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"He said WHAT to you?” Samuil’s voice promises violence. "Show me where he is. Now." I grab Samuil’s arm before he goes charging out the door to wring the man’s neck. “It’s okay!” I tell him. “I’m fine. He didn’t hurt me or—” Samuil whirls back around to face me, and I recoil at the sight of him. Hair mussed, beard wild, eyes shining black like coal lit from within. “No, Nova, it’s not ‘fine.’ No part of it is ‘fine.’ He thinks he can threaten you? Touch you? Approach you and say a single word to you? He’s very, very mistaken. And I’m going to show him why.” He starts to leave again. It takes me dragging all my weight on his elbow before he finally stops trying to charge through the door. “I swear! I’m okay, Sam. And he’s gone anyway.” Some of the anger goes sighing out of him. He turns once again to look me in the eye. This time, instead of rage burning in his face, it’s something else. Something I’m more familiar with. “Fine. So be it. But when I find him again, I’ll teach him what happens to anyone who dares threaten my woman.” I do a funny little thing where I melt, swoon, and smile all at once. “‘Your woman’,” I say with a teary laugh. “Is that what I am?” This time, it’s Sam’s turn to recoil. He frowns down at me, dark brows knitted together in confusion. “Do you not know that’s what you are?” “I guess I just haven’t been sure until now.” The tiniest hint of a smirk perks up in the corner of his mouth. “Then I guess I have something to teach you first.”