Page 36 of Dark Witch Resurrection

When he reached the clinic, he found Bridget in her office. He knocked on the open door and walked in. "How are you doing?" he asked.

"That's novel." Bridget leaned back in her chair, a small smile playing at the corners of her mouth. "Someone asking me how I am feeling."

"You look tired."

She sighed. "Sleeping on a gurney is not as fun as I remembered, but Victor is a good sport and doesn't complain. I think he enjoys it."

"Why don't you go home in the evenings? Julian and Gertrude can monitor the twins at night."

"I prefer to let Julian go home to his mate." Bridget smiled. "Besides, he's not experienced enough to deal with the twins on his own."

Kian tilted his head. "Are you sure? Maybe you are coddling him a little? Your son impressed me as a very capable physician."

Bridget grinned. "That's nice of you to say, and it's true, but he's not confident enough in his skills to deal with these two. Not only are they a unique medical challenge, but they are also the Clan Mother's siblings. Julian is terrified of them expiring on his watch."

"Is there a chance of that?"

She shrugged. "I think they are doing well. Their vitals are improving daily, and their brain activity is picking up. It's only a matter of time before they start regaining consciousness. Still, I've never encountered anyone who was in stasis for seven thousand years in a sealed stasis chamber that stopped working at some indeterminable point during those thousands of years."

"Still, it sounds like their prospects are good, right?"

"Unless something unexpected happens, yes. Jasmine's presence is helping. She keeps talking to him, and by talking, I mean that she is acting out entire plays and singing. It would have been much more boring here without that constant entertainment." She leaned forward. "I leave the doors to both rooms open so the princess can benefit from the stimulation as well."

"Good." Kian rose to his feet. "If you say that talking to a comatose patient is helping, then who am I to say otherwise?"

Bridget crossed her arms over her chest. "I know it does. Are you in a rush to return to the village?"

"I need to wait for William to be done, why?"

"Do you want to see our guests?"

"Of course. I would be remiss if I didn't, but first, I need to talk to you about something." He turned and closed the door before returning to his seat. "My mother visited me this morning. She's concerned that we are waiting too long to stage the death of the twins. I told her our plan, and she asked me to verify whether you still think it will work. Did you get any more insight into their physiology?"

Bridget nodded. "They are built like us, and their metabolism works like ours, not the Kra-ell's. I believe that the poison will work."

"Good." He let out a breath. "This will assuage the Clan Mother's fears."

Now, she could tell her grandmother to take a breather and wait patiently until the twins looked like their pod companions so their deaths could be faked convincingly.

Bridget pushed to her feet and rounded her desk. "They look better with every passing day. Come see for yourself."

The doctor walked out of her office and into the princess's room just across the waiting room.

"She looks much better." Kian leaned over the hospital bed. "Her eyes are shaped like ours, not the Kra-ell's."

Bridget nodded. "She is also not as tall. I measured her, and she's only five-nine. So, she is tall for a human but short for a Kra-ell female. She must have worn high-heeled shoes under her robes to pass for a Kra-ell."

"I wonder how old she and her brother were when they entered stasis. I should ask Jade if she knows."

"She should know, but I assume it was at least a few decades. It must have been a nightmare for them and their mother to hide their identities for so long. I'm sure other acolytes didn't take as long to become full-fledged priests."

"Indeed." Kian took another look at the princess. "We will know more when they wake up and tell us their story, provided they remember it."

28

JASMINE

Jasmine heard Kian talking about the princess over in the next room, and she wondered when he would come to see the prince.