Page 155 of Tempting Fate

“We’ve done it, fate, we’re going home.” Airida stopped to pick a loose crystal from the floor, a small pink gem, and handed it to me.

I pocketed it, then selected one of my own and pressed it into his palm. “Yes, we are. Hey, you say ‘fate’ like it’s a figure of speech but only when you’re talking to me. Why?”

His ear ridges flushed, and he tipped his head, adorably bashful. “It is your name.”

“My name?”

“Listen carefully. Imani. Fate.” He repeated the two words, slow and steady.

My brain was trained to hear the translation, and it took a few goes to isolate the word he was saying, but there it was. Imani. Aimanei. “That’s… my name.”

“Yes. From the moment I saw you, my soul knew you were my fated one. Hearing your name only proved it.”

My heart swelled with so much love for this man I thought it might burst.

We leaned on each other as we walked, and emerged from the cave mouth into bright planetlight. The reddish-orange glow was strange and disorienting after days in the caverns, and I blinked, taking in our surroundings. An expanse of rough, sandy grass spread before us, bordered by trees on one side a lake on the other.

Across the clearing, two kri’ith stood by a speeder, one male, one female.

Airida pulled me close. “That is not Reskavi,” he rumbled.

It really wasn’t. Where were my friends? They said they’d be waiting here.

“You look lost,” the woman said.

Airida tucked me behind him. “Not lost. We’re meeting friends.”

How did he sound so calm? I checked my comm.

Kira

Reski didn’t message you. Stay hidden. Not safe. Be there soon.

Fuck. Then who had sent that comm? How?

“You should come with us,” she continued. “It’s getting dark. Don’t want the tsati to get you.”

“Tsati?” Airida tensed up, casting his eyes over the landscape. “This is not the right terrain for a tsati.”

“You want to stake your life on that?”

I didn’t know what a tsati was exactly, but I didn’t want to find out the hard way.

“I strongly suggest you come with us,” the kri’ith woman said. She and her companion padded towards us.

I clung to Airida’s hand. Stalker hadn’t been eaten by Big Fish; she’d left. If she’d hired the mercenaries in the caves, who was to say she hadn’t hired more? The unsavoury types from town would be happy to get in on the bounty action—and the dark grin on this woman’s face proved it.

I glanced all around, shivering. We should have known.

The grating whine of another speeder echoed through the trees, and the craft pulled to a stop in the clearing.

As the occupant dismounted, I let out a rush of breath. It wasn’t Reskavi, but another kri’ith, a familiar one.

I leaned closer to Airida. “It’s okay, I know him.” Sort of. “We saw him in town, remember?” Complete with the same gaudy red tusks—and no doubt foul stench—but hopefully he’d be feeling as helpful as the times before. I painted a smile on my face. “Hi, fancy seeing you here.”

He tilted his head at the other pair then gave us an affable smile. “I’m here to take you back to your friends. They got delayed.”

Delayed? I tried to get a read on him. Yes, it was sus. But less sus than the first two, who hung back, eyeing us intently.