Page 48 of Conflicted Fate
“How much longer do you think?” Clive asked, looking at me.
“Why do you think I would know? He’ll be back when he’s finished scouting and not a moment before,” I said with a shrug.
“I don’t know,” Clive said. “I just thought maybe you would know. Since you and he are, you know …”
I leaned forward, pinning him with a stare. “Since he and I arewhat?”
Clive opened his mouth to say something. As he did, I flicked my eyes to Andi and then back. It happened in a split second, almost too fast to catch in the darkness, but Clive saw. He knew what that meant.
“Together,” he said with a cough. “What I meant to say was you’re together.”
I was pretty sure he’d meant to say somethingfarmore vulgar. But I let it slide, lifting my nose in the air to show I could be the bigger person.
“More seriously, I’d suspect he’ll be back very soon,” I said, shifting my butt to move a stone that had been poking me.
“What makes you say that?”
I pointed behind Clive, where a wolf as black as night had just emerged from the forest into the open area occupied by our strike team.
A moment later, Kiel stood where the wolf had been. His eyes found mine, and our gazes locked briefly before he gestured for everyone to circle up.
“Okay, listen up. Good and bad news,” he said as our twenty-person team assembled.
“Bad news first, please,” I said.
“All right. Bad news. You aren’t done getting wet.”
Several of the others groaned. Our wayoutof Arcadia had involved making our way down to the pier in total darkness, slipping into the water, and swimming out into the impenetrably black waters of Lake Arcadia, guided by nothing but a slick, algae-covered rope.
The ship had then set sail, sneaking us out from under the noses of Nycitus’ army. We’d sailed north, far up the coast, where we’d then been released to run halfway back. Then Kiel had gone ahead to scout the enemy lines. From our current position, it should have been a straight shot to the army. There wasn’t even a river in our way.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “We have to get back on the boat?”
A low rumble reached our ears, muted by the thick canopy of thefilmoretrees.
Kiel pointed upward toward the sky beyond the leafy coverings. “Storm is coming in. It’s gonna be a big one.”
“That’s good,” Andi said. “It’ll help mask us. Everything will smell like wet wolf.”
“It will also mask the scouts, making them harder to find,” Kiel said. “The storm is coming in from the west as usual, so neither side has a wind advantage. We’ll have to make sure we don’t miss a single one.”
“Did you find their positions?” I asked.
“I think so.”
He proceeded to outline the approach to the camp. As expected, very few guards were postedbehindthe encircling army. Nycitus’ arrogance was working for us. They all figured we were inside the city.
Don’t fall for the same trap, though. Overconfidence goes both ways.
After the briefing, Kiel handed out movement orders, and everyone began to shift and filter out into the forest to begin the journey southward for our next strike against the Alphas.
A flicker of excitement I couldn’t dampen flowed through me. Jitters about the impending combat, perhaps? It was impossible to know for sure.
I walked over to Kiel once the clearing had emptied and flung my arms around him in a hug. He held me tight, and for several far-too-short moments, it was just him and me, and nothing else mattered.
“After this is over, I—”
Kiel cut me off with a kiss that stole my breath and burned its way through my system, lighting fires wherever his skin touched mine and leaving behind a pulsing ache, an invisible reminder of the intensity of his touch.
