Page 15 of Dark Awakening: Hidden Currents

His mother rewarded him with a brilliant smile. "I love it when we agree."

"Shall we adjourn to the buffet?" Syssi asked. "The food is being kept warm, but we wouldn't want it to dry up." She rose to her feet and turned to Annani. "Would you like me to fill up a plate for you, Clan Mother?"

"I can serve myself." His mother surprised him by standing up and gliding toward the buffet. "The smells are fabulous. If everything tastes as good as it smells, we are in for a treat." She lifted a plate from the stack and started scooping brisket onto it.

Everyone waited politely until she was done before even approaching, and when her plate was full, Kian offered to carry it to the table.

His mother graciously accepted the offer.

Once everyone was seated with a full plate in front of them, Kian lifted his wine glass. "To family and our combined wisdom." He clinked his glass with those seated near him, took a sip, and put the glass down. "I'll ask Shai to post the announcement on the bulletin board first thing tomorrow morning, and we will give it until Monday evening. If no one comes forward, we will start the questioning Tuesday morning."

11

JASMINE

When Ell-rom was done with the pool therapy session, he was so exhausted that Jasmine didn't even offer to stop by the clinic to collect his vegan meals, and they headed straight for the penthouse.

His eyelids were drooping, and he was leaning heavily on his walker, but he tried to pretend he was fine and to keep up the conversation. Jasmine saved him the trouble by talking almost nonstop, so all he had to do was to listen.

"It's straight to bed with you," she said as he shuffled into their bedroom.

"I'm not going to argue with that." He discarded the robe, got in bed, and pulled the blanket over himself.

Ell-rom had used the pool shower just to wash the chlorine off his body, but even though it hadn't been a proper shower, it would have to suffice for now.

"Do you need anything?" Jasmine asked.

Ell-rom shook his head, his eyes already closing. "Just sleep," he mumbled.

He was out within seconds, but she couldn't force herself to leave just yet. It was difficult to tear her eyes away from his handsome face.

Ell-rom looked a little ragged with the five o'clock shadow growing darker, was still mostly bald, and his cheeks were too hollow, but he was breathtakingly beautiful as he was.

Jasmine could only imagine what he was going to look like when he was fully recovered.

Not that it mattered. He could have been much less good-looking than he was now, and she would have fallen in love with him anyway.

Ell-rom was a true prince. He was intelligent, kind, and had a pure soul despite what he had told her.

Was it even true?

Many kids dreamed about taking revenge on a bully that had been tormenting them, and in that regard, Ell-rom was no different. Even if his thoughts of revenge had indeed caused the guard's death, he couldn't have known that would happen.

And to think that the Head Priestess had set it up was so wrong on so many levels. She was supposed to be the spiritual leader of her people, the paragon of morality and goodness, but apparently, morality and spirituality meant different things to different people.

The Mother of All Life she revered was a benevolent deity, but the goddess Ell-rom and the Head Priestess believed in could be very different despite having the same name. Jasmine hoped that his Mother of All Life didn't demand that the Kra-ell kill in her name, but it was possible.

She'd heard extremist clerics preaching for the slaughter and rape of innocents, including children, demanding their blood and suffering as a sacrifice to their god. Even more unbelievably, some of their most vocal followers were women.

It proved how powerful brainwashing could be, or the presence of true evil.

Who would have thought that such barbarism and unimaginable cruelty could still exist in the twenty-first century?

But Jasmine didn't believe in the devil, right?

Her father had accused tarot of being the devil's playthings, forbidding her from touching them, and that had been total nonsense, so Jasmine resolved not to believe in the devil at all.

Sometimes, though, she wondered if she had been naive in dismissing it.