Page 54 of Veiled Fate
“So, what,” Kiel said hotly, “you’re just going to die with him out of principle, is that it? I know you wish you could have done things differently with your sister and saved her, but, Jada, this isnot the same.”
“No, it’s not,” I agreed. “This time, I know what I’m doing. I’m making the conscious choice ahead of time.”
“But it’s thewrongchoice,” Kiel said, his tone softening as he argued with me. “For the right reasons, perhaps, but still wrong.”
The trickle of shifters wandering out from the plaza had become a stream, filling the street around us, forcing our voices low as we talked.
“This is something I must do,” I said with heavy finality. “Just like you have to go to save the others. That’s what you must do. We have to split up. It’s the only way.”
He didn’t like it, but I saw the acceptance settling in. There simply wasn’t time for him to stay and argue further with me, especially when I wouldn’t budge.
“Go,” I added. “Your people need you, Kiel. They need you to be there for them, toshow up. Even if they don’t know it yet. Stop wasting time andgo.”
“I don’t want to leave you,” he growled, his eyes flitting around, uncomfortable at the admittance. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“I have no intentions of being lost,” I assured him.
“But the trap. There’s no way …”
I pressed my lips to his, quieting further protest. He gathered me in his arms with a protective growl, lifting me from the ground as my leg kicked up automatically. His mouth opened, his tongue pushing out. I moaned, giving in to the deepness of his kiss.
“That had better not be the last time you do that,” I said more than a little huskily when he eventually set me down.
“Then stay alive,” he rumbled. “That’s an order.”
“Yes, sir,” I said with a wink, trying to downplay the seriousness of it all. “Now,go.”
And he did, only looking back once over his shoulder. A single glance, sharing far more than he had ever put into words.
“Me, too,” I whispered at his retreating back. “Me, too.”
Then, I turned and plunged into the stream of people, heading against the tide as I went to find a familiar face and figure out how to save my best friend from dying. Again.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Ipaused in the square, taking one long look at Clive from under my hood.
His time in captivity hadn’t been kind to him. His hair was patchy, having likely been ripped out in places, and what was left of it had been shorn off somewhere above his neck, leaving the scraggly strands to fall forward over his face, hiding it from the crowd. I longed to see through them, to make eye contact so that he would know help was coming. But I didn’t. If I was going to pull this off, it would have to be a complete and utter surprise.
“I won’t let them kill you.” I whispered the promise under my breath, speaking it out loud as if that would somehow make it more of an oath.
Then I pushed through the thinned-out crowd still milling about the square and headed to the far side of the city, to a safe house I wasn’t supposed to visit to avoid drawing attention to it. The same safe house where I was treated when Kiel first carried me into the city.
“What are you doing here?”a woman’s voice hissed at me through the closed door as I firmly knocked the code for the second time. “Go away.”
“No,” I said, standing my ground. “Let me in. Now.”
“It’s not safe.”
“I need to talk to Tave. It’s urgent.”
“He doesn’t want to seeyou,” the female voice spat back, full of icy anger. “Now, go away.”
I just knocked louder. The same code. Over and over and over.
On the fifth try, the door finally swung open to reveal the speaker, a woman of middle years, young enough that she still moved easily but old enough not to care about hiding the gray hairs coloring her scalp.
“Go. Away. Tave isn’t taking visitors,” she said, blocking the way.
