11. Jasmine

11

JASMINE

W hen 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.

Sometimes, it seemed that the manifestation of evil was not only present, but it was thriving and gaining the upper hand in the war against good.

Shaking her head, she looked at Ell-rom's peaceful face and remembered all the good Annani was trying to do.

In the end, good always triumphed over evil, but if there was anything she'd remembered from history lessons in high school, it was that by the time things reached the tipping point where good people finally rose from their stupor to fight the forces of darkness, the loss of life was tremendous.

Hopefully, it wouldn't come to that.

Then again, given the threat of the Eternal King, the odds were not in Earth's favor, and Jasmine was finding it challenging to retain her optimism.

"I'd better stop this thought before it pulls me under." She walked over to the bed and kissed Ell-rom's cheek.

It was like getting a whiff of hope, even if it still smelled a little like pool water.

"I'm going down to the clinic to get your meals," she told him, even though he couldn't hear her.

Leaving him a note was also impossible because he couldn't read English and she didn't know Kra-ell.

The clinic was quiet when she arrived, with Julian sitting behind the desk. He lifted his head. "How is Ell-rom doing?"

"Exhausted. He fell asleep as soon as we got back."

"Good." Julian grinned. "The harder he works, the faster he recovers. There is no need to coddle a male of Ell-rom's pedigree. Being a half god and half Kra-ell, his genetics make him super resilient. Just ensure he eats enough to provide his body with the fuel it needs."

"That's why I'm here. I came to pick up his meals. Perhaps you should start sending them up to the penthouse."

"I should." Julian bent down and lifted an insulated bag off the floor. "Here you go. Two lunches and two dinners."

"Thank you, but you don't need to order for me anymore. I can make my own meals now."

With all the work she needed to do with Ell-rom, she might not have time to cook, but as long as there were ingredients for a sandwich in the fridge, she was good.

When her phone rang in her pocket, Jasmine thought it was Ell-rom looking for her, but then she remembered that he didn't have a phone, and even if he'd figured out how to use the landline in their bedroom, he didn't have her number.

Could it be her father?

He never called her unless it was an emergency.

Fishing it out, she was relieved and surprised to see Kian's name on the screen.

"Hello?"

"Good afternoon." Kian's voice came through, formal as always. "I hope I'm not interrupting anything."

"Not at all," she replied.

"I wanted to give you a heads-up. We're planning a family gathering tomorrow to introduce Ell-rom to the rest of the family. A couple of Odus will arrive around ten o'clock in the morning with groceries to prepare lunch, and the family will arrive around one in the afternoon."

Tension and excitement twisted Jasmine's gut. Normally, she had no trouble dealing with an audience of any size, but dining with a goddess and her children was like dining with the royal family.

"That's wonderful. Ell-rom would love to meet everyone."

She had no doubt that he would, but he would also be apprehensive about meeting the rest of the family, and he might get overwhelmed if there were too many new faces all at once.

"My mother is looking forward to introducing Ell-rom to my sisters, their mates, and their children. My uncle and his mate are coming as well."

That sounded like a much larger gathering than Jasmine had imagined. "How many people should we expect?"

"Let's see." Kian paused, and she could almost picture him ticking off names on his fingers. "Amanda and Dalhu, Alena and Orion, Toven and Mia, Syssi and myself, and of course, my mother. We'll be bringing the children along as well, but all three are still babies. Well, our Allegra is eleven months going on eleven years old, and she has a way of communicating her wishes with perfect clarity despite her young age and limited vocabulary."

Jasmine chuckled. "I can't wait to meet her."

She made a quick count in her head. Nine adults and three small children was not a small gathering, but it shouldn't overwhelm Ell-rom. After all, he'd done pretty well during meals with the gods and their mates.