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Well. I wasn’t entirely sure what to say tothat.
He actually seemed sincere about that last bit. Something squirmed uncomfortably inside me.
Mercifully, the cue cleared, and we reached the bar, where a bartender already had two drinks waiting for us. I gratefully took mine, thanking him as I brought the burgundy liquid to my lips.
Nakoa gave him an appreciative nod, sliding several coins - far more than any wine was worth - across the wooden bar top to the bartender.
That, too, served to increase my discomfort. Was this male… Dare I say…decent?
Gods.
Zurie would probably want him dead for that reason alone. However, I couldn’t help but wonder what theactualreason was.
I found no small amount of irony in the fact that if he knew who I actually was… He would have attempted to kill me on sight. He was clearly a Kahlohani warrior. Their signature geometric patterns wove and whirled across his wrist, up his forearms, and bled onto his chest if the peek of flesh I could see through the V of his collar was anything to go by.
I was all too familiar with them, considering I had slaughtered countless Kahlohani soldiers during the war… The guilt of which festered in me like a gangrenous fucking wound… Not that it would make a difference to him.
By merely standing in his presence, something seemed to be rousing awake within my chest.
I wanted to bury it.
A devilish grin lifted a corner of my mouth, and it further coaxed that thing waking within me.
I wanted desperately to run in the other direction. Duty was the only thing that kept my feet planted in front of him.
The male chuckled, brows furrowing as if in disbelief despite the appreciative grin spreading across his scarred face.
“Look, even if you don’t necessarilyneedany protection… I would still like to extend the invitation to you… My chosen family and I,” he said, nodding in the direction of a group of males and one female who were rather openly watching us, “… will be leaving for Vyssini tomorrow… We aren’t travelling all the way to Bastrina, but at least we could escort you safely most of the way…”
Chapter
Eleven
NAKOA
Ifelt the tiniest pang of guilt at my lie. Although I had spent a lifetime swearing that I would run in the other direction the second I'd laid eyes on this female, I suddenly found myself incapable of letting us part ways. I had zero intention of allowing this female to leave us when we arrived in Vyssini to bring our ill-gotten gains that we had just procured this very evening to the unofficial headquarters of The Uprising… The Uprising that I had been leading for the last two years.
No one outside myolana kah’heiknew that fact, lest I put an even bigger target on my back. I just needed to persuade Mareina to hold off a day or two while I convinced Mareinato stay with us without having to force her hand.
My eyes flicked towards my chosen family, still lingering in the distant corner of the tavern. As if spurred by my words, they snaked through the crowd and disappeared beyond the exit. I knew that myolana kah’heiwouldn’t be pleased having some strange female join us... But once I confided she was mysoulbound,they’d be ecstatic. She’d been featured in my very own personal fucking reoccurring nightmare.
And everything about this female exuded just that.
She was every single glorious, broken piece of bloodied perfection that I could have dared to imagine.
As much as I hated to admit it to myself, she had no choice in the matter, really… There was no way in fuck I was going to let her travel to Bastrina alone to potentially be attacked byAkashknew what foul creatures would try to take advantage of her, even if she could defend herself.
But most of all, I already knew Mareina was mine, through and through. I couldfeelit. My Knowingness had been whispering confirmations since the moment I’d spotted her in the crowd.
She is the key to strengthening your power.
She was the one that I had seen in this prophetic nightmare I knew to be a premonition. I had told myself for the last hundred years since the premonition had started that I would run as fast I fucking could in the other direction as soon as I saw her.
All the resistance I’d had at one day coming face-to-face with her evaporated. Replaced with this overwhelming sensation that she wasmine.It burned through me as though I would explode with rage if I didn’t claim her.
Which, admittedly, was a wildly inappropriate thing to do with a complete stranger, so I was trying my best to tamp it down and appear normal when I was actually the furthest thing from it.
The only kink in my plan to convince her to stay with me was… Well, she didn’t entirely seem wooed by my charms. Though I knew that was at least partly due to the glamoring of my magic. Something that I did to draw less attention to myself. Despite being half-fae and half-human, my true form could be considered… mildly alarming.
