Page 6 of Revealing Fate

Felíne’s jaw locked before she could incriminate herself. Kal didn’t know she was the Prima of Asteros—the only shurii ever to have been born without a second form. Kal thought her real name was Railah, his friend’s younger sister, whom he believed he had rescued from a life dedicated to the Fates—the women her mother and father had used as test subjects in an attempt to identify a safe method for Felíne to service the Primordial Male. The Goddess’s prophecy demanded she bear him an heir to break the curse, and since males were only fertile in second form, she’d have to survive the exceedingly dangerous coupling. So many of those poor Fates had lost their lives attempting to do what had only been done once before. And now Felíne had an idea of why…

It took her a moment to resurface from her thoughts before she realized that Kal was still waiting for an answer. “Never mind,” she said evasively before another question arose. “Do you have complete control over your second form?”

“I have temptations like anyone else, but yes, I do. I have not lost control in a very long time.”

“All because you didn’t grow up in Asteros.”

“The Asterosian monarchy uses its religious ideology to cripple and control its people. Those shurii don’t even know who they are anymore. What they’re capable of. Where I grew up, we were taught to use our second forms. To train and hone our abilities. Loss of control wasn’t common because all our people were intimately familiar with their capabilities. A person could still do great damage if they chose, but it wouldn’t be because they couldn’t help it.”

It was a lot to mull over. Felíne had grown up understanding the opposite of what Kal had been taught. Granted, she didn’t have a second form to repress, so with that, she couldn’t relate. But the message had been the same. According to the godscripts, the Goddess’s form was perfect and good. The shurii’s second form, the form of the Godking, the Great Betrayer, was sinful and subject to base desires. But why would the king and queen deliberately mislead their people? Felíne’s mother, Queen Serebine, believed wholeheartedly that using the second form for anything other than bringing new life into the world was akin to eternal damnation after death. It was the foundation of the entire Faithful Cursed belief system. All their people were taught this. To think they were all misinformed was unfathomable. It was one of the first things she’d be investigating when she returned home.

“Let’s assume that what you’re saying is true,” Felíne said. “Then we’ve been creating our own problem.”

“In what way?”

She paused. “Are you familiar with the Fates?”

Kal was quiet for a moment as though debating on how to answer. “In a limited sense.”

She wasn’t as intimately familiar with the Fated Mothers as Kal likely assumed, but she knew enough from what Imogen had explained to her. “They were females who originally volunteered their services to the crown for exorbitant sums of money. They—” she mentally chided herself, forgetting her ruse. “—we all have one job: to become pregnant. When a Fate enters a fertile cycle, they are given a tonic to prevent them from shifting to second form and then locked in with the male they’re instructed to service.”

Kal went still behind her but didn’t speak.

“The males cannot control themselves in second form. They can’t resist their drive to mate. And in first form, the females can’t defend themselves.” Felíne’s voice dropped. “Many Fates were badly injured. Others died. The ones responsible for this program have attempted many different methods to ensure a safe, successful coupling. Only one has succeeded in all their years of trying. Her baby was stillborn.”

Imogen.

Felíne’s first friend. The young elder assigned to guide her through that last crucial phase of her training before her presentation to the Primordial Male. Her heart ached, remembering Gen’s testimony.

When Kal finally replied, his voice was low and angry. “How could the crown possibly justify that kind of abuse?”

Felíne steeled herself against the horrible truth. “For…” Me. “The Prima. To find a way for her to safely mate the Primordial Male. So she can bear him an heir and break the curse.”

Kal must have mistaken her bitterness for a liberated Fate’s vengeful reminiscence. He gave her a little squeeze. “Fuck the curse,” he said. “The Prima, whoever she is, can deal with her own fate. It isn’t your burden to bear, Kitty. It never should have been.”

Felíne tensed, forcing herself to keep from sinking through the saddle to be trampled beneath Sig’s hooves. His words were meant to comfort her. He couldn’t know they would have the opposite effect. Her guilty conscience reared its ugly head, and she cleared her throat. “In any case,” Felíne said, “my point was that the crown has been creating its own problem. If what you said is true, that the shurii’s second forms simply needed to be used and known to prevent becoming a threat, the Fates could have avoided danger all along.” Not only that, she realized. She could avoid the danger. The Fates were not required. “The crown needs to hear this. Someone needs to tell them.”

Kal scoffed.

“I’m serious,” she said. “Those women’s lives can still be saved.” Railah’s life. The person Kal thought was sitting in the saddle with him. “The king and queen need to be told.”

“They were told.”

Kal’s words halted her racing thoughts. She craned around. “What? By whom?”

His black eyes met hers. Anger, pain, and a soul-deep hatred churned there. “My parents.”

Chapter 2

LIGHTNING

FELÍNE AND KAL CONTINUED ON the rest of the afternoon in relative silence, both likely occupied with thoughts of the past. At least Felíne knew she was. The mention of Kal’s parents had drawn him inward, and she was content to forego further conversation. The light he’d recently shed on the shurii’s second form and her parents’ involvement in crimes against the people was difficult to grapple with. Each answer she gained led to another handful of questions. The more she learned, the less she felt she knew about her family, her heritage, and herself.

And then there was Kal’s past. Her family was involved in the murder of his. Possibly even directly responsible. But again, that revelation only led to more unknowns. Why had they been killed? Was it deserved? She and Kal clearly had vastly different upbringings, but she couldn’t picture parents he obviously mourned deserving a death sentence. Felíne knew so little of Kal; she didn’t even know where he was from. Each new plausible explanation seemed worse than the last. Keeping a mental tally of the things she knew versus the questions she still had required more mental fortitude than she feared she was capable of. All the thinking left her grumpy and tired.

The cluster of coniferous trees they’d navigated earlier in the day had been left behind near the base of the mountains. Despite the exposed nature of the landscape, they hadn’t encountered any other passersby, to her immense relief.

Kal directed Sig toward a hilly sloping plain, and Felíne could just make out a blanket of dense, dark green in the distance. The sun crept toward the horizon behind them, already kissing the mountain peaks, and its shadows stretched ahead.