Page 49 of Revealing Fate

Imogen froze, swallowed by Karrick’s stare, the weight of his affirmation. He was wrong. His words changed everything.

But she was out of time. “I’ll have hot water hauled in for a bath,” she promised. “And a proper meal. Please eat it.”

Then she left.

Chapter 20

A KINDNESS

KAL WOKE FROM A FITFUL sleep after only several hours of unconsciousness. He’d left the cell block, gone straight to the barracks, and collapsed on an empty cot. Energy for anything more had been beyond him.

Rask left the watch’s depot before Kal could speak with him, his anger and disappointment likely too great to contain. Kal couldn’t blame him.

That’s not my sister.

Kal pulled himself into a seated position and pressed his palms into his eyes. A part of him still didn’t want to accept it. He didn’t want to believe he’d made such a disastrous mistake.

He spent the next twenty minutes in the unlit room, replaying every moment and conversation from the past several days. Kal searched the recesses of his mind for some hidden clue, any piece of fucking evidence that pointed to his error.

All he found was Kitty.

All he saw was the hesitant bloom of desire in her innocent eyes. He felt her quickened breath and stuttering heartbeat. He smelled her intoxicating scent, which shifted and intensified with her transient emotions.

He heard her lies. Felt the cut of her deceit.

Kal’s hands dropped to his lap and tightened into fists. Had any of it been real? Or was he just a pawn in some greater scheme? She was a spy. His plan to extract the real Railah had been discovered. It was the only plausible explanation. Why else would she have been in the exact location at the time he’d planned? And wearing a Fate’s cloak, no less.

Thank whatever gods remained that Cinah had realized and gotten Santhe out. If Kal lost a friend because of such carelessness, he would never forgive himself.

A knock sounded at the door. “What?” he growled.

The door opened, and Saul stepped inside. The Conclave’s unofficial leader eased onto the cot across from Kal. He reached forward and lit the lantern on the desk between them, and Kal squinted in irritation at the flare of light.

“How are you?” Saul asked.

Kal glared at him. “The woman I rescued is an imposter. I bled for her, killed for her, and fucking pined after her. Now she’s a godsdamned liar. How the fuck do you think I am?”

Saul hummed.

Kal flexed his fingers. Gods, his whole body ached. “Meanwhile, the woman I was supposed to retrieve is back in that hellhole, suffering gods only know what kinds of horrors. It’s all fucked, Saul.” Totally, completely, fucked.

“I spoke with her. Kitty.”

Her name sent a pang of longing into Kal’s loins, followed swiftly by rage. He didn’t even know her name.

“If she’s an Asterosian spy, she’s the best I’ve ever seen.”

The permanent furrow between Kal’s brows deepened. “You can’t mean you believe she’s innocent?”

Saul crossed his arms, head tilted. “Of deception? Certainly not. But I would be impressed if she were an agent of the crown. It is difficult to fake genuine fear, despair, and resolve.”

Kal grunted.

“You’re an excellent judge of character, Kal. And you’ve spent the most time with her,” Saul said. “Have there been any indications that she was less than sincere?”

Kal ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “I always sensed she was hiding something, but I assumed it was related to whatever transpired after she’d been named a Fate. Some unnamed atrocity she didn’t want to relive. I didn’t want to pry.” Maybe he should have. If he’d pressed her, perhaps he would have discovered her deception before any unwanted entanglements. Before it was too late to rectify his wrongs.

Seconds ticked by. The air grew pregnant with Saul’s silence. Then, “She chose a physical trial.”