Page 26 of Revealing Fate

“This is where you live?”

She felt him shrug next to her. “For now. It’s the closest thing I’ve had to a home since I was a boy.”

Felíne dragged her eyes from the enchanting cabin and slipped her hand into his. The calloused pad of Kal’s thumb dragged lazily over the softer skin of her knuckle. He’d extended the invitation to go inside but remained standing where he was. She swallowed and tilted her chin up, facing him.

Kal reached forward with his other hand and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. His touch lingered near her jaw, fingers whispering over her skin. Felíne’s heart began beating loudly behind her ribs. Kal’s head dipped, his mouth hovering just a breath away from hers.

Around them, the wood was still, serene.

He stayed there, breathing her in for a small eternity, then rested his forehead against hers. Felíne closed her eyes, emotion swelling. She pulled back slowly and placed a hand on his chest. He captured it in his own.

Felíne searched his gaze.

Kal’s expression was guarded, but there was a longing buried beneath the stoicism and self-control. “I’m not sure what this is,” he confessed.

Felíne’s heart was thundering, but it sank at his words. Because in them was a tentative hope that crushed her. She knew what she wanted and yet… “I’m not sure what it can be,” she whispered, chest cracking.

Kal’s brow lowered, but he nodded, as though to assure her he understood what she meant.

He didn’t understand at all. He couldn’t. For it wasn’t a protective older brother’s honor that was at stake. It was the fate and future of an entire people.

“Come on,” Kal said, any flicker of disappointment once again hidden behind his stone mask. “Let’s get you inside.”

Kal opened the cabin door, and Felíne was immediately ensconced by the smell and feel of his personal space. Smoky notes of a long-cold fire lingered in the air. A sitting area before the stone hearth greeted them just inside the door, with worn, comfortable-looking leather furniture facing the mantle. Felíne fingered a blanket draped haphazardly over the back of a thickly padded chair.

The kitchen was small but functional. A gorgeous wooden counter spanned its length, the varied hues of woodgrain contrasting beautifully across its smooth surface. Sparse dishes were stacked neatly on an elevated open shelf against the back wall.

Kal turned down a short hallway that bisected the living room and kitchen, and Felíne followed him into a spacious bedroom. A huge bed dominated the center of the space, heaped with the snowy fur pelt of some monstrous winter creature. The bed was set before another wide window, which looked out onto the open meadow. The grassy plain stretched some distance beyond the rear of the cabin. Sunlight bathed the forest floor there, breaking through a rare expansive gap in the canopy.

Felíne spied a separate washroom. A pair of boots had been kicked against one wall. A leather vest, twin to the one Kal currently wore, and a crumpled pair of trousers were discarded in the far corner.

Felíne absorbed every detail with rapt fascination. She walked to the foot of the bed and trailed her fingers over the white fur throw. It felt far too intimate standing here in Kal’s private space, and yet she hungered for it. Desperate for that intimacy, knowing she couldn’t fully realize it.

Kal came to stand behind her, the warmth of him seeping into her back. He dragged the thick length of her hair over a shoulder, exposing one side of her neck. “Kitty,” he breathed against her skin. “If you don’t walk out of my bedroom in the next five seconds, you likely never will.”

She twisted and found herself nose to chest with him. “Why do you say that?”

“Because,” Kal replied, “I won’t be capable of letting you leave.”

Felíne’s breath came in quick bursts. “And here I thought the indomitable Kalevar Kaine possessed infinite self-control.”

“Not, apparently, when it comes to you.” He inhaled deeply, nostrils flaring. “Two seconds, Kitty. Decide.”

She nearly succumbed right there, but Felíne pushed past whatever reckless madness threatened to consume her, stepped around Kal, and walked out of his bedroom.

Ten minutes later, Kal reemerged from the hallway, strapping a fresh set of daggers to the sheaths at his waist. Felíne stood from where she’d been waiting in the sitting room.

“We’re leaving?”

Kal slung a quiver of arrows across his back. “Just me.”

“Where are you going?”

There was a line of tension bracketing Kal’s mouth, permeating the air around him. “I’m going to get Rask.”

Felíne’s face fell. “So soon? We just got here.”

Kal’s eyes, now flat black, landed on her face. “He’s the reason you’re here, Kitty. Any delay at this point would be selfish.”