Page 121 of Between Imminent Fates

Isaiah’s calm façade shattered. “It doesn’t matter that we kept it from you, from any of you. What matters is itworked. I can’t apologize for keeping you in the dark because I’d do it again in a heartbeat. So would Key; so would Nina.” He shook his head bitterly, his distaste for the question apparent. “You have no idea what awaited us should we have failed.”

“Then explain it to us,” Zeke urged.

“You don’t understand. We knew the risk because we’dseenit.” Having dropped that bombshell, the other sovereign sat back in his chair as though exhausted—and he probably was. “Key showed Nina and me the alternative futures. Fifty-three times, I saw my son die. Fifty-three times I saw Rukia murdered.”

Isaiah disclosed the truth. “There is no cost I would not pay to see them in a future where they could live. No one I wouldn’t deceive, nothing I wouldn’t give. Key, Nina, and I: there was nothing we wouldn’t have done in pursuit of the only future that was worth living.”

Taking a deep breath, Isaiah closed his eyes. The Raeth was clearly in pain, pushed to his limit by giving them the information they coveted. Through the mating bond with Derikles, Celeste had been inducted into his clan. In the next moment, she realized what was possible. She funneled energy to the ailing sovereign, giving what she could to a man she didn’t truly know. His sacrifice had been significant.

“You’ve paid a great price.”

It was Celeste’s soft voice that shed light on Isaiah’s plight, but it was Jaeda who moved to ease what pain he was in. Beside him, Derikles stepped forward and put a hand on his shoulder. As if knowing what Celeste was doing, he gave her an appreciative nod.

Eyes snapping open the moment Jaeda’s palm touched his shoulder, Isaiah merely said. “And it’s worth every penny. And before you go getting all sentimental, stop. My motivations were purely self-serving.”

“Let me guess,” Nova grinned. “Rukia and Isaak?”

“Precisely.” Then, offhandedly, Isaiah muttered, “It’s a good thing we’re in peace time.”

A comment that spoke volumes. It drew attention to the fact that Isaiah couldn’t defend his position as sovereign in the state he found himself in. Any challenges to his title might very well claim his life—had they not been in the safe century following a Heat.

“Was Tyee the only one that was the exception to the rule?” Gideon asked. “Or were there others who knew about what you planned to do?”

“Cassandra knew, but Key said she’d recused herself from any further involvement following the event where she purposefully misled her sovereign.”

Misled her sovereign.

Celeste’s throat thickened, knowing that Cassandra’s deceit had led to Nina and Zeke’s mating. Another one of Key’s strings being pulled. Chancing a glance at her sovereign, she saw the same emotion mirrored on his features.

“Key facilitated our victory by maneuvering our lives around a single, central goal,” Isaiah continued. “What she did should’ve been impossible.”

“My mate lies near death, as does Key. While you’ve returned to us, Isaiah, neither of them has progressed further.” Zeke’s despair was present in every word. “In what world is this a victory?”

Isaiah’s features were cast in sorrow. “Zeke, you have to understand. I never expected to wake up.None of us did. But that doesn’t change the fact that we gave what was ours to give, and I’ve no doubt that Nina and Key would do it again, even knowing this outcome.”

“Did Key give you any indication about what would happen after?” Nero asked.

“None. Other than the future where the immortals live—and prosper—she saw nothing tangible after the battle. The only exception was the fact that the three of us would be … compromised immediately following it.”

“Then how did she know that this path was the right one?” Blair asked. “That it’s not leading to another confrontation, anotherCitizens?”

“Because while her foresight of the other fifty-three futures only showed death and destruction, this one showed peace.” Isaiah was panting now. “Theonlyone that showed peace and prosperity for the immortal nations.”

“How did Key tell you all of this?” Zeke asked. “When?”

“Key requested my presence—and my discretion—and to meet her in a specific location at a specific time.” Fatigue jaded Isaiah’s gaze, but he continued speaking. “When I teleported in, it was to find Key and Nina already there, and Cassandra Shielding the conversation from afar.

“When Key met with us, she told us of the battle where we’d fight for the future of the immortal nations and that she’d foreseen the Link of our abilities.

“We were commanded to scour the archives of every major clan, every ancient library, and every historian we knew, and it was imperative that we begin that day. She forbade us from telling anyone. Even our mates.” Isaiah pinched the bridge of his nose. “In my research, I found the answer to shifting a sovereignty to another without death—and that’s what I did only minutes before Key Linked Nina and me.

“In the end,” Isaiah continued, “she said that our victory was assured if Nina and I gave our lives, andonlyif we give our lives.”

Silence. Oppressive, it wove through the gathering of immortals. Every word Isaiah had said, every thinly veiled threat, every bone-crushing truth: he hadn’t softened the blow at all. What he had heard, he’d shared, and it curdled Celeste’s blood.

“I won’t share with you the visions she showed us; I’d wish no one that torment,” was Isaiah’s final comment. “But I will say this: to be in this future, to know that we won: it’s a blessing, and one I’ll gladly take advantage of.”

Across the room, Derikles’ eyes found Celeste’s. The intensity of how he looked at her—like he’d tear the world apart to stand beside her—mirrored the profound sense of love that beamed through their mating bond.

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