Page 199 of A Warrior's Fate

She’d give him hell for it. After he’d given her a tour of the place.

Their…new home.

Deimos’s classic motif of black and silver and the deepest blues, which all seemed to lend themselves towards, was used to accent encompassing shades of ivory. The walls, the columns, the floors, all hues of the brightest white and near-beige. Shadowy but eye-catching artwork and onyx sculptures were perched on the walls and gleaming floors. The surface so clean, the decor’s reflections along with Isla and Zahra’s served as splashes of color along with the blooms of flowers, picked not from the courtyard garden but from another.

Isla’s gaze traveled up the grand staircase in the House’s center, its steps covered in intricately designed sable carpet that bisected as it did, carrying into the estate’s two wings. After one landing, Isla caught the dark railings continuing, eventually where they’d meet another.

Her eyes drawn upwards, she squinted against the sunbeams spilling through the skylight. It made everything feel that much more spacious.

Though she had to admit, for as magnificent as it all was from this one spot, much like Kai’s office, the space lacked a warmth. That coziness and sincerity that she felt from him. Like he had made no marks in it himself.

For a moment, Isla wondered if it was possible to feel underdressed under what was supposed to be one’s own roof.

“The reigning luna typically oversees the interior design,” Zahra said, as if she’d been reading her mind, and Isla snapped to attention. “It fits my tastes for now, but as Kai’s moved back in—as much as he insists it’s fine if I stay—I’ll be moving out soon. Then he or whomever he marries will have free rein to do as they wish. Start fresh and make new memories.” A somber smile spread across her lips as she trained her own storm-colored eyes over the space. “It’s been far too long since these halls have heard any laughter or joy.”

The catch of her voice had Isla biting down on the inside of her lip so hard she nearly drew blood. She was distracted from whatever future she’d begun picturing as the words stirred in her. A future against the backdrop of pattering little feet on marble floors.

Because in a flash, Zahra became that woman who’d lost her mate, lost her child, and was at risk of losing another. The woman who woke up every day and faced the world with that weighing on her chest, but still held tall through all of it.

“Go ahead,” Zahra said quietly before turning to Isla. She dipped her head in invitation. “Ask me.”

Isla blinked, contemplating again if she was being tested. If she’d be overstepping. But she still asked, just as softly, “How are you still okay?”

Zahra sighed through her nose. “Because the Goddess knew she’d have hell to pay when I got up there if she took me from Kai, too. I would never leave my son to bear this all alone, even if there’s only so much I can do. Alpha is a very lonely role.” She closed the distance between them to say even lower, “So I’m very happy that now he has you.”

It took all of Isla’s willpower not to drool as the food was placed before her on the patchwork stone table. A hearty bowl piled with grains, colorful summer vegetables, and a generous helping of spice-rubbed lamb served with a side of bread and oil and a glass of white wine.

She thanked the server, another member of House staff, and Zahra followed suit before saying, “The vegetables are from my garden.” She gave a sweeping gesture to the land behind Isla, a deep mass of colors and greenery.

Isla wasn’t sure what poor excuse she’d used for an intrigued response, so blinded by hunger, but whatever it was, it was enough to amuse Zahra and get her to encourage Isla to eat.

Still, Isla waited until the former luna took her first bite before she allowed hers.

They ate in silence at first, soft sounds of their chewing and drinking blending into the trilling of birds and buzz of insects tending to the grounds along with its other keepers, caring for the lawns and clipping hydrangeas along a small white picket fence. For a chance of fresh air, they’d sat for lunch beneath the pergola over the House’s back terrace—extensive enough to entertain numerous guests—giving Isla the perfect view of the expansive backyard, a glimpse at Zahra’s garden, and the length of a swimming pool and its accompanying house further away. A look up and in the distance, beyond the forest, gave her a view of the surrounding mountain peaks, their outlines gray-cast.

A compliment for its beauty sat on the tip of Isla’s tongue, but there was something more important to be said first.

She still hadn’t asked Zahra how she’d known about her and Kai.

By the time her initial shock had worn off, Zahra had them moving through the hallways of ivory, and Isla had become too caught in keeping up with her and distracted by what they passed. Particularly by the corridor of family photographs, which had rendered her completely speechless.

Isla counted out twenty-eight of them, and they varied in size, yet despite the abstractness, they flowed somewhat chronologically. It seemed the favorites, the key photographs, were the largest. The year of one infant, and the year that infant had become a toddler and was joined by another baby.

As Isla had traced how Kai had aged throughout the years—from an adorable newborn to the man he was now—Zahra explained, “We always take them on the Equinox. It’s a time to reflect, be grateful, and there is nothing that I was more thankful for than my family.” The Equinox had explained the warm hues of autumn.

Isla noted how Kai had always tended to the side of his mother, while Jaden—who

just as eye-catching as Kai—kept close to his father. She could’ve stood there for hours trying to break down the royal family’s dynamic through their shifting expressions and body language. Because there was something with Kyran’s push that they were a “loving, united family front, always” that a picture couldn’t hide.

Somewhere, along the way—as the boys lost their exuberant smiles, and Zahra and Kyran drifted farther apart—they’d fractured.

After a particularly large bite of her meal, Zahra sighed, savoring it, and threw her arm over the back of the empty chair beside her. She tilted her head and shut her eyes, sunning her face. Her brown skin seemed to glow in the light.

Isla paused herself after another swallow, holding back a grimace at a slight ache in her stomach. Maybe she’d eaten too fast.

She lifted the napkin from her lap and wiped her face before finally daring, “When did you figure it out?”

Zahra’s head remained lulled. “At the banquet, after we talked.”

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