13. Ell-rom

13

ELL-ROM

" I 'll wait out here." Brandon sat down on one of the chairs in the waiting area of the clinic. "You go ahead and sit with your brother in Jasmine's room."

Morelle looked conflicted for a moment but then nodded. "We will leave the door open."

"That's okay." Brandon pulled out his phone. "I need to make a few calls, so you can close the door if you want to."

Morelle shook her head. "I'd rather leave it open so I can see you."

"I promise not to run away." He winked at her.

"Not funny." Morelle cast Brandon a mock glare and then followed Ell-rom into Jasmine's room.

Ell-rom didn't have a problem with leaving the door open. He still remembered how desperately he had clung to Jasmine those first days after he had woken up from stasis and how anxious he'd been every time she had left his side, even for a little while.

"You are really connecting with him," he said as they sat down on the two chairs in Jasmine's room. "It's like it was for me with Jasmine." He smiled. "I'm a true believer in the Fates now."

Morelle chuckled softly. "You were always quick to believe in higher powers, and I was always the skeptic who didn't believe in anything."

He tilted his head. "How about now? Are you still a skeptic?"

She let out a breath. "Less than I was before. After Mother came to me in my dreams and told me things I didn't know before, I had no choice but to believe that the soul goes on." She shrugged. "And if that's true, then maybe all the rest is true as well."

"You don't sound convinced."

"I'm not. I'm not a fan of the Mother of All Life."

He nodded. "I get it. She's not easy to love, but that's what makes her real. The universe is not purposely cruel, and neither is she, but it is also not benevolent, and neither is she. They are both largely indifferent."

She narrowed her eyes at him. "Then why bother praying to her or even caring if she exists at all?"

"Because we need a compass. That's all religion is. Its purpose is not to aggrandize a deity who is above our material concerns and our opinions. It is to guide us on our journey."

Morelle shook her head. "We used to have these kinds of discussions, and neither of us succeeded in convincing the other, so we shouldn't get into that again. I'd rather tell you what Annani told me today over dinner. We have another half-sister."

"I know that."

She frowned. "And you never mentioned her to me?"

"Frankly, I'd forgotten about her. Annani mentioned Areana once and promised to tell me her story, but we both forgot about it somehow."

Morelle perked up. "Then I have a lot to tell you. Areana is Ahn's daughter from a goddess he was involved with before he met Annani's mother, so she's a half-sister to both Annani and us." She leaned forward. "But here's the shocking part. She's mated to the leader of the Doomers."

"What?" Ell-rom managed to keep his voice low. "How did that happen?"

"It's quite a story." Morelle crossed her legs. "Areana sacrificed herself to give Annani a chance at love. Annani was engaged to this evil god named Mortdh, but she fell in love with Khiann. When she broke the engagement, Mortdh was enraged, and our father feared that he would start a war. He asked Areana, his older daughter, if she was willing to mate Mortdh in Annani's stead, and she agreed."

"That was noble of her."

"It was. Ahn offered her to Mortdh, but he was offended by the offer, claiming that Areana was used goods because she was a widow. However, it was mostly because she wasn't Ahn's successor, and it was actually the throne that Mortdh was after, not Annani. He left in a huff and tasked his immortal son Navuh to escort Areana to his stronghold in the north. During the journey, Areana and Navuh fell in love."

"But she was promised to Mortdh."

"This is where it gets complicated," Morelle continued. "Mortdh, who was enraged at being deprived of his chance to mate the next ruler of the gods and become ruler himself, murdered Khiann, and the gods' council that was led by Ahn sentenced him to entombment. Only they had to catch Mortdh first, and he wasn't about to let them do that. He flew over and dropped a bomb over the gods' assembly, killing them all and getting caught in his own attack. At least, that's the theory." She paused. "There is another theory that Mortdh wasn't the one who bombed the gods and that it was the work of assassins sent by our grandfather, the Eternal King, but no one knows for sure what happened. Anyway, Areana thought that her whole family was gone, and she mated Navuh, who later founded the Doomers—the clan's archenemies. Annani only recently discovered that her sister had survived and managed to establish secret contact with her."

Ell-rom's eyes drifted to Jasmine again, checking for any sign of waking. "I've heard the part about Mortdh, Annani, and the bomb, but not about Areana's part in all of that. Does she help the clan against the Doomers?"

"I don't think so," Morelle said. "The contact is very clandestine, and Annani didn't share many details. It must be a very difficult situation for Areana. She loves her evil mate, and she loves her sister. Her loyalties are split."

"I don't envy her that position." Ell-rom glanced at Jasmine again. "I'm glad that all my loyalties are aligned." He turned back to his sister. "Tell me about the testing. How did it go?"

"The results were interesting." Morelle grimaced. "Sometimes I needed to know what ability I was trying to block in order to nullify it, and sometimes I didn't. Cassandra, the chief's mate, can blow up things with a thought, which is similar to what you can do. I didn't know what her talent was the first time I tried to block it, so my nullifying effect didn't work. Once I knew, just my thinking about her not blowing up the glass was enough to stop her. Then Amanda told me to go inside the house and try again, and it worked, but when Amanda distracted me, it didn't."

Ell-rom chuckled. "I'm getting confused."

"Wait, that's not the end of it. Arwel, who is an empath, didn't tell me his talent either, but I could see that he was suffering, and I wanted to give him relief even though I didn't know what he was suffering from. I blocked the influx of emotions easily. So far, though, it seems that I need to be actively thinking about a talent for the nullification to work."

"That's good news," Ell-rom said. "It means you can't do it accidentally."

"Exactly. It also explains why I didn't nullify your ability when you killed that guard. I didn't know what you could do. Besides, I was asleep."

The sound of a bedsheet rustling had Ell-rom on his feet instantly.

"Jasmine?" He took her hand. "Morelle is here, my love. Would you like to meet her?"

Jasmine's fingers twitched in his grasp, her head turned slightly, and then her eyelids fluttered.

This time, when they opened, her gaze was clearer than before. She looked first at Ell-rom, a small smile forming on her lips. Then she shifted her gaze to look at Morelle.

"Hi," she managed, her voice still rough.

"Hello, Jasmine." Morelle rose to her feet and smiled at his mate. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you in person."

As Ell-rom watched his sister and his mate meeting for the first time, his heart was so full that it felt like it might burst. His two worlds, past and present, old family and new, were finally coming together.