Protector of the Flame (43 page)

Twenty historians sat busy at work, including Adriel.

“May we speak with you in private?” Cyrus asked him.

Dante and Rabi eyed them suspiciously, but Adriel got up without delay and took them into Neith’s office.

Serenity rattled off her symptoms, desperate to know what was wrong. “We went to Carin, but…she couldn’t see anything. She said…” Serenity looked at Cyrus.

“It doesn’t matter what she said.” Cyrus shook his head dismissing it. “You take a look.”

Adriel tentatively put one hand on her stomach, the other on her shoulder and caressed the slight roundness of her belly.

He could’ve healed her by holding her hands. He didn’t have to touch her in such an intimate way, but it didn’t surprise her in the least that he would milk any opportunity which allowed him to put his hands on her, especially in front of Cyrus, despite the risk.

Adriel closed his eyes. She waited for his hands to get warm and his palms to glow. A second later, he grimaced, opening his eyes. He put both hands on her stomach.

“You can’t feel me or the baby?”

“It doesn’t make sense.” He removed his hands and looked up at the ceiling, thinking. “Give me a moment.” He left the office, passing Sothis who lurked in the doorway.

Adriel went to Rabi and spoke fervently. She lifted her hands and he held them. His palms glowed. At his insistence, Rabi followed him back into the office.

“I’d like you to use your
ingenium
,” Adriel said to Rabi.

“In here? Neith has forbidden me to in her office. It’s too disruptive.”

“Please indulge me,” Adriel insisted.

Rabi twirled her hands in the air, but nothing happened. Her brow crinkled and she tried again. Her eyes widened and she stared at her hands.

“Go back out there and try again,” Adriel said.

She left the room. Standing near the air outlet, she waved her hands and a gust of wind blew in, tousling the curtains, rattling the computers and knocking two historians from their seats. Relieved, Rabi spun, clapping her hands.

Sothis entered the office, but hovered off to the side.

“It’s not that I can’t see you. Our
ingeniums
don’t seem to work around you, as if you’re blocking them. I felt clogged when I touched you.” He looked at Cyrus. “Can you still shift?”

His wings unfurled in a whoosh and he shifted from blue to the ecru shade of the walls, and back to normal. Retracting his wings, he gazed at Serenity.

“I guess warriors aren’t affected,” Adriel said. “Only those of the Psi class. Perhaps it’s because our
ingeniums
work in a different way.”

“How is this possible?” Serenity stroked her belly, hoping there was nothing wrong with the child. The tightening sensation hadn’t eased. “Do I have a new ability?”

“It might be the child’s power manifesting.” Sothis stepped forward.

She looked at her mother. “Did this happen when you were pregnant with me?”

“No. When your great grandmother Willa carried Arcturus and his brothers, each of their gifts manifested through her while she was pregnant, but not until she was close to delivery.”

“But that doesn’t explain what’s wrong with the baby. I felt something strange earlier and I have a weird tightening sensation, like cramping.” A series of pops rippled through her lower abdomen like popcorn going off inside her. “There it goes again. Something’s wrong with him.”

“Him,” Cyrus and Adriel said in unison. Cyrus narrowed his eyes, and Adriel moved to the other side of Serenity so that she was in between them.

Sothis put her hands on her stomach. The pops rattled again. “Is that what you’re talking about?”

“Yes.”

Her mother grinned. “That’s the baby kicking and the slight discomfort is most likely growing pains, your body accommodating the fetus.”

“I didn’t think it would start moving around so early.”

“How far along are you?”

“Seventeen weeks in two days,” Adriel answered before Cyrus could.

Serenity wished Adriel would stop antagonizing him. If only he knew how much Cyrus wanted to crush him into the dirt, he wouldn’t dare provoke him.

“It is a little early for us. The average Kindred pregnancy is forty-eight weeks.”

“Oh.” Something so simple and basic, she didn’t even know. Yet, she was supposed to be a mother to this child if they survived. Sothis touched her shoulder. “I forget how little you know of your own kind, how everything is filtered through your human eyes.” Compassion warmed her voice.

“Maybe we could spend some time together in the evenings. You could tell me what you went through when you were pregnant and what I could expect.”

“I’m not sure how much good I’d be to you. Your pregnancy seems to be different.”

Serenity shook off the rebuff. “Of course.”

“Sothis,” Cyrus said, “I think you could be a great help to her. She won’t talk to me about what she’s experiencing, but she needs to talk to someone.”

Her husband knew more than she gave him credit for. He understood her desperate longing to connect with her mother, but he recognized her need for help in navigating pregnancy.

“We’ll have to do it before or right after dinner. I’m adjusting my schedule to stand watch with the sentinels in the evenings and I’ll work with Cyrus during the day.”

“Why are you going to stand watch?” Serenity wondered.

“It’s something I’d already given thought to, but after today and the steps Neith is taking, I feel compelled. If someone comes here with the intent to snuff out your flame, they’ll do so between dusk and dawn. It’s how I’d do it. I need to be ready.”

Serenity hugged her. “Thank you, for everything.” When Sothis didn’t reciprocate the embrace, Serenity let her go.

“Cyrus, I’d like to start working with you today,” Sothis said. “You’ve wasted enough time on Neith’s game.”

Cyrus turned Serenity so that her back was to Adriel. He smiled, but not at her or Sothis. Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her. It was long, passionate and purposefully over the top to get under Adriel’s skin. His hands wandered across her back and buttocks, and when she thought it would finally end, he continued for another thirty seconds.

The display was absurd, but if it kept Cyrus from ripping Adriel apart, she was happy to oblige him.

“I’ll see you at dinner,” he said.

She gave him a disapproving look at which his smile widened, then he left with Sothis. Serenity punched Adriel in the shoulder.

“What was that for?”

“You have no idea what it’s like for him to tolerate this link between us.”

“He doesn’t have a choice,” Adriel said coldly.

She looked at him hard. “When your flame goes out, will this bond die with you?”

He didn’t respond right away. Hurt or shock passed across his face like a shadow. “The unnatural tether between us, as Neith likes to call it, will end when my flame no longer burns. But the bond between us will never die. You can keep telling yourself that the only reason you love me is because of the endearment link, if it makes this easier for you.”

There had been a strange attraction from the very beginning, but she would have severed all association with him the minute their friendship dared to ruffle one hair on Cyrus’s head if not for this damnable tether.

“Why do you insist on making the situation worse by saying things like that?”

A sad, tortured smile propped his lips up. “I’ve never healed someone that hates me, so I can’t be sure exactly how my secondary gift works, but I suspect such a person wouldn’t be inclined to feel affection for me. Everyone that I’ve healed thus far loves me, as a son or brother or a friend. Can you honestly say that’s the extent of what you feel for me? It’s different with everyone that I heal. It’s different for a reason.”

“Ximena doesn’t love you as a brother or a friend.”

“She had an interest in me before I healed her. My gift only heightened what nature put in her heart.”

It was true that he’d stirred something dangerous inside of her beyond the hold of his secondary gift, but she’d never admit it for both their sakes. “Stop saying such things and stop riling Cyrus.”

Adriel turned and walked away.

Right behind him, she said, “If you keep pushing him, you won’t get up next time.”

He stopped in the doorway and faced her, the corners of his mouth tilting up. “Are you telling me this out of love for him or love for me?”

Chapter Forty-Two

Serenity suppressed the urge to slap Adriel and sat at a computer terminal next to Dante. “What’s going on?”

“Neith assigned each of us to one of the record-keeper teams. Once we’re done updating the database with the latest information, she’s going to download the database, giving us each a portion of it. Then we’ll wipe the mainframe here clean,” Dante explained. “She’s also sending most of the workers away, except for essential personnel to keep things running at a bare minimum.”

Rabi looked around Dante at her. “Would you mind moving to a different workstation? I don’t wish to be rude, but it’s creepy being near you now.”

Dante lowered his head. “Forgive us.”

She hadn’t noticed how the historians had closed off their collective stream to her until now. They even feared her and the growing abilities of the child. The one place on the island where she’d found acceptance was no longer a refuge.

She moved as far away as possible and watched the next record-keeper enter the archives.

The island was being evacuated and the library dismantled for its protection. Alarm flooded her entire system, making her lightheaded.

Adriel sat beside her. At least his friendship could be counted on no matter what, even if it came at a steep price.

“Neith doesn’t think we’re going to survive.”

“She hasn’t given up on you,” he said, “but she has to be prepared in case things don’t go our way.”

His beautiful face relit her ire and it flared hot. Gritting her teeth, she looked away and over at the long line of record-keepers.

Nightfall came quickly as she helped the others with the transfer.

“You must wrap up, it is time for the evening meal,” Neith said.

“We need a few more minutes to finish,” Dante said.

“Mira must complete the download now. I need you to shut down your terminals. You don’t want to be late for this evening’s meal. The kitchen has planned something special.”

Adriel nudged her shoulder. “Are you still angry with me?”

“That depends.” She shut down her workstation.

“On what?”

They walked to the lower level.

“How you plan to behave.”

“This is hard on me as well.” He looked straight ahead. “I’ll be a good brother from now on. I won’t cause further aggravation.”

“Thank you.”

In the dining hall, she had her choice of seating. Nakia sat gabbing away to someone at a half empty table. Talus and Micah exchanged lovey-dovey looks, trying to be discreet by glancing away from each other whenever Spero gazed in their direction. They had six seats left.

“Will you sit at my table?” Adriel asked. As she was about to refuse, he continued, “Give me the chance to make amends. You were right about my behavior earlier.”

“This might not be a good idea.”

“If you won’t give me the chance to redeem myself, you may as well send me away with one of the teams.”

Anger over his manipulation and pity for his burden warred inside of her. After the interaction between Cyrus and Adriel in the office, she’d be a fool with a death wish to agree. “Let’s not push it tonight. You know I want you to stay, but it’s only in case Cyrus needs you if it comes to a battle. Don’t use it against me. If you want to leave, I’ll respect that.”

She didn’t wait for an argument or agreement. She headed to the table with her warriors. Still odd to think of them as hers, but she had full control over how they were to be used. Cyrus thought it was a good idea. It was the warrior in him acknowledging that all war brought death and with it change.

Adriel sat two tables away with other historians, right in her line of sight. She couldn’t look straight ahead without meeting his gaze.

Cyrus and Sothis walked into the dining hall. He spotted her and marched toward the table.

“How was your training?” Serenity rose and kissed him. Her mother sat opposite them. “It was better than working the trash detail or down in the quarry.”

“I’d love to hear all about it.” She stroked his thigh, running her fingernails along the inside from his knee to his crotch.

“Sothis taught me basics about poisons and antidotes, but there’s much more to learn.”

Serenity maintained eye contact with him as he spoke, ignoring the pull of Adriel’s gaze. Spero and Elianus chimed in to make comments on the training. Dinner flowed smoothly. They feasted on a creamy crab soup flavored with tarragon, fish in a saffron broth, and mussels. A lavender theme ran through the rest of the meal: lobster with lavender and lemon, fresh baked lavender bread, spiced plum torte with a lavender sabayon and a lavender summer fruit pudding.