Page 115 of A Warrior's Fate

The declaration that fell from Isla’s lips was met by the flattening of Kai’s brows. The alpha leaned against the edge of the opening he’d revealed behind a thick tapestry and hidden door in one of the sitting rooms of the Front Hall. “You’re a warrior, right?”

Isla met his with an equally deadpan expression and nodded forward. “What even is this?”

They stood before an empty…was it a hallway?

Isla could barely tell with how dark it was. Only faint crystal buried in the drab stone walls were present to light what was a shoddy path. The musty scent and slightest chill had smacked her in the face the second Kai had exposed it. She didn’t know where it led, what it connected to.

They’d gone down a plethora of corridors to get to this point, turning various corners, and up two more flights of stairs. Though Kai was the alpha and could technically do whatever he wanted and not dare be questioned, they tried their hardest not to get caught. The long walk, along with the spike of adrenaline in avoiding lurking guards or working staff, provided a decent distraction from their talk.

Kai blew out a breath. “Do you trust me?”

“Enough that I know the quality of your life hinges on the preservation of mine.”

“That’s a yes.” He gestured to the opening again. “After you, my gift.”

Isla rolled her eyes at the endearment. “Why can’t you go first?” Kai gestured again wordlessly, and she glowered, offering over her shoulder, “You just want to stare at my ass.”

Kai didn’t deny it.

With his laugh echoing behind her, Isla entered the cavern. The click of her heels and the hush of her breath reverberated off the walls as she moved forward through it. Step, step, step. She shivered, hearing the heavy wood of the hidden door fall back into place.

“Kai, I swear to the—”

“Just keep going, Warrior.”

Grumbling, Isla lifted her hand and flipped him off.

His chuckling continued.

She could sense him trailing behind her, could hear his heavy steps until they eventually reached an opening that sat before a set of stone stairs. They were narrow, nearly a foot high, and splattered like paint with the same crystals of the wall. Isla leaned forward to find where they ended, but they were so closed in, they just seemed to spiral on and on to Goddess knew where.

She opened her mouth to protest, but then closed it.

One step, then another, then another. Up and up and up. Around and around and around.

A chorus of their breath and the hits of their shoes was all Isla could hear as they continued for what felt like an eternity on her legs, her feet, and her stability. The circles were making her unbelievably dizzy—especially when she sped up after feeling the need to prove a point following Kai’s jeer of how slow she was—and eventually, she’d halted them to take off her shoes.

Her body was coated in a light sheen of sweat—and she wasn’t sure how that boded for the silk of her dress—but she was grateful for the exercise. Just another way to redirect any of the leftover tension.

At last, they reached a large oak door. Steadying her breath, Isla traced her eyes along the inscriptions on its surface—the two wolves and the orb. She hesitated before running her hand over it, and then, without prompting from Kai, she pushed. The force needed was much more than she’d expected, the muscles in one arm straining enough that she used a second.

A gasp fell from her mouth as she stepped inside, but it wasn’t for the furniture—a large mahogany desk, some chairs, bookshelves, an old dry bar, and easels with maps, slightly covered by cloth and dust—or for the high sloped ceiling that dissipated into blackness. It was the pool of color that would’ve engulfed everything if the pieces had been set further into the room. A cast of rich, deep purples and arrays of blues that seemed to ripple on the wooden floor.

The stained-glass window. The eye of the beast.

No wonder there had been so many stairs.

It only took a few patters of her footsteps for Isla to find herself bathed in the hues. She’d stopped right at the cusp of the window’s shadow, taking in its glory, her eyes wide with wonder. She felt a strain as she lifted her head to catch sight of all of it.

“Goddess,” Isla breathed, and she felt it. In the way the moonbeams amidst the color fed through the glass, she felt kissed by something divine. She looked around the room. “What is this place?”

She didn’t turn to Kai but could hear him closing the door and moving towards her. He was so proud, reveling in her awe, she could practically feel it through their jilted bond. “My great, great, great, great…” He trailed off before simply saying, “My ancestor’s study.”

A study all the way up here?

“Which one?” she asked, bringing her eyes back to the window.

“Alpha Orin, I think. At least, that’s what I found on some papers in the desk. They’re written in our native dialect, so I can only pick out his name. I wish I’d paid more attention to those lessons in the academy.” Kai walked by Isla to the window, and she found herself becoming entranced by the way his shadow danced amongst the colors. “I’ve been meaning to get some references in our library to figure out what it says—for my own curiosity—but I barely have the time.”

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