Page 39 of Blood and Fate

Ever since then, even Teague, with his logical beliefs, didn’t question her.

Teague’s voice was quiet when he spoke, nearly a whisper, “What did she say?”

Kais blew out a breath, looking around for a place to sit. They had stopped walking outside of a tent where a number of stumps had been pulled around the fire. He seated himself, and Teague took the stump across from him, flinging his coat out behind him. Teague’s forearms rested on his thighs as he leaned forward toward Kais, waiting.

“She told me what I already knew.” Kais shook his head. “She was right, I’d known immediately. But like you, I thought it was a myth. Like my better judgment and wisdom didn’t want to believe it, but still I’d known.” Kais ran a palm over his face. “We talked, and when she touched me . . .”

Kais’ mind drifted back to the look on Kezia’s face—the absent void of nothingness in her eyes as she spouted off sentence after sentence about his future.

“Kay?”

Kais’ eyes snapped back to Teague. “She said Satori would come to me and would need me, but she would fear me.” He waved a hand toward where Satori ate with Bram and the other men. “She’s here; she came to me, though not of her own free will. And she is afraid of me.”

“You haven’t done anything to her.” Teague’s tone implied he was trying to dismiss the idea of Satori’s fear.

Kais shook his head. “No. She fears me. I don’t know why. It’s why I sent you to her in town today. And tonight, when we were discussing my whip, she was looking at it and then it was like a bolt of fear hit her. I thought maybe it was because someone said I could show her how to use it. Maybe she was afraid of injury. But it was more than that. She looked at me, and even if I hadn’t been able to feel it, I would have seen it in her eyes. Terror.”

Teague shook his head dismissively. “Okay, but that makes sense, doesn’t it? She’s been told you’re the enemy; that we’re the enemy.”

“She’s not afraid of you.” Kais examined the darkening sky. The men would be finishing dinner soon and returning to their tents. “Come to my tent.”

Kais eyed Satori’s tent as he passed it. He’d tried to tell them where to put it so he wasn’t constantly inundated with her emotions, but it hadn’t been far enough. He pushed through his own tent flaps, unsnapping the whip and tossing it onto the cot.

“Drink?” He didn’t wait for Teague to answer as he made his way to the cart.

“Sure,” Teague answered, coming up behind Kais.

Kais poured two drinks and handed one to Teague before moving to his desk and sitting. He drank deeply, a sort of fortification for the things he was about to say.

Teague placed his glass on the desk to remove his coat. Then he sat, waiting.

Where to begin?

“Kezia said she would fear me. She also said she would love me.”

Teague’s brows rose at that.

“Then she said I would die.”

He hadn’t spoken the words aloud, not ever. He’d only mulled them over at times endlessly, in his mind. Speaking them aloud seemed to give them life. The irony.

Teague’s brows crashed together as he leaned forward suddenly. “What?”

“That’s not all.” Kais reached up and rubbed at the tension in the back of his neck. “She said we would bleed.”

“Bleed?”

“Satori would bleed, I would bleed. She said Satori would find rest and safety in my arms, and then I would die.”

Slowly he looked up and met Teague’s gaze. For a long moment, the other man didn’t speak. They only held each other’s stares. Then, slowly at first, Teague began to shake his head. It started with a subtle movement but soon morphed into full, exaggerated denial.

“The future can be changed. Nothing about the future is set. What if it’s her? What if she’s the reason you end up dead? The whole thing, everything Kezia said, it was all centered around Satori.” Teague was standing now, gesturing as he spoke. Then he stopped. He turned to Kais and laid his hands on his hips. “Get rid of her.”

“What?” Surely Teague wasn’t suggesting . . .

“Kais! For Shala’s sake, I don’t mean kill her.” He threw a hand in the direction of Satori’s tent. “I mean, get rid of her. Get her out of here, out of our camp, away from us. Pay someone in the next town to take her home and get her away from you. I like her, I do, she’s sweet. But if she’s not here to start anything, she can’t be the cause of your death.”

“I didn’t say she was the cause of my death, did I?”

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