Page 63 of Blood and Fate

She pulled her arm away, wrapping herself tightly in her own embrace. More thoughts of Henrik pushed into her mind, and she shook her head from side to side.

“Nothing.”

He pulled his hand back, not touching her again. “That’s not nothing. Is there someone at home that you’re afraid of? Your father?”

She snapped her attention to him. “No. No, my father does not scare me.”

“Well, something does.” He crossed his arms. “I won’t take you back to that.”

Anger flared. “What are you going to do? Hold me against my will?”

His chest deflated, exasperation seeping from him. “No. Satori, I’m just trying to tell you, you’re safe here. You don’t have to go back there.”

“I don’t?” Now the anger came more easily. “I am a Princess. My father will die, and I will inherit the throne. I have a country counting on my return. Counting on me. I do have to go back there. I can’t expect you to understand, but that is the way of it.”

“No.” His voice quieted. “I wouldn’t understand.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

KAIS

Kais rammed the tent rod into the ground before he picked up the small mallet and brought it down on the top. The pole drove five inches into the ground.

“What did that pole do to you?” Kais turned his still annoyed expression on Teague, who threw up both arms in a gesture of surrender. “No offense meant. Seriously, though . . .”

Kais dropped the mallet with a huff before bending to grab the last pole.

Teague moved around, lifted the canvas, and shook it out. “Where’s Satori?”

“She went to see if Bram needed anything.” Kais worked for a few more seconds before tossing the supplies to the ground and rounding on Teague. “Something’s wrong.”

Teague looked up. “What do you mean?”

“With Satori.”

He could feel it. Whatever it was she had been thinking of while they were talking of her home had sent a jolt of fear directly through her. And she wouldn’t tell him what it was. But it was the same thing he had felt the night she’d had the nightmare.

“Something at her home scares her. but she refuses to tell me what. Refuses to even acknowledge it, even though she knows I can feel it.”

“Something like they have rats in the dungeon, or something else?” Teague shook the tent in Kais’ direction.

Kais took his end of the tent. “Something else. I think it’s someone. But I don’t think it’s her father.”

The two men hurled the canvas over the frame. When they had straightened it, Kais stood back, hands on hips. He was looking at the structure, but all he could see was that look on her face.

“I think it’s that advisor.”

Teague turned his head. “The one from the dance?”

Kais remembered the man, tall, thin, light brown hair, and a slimy air about him.

“Yes.” He pulled his lip between his teeth, pushing it out before speaking. “That night, I danced with Satori and he tried to cut in. When I asked her if she would rather dance with him, she froze. She chose me over him. And I noticed it then, but I didn’t realize it.”

“Do you think he’s threatening her?” Teague asked.

“I don’t know. She said he was on the list of people her father would approve of her marrying. Some old king, a young prince, and this advisor.”

Teague tossed his brows into the air. “What a selection.” He paused for a moment. “Might there be another name on the list?”

---