Fyr straightened. "I know."
"What are you doing?" Kai asked from behind Fyr.
"Just saying my goodbyes," Fyr responded, his expression unchanging as he rested his hands on the bed next to Elena.
"I thought I trained that sort of sentimentality out of you."
Something was slipped into Elena's hand as Fyr faced the Sye. "You did. Just consider this a passing experiment."
Elena felt the oblong shape he'd given her. Holy Tsavitee shit balls. It was a knife. Her knife. The bone pick she'd dropped on the walkway when she'd collapsed.
She stared at the side of his face with confusion. What could have possessed him to give her this?
"Oh look, my dear. We have uninvited guests."
Elena's heart jumped into overdrive at that silken tone, the menace flooding the air. She wasn't the only one to sense the shift. Fyr and Kai folded into deep bows, their gazes directed at the ground as if they were too afraid to look upon the face of the being who had just spoken.
The sound of movement came as the creature that reminded Elena of a golden dart frog glided into view, Elise at his side.
Her egg donor came to an abrupt stop, horror on her face at the sight of Elena in the torture device. A mask slammed down to hide her expression almost immediately.
A second later, Elise resumed walking as if nothing had happened.
The other's head tilted, the movement oddly alien looking as he spotted Elena on the bed. "What do we have here?"
Elena shook under the heavy weight of his gaze. Every sense in her body trying to retreat from the utter feeling of wrongness. As if there was something tainted in him that would corrupt her if she let it get too close.
This was bad. So bad. The kind of bad she didn't need Uncle Jin's sidebars to reinforce.
"A present, my exalted one," Kai declared.
There was fascination in the Osiri's gaze as he drew closer.
"This girl arrived in my crèche a few weeks ago. The one who brought her to me claimed she'd been transferred under your orders. It wasn't long before I noticed something wrong with her," Kai said.
"Yes, I can see that." The Osiri’s golden colored gaze trailed down Elena's body. "Tuann—and something else. Not much power but there is something interesting about her."
Elena quelled her desire to struggle as the Osiri drifted closer.
Patience, she told herself. As Auntie always said, your moment will come. Be ready for it.
"That's not all," Kai offered. "She's connected to Elise. I saw the two speaking a few nights ago."
Delight infused the Osiri's features when it looked at Elena’s egg donor. "Oh, my dear, you've been keeping secrets from me again."
Elise's face was blank. Her eyes that of a dead woman.
In Elise's mind, Elena was already lost, she realized with a sinking heart. There'd be no help coming from that direction.
Guess it was a good thing Elena had hardened herself against having expectations of the other. She'd sure be disappointed right now if she hadn't.
And if there was still a tiny kernel of hurt inside her because of it, no one needed to know that except Elena.
"Tell me pet—who is this child to you?"
The smile that touched Elise's face was bittersweet as she finally looked down at Elena. "I'd hoped for a happy ending, you know. Despite everything, I thought that one day I’d be able to go back to the way things were. I should have known a person like me would never be that lucky."
Elena's eyes widened as she caught her mother giving her the sign of love and devotion.
