42. Kian

42

KIAN

K ian looked up from his paperwork, surprised to see Brandon standing at the open door. They had parted only several hours ago, and although Brandon had seemed concerned about something, he hadn't indicated that he wanted to talk.

Usually when the councilman needed to discuss his ideas for InstaTock or any other matter, he arranged a meeting in advance, and never just showed up unannounced.

"May I come in?" Brandon asked.

"Of course. What brings you to my office?"

"Morelle and Jasmine are visiting Rob and Margo at the clinic, so I took the opportunity to have a private conversation with you."

Something in Brandon's expression made Kian sit up straighter. "Please take a seat."

Instead of pulling out a chair, Brandon rubbed the back of his neck. "Do you still have your smoking station on the roof?"

A smile tugged at Kian's lips. "You are a man after my own heart. I was just thinking about having a smoke up there." He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a bottle of fine whiskey, handing it to Brandon. Two shot glasses followed, tucked safely into his pockets, and finally, a box of cigarillos. "Shall we?"

When they emerged into the afternoon air, Brandon let out an appreciative whistle. "This is a nice setup you've got up here." He settled into one of the two comfortable lounge chairs. "An umbrella to provide shelter from both sun and rain is a lovely idea."

"I have Shai to thank for this, and probably Amanda, but she won't admit that she had a hand in it." Kian poured them each a measure of whiskey.

After Brandon accepted both the drink and a cigarillo with a nod of thanks, they sat in companionable silence as Kian lit Brandon's cigarillo first and then his own.

He waited patiently for Brandon to start talking, and after a couple of puffs, the guy seemed ready. "I have a new theory about the twins."

Kian took a slow drag, letting the smoke curl around them. "Go on."

"Their abilities are not only uncommon, they are unheard of." Brandon stared into his whiskey. " They're too perfect, aren't they? Too complementary. Morelle can draw power from others and channel it. Ell-rom can kill with a thought. Together, they could theoretically take down any opponent, no matter how powerful."

"Including the Eternal King," Kian said. "It has occurred to me."

"I'm glad that I'm not the only one with a suspicious mind." Brandon took another puff of his cigarillo. "What are the odds that such unprecedented abilities would manifest randomly in twins? I think that they were engineered to be lethal weapons to take down their grandfather. Their father and the Kra-ell princess deliberately combined their bloodlines and enhanced them artificially to create these living weapons. Ahn had access to the best genetic engineering labs on Anumati, and the princess could hide his offspring where no one would think to look for them. But then the Eternal King started suspecting something, either because of the prophecy or spies or both."

Kian let out a long breath. He'd had similar suspicions since learning the full extent of the twins' powers, but he hadn't taken them as far as suspecting deliberate planning that involved genetic manipulation.

"Their mother hid them away not just because they looked like gods," Brandon continued. "She knew what they were created to be. "

Kian took a puff of his cigarillo. "Igor was genetically engineered with enhanced abilities that even the twins don't have, but he wasn't given their kind of power. Unless their ability is the result of combining the bloodlines of the two royal houses, Ahn would have needed to have access to genetic engineering that was not available to the Eternal King, and that's not very likely."

Brandon shrugged. "Ahn was a rebel with a cause, and he wasn't the only one. Maybe one of his cohorts was an expert in genetic manipulation, someone who had also researched the Kra-ell, and Ahn and the future queen of the Kra-ell decided to experiment."

Kian arched a brow. "On their own children?"

"Rebels with a cause can be ruthless, justifying any sacrifice on the altar of their beliefs."

Kian had a hard time imagining Ahn as a fanatic. From his mother's tales, he had constructed an image of a politically savvy leader who cared about his people and tried to do the best he could for them. Still, he'd ignored his daughter Areana just because she had been born from a concubine, so he had obviously been far from a perfect father. As for the Kra-ell queen, Kian had no doubt that she'd been capable of experimenting with her own children to give them a leg up on the Eternal King.

"The question is," Kian swirled his whiskey, watching the amber liquid catch the light, "what do we do with this theory? Even if we confirm it somehow, does it change anything?"

Brandon took a long drag from his cigarillo. "That's why I wanted to talk to you. I don't want to hide my suspicions from Morelle, but telling her that she was created to be a weapon might be devastating to her. Her brother won't take it well either."

Kian topped up their glasses. "But if we're right, and we don't tell them, we leave them vulnerable. Once their abilities become known to the rest of the clan, others will probably come to the same conclusions."

"The Eternal King feared his own blood bringing him down," Brandon said. "What if he knew more than that vague prophecy? Perhaps someone betrayed Ahn and told the king what his son had done. Knowing that his grandchildren had been engineered with the clear purpose of ending his reign of power, of ending him, would explain his obsession with finding them and eliminating the threat. It would also explain the elaborate plot to have Igor befriend them, crown them, and then kill them. The king knew that they were too powerful to attack directly."

Kian chuckled. "I wonder if you see all the puzzle pieces fitting in so perfectly together because of your background in movies. Plotting a storyline is your forte."

Brandon took another sip of his whiskey. " Maybe. The pieces only clicked for me today after you told me what Ell-rom's ability was."

Kian nodded. "Indeed. It wasn't possible to put it all together without that missing piece. Still, we might be totally off about all this, and those who could tell us are dead." He took another drag. "Their parents are both gone, and the Eternal King is not going to tell us even if we had a way to reach him."

"Here is another possible piece of the puzzle," Brandon said. "What if their mother didn't die by accident nor was she assassinated by the Eternal King's minions? What if she sacrificed herself to save them by taking their secrets to her grave?"

They sat in silence for a moment, each lost in thought. The smoke from their cigarillos mingled in the air between them, carrying the weight of their speculations.

"It's possible, although as far as I know, suicide is taboo for the Kra-ell. If she wanted to take a secret to her grave, the queen would have more likely engaged in battle to the death."

"We need safeguards," Brandon said. "Whether we tell them our suspicions or not, we need to make sure to keep their abilities in check. Ell-rom and Morelle are good people, but power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We need to make sure that doesn't happen to them."

Kian nodded. "I'm officially charging you with safeguarding Morelle. As her mate, you are the best qualified to do that. I'll have to talk to Jasmine about watching Ell-rom, which I'm not looking forward to."

Brandon finished his whiskey. "We should wait to reveal Ell-rom's ability until it's absolutely necessary, and since you are still planning to test him, I assume that we have plenty of time. In the interim, we should focus on helping Morelle master hers first and establish her as a protective force rather than a destructive one, especially for her sake."

"Good thinking." Kian poured them each another measure. "Naturally, I need to tell the Clan Mother our suspicions, and she might have some ideas and suggestions of her own."

He wondered if that was something his mother should share with her grandmother. Ani, queen of the gods, wanted to get rid of her husband, so she would probably be very happy to know that the twins could be the weapon she needed. The problem was that she couldn't get them to Anumati, and Kian doubted their abilities would work across the galaxy.