Chapter 22
It was morning and Bree and Aradella were sitting in Qip’s garden. They were on benches facing each other. What they’d been
through the day before had changed them, but they didn’t know how to begin to repair a lifetime of damage.
Aradella looked at her cousin. “You miss Tam, don’t you? I know how it feels to love someone unattainable.”
Bree said sadly, “It must have hurt when you didn’t get Tanek.”
Aradella gasped. “I didn’t want him!”
“But he’s . . .” By the look on Bree’s face, she couldn’t understand not wanting that beautiful man.
“Remember when I danced with him? That’s when I fell for Mekos, not his father.”
Bree’s smile showed that she was genuinely pleased. “Shay said you were sick with grief at losing Tanek, so you—” She waved
her hand. “Sometimes I think I should never listen to my sister.” She took a breath. “I’m sorry I laughed at you that night. It was just so . . . intoxicating to be
flirted with by a prince—even if he was stupid. And mean.” She gave Aradella a heartfelt look. “I’m glad you didn’t marry
him. He is a despicable person. My father can’t stand him! He—”
She broke off because they heard a sound they’d heard before.
“It’s that big flying machine,” Aradella said, then she and Bree began running back to the house.
It was Kaley who had rushed everyone to go to the island of Abicis. As a female, she knew the depth of anger that could be
between women. The men tended to dismiss it, even laugh at it, but Kaley knew it could be serious–especially if what she thought
might be true about Bree.
Kaley wanted to tell Sojee about the nakedness of his twin daughters, as she was haunted by the muscular physique of his youngest.
But she doubted that her grandfather would confide in her about it. Family secrets can be very annoying, she thought.
When she saw Sojee lift a beam that would probably take four men to move, she had an idea of how to open the way. “Bone density,”
she said to him as though she was just making conversation. “Too bad you didn’t have a son. He might have inherited your strength.”
Sojee wiped sweat off his forehead. “Bree got a good dose of it.” The instant he said it, he looked shocked, then he glared
at his granddaughter. “Did you just trick me into telling you that?”
She smiled at him. “I have to go. Tanek needs me.” She quickly ran though the rubble of the old Homestead.
So yes, Kaley had a reason to get the men into the chopper to go to what sounded like a very weird island. As opposed to the others? she thought.
Zeon gave Frank directions to a landing place that he said belonged to a man named Qip.
“What powers does he have?” Kaley asked.
“The best one of all,” Zeon replied. “The ability to survive!”
Kaley asked for details, but Zeon wouldn’t tell her more. But then, his mind was elsewhere. His daughter-in-law was going
into labor and Tam was to return.
“Baby lust!” Kaley said. “Something like that could set off the girls.”
The three men gave her identical looks that said she was being overly dramatic, getting herself into a frenzy for no reason,
etc. Kaley grit her teeth. “Different planet, same men.”
Minutes later, they were in the helicopter and heading toward Abicis.
Kaley was in the front by her grandfather, with Tanek in the back, headphones in place. It seemed to take forever before they
saw the island, but it was actually a short time. “More volcanos,” she said as she looked down.
“Wonder where the islands with the active ones are?” Frank asked. He tipped the chopper to the side, circled, and went west.
“There!” Tanek yelled.
Frank and Kaley looked where he was pointing. In an open field, looking up at them, were three people. Well, two anyway. Mekos
was standing next to a short man, and the third one was made of metal. The sun was glinting off of him. Or it. Do metal people have pronouns? Kaley wondered.
They stepped back into the tree line as Frank landed the chopper.
Tanek didn’t wait for the engine to be cut off before he got out.
Kaley put her hand on her grandfather’s arm, meaning for him to watch.
The feet of Tanek and his son didn’t touch the ground as they hugged and soared. They went higher than the first time she’d
seen them do that. Tanek had said that if Mekos found love and lost his virginity, he’d soar higher.
Frank leaned forward to look up through the clear roof. “We don’t need this bird when we have those two.”
Kaley laughed. Tanek and Mekos went quite high. When they began the descent, she got out of the chopper and was waiting when the two of them landed. “We must find the girls,” she said urgently. “We have to—”
The sound of laughter made them look toward the garden. Aradella and Bree were walking side by side and . . . laughing.
“Doesn’t look like there will be a war,” Tanek said smugly.
Kaley just kept staring. “Something really big had to have happened to cause that and I want to know what it was.”