Page 29

If they still recorded Guinness Books of World Records factoids, Kai didn’t doubt it would feature her baby sister on the front page at the rate and speed she’d finished the meal.

Every last drop, including sopping up the gravy with her last crust of bread and tipping up the bowl the vegetables had been in to drink the small amount of juice that settled down at the bottom.

“Oh, my....that hit the spot.” Morlie leaned back in her chair, rubbed her flat stomach, and sighed in satisfaction.

Kai handed her a towel to clean up her face and hands. “Since there’s nothing left, I guess you’re finished.”

As she cleaned up, Morlie’s gaze met her eyes, horrified. “Kai, I am so sorry. I’m so selfish. You didn’t even get anything.” Tossing the towel on the table, she continued, “I’ve never been so ravenous. I couldn’t think straight.”

Kai chuckled. “Ravenous. I don’t think that’s an appropriate word for what you forced me to witness.”

Her sister glanced around at the wreckage on the tray and laughed. “It is quite disgraceful. Mom would have been appalled at my table manners.”

It was true. Their mother had emphasized etiquette and manners, hoping that one day her girls would have the opportunity to work in the Consumer Providence or even meet a guy and move there permanently, and she didn’t want them to look like they didn’t fit.

However, Kai knew that the lows she and her sister had fallen in the years since her parents’ deaths and the things they had to do to survive in the Dispatch District meant the two of them weren’t Consumer material.

But you’re a dragon king’s mate. Kai ignored that thought. It raised too many unanswered questions. Aodh was hiding something from her. She could feel it. In this room with her recovering sister, she wouldn’t get those answers, so there was no need to dwell on it.

“I think she’d understand.”

Morlie’s brow pinched. “Most of that food I’d never seen before or tasted.

” Meeting her gaze, she said, “They told us nothing lived beyond the Wall. That anything that had survived was tainted or mutant-like beasts from the fallout. At the learning center, they made us review photos of disfigured people and animals and the ruined vegetation after the atomic bomb and said that it was the same beyond the Wall but worse. They lied .”

Kai saw the redness of her sister’s soft brown skin and heard the rage in her voice.

She understood it. Their leaders either hadn’t sent scouts out to check the land once they knew it was safe to go above.

..or they had and knew the environment had regenerated.

Either way, why had they withheld the truth?

At an early age, Kai had taken care of herself and her sister, and she preferred to know all the facts and deal with things head-on.

It was too late for her to challenge her leaders, but Aodh was different.

“Yes, they lied.” Kai leaned back and held her sister’s gaze.

Silence stretched between them for a moment before Morlie spoke again. “Tell me about this place and how you found it.”

“I didn’t find it, Aodh found us.” She sighed. “I tried to get you some help at the care plaza—”

“Wow, to go there, you must have been desperate.” Morlie shook her head. “Did they help?”

“No. Not at all. A medical attendant assisted me in getting you out of there and suggested you would find care beyond the Wall.” ‘ Wolves,’ she had said.

Morlie set her elbows on the table and leaned forward. “If she knew there was help outside the Wall, then others knew.”

“Yes.”

Her sister pursed her lips as her gaze darkened with anger. It was evident by Morlie’s line of questions that she didn’t recall anything. “Do you know why she helped you? Did she ask for money?”

Kai shook her head. “I think she felt sorry for you. She only said that you were marked, and if I cared for you, the best thing I could do was get you out of there.”

“Marked?” Morlie sat up straight. “What does that mean?”

Unsure how to say the words to Morlie, which had been on her mind since that night, Kai shifted forward and placed a hand over her sister’s.

“I think it meant they marked you for death.” She squeezed her hand.

“Know this, Morlie, I would never let that happen to you. I don’t care what I needed to do or who I had to kill to keep you safe. ”

Morlie sucked in a shuddered breath and blinked. The water that began to fill her eyes when Kai stated they’d marked her for death fell over the edge of Morlie’s lower lids and splashed on the tabletop.

Standing, Kai pulled her baby sister into her arms. She held her close and rubbed along her back as Morlie wept.

Kai’s eyes began to fill, too, as she felt her sister’s slim form shake and heard the racking sobs that came out.

Kai could only imagine what was going through her sister’s mind after discovering that people refused to help and were willing to let her die.

As long as Morlie had been sick, it also had to have affected her emotions.

“You’re okay, now, Morlie, and safe.” She continued to soothe her and speak softly in her ear.

It took several minutes, but eventually, Morlie’s crying subsided.

“Thank you, sissy.” Morlie pulled back and wiped her face with the back of her wrist.

It reminded Kai of Morlie as a little girl after their parents had passed, scared and unsure of the world around them with watery eyes. Kai had to remind herself that Morlie was a young lady now, and the world was cruel and unpredictable. It was her job to prepare her sister for it.

“You don’t have to thank me. It’s what I’m supposed to do. It is what you would do if the situation were reversed. You find your inner strength, and you deal with the situation head-on. It’s what Dad taught us.” Kai gripped the edges of the drab-green jacket, needing to feel her father close.

Morlie nodded. Instead of returning to her seat, she walked over to the windows.

Kai moved up beside her. From the angle of this room, they could see people, some as large as Aodh and his brother or well-built like Ninki, striding toward the building.

A few glanced up in their direction but never paused their stride.

The sky was darkening to the color of eggplant.

Without a moon, seeing anything above the tree line was difficult.

Flying dragons now cloaked in darkness. Kai let out a soft breath in relief.

She wasn’t entirely ready to divulge that information, mainly because she hadn’t wrapped her head around it and didn’t know enough to share with her sister, not because she wanted to keep things from Morlie.

“Who are these people, and why do they appear as if they thrived better than those of us in the Dispatch?”

“Because they did.” Morlie glanced over at her. Her sister scrunched her brow, showcasing her curiosity, but her tears had stopped. Kai took a deep breath and worked on getting her words together momentarily.

“How? Did they live underground like our parents?”

“I don’t think so.” Kai shook her head.

Morlie’s brows shot up as she glanced at her—shock.

“Their bodies have some genetic make-up that kept them from being affected by nuclear destructive chemicals.” She held up a hand to forestall her sister, asking more questions. “I don’t know fully how it all works. Except they can heal themselves and use their smoke to heal you.”

“Smoke?” That was all Morlie said as she turned back to the people on the ground. Her sister’s features relaxed. “How long have we been here? How long was I in that glass room?”

“A week.”

“How long will Aodh, their leader, let us stay?”

“That’s a little more complicated.” Kai exhaled.

“Is he forcing us to go back beyond the wall?” Morlie clutched Kai’s arm tight.

Kai grabbed her and took hold of her hand. “No. We will never do that again.” She hadn’t known what this world consisted of since the Great Disaster, but she knew it had to be better than how their government forced them to live.

Morlie nodded. “Okay. Do you think they’ll let us stay here? Is it safe?”

“We can stay. As far as I know, it’s safe.

” Aodh made her feel protected, like he wouldn’t allow anything to happen to her.

Kai moved away from the window and stood before the empty hearth separating the sleeping areas from the small sitting area.

She stared at it. She wasn’t cold, but she would have loved a fire to deal with the chilly nerves running through her body as she had to tell her sister what was happening.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

Glancing over her shoulder, Kai saw Morlie, who now had a shoulder leaning against the window as she stared at her.

“When we left the Wall, I had no clue where to go, how to get you help. When Aodh found us, our truck was close to running out of recycled fuel, and I was trying to hang onto hope. I was desperate.”

Her sister continued to stare at her but remained silent.

Kai licked her lips, glanced at the empty grate, and looked back at Morlie again. “I bartered for your health. For him to save you.”

“Bartered what?” Morlie stood and straightened away from the window.

“The only thing I had left.” She shrugged. “Me.”

A short gasp filled the room as Morlie rushed toward her. “What does that mean?” Her sister grabbed her arms, her golden-brown eyes darkening with fear. “Are you a prisoner in these stone walls? Are we?”

“No, no, no. Nothing like that.” Even though Kai had seen little beyond them and the medical room, she didn’t feel like a prisoner.

Even though Aodh had commanded she not leave his suite without him, her thoughts paused for a moment, but she shook her head.

“I’m his.” She lifted and dropped a shoulder.

However, she couldn’t ignore the warmth spreading through her core at her small confession.

Even though she had said those words to her sister, not Aodh, they still affected her.

She could almost feel the big, fierce leader’s cerulean-flamed gaze on her—a claim.

Her mind played around with the words he’d said to her before he left.

There was so much promise and heat in his touch.

Recalling it made her head swim and her sex ache.

“For how long?” Her sister’s question pulled her back to the discussion at hand.

“I’m not—”

Bang. Bang.

She and Morlie both glanced toward the door.

Kai was stunned because in the days she’d been in the territory, Aodh, Tana, and even Ninki had just come and gone from the other room, rarely a signal of their entrance. Never knocking, but she understood the rhythm of the banging through the stone door for what it was.

“Wow, that is loud...different.”

Chuckling, Kai moved toward it. “Probably because the doors around this place are so thick and heavy. I didn’t even think hearing a knock on it was possible.” She strutted across the room, aware Morlie shadowed her. “It’s probably Aodh trying to be respectful of your privacy.”

Bang. Bang.

The person knocked again as Kai gripped the handle with both hands and pulled. Damn, this door is heavy.

Finally, it opened a crack and began to swing more effortlessly.

“Hi!” A tall, young woman with budding curves strutted into the room with a wide smile. “I’m Eilidh,” she greeted in a soft, husky voice.

“Eilidh. I’m Morlie.” Her sister approached the girl, who appeared around Morlie’s age, and extended a hand.

Eilidh glanced down at it but didn’t take it. Kai would have been offended on her sister’s behalf, but the other young lady’s big, friendly grin didn’t allow it.

Eilidh glanced from Morlie to her. A small, violet flame winked in familiar turquoise-opal eyes. “Then you must be Aodh’s—”

“Kai.” She rolled her shoulders back, sure of what the jovial young woman was about to say.

Eilidh nodded, but the humor still lit her gaze. “I figured you were tired of being cooped up. I wondered if you two wanted to come down for dinner in the hall.”

“Actually. Morlie just—”

“Yes. I could eat.” Morlie rushed on.

Shocked, Kai snapped her head in her sister’s direction.

After all that Morlie had eaten, it wasn’t possible for the girl to still be hungry.

She should be sick from it. “Morlie, I think it best if you rest. You’re still recovering and should try to get more sleep.

” She attempted to inject a no-nonsense tone like their mother used to do.

“Come on, Kai,” Morlie whined. “I’m not even tired.”

“It’s just downstairs. Some of the thunder will be there, too, and I could introduce Morlie to my friends.”

Two sets of eyes pleaded with her, one the color of hers, the other Aodh’s.

Kai recognized they outnumbered her. “Fine, but only for a little while. You do need to rest.”

She’d barely gotten the words out before the two young ladies dashed out of the room, chatting like old friends.

Exhaling, Kai followed behind them at a moderate pace.