Boulder
The roaring from Khan’s office made me run to get there.
“What the hell is going on?” I shouted at the sight of Magni throwing things around like a crazed bear.
Khan was trying to get close to Magni, who stood with a chair lifted over his head and eyes bulging in rage. On Khan’s signal, I moved to the left and waited for Magni to turn his back on me before I tackled him and knocked him to the floor.
“Calm the fuck down and tell me what happened,” I screamed at him and tried to protect my broken arm when he kicked me off him. Agile and strong, Magni leaped up again and pointed at Khan, roaring, “I’m not going to sit quietly and wait for them to return her, I’m going after her – and I swear on our father’s grave, if I have to start a war to get my wife back, I will. She’s mine!”
“What happened to Laura?” I asked, baffled by Magni’s outrage.
He was panting, and spun on his heel until he eyed Christina, who stood halfway hidden behind the doorframe, looking in. “You!” Magni stormed up to her and grabbed her by the shoulders.
Protective fear fueled me to quickly get between them, pushing him away from her. “Back away,” I said, low and threatening. “And tell us what troubles you.”
Magni’s chest rose and fell in rapid intakes of breath, his lips were pressed into thin lines, and his eyes narrowed with thunder. “Your wife is a bad influence. She helped Laura get to the Motherlands and now she’s gone.”
“Wait – what?” I swung my head to face Christina.
“I swear I had nothing to do with Laura’s disappearance,” she exclaimed. “Are you sure she went to the Motherlands?”
“Yes! I’m fucking sure,” he roared. “She tricked me, telling me she was tired and needed a rest. I trusted her and left her for a few hours but when I came back I found that letter.” Magni pointed to the floor where a piece of paper lay. He bent down and picked it up, holding it in the air and sputtering in contempt. “She wants to do martial arts.” Magni’s voice was booming with blame and his eyes were shooting daggers at Christina, who hid behind me. “Did or didn’t you tell her she could train in martial arts in the Motherlands?”
“Ohhh.” Christina bit her lip. “I… might have.”
That admittance set Magni off again, and it took both Khan and me to hold him back from Christina. “I told you to stay the fuck back,” I warned him and delivered a punch to his hard abs to underline that I was serious.
He growled and bent over in pain. “Your woman is fucking poison and she made my wife leave me.”
“Maybe she wouldn’t have left if you had only taught her martial arts instead of treating her like a piece of property,” Christina said accusingly, but that only made him lift his head and shoot her a frostbitten glare.
“We’ll send a message to the council and ask them to return her,” Khan said loudly and walked Magni back to his desk with a hand on his shoulder. “I feel your pain, but you’ll get Laura back, be sure of it.”
Magni rolled his shoulder to shake Khan’s hand off and hissed. “You’re damn right I’ll get her back, but I’m not going to sit here quietly, I’m going to get her back right now.”
“You can’t get into the Motherlands,” Christina pointed out. “You’d be detained at the border. There are thousands of drones and they’re armed.
“So much for being pacifists,” Magni said mockingly.
“With numb-guns,” Christina explained. “They won’t kill you, but you’ll be pacified and detained.
Magni pushed away from Khan and me. “I’ll take my chances. If Laura thinks she can escape me, she’s mistaken. She belongs to me!”
“I’ll go with you,” I offered Magni solemnly, but Khan shook his head.
“You two are not going to bring war on us because of a woman. We’ll solve this my way.”
“The hell we will,” Magni exclaimed with force.
“You’ll stay here and that’s an order!” Khan replied and signaled for me to leave. “Take Christina out of his sight for now. Magni needs time to calm down.”
Christina and I left. Clearly shaken, she looked up at me. “I didn’t tell Laura to run away, really I didn’t. How did she even get to the border?”
I scoffed. “I’ll bet she was a hidden passenger with the guard who went with your message today.”
Christina nodded and then a hint of a small smile spread on her lips. “Good for Laura.”
I stopped abruptly and hissed, low. “What did you say?”
“I mean, did you see Magni, the way he went berserk? The man clearly has anger issues, and I’ve seen how he bosses Laura around. I’m happy that she escaped him if she wasn’t happy.”
I leaned closer and spoke in a low firm voice. “If you think he was angry then you don’t want to see me if you did something similar. He’s her protector and now she’s out of his reach. He’s worried.”
“No, he’s possessive of her.”
“Because he cares,” I argued.
Christina tilted her head back to look up at me. “Sorry, Boulder, but I don’t think Magni or Khan cares about anyone but themselves. Laura means nothing to Magni other than the prestige that comes with having a wife.”
I pointed a finger at her. “You know nothing about how he feels, and I won’t let you judge him or his actions.”
“Fine!” she said and continued up the stairs.
I followed with a knot in my stomach, feeling great sympathy for Magni and a troubling suspicion that Christina was somehow responsible for Laura’s disappearance.