Dark Destiny: A New Thread in the Tapestry (The Children Of The Gods #111)

1. Annani

ANNANI

Khiann's eyes were open.

Annani did not move, did not breathe, and held herself so perfectly still that not a single fold of her gown stirred, lest the disturbance undo it, lest the world notice its error and close those eyes again.

The Fates had given her his eyes first.

They were blue, the exact shade she had carried in her memories for five thousand years, the same blue she had described to Tim when he drew Khiann's portrait, though he could never get it quite right.

Khiann's eyes had been seared into her memory and had never faded.

Nothing of his eyes had been lost.

Not the color, not the shape, not the way they sat wide and level. But the rest of him had not come back yet. His hair was still only a shadow on his scalp, his cheeks were still too hollow, and his skin was too pale for a male who had spent most of his life in the sun.

The Khiann she had carried in her memory had been broad and radiant, impossible to miss in a crowd, with hair that refused to stay put and always fell over his eyes, but her imagination filled in the missing details, and she saw him as he had been, not as he was now.

He was looking at her.

His gaze moved over her face, and there was wonder and intelligence in it, even warmth.

It was not the vacant stare of an empty vessel.

Khiann was in there, which was what mattered most. He was studying her, taking her in with an intensity in his gaze that would have left her breathless at seventeen.

It left her breathless now, even though there was not a flicker of recognition in his eyes.

She counted four heartbeats, then eight, and then stopped counting as she watched his face for the change she had imagined countless times, the widening, the softening, the moment he remembered her name and everything lost would come rushing back.

It did not.

He regarded her with curiosity but no history.

Annani had made her bargain, Khiann's life for his memories of her, and the Fates had taken her at her word, delivering exactly what she had asked for. She had offered it wholeheartedly, meaning every word, yet secretly she had hoped for mercy.

Did she not deserve it?

She had spent five thousand years carrying the light of a lost civilization across a dark world, building a clan from nothing but her own body and spirit.

Annani had tirelessly promoted the gods' agenda, generation after generation, in a world that fought her at every turn. Did she not deserve a small mercy, a single glance from her mate in which he looked at her and knew her?

Apparently not.

The Fates had given her precisely what she had asked for and nothing more. She had offered Khiann's memories of her in exchange for his return, whole in body and mind, and that was what she had gotten.

No more, no less.

Annani did not regret making the bargain, but she grieved what she had lost, and with that grief came tears. To shed them, though, would offend the Fates. They had done their part and deserved her gratitude, not her sorrow.

Annani straightened her spine and commanded the tears to retreat.

Grief and joy mixed together made a strange and potent elixir, sweet and bitter at once.

Annani chose to focus on the sweetness.

Khiann was back, whole in body and mind.

That was all that mattered, and it was a reason to rejoice.

He was awake, alert, and looking at her with the kind of appreciation a male showed a beautiful goddess, which was the best sign she could hope for that he was recovering, and that everything lost could be rebuilt.

Behind her, Alena sniffled, reminding Annani that she was not alone with Khiann in the ward. Still, she did not turn to look at her daughter because that would demand her shifting her gaze away from those vivid blue eyes she had waited five millennia to behold.

Annani could not look away no matter what else happened around her.

She could imagine Alena, though, standing behind her chair with a hand pressed over her mouth, tears running down her porcelain cheeks. Happy, emotional tears of a daughter who knew what this male meant to her mother and how long she had been waiting for this day.

The medical staff was there as well, but all three of them had gone deathly quiet, as if they feared a loud breath would intrude on their Clan Mother's reunion with her truelove mate.

Five thousand years had passed since the last time she saw those blue eyes looking at her, and for most of that time she had believed she would only see them again once she joined Khiann on the other side of the veil.

Even after she had started to suspect that the witnesses who had testified to seeing his murder had lied, she still had not dared to hope that she would ever find him.

The Fates had been merciful to her. She had no right to ask them for more.

Khiann's lips parted, and as his jaw started working, Annani leaned in so quickly to catch what he was trying to say that her hair swung forward, fanning over his blanket.

What emerged from his throat was a breath shaped like a word, air pushed through vocal cords that had not made a sound in five thousand years.

He tried again, the effort showing in his whole face, his brows drawing together, his chin tightening, but still nothing came out. She saw fear flood his eyes.

His breathing quickened, and the monitor beside the bed changed its rhythm, yet Annani did not turn her head to look for the physician.

Bridget came around to the other side of the bed. "That's completely normal. Nothing is wrong with you. Your body has been asleep for a very long time, and your voice will take time to return, but I promise it will."

He did not understand a word of it because she had said it in English, and the language did not even exist in the world that Khiann remembered. But he understood the tone, because his eyes shifted to Bridget's face and stayed there for a moment.

Annani was still clasping his hand between hers, and she leaned close to his face until his focus returned to her.

She debated translating Bridget's words but decided they would be too much for him to process in the first minutes after waking. She opted for something much more basic.

"You are safe, my love," she said in the old tongue, slowly, giving each word its full weight.

His eyes came back to her and fastened on her mouth with such intensity that her breath caught.

"You are among friends. Nothing here will hurt you."

He watched her speak, but he did not seem to comprehend the words, even though they were simple, basic, something a small child should have understood.

Then his Adam's apple started bobbing, and he seemed desperate to say something, so perhaps he had understood them after all, just not why she had called him her love.

One day he would, even if he never regained his memories, because she was going to tell him everything and fill his head with hers.

"Do you remember me?" Annani asked just in case she had been wrong.

His eyes searched hers, and nothing moved behind them.

"I did not think so." She patted his hand.

"That is all right. My name is Annani, daughter of Ahn and Nai.

I have been telling you stories while you slept.

" She held his gaze. "I hope you heard at least some of them, but if you did not, I will tell them again.

Your name is Khiann, and you are the son of Yaeni and Navohn.

I am your truelove mate, and I have been waiting for you for five thousand years. "

His mouth worked again. His throat moved. He was trying so hard to say something that the muscles stood out in his neck, but nothing came. This time, the frustration on his face was so raw that it hurt to look at.

Then his fingers tightened around her hand.

It was barely anything. A fraction of a grip, a pressure so slight it brought tears to her eyes because that was the whole of his strength, and he had spent it all trying to communicate with her.

Annani forced the tears back behind her eyelids.

One day soon, he would squeeze her hand properly.

Everything from this moment forward would only improve, and he was not going to regress or slip back under because she would not let him.

She would sit by his side, hold his hand, and talk to him until he was strong enough to tell her she was talking too much and that he needed some peace and quiet.

Not that such a thing would ever happen.

During their short life together, Khiann had never spoken such words to her.

He had loved the sound of her voice and listened to everything she said.

That did not mean he had agreed with everything, though.

Perhaps if he had, he would not have embarked on that journey east, and history would have taken a different course.

Annani shook her head. She was not going to indulge in what-ifs. It was a futile endeavor.

"Do not try to speak, my love," she said softly.

"You are safe, and you are getting stronger by the hour.

Your voice will return the same way your body did.

Just be patient for a little longer." She smiled at him.

"We have all the time in the world now, and I am not going to let you out of my sight. "

His eyes stayed fixed on her face. The fear slowly ebbed, and something calmer settled in its place.

"Mother," Alena said from behind her. "Kian will be here in a few minutes."

"Good."

"I should call Amanda. And Syssi. And Sari, but Sari's asleep. It's the middle of the night there. Should I wake her? Toven will want to know. And Esag, Mother. Esag has to be told."

"Not yet."

"Not Esag? He is Khiann's best friend…"

"No." Annani finally turned to look at her daughter's radiant, tear-stained face. "Kian may come. Amanda and Syssi may come when they return from the university, but that is all for today. Esag and Toven can come some other time."

Alena's brows drew together. "But Esag is his oldest friend."

She felt bad about not including Esag in the first wave of visitors, but her children came first, and Syssi was like a daughter to her.

"Tomorrow." Annani reached for her daughter's hand and gave it a light squeeze.

"Look at him, Alena. He cannot speak. He cannot lift his head.

He does not know where he is, what has happened to him, or who any of us are.

If I let the clan through that door, they will come ready to pour out their love on him because they love me, but every one of them will be a stranger standing over a confused and disoriented male. "

"The Clan Mother is right," Bridget said.

"This is an intensive care ward, not a reception hall.

We made an exception for the two of you for obvious reasons, and those same reasons extend to Kian, Amanda, and Syssi, but that's where I'm drawing the line.

" She rested a hand on her belly. "I'm always strict about visitors, and now more than ever. "

"Fine." Alena wiped her face with the heel of her hand. "But it's impossible to contain news like this. Someone is going to leak it, and then you will have a horde knocking on the clinic door."

"Then we will lock the ward's door and tell them to celebrate in the café," Annani said.

Alena chuckled. "I can just picture Bridget blocking the doors with her belly."

"You better believe it," Bridget said. "Can I examine the patient now?"

Annani nodded, though she was loath to relinquish Khiann to the physician's care.

As Bridget began the exam, Alena crouched beside Annani's chair. "Can I suggest something, Mother?"

"You are going to do so regardless of what I say, so go ahead."

"You just told Khiann that you're his truelove mate and called him your love twice."

Had it been only twice? Annani had a feeling she had said that more than two times.

"What of it?"

"He opened his eyes six minutes ago."

"That is true."

Alena smiled. "He doesn't know his own name, Mother.

He can't speak. He's overwhelmed by all this technology and the language he doesn't understand.

He has no idea what year it is, or how long he has been asleep.

Do you think he can comprehend what a truelove mate means?

" She tilted her head toward the bed. "Look at him.

He has no idea what is happening to him.

You need to give him time and start with the basics. "

Annani looked.

Khiann was watching them both, even though he should have been focused on Bridget and the reflexes she was checking. His gaze flicked from one face to the other, trying to follow a conversation he could not understand.

Alena was right. There was no comprehension in his expression. Only bewilderment, the alert confusion of a person surrounded by people speaking a language he did not know.

"I do not play games, Alena. I never have. Khiann is my truelove mate, and I love him. I want him to know that, even if he cannot remember any of it." She shook her head. "I have always despised court intrigue and all the double talk I was forced to endure."

"I know."

“When I decided I wanted Khiann, I did not send a discreet inquiry through an intermediary, as I was supposed to. I slipped out of the palace disguised as a commoner, walked across half the city with only Gulan at my side, and showed up at his house. I told him I wanted him to court me.” She lifted her chin.

“He tried to argue, but I overruled him. A direct approach has always served me well.”

Alena's smile wobbled. "I love that story, and you should absolutely tell him that once he gets oriented." She laid her hand over Annani's. "Just not in the first ten minutes while he's still figuring out that he has a body."

"You think I confused him?"

"I don't think he could absorb a word of it.

He heard your voice and your kindness, and that's all that got through.

" Alena rose and rested her hands on Annani's shoulders.

"And honestly, Mother, that was the only part that mattered anyway.

You have all the time in the world to tell him who he is to you and who you are to him. "