Page 15 of Dark Destiny: The Fates' Bargain

"He is," Sullha said, swallowing the lump forming in her throat.

Yaaf put Tomek down and straightened. Tomek let go and stepped back, turning his attention toward the vans.

"Can I go play with Bowen?" Tomek asked. "He said I could. He and the other Guardians who are staying with us are in the common room."

"Of course, sweetie," she said, before thinking that maybe Bowen didn't want to be pestered by a little boy.

But Tomek was already running off, leaving them with an awkward silence between them.

Sullha stepped into Yaaf before either of them could find anything better to say. He wrapped his arms around her thesame way he'd held Tomek, gently and carefully. It should have been nothing more than a hug goodbye, but it was more and they both knew it.

She held on longer than was sensible given that everyone in the yard could see them.

Yaaf didn't pull back. She had to be the one to loosen her grip, and even then she didn't get far, because his forehead came down to rest against hers, and for a moment, neither of them moved at all.

"I don't want to let you go," she said quietly.

"I know. I do not want you to, either."

There was more she wanted to say. She could feel it sitting in her throat, but this wasn't the place or the time for all the things she wanted to say to him. She didn't say anything, and neither did he, but she felt that he was holding back the same way she was.

"Go," she said instead, before she lost the nerve. "Before I start crying and make this even harder than it already is."

7

ANNANI

The last time Annani had visited Navuh, he had been lying in the hospital bed. This time he was sitting in a padded chair that was a new addition to his clinic room, and he was reading a book, propped and supported, with a blanket across his lap.

He lifted his head as they entered, his dark eyes cold and ancient, and the surprise on his face lasted only a split second before he schooled it into his usual arrogant and slightly mocking expression.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of a royal visit?"

He looked better than he had the last time. His skin color had improved, but he was still very thin. He had always been slim, but no one had ever mistaken him for anything other than the apex predator he was. He might not have been burly or overtly physically aggressive, but then the brutes were never the most dangerous ones.

It was males like Navuh, clever, calculating, and completely lacking a moral code or empathy, who were truly dangerous.

Then again, knowing what she knew about trafficking and what some who called themselves human did to women and children, Navuh was far from the worst. He was bent on world domination, and many had died on the altar of his ambition, but there were far worse demons walking this Earth than this ancient being. Those who thrived on the blood and suffering of the defenseless and the fragile for no other reason than their own sadistic pleasure.

"How are you feeling, Navuh?" Annani gathered her long skirt and sat in the chair that Kian had pulled out for her.

"As well as can be expected." He waved a hand over his immobile legs and then put the book on the rolling table beside him. "I'm still waiting for the recovery Doctor Bridget has promised."

"It will take time," Annani said. "Injuries like yours take months to heal. You need to be patient."

"Indeed." He folded his hands in his lap. "So, what brings you here today? I'm sure it wasn't worry for my well-being."

"No." She smiled. "I cannot say that it was. I came to give you an update."

He tilted his head, his dark penetrating eyes boring into hers. "No, you came to gloat. I can see it on your face. You were never good at hiding your emotions. I could always read you like an open book."

"I doubt that." She rearranged the folds of her gown over her legs. "Perhaps that was true when I was a girl of seventeen, but I am no longer that girl. Now I am an ancient goddess who has mourned her one truelove mate for five thousand years while you knew he was alive and kept him hidden in stasis in the basement of your mansion."

He shrugged. "I could not have held him there for five thousand years because that mansion is only a hundred years old, give or take a few years. I moved him there only recently."

"Oh, I know. Khiann and his companions were hidden in the harem complex before it was flooded, and before that, they traveled with you from one compound to another. I am well aware of the history of those chests."

Something passed over his eyes, indicating that he was starting to realize where she was going with this. "Areana told you?"