1. Kian

1

KIAN

A fter Brandon had whisked the panicked and shaken Morelle away, an uneasy silence fell over the living room, with everyone who had witnessed the brush with disaster processing it in their own way.

Kian's gaze drifted to the heavy stone fragment lying on the floor and then to the fine web of cracks spreading across the remaining mantel. The physical evidence of what had transpired made him seethe with rage at the negligence of the stone supplier, the contractor who'd installed it, and himself for not noticing anything was wrong.

If not for Morelle's extraordinary display of power, the child would have died, a blow so devastating that none of them would have ever recovered from it, especially Darius's parents.

In fact, he was surprised at how calm Amanda was in the aftermath .

She'd lost her little boy a long time ago, and it had not only destroyed her but had affected the rest of the family as well. His little nephew's death was a big part of why Kian had been so disillusioned and almost nihilistic until Syssi entered his life and brought the sunshine back with her.

Perhaps Amanda hadn't internalized what had happened yet, the scientist in her dedicating the full bandwidth of her mind to dissecting and deciphering Morelle's incredible ability.

"I want all the mantels removed as soon as possible," Syssi said, bouncing Allegra on her knee the way she used to do when their daughter was younger. "Including the one in our bedroom. I don't want this stone anywhere in the house."

Kian nodded. "I'll have the community service crew start on it first thing tomorrow morning. For now, let's just keep the children away from all fireplaces." He pulled out his phone to send a global message to the community about the potential hazard.

When he was done, he glanced at Jacki to check on how she was holding up. Her tears had dried, but she still looked shell-shocked as she clutched Darius to her chest. The boy, however, seemed unaware of his close call, with his smart, dark eyes fixed on the stone fragment with curiosity rather than fear.

"We should take Darius home," Kalugal said softly to his mate. "After all this excitement, a warm bath and a bedtime story will do him good."

The one who needed to get home and take a warm bath was Jacki, but Kalugal was the quintessential diplomat, and he knew how to frame his suggestion to avoid implying that she was not handling their son's brush with death as well as he was.

"Yeah." She nodded. "We should go."

"Thank you for dinner." Kalugal wrapped an arm around Jacki's shoulders. "We'll talk more about this tomorrow."

As they headed for the door, Darius lifted his head from his mother's shoulder and waved. "Bye-bye."

The sweet gesture hit Kian hard, and he had to fight the urge to snatch Allegra from Syssi's arms and encircle her in the protection of his embrace.

Instead, he tightened his hold on his wife's waist.

Once the door closed behind them, Amanda let out a long breath. "That was the most incredible display of paranormal power I have ever witnessed. Not to mention the level of control Morelle demonstrated. It's hard to believe that it was her first time."

"She acted on instinct," Annani said. "And what is even more incredible is that she displayed several talents at once. None of us noticed anything was amiss with the stone, and we are all paranormally talented individuals, at least to some extent."

"Not me," Alena said. "My only talent is producing babies."

Orion leaned over and kissed her cheek. "That's the most important talent of them all."

Their little boy had slept in his stroller throughout all the commotion, and although Alena looked a little paler than usual, she seemed to have recovered from the shock.

"You are right." Amanda tapped a long-nailed finger on her lower lip. "I mean about the multiple talents. To sense that the stone was about to get loose, Morelle has to have at least some precognition ability, but all the tests I did on her revealed the absolute lack of it." She turned to Syssi. "Do you think she was faking it in the lab?"

Syssi shook her head. "She seemed frustrated when she didn't do well on any of the precognition tests. Perhaps it has something to do with her telekinetic ability. Maybe she can sense faults in materials because she can manipulate them with her mind."

Throughout the exchange, Kian observed Ell-rom from the corner of his eye to see if he knew or suspected something about his sister that he was not sharing, but he seemed just as stunned as the rest of them.

Amanda considered Syssi's suggestion but shook her head. "The way she redirected that stone reminded me of Ell-rom's ability, though obviously with a different application. Both seem to involve manipulation of physical matter through sheer force of will."

Ell-rom frowned. "I don't think my ability manipulates matter. I think it manipulates energy flow."

Amanda waved a dismissive hand. "It's all the same. Matter, energy, it's all interconnected, and I think that the same principles are involved."

"Ell-rom's power is purely destructive," Annani said. "What Morelle did was protective—saving a life rather than taking one." She paused. "Not that Ell-rom's ability couldn't be used to protect, but its primary function appears to be offensive."

Syssi set Allegra down on the couch and handed her the phone to play with, which she rarely did, no doubt because she didn't want their daughter to get anywhere near the fireplace.

Perhaps after their guests left, he should push the couch against the fireplace so they wouldn't have to restrict Allegra's mobility until the mantel got pulled down. Their daughter wouldn't like having to stay away from her favorite room in the house.

"Their abilities could be connected somehow," Syssi said. "They're twins, after all."

"It's possible," Amanda said, reaching into her purse and pulling out her tablet. "Right now, I'm still struggling with understanding how Morelle's nullifying ability relates to the telekinetic force, but I cannot think of what the two could have in common. On the face of things, they seem to be opposites."

Evie had fallen asleep in her father's arms, and Amanda went to take her, but Dalhu shook his head. "It's okay. I've got her."

Amanda smiled fondly at her mate. "It's also okay for you to admit that you just want to hold her because you got scared."

"I'm not denying it." Dalhu turned to Annani. "If it's okay with you, Clan Mother, I would like to start bringing Evie over to you much more often. I want her to transition as soon as possible."

A pang of guilt shot through Kian. Dalhu, along with every other clan member except for Kian and Alena, still believed that the little girl Dormants transitioned just from being around Annani. Kian carried the burden of keeping the real method a secret, but since his mother's safety was at stake, he preferred to feel guilty rather than expose his mother to peril.

Her blood's ability to induce the transition of young female Dormants would have to remain a secret.

With five gods in their community, the secret was a little less daunting now that Annani was no longer the only source of the miraculous healing godly blood, but Kian still wasn't going to reveal it even to his two other sisters. It was up to his mother.

Amanda detached the stylus and started jotting notes on her tablet. "I'm already brainstorming ideas, so I'll have something by Monday to start testing." She lifted her head and smiled. "But it's going to be a busy weekend, so I don't know how much I will manage to do."

"Oh, right. Tomorrow is Rob's induction ceremony." Syssi turned to Kian. "Do you have anything special planned?"

He frowned. "Should I? I always say more or less the same thing." He looked at Amanda. "Are you in charge of organizing that event as well?"

She was arranging a wedding party for Marina and Peter nearly singlehandedly, so he doubted she would have the time or energy to organize a party for Rob as well.

"Not this time." Amanda put the tablet on the coffee table. "Since Arwel is Rob's inducer, Jin took it upon herself, and Margo and Frankie are helping."

"I should offer to help as well," Jasmine said. "After all, I feel responsible for getting Rob here. I pressured Margo to confront him with what she knew about Lynda to save him from a disastrous marriage."

"That's right." Amanda cast her a smile. "Rob owes you a big thank you. The dude is so happy now with Gertrude. "

"He moved on fast," Syssi murmured. "I would have expected him to mourn his doomed relationship a bit longer."

"He dodged a bullet," Amanda said. "Speaking of which, I wonder if Morelle can deflect bullets." She picked up the tablet and started writing again. "I have a feeling that she can only summon her telekinetic energy in an emergency, so I might have to trick her into thinking that someone is about to get shot and see what she does."

"Is that wise?" Syssi asked. "What if she decides to snap the neck of the shooter instead of intercepting the bullet?"

"Good point." Amanda waved with her stylus. "I'll need to come up with a nonlethal experiment. Maybe throwing a ball at someone's head or something like that."

As a soft groan escaped Ell-rom's throat, Kian chuckled. "Don't get carried away, Amanda. Start slow and increase the stakes gradually. We don't know the extent of Morelle's powers yet, and we don't want any fatal accidents."

Amanda winced. "Yeah, you are probably right. I wonder if Ell-rom and Morelle's abilities are complementary." She turned to Ell-rom. "Your power destroys, while Morelle's seems capable of averting destruction. It's almost like they're two sides of the same coin. We should explore whether there are other paired aspects to your abilities. The nullifying power doesn't seem to fit the pattern, though."

"Unless it does," Annani said thoughtfully. "If Ell-rom's power is purely offensive, perhaps Morelle's nullifying ability is its defensive counterpart. She stops others from using their powers while he..." She trailed off, glancing at Allegra, who was still within earshot. "Sometimes others need to be stopped." When Ell-rom winced, she continued. "With great power comes great responsibility, and I am glad that both you and your sister are conscientious, good people. You make our family stronger."