Page 140 of Revealing Fate

Felíne smiled softly. “Good morning.”

Kal propped himself on an elbow. “Is it morning?”

She sat, clutching a blanket to her. “I can only assume.”

“How are you feeling?” he asked.

Felíne did a mental assessment and tried to articulate this newfound sense of self. “I feel…reborn.”

Kal hummed his understanding and planted a chaste kiss to her lips with a small self-satisfied smile.

“We need to tend to those wrists,” she said, nodding at the twin injuries. “You’re lucky you didn’t cut yourself to the bone.”

Kal gave an unbothered shrug and rolled his neck. “Even if I had, it would have been worth it. Watching you unravel like that?” His gaze fixed on her, and Felíne’s insides clenched. “Seeing you come apart for the first time? I’d spill my blood again for the honor of it.”

Felíne’s face flushed with new heat. “You’re awfully lyrical of late, Kalevar Kaine.”

He quirked another smile and lowered one more kiss onto her forehead before rising from their nest of pillows and blankets. “Perhaps I’ve been reborn as well.”

“Where are you going?”

He stopped at the stairwell to glance over his shoulder. “First, to pee. But also, there’s the unfortunate matter of two dead bodies in the forest,” he said as though referencing two fallen trees instead of people. “I’d like to collect them before the wilderness beasts do.”

Felíne swallowed. Gods. She was ashamed to admit that their evening together had effectively erased her concern over the two brothers Kal killed during yesterday’s storm. The two brothers who’d attempted to incapacitate Kal and haul her off to the Conclave. “What do we do now?”

A dangerous edge stole into Kal’s features, his hard body going taut with leashed violence. “We go see Saul,” he said. “And then Lucien Cross and I are going to have a conversation.”

Felíne thought Kal’s version of a conversation likely meant additional bloodshed. She pushed herself up from the chaise. “Go and get the bodies,” she said. “I’ll be washed and dressed by the time you get back.”

Kal’s attention trailed the length of her as she stood. “Maybe I should stay.” His gaze heated as though he could see straight through the thick fabric Felíne held to her. “You might need my help.”

She brushed past him, stepping onto the stairs. “I don’t think so,” she said, a teasing smile tugging her lips. “It would be a shame to damage your wrists further.”

“Next time it’ll be my hands at work and yours bound with silverskin.”

Felíne pressed her lips together to hide the betraying thrill that shivered down her spine. She stepped up another stair. “Didn’t you mention a full bladder, Kal?” Her eyes flicked down suggestively. “I wouldn’t want you to wet yourself on my account.”

Kal lunged for her, and she squealed, scrambling out of reach. Felíne raced up the stairs, her playful pursuer hot on her heels. Only with the washroom door firmly bolted behind her did Felíne stop to consider the danger of Kal’s silver tongue and the tentative, slipping hold that remained on her boundaries.

Felíne and Kal made their way into Meress at a cautious pace. Kal looked more tense than she’d ever seen him. He had a dozen different blades concealed on his person, a crossbow slung at his hip, and the two twin swords he’d used to kill Drexan sheathed across his back. He prowled beside Sig’s shoulder as they wove between buildings, having opted to lead the horse on foot. Felíne swayed slightly in the saddle with each gentle plod of the roan’s hooves.

Kal wasn’t the only one armed. Felíne had Daybreak fastened in her waist sheath, two daggers tucked into her boots, and a handful of short throwing knives up either sleeve. When she’d complained to Kal that she was as likely to hit him as any perceived attacker, he’d grunted and replied that he would take his chances.

Adder shadowed their progress through town somewhere out of sight. He’d met them at the cabin earlier that morning and helped wrap the bodies of the Carrow brothers that Kal retrieved from the woods. Miraculously, they’d been untouched by scavengers. Felíne tried to ignore the thud of the corpses being dragged in the cart behind her whenever it rolled over a dip in the path. Even with the bodies concealed by a heavy canvas tarp, she tensed at each person they passed. No one stopped them.

Meress’s beauty was undiminished, the forest town having been blanketed with rain from last night’s storm. Thirsty flowers had opened their vibrant blooms along the trail, their vines creeping up the sides of homes and winding over the trunks of broad trees. Low-lying mists obscured their route, lending an eerie quality to the stillness of the morning.

Unease prickled Felíne’s scalp despite the visual splendor of their surroundings.

Kal pulled them to a halt before a long log cabin with a wide, unadorned entryway. They’d arrived at the Conclave’s premises.

“Do they know we’re coming?” Felíne asked as Kal helped her dismount.

“Lucien does,” Kal replied. Of course, he would. Especially since his hired assailants didn’t return with their intended captives last night. “How much he’s told the rest of the Conclave remains to be seen.”

Kal led Felíne into a spacious yet functional interior. A line of simple wooden benches covered the polished blond floor and faced an elevated stage supporting five empty seats. Perhaps the main chamber where the Conclave held public meetings and deliberated over Meress’s community issues. They turned right down a short hall and up a brief flight of stairs. A narrow corridor extended off the stairwell. Kal stopped before the first door and tapped gently on the knocker.

He glanced at Felíne while they waited, dark brows set in a stern line, eyes black as a rip in space. There was no answer.