12. Jasmine

Jasmine"s stomach rumbled in response to the rich aroma of Chinese food that greeted her and Edgar as they returned to the penthouse after their shopping excursion to the Wicca store.

The rest of their team was gathered in the living room, already digging into the boxes on the enormous coffee table.

"Why aren"t you eating in the dining room?" she asked. "Kian will be majorly pissed if you stain his super expensive leather couches and authentic Persian rug."

"How do you know it"s authentic?" Frankie asked.

"I"m part Persian." Jasmine sat down on said rug and crossed her legs. "But just look around you. Does any of this stuff look like it"s not the real thing?"

Frankie glanced at the wall with the huge modern art pieces; then her gaze shifted to the two statues perched on top of pedestals before returning to the rug. "Yeah, you"re right. We need to be careful."

Edgar put the shopping bags behind Jasmine before joining her on the floor. "Did you order enough for us, too?"

"Of course." Margo gave them each a paper plate along with a pair of chopsticks. "So, where did you go? And what did you get?"

Jasmine handed Edgar her plate to fill up. "I found the perfect tool for stripping the bark from my scrying stick," she said, holding up a small, curved blade. "And some oils to anoint it with. Sandalwood for protection and clarity, and a moonstone elixir to open my psychic pathways."

Margo looked like she was choking on a laugh. "I"m sorry. I know that you are dead serious about this stuff. But I just can"t help it." She snorted. "Moonstone elixir?"

It was so annoying to hear people disparage her beliefs without knowing anything about them that Jasmine decided not to mention the candles she"d bought and the large map of Tibet that Edgar had printed for her from a satellite picture.

"What does that even mean?" Margo asked. "How can you make an elixir from a stone?"

Jasmine looked down her nose at Margo. "Moonstone is a gem associated with the moon, and it is supposed to have healing and protective properties. When put in clean water, the vibrational qualities of moonstones are incorporated into the liquid and form the elixir."

Frankie"s brows met in a deep V between her eyes. "So, you are saying it"s a stone dipped in water?"

"More or less." Jasmine took Edgar"s plate, which was piled high with an assortment of dishes from the boxes. "A high-quality moonstone that is genuine and has not been treated with any harmful chemicals is immersed in spring or distilled water to avoid impurities that might affect its quality. The stone needs to sit in the water overnight under moonlight to charge it with its energetic properties." She lifted a piece of chicken with her chopsticks and put it in her mouth.

She had to stifle a moan as the flavors exploded on her tongue.

"Good, right?" Negal asked. "We ordered from this place many times while we were staying here before the cruise."

Jasmine finished chewing. "It"s either the best Chinese food I"ve ever had, or I"m really hungry."

"Both," Edgar said. "All the Guardians order from this place when they are stationed in the keep."

For a few moments, everyone got busy eating, and no one spoke, which was okay with Jasmine. She was hungry, and she wanted a full stomach before starting to work on her scrying stick.

Gabi was the first one to put down her chopsticks. She wiped her mouth with a paper napkin with a red dragon printed on it and turned to Jasmine. "How do you know that the elixir is real and had a moonstone sitting in it under the moonlight? What you bought could be a total fake. Just tap water in a nice bottle."

"It could be," Jasmine admitted. "That"s why shopping for these things in a reputable establishment is so important. Other practitioners highly recommended the store we bought it from."

"What is the moonstone elixir used for?" Gabi asked. "I mean, besides opening psychic pathways?"

She didn"t sound condescending, so Jasmine decided to answer: "It soothes emotional instability and stress, enhances emotional intelligence and intuition, and promotes inspiration. Some say that it can even assist with the menstrual cycle and improve reproductive health."

"Thank the merciful Fates, I don"t get any more of those." Gabi smiled at Margo and Frankie. "That"s one of the perks of becoming immortal."

That didn"t sound like a perk at all. Not if it meant having no kids.

She canted her head. "Does it mean infertility?"

"Almost but not quite." Gabi cast her a sad smile. "Fertility is severely diminished after the transition, but it"s still possible to conceive. We don"t menstruate, so we don"t waste eggs."

Jasmine wasn"t sure she understood how that worked, but she didn"t like how it sounded. Being a mother hadn"t been a priority for her, but she"d always assumed that she would one day marry and have kids. Having the option taken from her was disturbing.

Perhaps she could wait to transition into immortality after having children?

Taking for granted that she had godly genes and could transition was probably a mistake because it wasn"t a sure thing at all, but Jasmine was an optimist at heart, and she believed that she had what it took to become immortal.

Provided she understood things correctly, she didn"t need to become immortal for her kids to have the godly genes. Any children born to her would inherit them from her whether she was still a Dormant or had transitioned already.

Had Margo and Frankie known about the fertility thing before turning immortal?

Glancing at them, she didn"t see surprise or alarm, so she assumed that they had been told, and if they didn"t seem troubled by it, maybe she shouldn"t either. Maybe there was a solution to the low infertility that no one had mentioned yet.

Jasmine wanted to ask, but Aru and Negal were discussing the intricacies of high-altitude trekking. Since she knew nothing about it and couldn"t contribute, she dug into the tasty morsels on her plate and listened to the conversation.

It occurred to her that she wasn"t in the greatest of shape and that she would probably be a burden on the team of immortals. But then she was the witch, the conduit for the divine that would guide them to the alien pod, and without her, all their formidable abilities were worthless.