Page 109 of Tempting Fate

“Ah, we’re glad you’re up and about,” Daiytak said. “Get some food and sit down.”

Something in her tone gave me pause, but as we tucked into our fruit-topped porridge, she moved away.

Imani toyed with her spoon. “I haven’t had a relationship in three years,” she said, voice muted.

I matched her volume and tone, though I was desperate to hear more. “Why is that?”

She stirred her breakfast, a slow, deliberate movement. “Because they always end in pain, and I’ve had enough of it.”

“People have hurt you? Who?” My spines itched to find them, to destroy them.

“They’re nobodies. But they were nobodies who tried to change me. To make me good enough for them.”

Anguish and rage bubbled up, but I held them tight inside. “Anyone who sought to change you, or who could not adore you as you are, they did not deserve you. And surely they are cursed for their behaviour.”

She gazed past me towards the mountains. “Not cursed. Just going about their lives.”

“But lives without you, my moonlight. That truly would be a curse.”

Her lips twitched in the barest hint of a smile. “Perhaps. Regardless, I made a promise to myself. And I don’t break my promises.”

My serenity is a garden where softness hides thorns. “What did you promise?”

A shadow fell over us.

“Sorry to intrude but we need to talk.” Daiytak sat between us, scattering the truth like fallen petals I couldn’t pick up. “We’ve had the go-ahead from the Orkri government. We’re moving the rescue mission up.”

I blinked, trying to clear my head. Good. Those in the colonies deserved to be free.

“We leave in a week. Nearly all of us.” Daiytak stared at me, waiting for my reaction.

As I connected the data points, chills rushed down my spine. The hunter attacks. The village unprotected. Me unprotected. Imani.

My voice betrayed none of the worry I felt. “What are my options?”

Daiytak leveled her gaze. “You come with us. It’s the only way we can keep you safe. Nobody will come after you on the carrier.”

Leave? Leave Vadias now I was settled? Go back to Orith? Even if I were to remain on their ship, the idea of being in orbit, in such close proximity to the place I grew up… I could not. Would not.

Next to me, Imani sat very still, all the despair I felt reflected in her eyes.

Spines of Kri. “There has to be another option.”

Daiytak shook her head, the points of her headspines whipping through the air. “There isn’t.”

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

This Is My Airida

Imani

LEAVING. HE HAD to leave. But what about his kalidi? What about us?

Airida’s voice hardened. “And what about Imani?”

“She can come with us.”

A military carrier?