32. Jasmine

When Aru mentioned the prospect of making it back to the hotel for the night, Jasmine perked up. She couldn"t hear most of what he talked about with Julian and Edgar, but when he was done and turned to her, he looked less worried, which was a good sign.

"As soon as you are ready, we will head toward the flat shelf that"s halfway down the slope. Edgar says he can land the chopper there to pick us up, and he can be here well before it"s too dark to fly around these mountains. Julian will wait for us at the hotel as there isn"t enough room in the helicopter, and if he clears you to continue, we will tackle the base tomorrow,"

Jasmine was relieved they were returning to the hotel, but she didn"t like the idea of going through the base.

"The stick is pointing in that direction, but it doesn"t mean that the pod is located in that base," she said. "It could be somewhere much farther away."

"I"m aware of that." Aru picked up two of the backpacks. "But we must go through it in case it is there." He chuckled. "The way things are going, I wouldn"t be surprised if the pod is right under that base."

That wasn"t likely given Syssi"s vision, but then visions were not a literal representation of things. They were more like hints, and Aru might be right.

"Okay." Negal crouched in front of Jasmine. "Hop on."

"Thank you."

It was beyond awkward to ride on the back of a god, and not because he was an alien. Negal was with Margo, and it felt way too intimate to have her arms wrapped around his neck, her legs around his torso, and her breasts smushed against his back.

Soon, though, the awkwardness became the least of her troubles.

A sharp pain shot through her ankle with every step Negal took, but she gritted her teeth, determined not to complain.

The descent of the mountain was treacherous, with loose rocks and steep inclines that made every movement a challenge, but not so for the gods, who navigated the terrain as if they were experienced mountain climbers.

More annoying was the realization that they weren"t even tired. If not for her injury, they could have kept going, probably even after the sun went down. With their enhanced vision, they could easily trek by moonlight and starlight.

Today, though, their objective was just to get to where Edgar could land. That meant rushing down the slope. It seemed a daunting challenge to her, which was made even more urgent by Aru"s determination to make it in time for his mysterious phone call at precisely four o"clock.

Why couldn"t he just make the call during the trek? They all had satellite phones that were supposed to work everywhere.

Or he could just call for a break.

Jasmine would love to rest her throbbing ankle, even if it was for a few minutes, and if Aru needed privacy for his phone call, he could walk far enough away from them so that he wasn"t in their earshot.

Was it because the call would last so long that it would be dark by the time he was done, and a lift-off to the hotel would be impossible? That did not seem likely, given there was plenty of time until the sun would set over the tall mountain range surrounding them.

He must have his reasons; besides, it wasn"t her place to make suggestions.

She had one job on this mission: to point them in the direction of the pod. The problem was that she wasn"t convinced of any real magic in her scrying.

The concept of psychosomatic responses made her question the reliability of her intuition. What if her mind was playing tricks on her? Convincing her hand to move in a certain direction and point to a path that might not be real?

When they returned to the hotel, she would consult the tarot cards once more to confirm that her prince was indeed waiting for her to find him and wake him with a kiss.

The thought brought a smile to her face, and she had to stifle a chuckle at its absurdity. Her prince, the one she was destined to save, was an alien from the planet of the gods, a member of a race called Kra-ell, who looked markedly different from the humanoid immortals and gods she had come to know.

Ella had told her a little about the Kra-ell, describing them as very tall and slender, with narrow waists and enormous eyes. Given that description, Jasmine doubted that the alien prince was her destined one, and it wasn"t just about his alien appearance.

According to Ella, the royal twins had been young when they boarded the settler ship, but they had spent nearly seven thousand years in stasis, their bodies and minds suspended in a state of eternal youth.

Jasmine wondered what it would be like for them to wake up and find themselves in a world so different from the one they had left behind and the one they had expected to arrive at.

Were they aware of the passage of time during their stasis?

Did they retain any awareness?

Or would it feel to them like no time had passed at all, as if they had simply closed their eyes one moment and opened them the next?

As the gods trudged down the side of the mountain, these questions swirled through Jasmine"s mind, helping to distract her from her throbbing ankle.

It was such a tremendous relief to see the helicopter approaching and landing, and as Negal increased his speed to get to the craft, Jasmine didn"t even mind the pain that flared in response to the additional jolting.

Edgar waited for them with the motor running and the blades spinning, ready to take off as soon as they got inside. The wind whipped at her hair and clothes as Negal ducked beneath the whirring blades and deposited her on the seat next to Edgar.

Buckling her in, Edgar regarded her with concern in his eyes. "I would have brought Julian with me," he said, his voice raised to be heard over the engine"s roar, "but then I wouldn"t have had room for everyone in the chopper. He"s waiting for you back at the hotel."

"It"s just a sprained ankle. I"ll live." Jasmine tried to smile reassuringly.

Edgar didn"t look convinced, but he nodded, his jaw tight as he turned his attention back to the controls.

She leaned back in her seat, closed her eyes, and tried to block out the pain radiating up her leg. She had taken another dose of painkillers less than an hour ago, so taking more wasn"t advisable. She had to push through it until the doctor tended to her.

As the helicopter lifted off, the ground falling away beneath them, Jasmine let the exhaustion wash over her and dozed off.