Page 99 of A Warrior's Fate

“I’ll know when I hear it.”

Isla opened and closed her mouth, unsure what to say. She caught sight of the backside of the hotel up ahead. As quickly as she could, she attempted to break down what Kai was asking of her. “When Sol had found out that Callan and I were of Io, he asked if we were here to aid you or investigate you, but apparently, I’m here to aid in your investigations?”

“I suppose.”

“Is that why you approved me, then?” Isla asked. “Why you endorsed me being here. So I could be your spy?”

A little hurt crept into her voice, and it made Kai slow until he came to a stop. Isla followed suit. They were a few yards away from the hotel’s backdoor. He turned and gradually closed the distance between them until all that was left were inches.

“I approved you because you deserve to be here,” he said. “I’m not going to deny you what you’ve worked for just because I have to work harder to not think about you all the time and to keep my hands to myself.”

Isla bit down hard on the inside of her cheek, not wanting to address or show a reaction to the tease. “I didn’t bring any type of formal wear, and I don’t think I can show up to a banquet in my armor or warrior gear.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Kai moved in just one step closer. Another, and they’d be against each other. “I need you, Isla.”

The statement shouldn’t have made her shiver, shouldn’t have had her mind running through the other situations in which she’d want to hear it from his mouth. But it did. Thankfully, she was able to quell anything before it started.

Swallowing hard, she ran her eyes along his face. He appeared older now than he had when she’d last seen him, a tiredness to his eyes and a shadow of stubble dusting over his jaw and cheeks. Another month spent adjusting to a role he’d never prepared for and could never have a reprieve from.

Even with how assured he’d sounded, there was something pleading in his gaze. He needed her.

He needed her.

Taking a breath, Isla squared her shoulders to him and said, “You have me.”

Kai had been right.

Before the sun had even crept fully over the mountains surrounding Mavec, before its beams could cast a gleam along the river, Eli had asked Isla to the banquet.

He’d fallen upon her in the hotel lobby just as she’d been returning from grabbing a sunrise breakfast alone at the café nearby, a recommendation from Davina. The way the general had framed the invitation, she would be accompanying him as his protégé. His second. It was all to observe how one would interact in their position within the setting. Navigating political conversation, easing minds, and maybe tempers, especially in times of uncertainty and strife.

It would’ve been an honor if she wasn’t so aware of his ulterior motives. If she hadn’t caught his reflection in one of the windows as she’d walked away, his eyes honed on her lower half. Still, even if his objective at times had been to woo her, he seemed shocked when she’d been so gleefully responsive, flashing him a wide smile, thanking him, and saying that she’d love to attend. She’d played the “role”, as Ameera called it, perfectly, and just as Kai would want. Eager and bright-eyed, ready to schmooze and flatter.

She hadn’t seen her mate or heard from him since they’d parted last night, with a goodnight, Alpha, and goodnight, Warrior that she replayed endlessly through her head as she walked up to her hotel room. She’d still been wearing his jacket, she realized. He hadn’t asked her to give it back. Maybe because he liked the fact that his scent was all over her, even when she’d taken it off.

Only after an hour of scrubbing her body head to toe in the shower—while trying her damned hardest to keep her fingers from drifting anywhere else as lecherous thoughts of him, particularly him running his hands over her body, made their return—did she feel like she’d removed every trace of him.

Though a leery look she’d received from Callan as the warriors boarded their vehicle that morning made her paranoid that she hadn’t.

As instructed, while Eli went to meet Beta Ezekiel and the lead commander of the entire Deimos guard, the rest of the unit went on to spend the morning and early afternoon touring the guard’s main campus and getting to know the remaining order that hadn’t been sent to deal with the rogues yet. The strategy was to have the warriors—being the most elite fighters and strategists the continent had to offer, according to their rank—working alongside the guard battalions to drive their nefarious brethren from parts of southern Abalys.

Isla knew the two fighter classes were meant to mix, get along, and build rapport, but she didn’t have much hope for that happening. As Eli had said, it seemed they didn’t want the warriors involved at all.

The campus sat at the base of one of the mountains. It was the furthest of the various peaks, deceptively so, as it took them nearly an hour of winding roads and hills and valleys to get there. It was like Io’s guard headquarters—dormitories and training rings, a reference center and dining quarters, medic buildings, and a horde of new, young recruits running drills over the landscape. Some of them looked as if they’d pass out. Isla was sure they’d been going since sunrise.

When a break from the touring came at lunch, Isla was late getting to the mess hall. She’d gotten “lost”, “separated from the group”, and conveniently found herself amongst the books and maps of the camp’s collection.

There had been nothing on Phobos.

Nothing on any language but the Common and the native dialect of Deimos that was now obsolete.

Both used the same uniform alphabet. Nothing like the symbols of the message, the marker, or the book.

She would have to go back to The Bookshoppe and see what Jonah had to offer her—before she’d been distracted by their surprise guest—even though she wasn’t sure how she’d interact with the shop owner now that she knew he knew. Wasn’t sure what their relationship was—if there was any type of “relationship” between them. She was simply destined to be with his “brother”. The same went for all of Kai’s closest companions.

Including Rhydian, who she spotted before her in the long line waiting to get his food.

The guard looked different from his twin, brawnier and more muscular compared to Jonah’s sinewy stature. Rhydian’s hair was longer too, the tight curls coiling a bit higher on his head. They shared the same dark skin though, and similar amber and honey flecked eyes. Eyes that were warm and inviting, and urged her forward.

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