1. Kian

1

KIAN

K ian surveyed the unusual group of people he'd assembled in his office and wondered if he was overdoing it. After all, the royal twins were little more than emaciated corpses and were in no state to offer resistance or cause any trouble.

Still, after all the warnings about how powerful and dangerous the twins were, Kian wasn't taking any chances. If the Eternal King feared them, he must have a good reason for it.

Or maybe not.

The king might have been paranoid, which was very likely given the lengths he was willing to go to, to keep his throne. It could also be that the paranoia was genetic, and if so, Kian might have inherited the trait from his great-grandfather.

The thought was so amusing in a macabre way that a soft chuckle escaped Kian's throat.

"What's so funny?" Bridget asked.

"The role genes play in shaping who we are." He waved a dismissive hand. "Don't mind me. It's not important."

The doctor leaned back in her chair. "We have nothing better to do while we wait for William to arrive and Anandur to return with the coffees and pastries, so you might as well tell me."

Kian let out a sigh. "I thought I might have inherited my paranoia from the Eternal King. I wouldn't have minded inheriting his brilliance, his charm, and his leadership skills, but the flip side of that is megalomania and disregard for the sanctity of life, and I'm grateful that I didn't inherit those traits."

Bridget's eyes softened. "You are an excellent leader, Kian. We all tease you about your paranoia, but the truth is that we are glad you are so diligent about protecting us."

He dipped his head. "Thank you."

She smiled. "That being said, I don't think we all need to wear compulsion-filtering earpieces on day one. The twins will not wake up from stasis and immediately try to compel everyone to obey them."

"They might."

That was why they were waiting for William to bring more devices for those who still didn't have them and needed instructions. That included Bridget, Merlin, and Gertrude, the medical team tasked with reviving the twins from stasis.

Jade had her pair, but the four hybrids she had chosen to accompany her needed filtering earpieces of their own.

Her task was to provide familiarity and security.

The twins didn't know her personally, but they would find her Kra-ell features familiar and understand her language. Not so with the hybrids, who looked different, and Kian wondered about Jade's choice.

She could have selected some of the older pureblooded males, those who had arrived on the settler ship with her and knew the old customs, but they had been sentenced to community service, so she'd probably decided that taking them out of the village wasn't a smart move. The pureblooded females could have also been a good choice. They knew the Kra-ell customs as well, and some of them were skilled warriors, so they could have provided protection if necessary.

The younger pureblooded Kra-ell who had been born on Earth were not familiar with the Kra-ell traditions, and their mastery of the language was probably only so-so, but the hybrids were no better.

Had she chosen them because she trusted them more or because they were easier to control?

Or maybe…

When the answer suddenly occurred to him, Kian realized Jade's choice was brilliant. The hybrid Kra-ell were half human, and therefore resembled how the twins probably looked. Showing the twins people who were hybrids like them and who were not reviled by their pureblooded companions was an excellent and expeditious way to assure the twins that they were safe and welcome.

Still, her brilliant choice might miss the mark simply because the intended beneficiaries would not be aware enough to realize what they were seeing.

It would take weeks or even months for the twins' bodies to regenerate to full strength, and their minds might take even longer to recuperate.

There was also the issue of the dead Kra-ell, who needed proper funeral ceremonies, but that wouldn't happen immediately upon their arrival either. Jade would have to return and bring along purebloods who knew the Kra-ell prayers to send the souls of their dead to the fields of the brave, or whatever they called their afterlife.

"I'm a little worried," Merlin said. "Hildegard is an experienced nurse, but I'm uncomfortable leaving her alone in charge of the village clinic." He turned to Bridget. "One of us should stay behind, and the other should take both nurses to the keep."

Bridget regarded him with a smile. "The only ones who might need our help are the humans, and I don't expect any emergencies that Hildegard can't triage in our short absence."

Merlin shook his head. "The village is isolated, and if, Fates forbid, anything serious happens, it might take us over an hour to get back here."

"Relax." Bridget put a hand on his shoulder. "Nothing will happen while we are gone for a couple of hours."

"It's going to take much longer than that," Merlin grumbled. "It's not like we're going to throw some fresh water on the twins and leave. If it was that easy, Anandur could do it by himself. We must monitor them until they stabilize and intervene if they become distressed."

Bridget nodded. "Just in case, we should revive them one at a time."

"I agree a hundred percent." Merlin leaned back in his chair. "And you can handle it on your own, so I can stay here in case any humans need medical attention."

It seemed to Kian that Merlin didn't want to leave the village for some reason, or maybe he had a problem with reviving people from stasis, or maybe his problem was just with reviving the royal twins. Whatever his issue was, he wasn't wriggling out of it.

Kian leaned forward and squared his gaze at Merlin. "I need you there. You are our expert on tracker removal after performing dozens of these procedures on the Kra-ell. There is every reason to suspect that the twins have trackers implanted in their bodies, and we cannot risk them being activated when the twins are revived. It is critical to remove them while their bodies are still at minimal functioning, so the trackers don't go online and alert the Eternal King. It is crucial to hide their survival from him."

For a second or so, Merlin looked like he was searching for a rebuttal, but then he nodded his agreement.

Gertrude frowned. "Will we be able to move them into the scanner, though? I thought their condition was so bad that Julian didn't want to even remove them from the pods before they were brought to the clinic."

Kian nodded. "William rigged up a hand scanner that we hope will be sensitive enough to find the trackers while the twins remain in their stasis chambers. He will explain when he gets here."