Page 72 of Revealing Fate

Chapter 28

LITTLE ORCHID

THE PLAN WAS SIMPLE. IMOGEN had been over it enough times with Mender Alcuin and Cinah Creed since that initial meeting in her old neighborhood pub to assuage the worst of her paranoia. Cinah and Alcuin shared a contact within the king’s capital guard. One they both claimed was an ally to their cause and would help ensure safe passage out of the city when the time came.

She hadn’t dared breathe a word of her intentions to Karrick. She didn’t want to get his hopes up until every last detail had been polished to near perfection. She had a hard enough time managing her own expectations. So much could go wrong. The one factor that gave her a measure of reassurance was knowing that Karrick’s safety was relatively assured regardless of the outcome. Even if they were found out, the Asterosian monarchs would not dare kill the Primordial Male.

Then again, some fates were worse than death.

Imogen navigated the now-familiar subterranean hallways of the Stronghold with practiced ease. Never mind the slow, inexorable dread that seeped into her marrow with each step. She was due to meet the newest Fate for what Vulgren had deemed “an instructional session to manage servicing expectations.” Her time for avoiding the young female was at an end.

Lieutenant Gore trailed her closely and took up a post adjacent to the entrance of the small room they approached. The door was locked. Imogen pulled her ring of keys from beneath the folds of her elder robes with a soft clinking. She had slowly and carefully been adding to her collection.

“I shouldn’t be long,” she told him. Not if she had any say. She had more important things to do.

He nodded.

Imogen stepped into the dimly lit room and shut the door behind her. She turned, the sight rooting her in place.

A young woman, the same one with honey-blonde hair and freckles that she’d seen her first time returning to the Stronghold, stood in the center of the sparse room with hands folded loosely in front of her. She was completely naked.

“Hello, Elder,” she said.

“What are you doing?” Imogen demanded.

The young Fate glanced down at herself and all the creamy pale skin on display. “Mender Vulgren said you would want to inspect me for yourself. To ensure my physical form is properly inclined to receive my chosen male’s attentions.”

Imogen’s stomach soured. “Put your clothes on.”

The woman hesitated.

“Please,” Imogen said.

The Fate turned to the lone table and mechanically began to redress. Once she was fully covered, Imogen invited her to sit.

“What is your name?” she asked.

The woman’s soft cornflower eyes widened slightly at the question. “Mender Vulgren said we left our past identities behind when we entered⁠—”

Imogen waved a hand in the air as though dispelling a foul odor. “Yes, I know what he told you. I’m asking anyway.”

The Fate blinked, pink lips parting. “Railah, Elder. My name is Railah.”

“How old are you, Railah?”

“Twenty-five years this summer.”

Gods, she was barely older than Felíne. She looked a decade younger.

Without thinking, Imogen reached forward, grasped Railah’s hand, and squeezed in what she hoped was a reassuring gesture. Railah glanced down with a confused wrinkle between her pale brows.

“Do you have any family?”

“Yes,” Railah answered. “My mother and older brother.”

Imogen closed her eyes, thoughts going briefly to her own mother. “I’m so sorry.”

“Whatever for?”