly black around her cheeks as she shook from head to toe with rage.

“You broke up a family!” she snarled. She was speaking A’li-uud though I had spoken English to her, and Lena took a step closer to me in fear from lack of understanding.

“Actually, I believe that was you,” I retorted, speaking English insistently. “I was at home every night while you were entertaining another male.”

Several of the onlooking A’li-uud sniggered, but the nearest humans grew wide-eyed as if they had never imagined infidelity as anything other than Earthen.

She took a step toward me, and the warriors around us moved as if to close in on her. I shook my head and held up my hand without tearing my gaze from her livid face. “You are the reason I have not spoken to my brother in over a decade,” she hissed. “Do you know what that has done to my mother? To me? He passes me on the street and acts as if I am not there!”

I was stunned by this news, but I attempted to hide it with a look of indignance. “I never asked him to do that. As far as I knew, your brother was your ally when you left.”

“Liar,” she spat. “You and Zuran became chummy, and you were so heartbroken when I left that you wrangled him into your little web of hatred.”

“I wish I had that kind of influence over people,” I commented dryly. “But you know as well as I do that Zuran is not one to be swayed. If he has not spoken to you since our parting, it was not at my request.”

She brandished the gun in her hand, a small laser used by Dhal’atian warriors to subdue those who refused to comply. It was capable only of burning the skin, the laser creating a charred laceration on its target, but she held it as though she was prepared to put a bullet through my skull. Lena inhaled sharply.

“Don’t!” she yelled. She was gripping my arm so hard her nails were digging into my skin, and I could feel painful welts already beginning to develop beneath them.

Ola sneered at Lena. “I am not going to kill him,” she snapped, using English for the first time. “It is only a laser. I just want him to understand the pain he has put me through.”

The warriors were creeping in behind her now despite my request for them to hold back, and I knew it was because she had drawn her weapon. I did not gesture for them to retreat. When they were within arm’s reach, they snatched the laser from her and pulled her back. She shouted obscenities and kicked out, but there was a warrior on each of her arms, and she was rendered essentially helpless. I patted Lena’s hand soothingly before easing her off of me and striding forward.

“Perhaps you have not heard,” I murmured to Ola once I was near enough to hear her ragged breathing, “but I am War Chief of Pentaba now. This may not be my kingdom, but I still have the authority to have your head. I will be generous this time. Do not make the same mistake of attacking me again.”

Her angry eyes lifted, staring over my shoulder at Lena, and I felt a fire surge up in my core.

“And,” I added, injecting venom into my tone, “if you so much as breathe near that woman”—I pointed behind me toward Lena—“the next time you will see your beloved family is on your deathbed.”

With a swift brush of my hand, I motioned for the warriors to take her away. They dragged her backward, her heels skimming unevenly over the sand-crusted stone. She stared daggers at me, but I refused to look away until she was out of sight.

When I returned to Lena, she had scooped the dress from the ground and was dusting it off. “I am sorry you had to witness that,” I said ruefully.

“So, that’s Ola,” was her reply.

“Yes.” The taste in my mouth was bitter at the sound of the name. “That is Ola.”

Lena glanced down the street where the warriors had taken Ola before looking to my chest. The blood had ceased its dripping almost immediately after I had been shot, leaving only a shiny burgundy circle in the center of my chest. “You should probably get that looked at.”

I smirked. “This is nothing to be concerned about,” I chortled. “We are shot with those during warrior training. It develops our pain tolerance.”

She did not smile in return as I had expected. Her eyes were serious, and her mouth was turned down at the corners. I hooked my arm around her and pulled her to me, but she refused to look me in the eye.

“What is bothering you?” I asked.

She shrugged, and I tightened my hold to silently insist she answer. “Something doesn’t feel right,” she said quietly.

I felt a sinking in my stomach, and I crumpled my brows together. “Explain, please.”

“Coming to Dhal’at was going to be a fresh start. At least, I thought so. We were leaving the drama of everything that happened in Pentaba behind, and the trial was over, and—”

“Khrel!” The voice behind me broke through Lena’s. I recognized it instantly, though it was a far from a welcome surprise. I looked over my shoulder to see Zuran. He was grinning as usual. “You are to report to the palace. Now.”