Page 168 of A Warrior's Fate

Pyres for the fallen.

As sadness gripped her heart, Isla noticed there was also more guard around. Some in uniform, and others that she recognized from their ramrod posture and intent gazes that rivaled Ameera’s.

“Ooh.”

Isla looked up at Rhydian, finding him focused on an eatery a few feet away. His hand was holding his stomach.

“What?” Ameera’s voice was eager and sharp, ready to face an opponent, but as she followed the guard’s stare, her tone flattened, “Are you serious?”

“I need more than whiskey in my stomach if we’re going at this all night,” Rhydian countered, already breaking from them to head inside.

Isla found her hand drifting to her own abdomen. She did, too.

The last meal she had was in the mess hall after the hike, and she’d certainly endured quite the…workout after that. Her mouth salivated as the smell of warm spices wafted up to her nose.

Several minutes later, Rhydian emerged from the shop with four pockets in his hands. Each smelled divine and was filled with seasoned meat, gooey cheese, and a variety of colored vegetables.

He’d already bitten into his own and handed one each to the two women, the last a second for himself. As he gave Ameera hers, he winked. “No onion.”

The general attempted to keep a straight face as she grumbled a thank you, before taking a large, aggressive bite and noting that he’d set them back ten minutes.

As Isla mowed down her meal, which tasted as incredible as it smelled, she got lost in the atmosphere again. Tracking a killer, especially given the situation, shouldn’t have been so…enjoyable.

“How could this place be suffocating?” she mumbled to herself, recalling Kai’s words from the roof of Callisto’s infirmary.

“How could what be suffocating?” Rhydian was already licking his fingers from the remnants of his first pocket and was ready to start his second.

Isla swallowed another bite. She hadn’t meant for them to hear.

“When Ka—” She cut herself off. There weren’t sizable crowds, but enough bodies close to be wary of curious ears. She wasn’t sure how many named Kai were floating around Deimos but was sure who would be the most notable. “When this place was described to me, I was told that it was beautiful—which it is, incredibly so—but also that it’s…suffocating.” She looked around—at the people, the food in her hand, the star-flecked sky above, and the gems below. “I don’t see it.”

“It is when you’re brought up within its conventions.” Ameera drew Isla’s attention her way. She, too, had finished her meal and was bunching the paper casing in her hand while she studied the map. “There’s a reason that Pack Hall seems like it’s a part of another world up there on that hill, and why I’m sure you had a great time at the banquet last night meeting the upper echelons of our pack leadership.”

Isla’s chewing on her next bite slowed.

She hadn’t had the most pleasant time at the banquet, surrounded by the boastful lot. Those who looked at her as someone to sneer at or to fill the ear of with egotistical nonsense. Building a grandeur around themselves, a game of who stood higher than the rest. Manicured looks and manufactured personas. It was exhausting.

She didn’t see or feel that here. Here, everyone was just—living. Celebrating that fact alone. For themselves and those that had been lost.

She glanced back at the hall. At the keen window-eye she couldn’t miss, following and watching her everywhere she moved. The city’s crown jewel. A reminder.

She spun back to Ameera and Rhydian and swallowed. “Is that why you all go to Abalys? To get away from here?”

“It was,” Ameera said, slowing to a halt. “But you can’t change the way things operate by running away and hiding.” The words lingered as the general lifted her head to the building at which they’d stopped. “Interesting.”

Isla did the same.

They were at a bar.

Rhydian scratched at the stubble sprouting from his chin. “Why is it interesting?”

“We never came over here.”

Isla peered at the general. “You’re sure?”

Ameera shot her a look that said, of course, I’m sure. She folded up the map and put it in her pocket. “Let me see what I can find inside. You two look around to see if there’s anything else interesting around here.”

Isla nodded, and Rhydian gave her a mock salute.

---