Page 74 of Heart of the Rebel Mate

"What the hell are you doing here?" Adrian's voice is dark, edged with something I don't understand.

She smirks, wiping blood from the corner of her mouth. "Saving your asses, apparently."

Zara steps forward, blade still in hand. "Why should we believe that?"

Isla shrugs. "Because if I wanted you dead, you would be."

It's a bold claim. But the way Adrian tenses tells me it might not be an exaggeration.

"We don't have time for this," Ethan says. "We need to move before?—"

Alarms blare.

Shit.

"Too late," Isla says. "Now you really need me."

Adrian curses.

The doors behind us burst open. More guards. More guns. Isla doesn't hesitate—she pulls a knife from her boot and hurls it, taking out the first one through the door.

"Move!" I yell.

We run.

Through the corridors. Down the stairwells. Dodging bullets, barely making it past security checkpoints. Isla leads us through an emergency exit I hadn't even known existed.

We burst into the night air, lungs burning. Behind us, chaos erupts as the facility locks down.

We made it.

Barely.

I turn to Isla. "Start talking."

She just smiles.

Adrian doesn't.

CHAPTER 20

ADRIAN

The caves breathe with the weight of history. The air is damp, thick with the scent of wet stone and old earth, the walls glistening from unseen veins of water that snake through the rock. The rebellion's base isn't comfortable, but it's hidden, and that's what matters.

We arrive with Isla in tow, and the moment we step past the threshold, the tension is suffocating.

Cassian is the first to step forward, his expression cold and unreadable. His arms are crossed over his chest, the fabric of his worn jacket pulling taut over the muscles underneath. His eyes flick from Isla to me to Elara, then back again.

"What the hell is she doing here?" His voice is sharp, cutting through the cold night air.

I don't answer right away. The others are gathering now, drawn by the sound of our arrival, their whispers bleeding into the cavern's natural echoes. Zara flanks Elara's side, her posture tense. Ethan lingers in the background, watching, waiting.

"She's an asset," I say finally.

Cassian lets out a short laugh, but there's no humor in it. "An asset. That's what you're calling her?"

"I saved their asses," Isla interjects, voice smooth, almost amused. "You should be thanking me."

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