Page 122 of A Warrior's Fate

She wouldn’t look back at the second dead rogue as she allowed the fallen man and the others who’d been attacked to use her fur and body to clamber to their feet. She helped them quickly get a woman too injured to walk to some of the guards at one of the hall’s doors.

Isla, smattered in blood, was greeted by swords before they’d realized what was happening. Their vengeful stares turned perplexed, and concerned, as she wasn’t recognizable to them. But still, for her help, they bowed their heads in gratitude—and maybe respect.

She mirrored the action and turned.

Next.

Isla found her next target and made quick work. Helped who she needed to. Moved on.

And on. And on.

Protect, protect, protect—a single thought, a single word looped in her mind. Protect her mate, protect his people. She became a force of nature in the fray. A beast feared and sought after in the crowd. It was as if something had taken over her body. Never in her life had she ever felt so much…power.

When the ballroom had settled to a degree that the guards left their posts by the exits, Isla ventured out into the courtyard. Her stomach turned as she took in the scene, even more horrific than what lay inside. This was where most of the injured had been carried, where the dead had been taken. It was a choir of sobs of the mourning and screaming of the ailed. Isla paused as a familiar wail pricked her ears. She froze as, amidst the scattered, she found the man who’d come to her and Kai for help. He knelt before a body, a woman’s limp hand clutched in his own. Behind him, stood Zahra; a woman who’d faced such a horror herself, now forced to relive it through another’s experience. Her face was solemn and drawn with sympathy, but her features still held a refined quality that served as a pillar of strength in a storm.

A storm that Isla herself would need to navigate. Maybe now, whether she wanted to or not.

Kai had been nowhere.

When Isla had reached for the bond after nearly breaking down at the sights she’d beheld, it was weak. Distance was likely to blame, but it hadn’t kept her from the terror. Hadn’t kept her wolf from growing restless, not even calmed when the knowledge came that he had gone with the guard to handle rogues that had also taken to the city squares bordering the river into Abalys.

From what Isla had gleaned before she and Eli were asked by Ezekiel—likely aware of her prying ears—to leave the hall, the rogues had been able to sneak along the banks up to the borders of Mavec, and then somehow, bypassed the guards, obtained their vehicles, and made their way up to the banquet. How they were able to get through, how they knew about the party at all was still a mystery.

She was in her hotel room now with Davina, and the entirety of Mavec had been put on lockdown until dawn. Still, it took everything in Isla not to head out anyway. To track down Kai. Every thought of him had her insides coiling, the bond still unstable and driving her mad. This had to have been what Kai had been talking about, what he’d described in Callisto. Though the madness wasn’t steeped in intense lust and desire as Isla had thought, it was simply in the unknown, in the bond’s ebb and flow. Strong and weak pulls, the pondering if they meant Kai was alive or dying, the inability to contact him. The feeling of being able to do everything and nothing, to feel everything and then empty. It was making her crazy, and it had only been a few hours.

Touch wasn’t permanent, their bond could still fray, but exactly how long was this supposed to last?

She’d pondered it as she scrubbed herself clean in the shower, marking the places, mentally, where Kai’s body had met with hers. But her hands didn’t roam. As much as she’d likely enjoy having him on her like that again, she was more concerned with him simply getting back to her again. Him being safe and okay.

As Isla rewound through the night, through her bloodied battles, over the lifeless stares she’d seen brought about by her own claws, she felt nausea bubble in her stomach and bile begin rising in her throat. There had only been a few heartbeats for her to jump out of the water and wrap herself in a towel before she’d fallen to her knees to empty the contents of her stomach into the toilet.

Davina, who’d been in the bedroom phoning whoever she could in the shops below to learn about what was occurring, had burst into the washroom.

And she was there through every spell until Isla was sure there was nothing left—from the banquet or before it.

Isla groaned and ran the back of her hand over her mouth in a long, harsh stroke as she loosened her grip on the porcelain.

“There you go,” Davina eased, running a palm up and down Isla’s towel-clad back.

Isla responded with another grunt.

This was the second time that the act of killing had brought her to her knees, vomiting. Only this time, it was real. Several times over.

Taking the life of another wolf was different from killing vicious monsters crafted by nightmares—rogue or not. It wouldn’t get easier, she knew, but she’d become more tolerant. She would have to. She just had to keep reminding herself of the people she’d saved. How they’d go home to their families.

Though they were grateful, others—as Isla had gathered through the whispers and glowers received as she walked past—had seen her, the wolf of Io, as destructive and a means of her pack to make a political stand, an assertion of power. A show of how Deimos needed Io to handle their problems…Isla had never heard anything more absurd.

Her spine barked in the slightest pain, sore from her fighting, as she fell against the tile of the bathtub, the nausea still lingering.

Davina handed her a glass of water she’d retrieved, and Isla swished the liquid between her teeth and spit—one time, then again, and again—before accepting some mouthwash and going through that too.

Davina settled across from her against the sink.

Isla thanked her before asking, “Have you heard anything?”

Davina heaved a breath. “The guard is all over the city, but no one can really tell what’s going on.”

“Is Rhydian out there?”

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