Page 53 of Dark Awakening: New World

She wasn't attracted to him, but she had eyes, and she appreciated beauty in all its forms, including a perfect male form like Julian's. Ell-rom would not have reacted well to that.

"Everyone ready?" Julian asked.

"We are." Jasmine looked at Ell-rom.

Holding on to the walker, he pushed to his feet, which were clad in the flip-flops she'd gotten him for just this purpose.

Julian followed her gaze and shook his head. "Those won't do for someone who is still unsteady on his feet. You will need to take them off." He walked over to the bed and lifted a pair of sneakers. "These are better for now." He crouched at Ell-rom's feet and helped him put them on.

33

ELL-ROM

Ell-rom didn't say much on the way to the pool.

Having the medic kneel at his feet and change his footwear should not have felt so awkward. After all, Julian had probably seen more of him than anyone alive and had helped him shower when he could barely stand, but it had still been a very unsettling experience.

It had felt like a setback.

Ell-rom had been so proud of his accomplishments and his modicum of independence, and the medic's gesture had shattered the illusion. He could have sat down and exchanged the flimsy footwear for the more substantial type himself. Julian didn't have to humiliate him like that. But he couldn't even be angry at the medic because his actions had come from a place of goodness and not malice.

Something buzzed, and Julian stopped walking and pulled out his phone from the coat he had put over his bathing suit. After reading what had been sent to him, he lifted his head and smiled at Ell-rom. "You will have visitors later today. I told Kian that you would need a long nap after exerting yourself at the pool, so the evening would be a good time for the Clan Mother to visit you."

Ell-rom's heart rate accelerated. "Did he tell you why she had not come yesterday?"

Julian shook his head. "She was probably busy fawning over her new grandson. The Clan Mother adores babies."

"She is incredible," Jasmine blurted. "Knowing she loves babies just makes her even more magnificent in my view. It means that she has a good heart."

Julian nodded. "The Clan Mother is all heart."

Ell-rom loved the way Julian talked about Annani. He did not fear her, and he did not even worship her. He just loved and admired her. If Ell-rom ever got to perform any princely duties, he wanted to be like Annani. Loved and appreciated by his people instead of feared.

Not that he was going to be a prince of anything. He was a very long way from Anumati, and even there, he would have never ascended to the throne even if he had not been an abomination.

His sister would.

Ell-rom frowned. Was that something he'd remembered? Or had he deduced it from what he had been told? Only females could rule Kra-ell. Males were not even allowed to be priests, and the belief that twins share a soul was the only reason he could have been conscripted.

That part he remembered being told and not actually living it.

He also had no memory of ever being in water before, but he was not afraid of the pool. Jasmine had explained that it had a sloping bottom and that they would stay where he could stand. There was nothing scary about that. It was like standing in a bathtub, only with cold water instead of warm.

What he was anxious about was Jasmine parading in that bathing suit that left most of her skin bare, and his reaction to that. He also planned to watch Julian's reaction to verify that what Jasmine had told him about the medic's inability to feel desire for her was true.

He didn't doubt Jasmine, but she might have been told things that were not true or were just partially so.

Why did he think that?

Ell-rom had no answer for that except a deep-seated knowledge that not all people were well-meaning and that it was naive to accept every statement as true.

"Here we are." Julian pushed open a set of double doors that had a small round window at the top of each panel.

The sharp scent that Ell-rom had been smelling ever since they had stepped out of the elevator intensified ten-fold, and he sneezed.

"Forgive me. The chemical smell is irritating my nose."

Jasmine turned to Julian with a worried look on her face. "What if Ell-rom can't tolerate the chlorine?"