Issak sets Getta down gently on the packed dirt, and she stretches out her back and lifts her head to the sky.
“It’s a mighty fine night for an ass kicking, don’t you agree, Issak?”
Issak smiles and moves to lean casually against the back of the house. I laugh and shake my head at Getta. Too bad I’m not related to her. She feels more like my people than anyone I’ve met on this side of the barrier.
“Well, girl, I don’t know why you’d get all fancied up for another lesson in losing, but whatever blows your skirt up, I suppose.” She eyes my clothing. “Judging by the look of that thing, it wouldn’t take much to blow it clean off. Issak, close your eyes,” she instructs.
I look over at Issak, and he just rolls his eyes.
I ignore her efforts to get me all riled, and wait patiently for what I know is coming. She smiles at me when I don’t take her bait, and I can almost feel pride rippling off of her. She nods at me and then calls on her staff. She studies it for a beat and then presses one end into the dirt and leans on it.
“Tell me, girl, are you worthy?” she finally asks me, and anticipation strikes through me, sending my heart racing.
“Alone, maybe not, but together,” I tell her, gesturing with my staff to my Chosen, “weare.”
Getta stares at me intensely for what seems like forever. I feel like she dives into my soul, swims around for a bit, and then climbs back out to dry off. She twirls her staff in her hands expertly, and I tense, waiting for the attack that I know is coming.
She reaches out, slow as cold honey, and then flicks the end of my nose. I reel back.
“So you do have a brain in that pretty little head of yours,” she cackles. “Glad to see you’re using it now. Very well then, follow me,” she instructs.
With that, her staff disappears and she starts to hobble away.
I stare at her, open mouthed and dumbfounded.
Wait. What the fuck just happened?
24
Ilook back at the guys, completely bewildered, as Issak swoops in and picks up Getta.
“Wait. Are we not fighting?” I ask, and there’s a tinge of disappointment in my voice that has me questioning my own sanity.
Getta’s backing down, Vinna, this is a good thing. Shut the fuck up!
She cackles from the safety of Issak’s arms and motions for me to follow her. “The fighting was just for fun. If you’ve decided you’re worthy, who am I to say otherwise?”
I stop mid step with those words, and Ryker slams into my back, creating a domino effect of crashing Chosen. “Hold up,” I call out to Getta, and Issak turns around to face me. “IfI’vedecided I’m worthy? Is the fight not a test?”
“Oh, no, that’s just to get these old bones a moving.”
“But...but you said I wasn’t worthy,” I ask confused.
“No, girl,yousaid you weren’t worthy. Like I said, who am I to argue?”
Issak once again turns around and angles his large frame into the back door of the house. I turn to look at the guys, incredulous squeaks coming out of my open mouth.
“Is she seriously fucking telling me that if I had just saidyes, I’m worthyin answer to her question last time that we’d already have answers?”
“Sounds like it,” Torrez confirms.
I groan and rub at my face.
“Seems like that existential crisis you’ve been wrestling with was all for nothing,” he adds.
“All that brooding for nothing?” I squeak out.
“Don’t forget the pouting too,” Bastien adds, and I slap his pec and try not to smile.
