Page 33 of A Warrior's Fate

“On the floor next to you.” Declan brought the sphere up to his face. He examined it as the Trainee had, though indifferent, clearly not realizing what he was holding. Not only a hope that their comrade may still be alive if the room had been barren of armor or weapons—something bak, unless all had gone mad, surely didn’t consume—but a relic from one of the hierarchy’s greatest secrets.

A new kind of unease gripped Isla’s heart as she cast quick looks around to confirm the hall was still deserted. She wondered if anybody else would know what the marker was if they saw it. If anyone else knew the “right” or “wrong” people as the Trainee had.

“It’s some old kids’ toy or something,” Declan said. “I was thinking it would be a good souvenir that wasn’t scraps of bark or dead leaves, but the longer I have it, the creepier it gets.” He grimaced, scratching hard at the surface. “For all I know, that hag’s curse carries on in it. Maybe I should go slip it back through the Gate.”

Isla jumped forward. “Wait, no, I’ll keep it.”

Declan’s eyebrows knitted together. “What?”

She had to rein in her enthusiasm or else he may have thought it was something of value. Which it probably was, but he didn’t need to know that.

“If you don’t want it, I’ll keep it.” She shrugged, playing aloof.

“After I just said it might be cursed?”

“I like to live on the edge.”

Declan peered between her—subtly jutting out her bottom lip in the slightest pout—and the sphere in his hand considerably before outstretching it. “If you start bleeding from your eyes or grow a second head, no blaming me. I’m not dealing with the Imperial Guard.”

Isla took the ball from his hand, not even bothering to tell him her falling victim to a curse was the last thing the guard would ever be dispersed for.

She was startled by the amount of weight it had to it, how the worn edges didn’t feel like the wear of curse-induced decay, just of served purpose. She wondered how it had looked back then as it lined the Ares Pass, who the people were who traveled by it. Just holding it felt like she was breaking so many rules, like she was ransacking the vaults of Io’s Pack Hall, poring through the hidden archives.

“Declan, right?”

Isla stiffened and spun, hiding the marker behind her back as she pressed herself against the wall again.

She’d been so entranced that she hadn’t even noticed Declan straightening as someone approached, hadn’t heard the intruder’s footsteps, hadn’t sensed his presence around her. She didn’t think it was possible for anger to come on so quickly, not in the rush that it had.

Kai stood tall over them both. Meanwhile, Ezekiel watched like a hawk a few feet away. His eyes were narrowed on his alpha’s every movement, on hers, like he was searching for their connection, testing Kai’s insistence of her nothingness to him, his handling it. Isla held back her glare, biting her tongue to keep from saying everything she wanted to. Every disrespectful curse that floated in her mind.

She needed to get away from here, from him, or be unable to guarantee she wouldn’t cause a scene.

Isla squeezed the marker tighter in her hand, trying to envelop it entirely with her fingers, shielding it from view. Would they know what it was if they saw it? The pass had once gone straight through to their royal city. Did Deimos still have remnants of that former life or had that been wiped, too?

Isla remained tall as Kai’s gaze flickered to her. His eyes weren’t cold, not how she’d pictured them looking while he spoke of her to Ezekiel. It was the same dance of emotions she was accustomed to, the ones she’d spent time trying to break down to have some idea of what was going on in his head. But those days were over.

“Alpha,” she said, face flat. No inflection, no emotion, mirroring it in her voice.

One of Kai’s eyebrows went up, thrown off by her disposition.

Good.

“Warrior.”

The address didn’t fill her with any of the mirth that it would have if from another’s lips.

“If you’ll excuse me.” Isla pushed herself off the wall, maneuvering so the marker would remain hidden.

She could feel Kai’s stare on her back as she walked away, every fiber of her being trying to get her to turn and go back to him. But she fought it; harder than she would’ve wished she needed to.

It was time for the plan they’d laid out. The Hunt was over.

Kai was going back to lead Deimos.

She was going back to Io.

And though she was beginning to fear it impossible, they would forget.

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