Page 104 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

A second finger.

"Do not overthink it. Instinct will take over, and the venom will do the rest. It will take her over the edge and keep her there for a while, so don't get scared that something is wrong with her or that you damaged her. It's called the venom trip, and females love it. Don't try to wake her up because she will be mad at you if you cut her trip short."

A third.

"Your body knows what to do. Five thousand years of sleep did not take that from you. You probably would have been fine without the educational material. When you stop overthinking it, the rest will follow." He picked up the wood. "That is all. Everything else is in there."

36

ANNANI

It had been more than two hours since Khiann had gone to see his men, and Annani was starting to worry.

What if he had fallen off his chair?

What if last night had been too much for him and he did not want to come home? He had looked tense this morning, which was why she was glad he had gone out of the house. Her Khiann did not appreciate being cooped up, and that had not changed.

Still, two hours was a long time, and Ogidu was serving lunch.

She pulled out her phone and called him.

When he did not respond immediately, a knot formed in her stomach, and the scenarios she had imagined replayed in her mind like a fast-forwarded recording.

Then the ringing stopped, and as she heard his hesitant greeting, Annani let out a breath.

"Sa-mu. Where are you? Ogidu is about to serve lunch."

"I am at Esag's." A pause, and a faint hollow quality to his voice, as if he were speaking from inside a box. "We are having beers and snacks while he is teaching me to whittle. Go ahead and have lunch without me."

"Whittle?"

Since when was Khiann interested in things like that? He had never been artistically inclined.

"He says it is good for the hands and for the soul. It is relaxing." Another pause. "I may stay a while. I hope that is all right with you."

He sounded distracted, and she wondered whether she had interrupted something. A conversation between old friends, perhaps, the kind men had away from their mates. Besides, if carving figurines relaxed him, she was all for it. He was too stressed and anxious, and it was impeding his recovery.

"You can stay with Esag and whittle to your heart's content. My daughters are on their way for a wedding-planning session. As soon as I told Amanda the good news, she said she was dropping everything, cutting her workday short, and that she and Syssi were coming over. She said she was too excited to do anything productive anyway. They will be here within the hour and will probably stay until evening, so do not whittle for too long. You might have opinions about how you want the celebration to look."

"My one decision was to choose you again. I trust you to decide on everything else and make it wonderful. All I ask is that you make it different from our first wedding. I want us to have a fresh start, with a new tradition and a new memory that we can both hold."

He was right. If she recreated their previous wedding, the two would blur together over time in her mind. This wedding should be so drastically different from the first that it would form a distinct memory.

"Then this is what you will have," she said. "I will make it as different from our first wedding as possible. The only thing that will stay the same will be you and me at the altar."

Come to think of it, she needed someone to preside over the wedding. Toven was a good choice. She needed to call him.

"Enjoy the planning, sa-mu," Khiann said.

"Be careful with the knife, especially since you are drinking beer."

He laughed. "I am a god, Annani. Even if I accidentally cut off a finger, I will just grow it back."

As the gruesome image flashed in her mind, Annani shivered. "Do not dare. I need you whole at the altar. Even a god needs more than three weeks to regrow a finger."

"I will be careful," he promised. "I will be home for dinner."

She put the phone down and walked into the kitchen to find her Odus.