23. Jasmine

23

JASMINE

J asmine absently stroked the stem of her water glass as she tried to make sense of Syssi's vision. Why would the Fates show Syssi her mother instead of her? Was she meant to go to Kurdistan?

Maybe finding Khiann wasn't what she was supposed to do at all.

The thought made her stomach clench. She hadn't been certain about the role she was meant to play in reuniting Annani with her mate, but she wanted to help, and now everything had gotten muddled, and she didn't know what she was supposed to do.

"I want to bring up questioning your father," Kian said. "I know that you want to do it yourself, but if you hope to be able to thrall, I'm afraid that's not likely. Dormants who transition as adults rarely develop the ability. You are probably never going to be able to do that."

"Ell-rom is learning to thrall," she pointed out.

Kian kept his intense gaze on her, and it was intimidating, but she wasn't going to crumble under it.

"Ell-rom knew how to thrall and shroud before he went into stasis. He only needed to be reminded of the technique."

Under the table, Ell-rom took her hand and gave it a light squeeze. "There isn't really much use for thralling. It's forbidden under most circumstances."

"I know, but I only need it to get into my father's head and see what he knows about my mother. If he had something to do with her death, I want to be the first one to know."

There. She'd said it. That was her biggest fear.

"I understand." Kian's expression softened. "And I would feel the same if I were you, but would it really be so bad if you were the second person to learn it? The Guardian who will perform the questioning is not going to do anything to your father that you don't approve of. If he's indeed guilty of murdering your mother, you will decide his fate."

Jasmine hadn't expected that, and now she wasn't even sure that she wanted to take the responsibility. She just needed to know what had happened.

"I don't think he killed her. But I think he knows something."

"Would you like to know what Roni has discovered about your mother?" Syssi asked, her eyes soft and understanding.

Jasmine knew that the clan had conducted a background check on her, so she wasn't surprised that they had information to report. "Yes, please."

"Her name was Kyra Fazel," Kian said. "She came from Iran on a student visa in 1988 and a year later married your father and dropped out of the university. She changed her name to Kira Orlova, taking on his last name and just slightly changing the spelling of her given name, but that could have been enough to cover her trail if anyone from her homeland was looking for her."

Jasmine frowned. "Why would she need to hide?"

"She might have married your father without her parents' permission, and if they were traditionalists, that might have been a great offense." Syssi's eyes were sad and full of compassion. "She could have been in mortal danger."

Jasmine swallowed. "That never occurred to me. They were legally married, so it wasn't like she was dishonoring her family or something ridiculous like that."

Ridiculous was not the right word, not when young women were murdered by their own family members for their supposed dishonor, but right now, there was a child present, and even though Allegra was probably too young to understand, Jasmine didn't want to use that kind of language around her.

"Your father was a Christian, right?" Syssi asked gently.

"Yeah, Russian Orthodox, but he wasn't very religious. We went to church only a couple times a year."

"It doesn't matter how religious he was," Kian said. "By marrying him, she dishonored the family."

"I see," Jasmine whispered. "Do you think they got to her?"

"Not if my vision is right," Syssi said, a little too cheerfully, probably trying to defuse the dark mood that had descended upon the gathering and was starting to affect Allegra.

Jasmine let out a breath. "Thank goodness for your vision. It gives me hope." She turned to Kian. "Did Roni find anything else?"

"He tried to trace her family in Iran but didn't find any data he could even hack into. What reinforces my belief that your mother is alive is that he also found no records of her death, and she wasn't buried by any traditional means. She simply vanished from all records around the time of her supposed death."

"Good." Jasmine allowed herself a smile. "That's good."

"Do you know if your father legally married your stepmother?" Syssi asked. "Because to do that, he would have needed to either prove that he was a widower or divorce your mother in her absence."

"They got married. I was there in the city hall when they did, along with my stepbrothers. But I don't know how he proved that he wasn't married anymore."

Syssi turned to Kian. "Wasn't Roni supposed to look into that?"

"Roni is swamped with a big project I assigned to him. It will be some time before he will be free to pursue this. It would be easier to find out all of this information by getting into your father's head."

Syssi cleared her throat. "I don't want to be a spoilsport, but isn't it forbidden?"

"Not when the life of Jasmine's mother is on the line," Annani said.

Jasmine didn't think her father could do anything about her mother at the present time, but if it was convenient for Annani to excuse the thralling this way, she wasn't going to say anything.

Syssi nodded. "Now that we've cleared up that issue, I think we should hurry with the investigation. I don't know why I was shown this vision when I asked about Khiann. Maybe it's like when I saw the pod, there's an urgency to find your mother, and that's why the Fates showed her to me." She paused. "Or perhaps your mother has a talent that could help us find Khiann. After all, if she left you a deck of tarot cards, she clearly had an interest in the esoteric. She might have been aware of having a special paranormal talent."

The logic was sound, Jasmine had to admit. And if there was truly urgency involved, they shouldn't wait. "I agree that waiting for me to develop a thralling ability does not make sense, but I want to be there when he's questioned."

"That's not a problem," Kian replied.

"I go where Jasmine goes," Ell-rom said, his tone leaving no room for argument.

Kian's expression tightened. "That complicates things. We'll need to assign at least two Guardians for your protection, probably more. And with the new division being formed, we're already stretched thin."

"What new division?" Brandon leaned forward.

"It's too early to discuss it," Kian said curtly. "The council will be informed once we have a solid plan of action."

The sudden tension between the two men was palpable, though both were clearly trying to hide it. Jasmine glanced at Morelle, and her slight nod indicated that she'd noticed it, too.

Somehow, the brief moment of shared understanding gave Jasmine hope for the future of their relationship. Morelle seemed like someone who could be a friend.

They would need to be careful, of course. Set boundaries and make sure that neither of them played a tug of war with Ell-rom.

He needed them both in different ways.

"When do you want to do this?" Jasmine asked, deliberately steering the conversation back to safer ground. "Question my father, I mean."

"The sooner the better," Kian said. "But if you want to be there, you need to get a little stronger. You've just woken up from a ten-day coma yesterday."

Ell-rom shifted beside her. "Maybe we could lure him to come closer to us so Jasmine doesn't need to travel?"

"That's an option," Kian agreed. "Jasmine, does your father travel for business?"

She thought for a moment. "Rarely. He's an insurance broker, and they sometimes have conventions. He goes hunting, though, and he has a cabin in the mountains. It's pretty remote—no neighbors for miles." A chill ran down her spine when she thought about how easy it could have been for him to kill her mother and hide her body out there or even leave it for the wild beasts to devour.

No. He'd loved her mother. She was convinced of that.

"What's the matter?" Ell-rom rubbed his thumb over her palm. "Are you cold?"

"No, but I had an upsetting thought that I'd rather not say anything about in front of the little one."

Kian nodded. "I get what you mean. When you feel up to it, call your father and ask him if he's going on any hunting trips in the near future. You can tell him that you would like to stay in the cabin for a few days."

She chuckled. "He will know that for the lie it is. I hate hunting, and I have never gone there with him. It's a guys' place. He and his buddies go there and get drunk."

"Well, find a way to get it out of him. It will make our lives easier if we can catch him there instead of showing up at his home and having to deal with your stepmother as well. In the meantime, I would like William to examine that jewelry box and those tarot cards."

"I'll get them to him," Jasmine promised.

"Now that this is settled," Annani said, "who would like dessert? Ogidu has prepared something special."

Allegra perked up at the mention of dessert, abandoning her mission to feed everyone at the table. "Waffle!" she declared enthusiastically. "Sweet!"

The tension around the table dissolved, and Jasmine let out a breath.

Maybe she would finally find out if her mother had died or was still alive, understand why she had left her those particular items, and if she was still alive, why she'd disappeared without a trace and never tried to contact her again.