#Chapter 23 – Only a Partial Victory

“I have come before you, naked beneath this cloak,” Laila says, peeking a hand out from the slit in the side of her cloak and gesturing at herself. “But beyond this I am…unwilling to participate.” Orion glares at her in turn, taking out all his rage from me on this poor, shaking girl. God, but I could kill him for that. I start to stride forward, ready to give him yet another piece of my mind, but Anton snarls and nips at my gloved hand, bidding me to let Laila say her piece. I stop and press my lips to a thin line, ready to leap in at even the smallest sign that she needs me. “Please, I mean no insult,” Laila says, bowing to Orion slightly and clasping her hands in front of her, her head dipping low so that her pearls shush forward and hang in her face like dewdrops or rain. “It is just that – amongst my people, the naked body is sacred, a sight only reserved for lovers who have made their eternal commitment.” She raises herself then, her expression still tremulous as Orion