B0161NEC9Y (F) by K.F. Breene Page B

needs to maintain order. We didn’t leave anyone with the Gift behind. Keeping order in a city of non- Gifted won’t take much.”
    “And by now, I’m sure everyone is laying low.” Daniels rubbed the growth on his chin. “They’ll be complacent. Troublemakers would’ve been subdued or killed by now…”
    “Do you dig up graves with that dispassion, too, Daniels?” Sanders growled. “That is your city you’re talking about.”
    Cayan swung a foot over his mount and gracefully jumped to the ground. He came around the horse with burning eyes directed at Shanti. “I don’t like this.”
    “This is the only way, Cayan,” she said. “You must see that.”
    “I do. Doesn’t mean I like it.” His big hand gripped her upper arm. He pulled her to the other side of his horse, mostly out of view of everyone else. Once there, his gaze roamed her face before settling on her eyes. “This is the only way, mesasha,” he said quietly. “But you will come back to me, do you hear me? You will not go in there and give yourself to the Hunter to protect my people. That is not the best way. Sacrificing yourself will just mean all of our deaths in the long run.”
    “I know, Cayan,” she whispered, falling into that blue oasis. “That is the last resort.”
    His jaw clenched. He shook her a little. Pain bled through his gaze. “No. You get eyes in there, and you come back.I will accept no other plan.” He shook her harder, his emotion threatening to break free. “I will not lose you, Shanti, do you understand me?”
    As he stared down at her, Shanti felt his fire and rage and war. Muscles flexed down his body, raw strength tempered with a terrible grace. His Gift swirled around them, crouched and ready, currently emulating a Warring Gift ready to unleash destructive force with only one result. Death.
    The Hunter had no idea of what he’d called up by taking Cayan’s city. Maybe none of them did.
    “I love you, mesasha. And I will marry you. This is the city where we will join our peoples and raise our children. So you will come back to me safe, and we will destroy the Hunter while keeping our home intact. Together.”
    Yet another terrible time to tell him the truth about her duty. He wasn’t making honesty easy.
    “Okay,” she said. Then, feeling like that was maybe an anticlimax when on the precipice of perhaps saying goodbye forever, she threw it all on the table. “I love you. Don’t make me regret it.”
    A ghost of a smile brushed his lips as his thumb ran over her chin. “I told you I’d get my way in the end.”
    “You are ruining this moment.”
    His lips quirked, threatening to unleash his dimples. He gave her a hard, bruising kiss. A kiss of war, and triumph. A kiss of returning.
    She really hoped the kiss wasn’t out of place.
    A s the light retreated from the ground, allowing darkness to consume the day, Shanti waited in the shelter of a cluster of trees. Leilius, Ruisa, and Gracas squatted just behind her. Leilius was as still as death, waiting. Ruisa was fidgeting madly as worry poured from her. Gracas had a crooked grin. They’d all be going behind enemy lines to see what could be done from inside the city.
    The trees rustled. Rohnan crawled through. His hair had been pulled back and dirt smeared on his head and face.
    “You look terrible,” Shanti said, turning back to the silent night.
    “I wanted to look more your level.” Rohnan stopped just beside her, peering out through the branches as she was. “Are we bird watching?”
    Shanti rolled her eyes and sat back on her haunches. “Just because we can’t see anything at present, doesn’t mean there is nothing to see.”
    “Whatever eases your mind.” Rohnan sat back, too. “The Captain is almost ready.”
    Shanti looked at the others. Only Gracas was excited, but that was because he was too young and full of energy to realize he should be scared. “My asking you to go is just that, asking. If you don’t think you are ready for