Page 65 of Dark Chains: First Link
"I know. I should also call Bridget."
"About a DNA test?"
"Not yet. Eluheed isn't ready for that, and I don't want to push him. But Bridget ran blood tests on me when I was pregnant with Allegra, and again when we realized that Gilbert might be my relative. If there's anything unusual in my bloodwork that doesn't quite fit the normal immortal profile, she might have noticed it and just not mentioned it because it didn't seem significant to her at the time. She wasn't looking for alien markers."
"She would have mentioned it."
"Or not." Syssi leaned on him and rested her head on Kian's arm. "It doesn't hurt to ask."
"It might. Bridget is smart, and she'll wonder why you are asking those kinds of questions."
"I'll be discreet."
"I know you will." He leaned to press a kiss to the top of her head. “You’re always discreet. It's one of your many rare-diamond qualities."
"You're leaning hard into that metaphor."
"It's not a metaphor. It's a fact."
Syssi laughed, watching their daughter conquer the highest rung of the ladder with a triumphant squeal that sent one of the Kra-ell children tumbling off the bars in surprise.
"Speaking of family," she said. "You should tell your mother about the call."
"I told her last night at dinner."
"I mean about today's call."
"There was nothing in that call that she would be interested in. She's focused on Khiann, and everything else is secondary to her."
A shriek from the playground interrupted them. Allegra was standing on top of the climbing structure with her arms raised above her head in a victory pose.
"Look, Mommy!"
"I see you! Be careful up there!"
Kian was already on his feet, crossing the distance in several long strides and positioning himself below Allegra with his arms ready.
"That's high enough, Princess."
"Higher!"
"No. That's the top. You won."
Allegra looked down at him with the expression of a conqueror being told that there were no more lands to invade, and then she accepted the limitation with a philosophical shrug that was so much like Kian that Syssi had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing.
"Slide?" Allegra asked.
"Slide," Kian confirmed.
As Allegra launched herself down the slide with a shriek that was equal parts terror and joy, Syssi leaned back on the bench and thought about Rosa.
A wild spirit in a small village. A woman who spoke four languages and read everything she could find, fell in love with a man she couldn't keep.
If Eluheed was telling the truth, and Syssi's gut told her he was, then Rosa had been carrying his child when she married Boris Dorjinsky and sailed across an ocean to start a new life. She would have never known what her lover truly was, only that he'd refused to marry her without explanation and broken her heart in the process.
Had she loved him? Eluheed's account suggested that she had, fiercely and without reservation, the way people loved before caution and experience taught them to hold back something of themselves.
Had her grandmother inherited anything from her alien father? Had she been a seer as well?
