Page 49 of Dark Awakening: New World

"The word love is not on the table yet." Jasmine sipped on her coffee and wished there was something to eat with it.

"What about in here?" Margo pointed at her heart.

"It might be growing in there, but I'm hiding it for now. It's too early to show it." She stood up and walked over to the fridge. "Is there anything to eat?"

"Cheese, cheese, and more cheese. The crackers are in the pantry."

"Perfect." Jasmine pulled out a tray of cheese and walked into the pantry to get the crackers.

When she returned, she put her loot on the counter and sat down. "I'm really dreading hearing your news about Lynda, but that's why I'm here, right?"

"It's a complicated story." Margo pulled a cracker out of the box. "Before meeting Rob, Lynda was engaged to a guy who broke off the engagement and joined the military. Rob knew that, and so did I, so that's not the big discovery. What we didn't know was that he had been discharged and was back in town, and Lynda had been meeting him in secret for months. So far, though, it doesn't seem like she's sleeping with him. Since we started spying on her, she's met him twice for lunch, and both times they kissed, not like friends, but like lovers."

"Then it's cheating," Jasmine said.

"Technically, it is not." Margo reached for a piece of cheese and put it on her cracker. "It looks like she still loves the guy, but she is not ready to leave Rob for him because of obvious reasons."

"What reasons?"

"Rob has a steady job and makes good money while her former fiancé is living off his partial military pension, which isn't much. He also left her once before, so she is not going to give up Rob for a guy that could disappear tomorrow."

Margo bit off a piece of the cracker.

"What are you going to do?" Jasmine asked.

"I don't know. That's what I wanted to talk to you about."

"Don't make me the bad girl who tells you that you need to tell Rob."

"Why the bad girl?"

"Because breaking up a couple is sad. And sad is bad." Jasmine took a slice of some kind of cheese she didn't recognize and put it on a cracker. "But if he were my brother, and by that I mean a real brother, not one of my evil stepbrothers, I would have to tell him even though it would break my heart."

Margo nodded, her eyes filling with tears. "It's going to destroy Rob."

Reaching over, Jasmine took Margo's hand in hers. "I know it's hard, but he needs to know the truth and decide for himself. There is also the small detail of him being a Dormant and deserving an immortal mate."

Margo's eyes widened. "I totally forgot about that, and it's the most important thing." She closed her eyes for a moment. "I wish I could get him to visit the village and see all the gorgeous single ladies that would fight over each other to get him."

"How do you know that? You've never been to the village."

"That's what Gabi and Ella say. I wish they could find a way for Negal, Aru, and Dagor to be in the village without endangering everyone."

Margo had explained something about that, but Jasmine didn't remember what it was. "Why do they endanger the village?"

"They have trackers in them, so their superiors know where they are and where they have been. If they stay in one place for too long, it will be suspicious. But that's not the main problem. The village and the existence of the immortals on Earth must stay hidden, and the people on Anumati, who might wish the clan ill, must never find out about it and them."

"You mean the evil Eternal King."

"Yeah. That dude."

"There must be a solution. I'll think of something."

Margo smiled condescendingly. "If there was, don't you think that all these smart people would have come up with it already?"

Jasmine shrugged. "Sometimes it takes someone who is removed from the problem to see the solution. They are also trying to figure out how to hide the twins' survival from the Eternal King, and I'm trying to come up with a good idea."

"Well, good luck." Margo lowered her head and rested her chin on her fist. "If you can find a solution for my predicament, I would be not only grateful but would also never doubt your genius mind again."