Page 123 of A Warrior's Fate

“He was patrolling the outermost borders again. I don’t know if they called him down for the search. I know Ameera went out there. She was with Jonah and met up with Kai.”

At the mention of her mate, Isla’s shoulders slumped and she averted her eyes.

“Feeling any better?”

Isla returned her gaze to Davina, feeling the bond like a heavy anvil on her chest. Feeling it attempt to loosen her tongue.

“We touched.”

It won.

Davina’s brows lifted at the words. “What?”

Isla brought her lip between her teeth, saying the words aloud somehow making the harshness of it so much clearer. “Kai and I—we touched, and…” She wedged her hands into her hair. “Goddess.”

Davina couldn’t contain her shock or her grin. “Should—should I be bowing to you right now?” When Isla’s own disposition didn’t reflect hers, her features dimmed. “What happened?”

Isla felt ridiculous as she explained what she wished hadn’t been real—getting run into, pushed, and how Kai had caught her. After months of staying apart, of games and close calls, that was how it had happened?

“And then what?”

Isla could see Davina working hard to abate the amusement.

“There were rogues,” she said. “And I haven’t seen him since.”

Silence settled between them as Davina ran Isla over with an assessing stare. “How…do you feel?”

“Raw,” Isla answered, the first word to come to mind and probably the most accurate. “Vulnerable, exposed…and like the rogues are lucky that I don’t go into their lands and slaughter all of them because they’re the reason he isn’t here. Because, for all I know, they could be the reason he—” Isla didn’t want to say the word out loud.

Davina hummed, almost impressed. “And you haven’t even accepted the bond yet? I’d hate to be the sorry bastard that gets between you two once that happens.”

Once that happens…

“Touch isn’t permanent,” Isla echoed her earlier thoughts. “We still don’t have to bond.”

Surprise took over Davina’s face and again, she went quiet. She was careful when she spoke next. “Is that what you want?”

A few weeks ago, Isla’s answer would’ve been immediate.

Yes.

Yes—this was what they’d wanted. What they’d planned.

Being apart. Moving on with their separate lives without the bond wearing down on them.

But instead, Isla found her mind drifting back to Kai’s touch, back to the hallway, back to the quiet moments walking back from The Bookshoppe, up on the infirmary roof, and even in Callisto’s forest when Kai was saying goodbye. Those tiny pockets of peace. Of ease.

And with that on her mind, she said, “I don’t know.”

“Why not?” Again, soft and mindful.

Isla sighed before leaning her head against the wall beside her. “It’s…complicated.”

Davina offered a smile. “I’m all about complicated.”

Isla, to her own surprise, returned the grin, albeit a bit more strained.

More than the bond had been wearing on her all this time. So many things that she’d needed to let out, for years, but had no one to turn to. She told herself that Davina, though, she said she was open to complicated, didn’t need to be bogged down with Isla’s troubles. No one did.

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