Fate

Chapter Sixty Six

Word Count: 1476

​Zaid's hands were everywhere, lighting her skin on fire wherever they passed. He cupped her breasts and dropped his head down, his tongue trailing along their soft swell.

​Nico closed her eyes with a moan of ecstasy. It had been so long since she'd been touched. Not since—

​She opened her eyes and the ceiling was dark above her. It had not been since Anders.
​Anders, her mate, who was dead.

Killed by Zaid's sister.

Nico looked up into Zaid's face, and the bronze-colored eyes that looked back down were so like his sister's that she looked away, suddenly sick to her stomach.

"Stop," she murmured, pushing Zaid off.
He pulled back, looking confused. "Are you okay?" he asked, breathing hard, his cheeks still flushed with arousal.

Nico pushed herself up to sit and grabbed the bedsheet, pulling it over her breasts. "I can't do this."

Zaid looked startled, then worried. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have pushed—"

"It's not you," she said, quickly, her heart beating fast. "It's—your sister killed my mate."

The hot knife of pain was in her gut again. "I can't stop thinking about it. Everyone I ever loved is dead, because of your sister. I'm in this shitty motel in this shitty town because of what Zayla did, and she'd not even done! She's still hunting me! She probably always will."

Zaid's expression hardened until his eyes turned to amber stone. "I am not my sister," he said coldly, standing from the bed.

The door slammed as he disappeared into the bathroom.

***

Fate watched Lucky watching the water show in front of the Bellagio, her blue eyes wide with wonder. She looked up, following the sparking diamond spray of the water, her face luminous beneath the rainbow lights. Fate smiled. He hardly ever came out of his casino and almost never walked the strip, and it was particularly enjoyable to be with Lucky, who had never been to Las Vegas. It made Fate feel as though he was seeing it for the first time.

He glanced away for a moment to the woman next to him. She was about to light a cigarette, although she'd sworn the one she'd had ten minutes ago was her last. He watched as she thought this over, then reached into her purse and pulled out the box. Fate looked back at the water with a sigh of relief.

It was back. Whatever had clouded his vision in that godforsaken bar was gone, and he could cast out once again. He turned his focus to

Lucky, hoping to see something, but, as always, he saw nothing.

She leaned forward as the music crescendoed and, when it finished, she applauded, her smile lighting her face like the sun. He took her arm as the crowd began to move again, and, to his right, Fate was surprised to see the woman in blue put the cigarettes back into her purse, without having lit one.

"What's your luckiest casino on the strip?" Lucky asked, drawing Fate's attention away from the other woman.

Fate tried to shake off his disquiet. "My own, of course."

Lucky rolled her eyes as they began strolling back toward The Fates Casino. "I wonder how it feels to be one of the twelve people in the world who can utter that sentence."

He smiled. As maddening as it was to not be able to read her, he did like the surprise of not knowing what she was going to say next. "And what about you? Where do you find your best luck?"