Fala turned at the sound. For just a moment, Kai thought Fala might take her hand. At the very least, close some of this painful distance.
Fala only lowered her gaze and cleared her throat. “I’m going to find my mother.”
No invitation came. No room for argument, either. Only a clear desire to be anywhere Kai wasn’t, even if for an hour. Fala climbed the nearest tier on her right, hips sashaying her long skirt. She wove through and around clusters of people, sharing a bright smile that Kai hadn’t seen since that morning.
Fala was more upset than she imagined. She’d never intentionally taken steps to hurt Kai. She’d gone too far, earlier, but to spend this hour apart? Kai considered following, but the truth was, it was a selfish want. Fala needed time, and Kai would give it to her.
Chilled despite the natural heat of the chamber, Kai made her way toward the dais. Her mother, Doli, and her father, Tse, had already arranged cushions and blankets on the lowest tier. As she approached, they nodded warm greetings, but much of their attention fell on the rest of their adult children and the younglings surrounding them.
The sheer size of her family came over her like an avalanche of ice and snow, and Kai couldn’t take another step. No one knew her better than her blood, and she couldn’t let them see how upset she was. She wouldn’t survive the questions—the interrogation—especially once they realized Fala wasn’t with her.
“Kai!”
Kai followed the call to where her second, Otekah Silver Wolf, sat with some of her other warriors on the second tier. Second Daughter, Sitsi, first of Doli, sat with the warrior females, shoulder-to-shoulder with Niabi White Spirit.Flirting, by the looks of it. Shadi would explode if another of her daughters married outside the clan.
Kai knew better than to believe Sitsi would do such a thing. She was too much like Shadi in that respect and would make a perfect Grand Matriarch one day—if Shadi would allow it. Which she wouldn’t.
“What happened?” Otekah asked once Kai lowered into the space beside her dearest friend and fiercest warrior. “Where’s Fala?”
“Fala lost a child today and took it badly. She’s with her mother.”
On the dais, the Eternal One climbed the steps, and a hush started across the room. Two of the Unseen, robed and hooded, kept pace behind her, their faces hidden. Each carried stacks of rolled parchment in a woven basket: the names.
Kai’s stomach turned, and her dry throat clicked on a swallow.
Otekah continued talking as if they had all the time in the world. “Normally, I’d think nothing of the two of you sitting apart, but tonight of all nights? What did you do?”
“Why does it have to be somethingIdid? Why does it have to be anything?”
Otekah arched a single brow, and her lips quirked.
Kai sighed. “Fine, I?—”
The rhythmic beat of the drums signaled the start of the final ceremony, and each landing strike throbbed inside Kai’s chest like a second heartbeat. The hall went quiet, and those standing found their seats. On the dais, the eight clan matriarchs sat on either side of Shadi’s central throne. Each chair was backed against the central raging bonfire.
The Eternal One found Kai within the crowd and gave her a long, knowing stare.
She hadn’t taken Kai’s arguments to heart at all, and this was the only warning Kai would receive.
Without preamble, the Eternal One held out a palm to one of the Unseen, and a parchment landed there a moment later. She unrolled the paper and read. “Viho Crimson Wing.”
A male from Eighth Clan, two ovals tattooed between his brows, rose on Kai’s left side, only a few feet away. Close enough that she noted the way his throat dipped deep on a swallow.
“Ayashe Crimson Wing,” the Eternal One continued, then scanned the hall until spotting the young female standing on the other side of the room. “Come forward and have your union blessed.”
For the next few minutes, the crowd hummed as the two met before the Crimson Wing matriarch for their official blessing.
And so it went like this for the next three-quarters of an hour. The males were paired with either a single female or two, and not one of them questioned the will of the gods.
Kai was losing the feeling in her legs and butt and longed for the hour to end so she could stand and stretch. As time passed, her thoughts often drifted toward Fala, who sat with her parents and siblings on the far side of the room, two tiers from the top. More than anything, she wanted the hour to end so she could speak to her wife. She didn’t like being apart from her, even if she was within sight.
“Fala Quiet Rock.”
Kai’s heart lurched, and she realized suddenly just how far her mind had drifted. She’d missed the male’s name being called. She straightened, unable to blink as her wife rose. Fala held her chin high and back straight, a cliff face against a battling storm surge.
Otekah’s hand clenched around Kai’s. “Breathe,” she whispered.
But Kai could only follow Fala’s line of sight to a male standing two tiers up and twenty feet to Kai’s left.
