Page 233 of A Warrior's Fate

“I don’t want you going after him alone,” Kai said.

“If I can’t see him right away, I’ll get you.”

A look of doubt came her way.

“I will,” she affirmed.

Kai was still wary, but he dropped his hand. From the way he maneuvered in his seat, Isla knew he was going to find a reason to wait by the door, find someone over there to talk to until she came back inside.

And she was protective.

Without any other words, brushing off the stares directed her way, Isla made the same movements to weave through the bodies and out the tavern’s door.

Coming from the crowded bar floor, the air outside seemed colder. She wished she’d grabbed her jacket, if not for its warmth but the hood. Don’t attract any attention.

Adrien wasn’t anywhere immediately in sight.

Isla wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. With the tavern’s door closed, its rowdy noises muffled, her steps were loud as she transitioned over from grass and stone to the boardwalk.

“Isla.”

“I’m fine,” she said, and then turned her head, closed her eyes. She focused on scent, on sound. Parsed out the hollow noise of boats rocking against wooden beams, the raucous sounds of the other businesses, the nighttime birds and bugs, and a whirring she didn’t know the source of. Through the scent of brine and smoke, she attempted to find the one she’d likened once to home.

She opened her eyes and went right.

Panic swelled in her chest when she couldn’t find Adrien for a short but substantial time. She’d gone a decent distance from Talha. It was when Kai’s voice came again, him likely feeling her pull away, that she finally located her friend, leaning at the boardwalk’s railing beneath a street lantern, looking down into the murky water. The lamp gilded him in gold.

“I found him,” Isla told Kai, offering him another vote of reassurance that she was okay before he went silent.

Isla didn’t keep her steps quiet as she approached Adrien, and she didn’t make any true attempt at masking her scent, but the Heir didn’t bother turning. Not even when she settled at his side.

“Did we not give you ground rules?” She tilted her head to catch his eyes. “No going out alone.”

“I didn’t go far,” Adrien said. Still no look. He remained focused on the water.

Isla followed suit and kept her arms folded over the railing. “I don’t care. I’d kill you if you let anything happen to you.” Adrien furrowed his brows which she answered with, “I said what I said. Why’d you come out here? Your new friend—who I don’t know the name of—not doing it for you?”

Adrien caught the hint. “Her name is Dhalia.”

“Dhalia,” Isla tested it on her tongue. “That’s cute.”

Adrien agreed and snickered. “She asks a lot of questions I can’t answer. And I’ve been here before, but the most I can offer as a lie as to where I ‘live’ is Mavec on a hill.”

Isla hummed before presenting with exaggerated confidence, “Well, there are also apartments here along the banks or some farmhouses over in Surles. Ifera has a lot of open fields. It may rival Mavec with some of its hills.”

She quit her drawling as Deimos’s worst tour guide when Adrien’s lips ticked up, and he finally looked at her. “Impressive.”

“I know this place like the back of my hand,” she joked before softly relenting the truth. “I have a lot to learn.”

“Apparently.” Adrien laughed, though the joyous sound faded too fast. His gaze went forward again, and the only sounds became the boats, birds, and bugs until— “Do you think Fate did it on purpose? Mated you to him.”

Isla glanced at the moon. “I don’t know why Fate does anything…but I’m happy she did.”

“So much for not wanting a mate,” he heckled.

Isla shrugged. “Yeah, he’s okay. I’ll keep him.”

There was barely anything behind Adrien’s chuckle this time, and Isla couldn’t help but cringe as it dawned on her. Could this have been weird for him? Was that why he was acting so off? Seeing her and Kai, how happy they were…

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