Dark Island: Rescue (The Children Of The Gods #101)

Chapter 1 Tula

TULA

"It's over then." Letting out a strangled sound, Tula crumpled onto the floor. "All of this, all the planning, the risk, the hope, it's all for nothing."

She couldn't stop the tears. They kept coming in waves that left her breathless, or maybe it wasn't the tears that robbed her of air but the crushing weight of failure.

It constricted her chest, making it feel too tight for her lungs.

She pressed both hands against her face, trying to muffle the sounds, but another sob escaped anyway.

Tony dropped to his knees beside her and wrapped his arms around her, but there was nothing he could say or do to console her.

Tula felt hopeless, desolate, the sound of her grief echoing off the walls.

Areana joined Tony, kneeling beside Tula, and motioned for him to step back. She took her into her arms, cradling her like a child.

"Hush," the goddess said, stroking Tula's hair. "All hope is not lost. You know that there is another way." There were unshed tears in Areana's eyes. "I'll get you off this island." She turned to look at the others. "All of you."

Tula wiped her tears with the back of her hand. "Is that even possible?"

Areana shrugged. "If it was done with one, I don't see why it couldn't be done with four." She swept her gaze over them again. "The four of you need to return to your duties and pretend that this has never happened." She shifted her eyes back to Tula. "You should have trusted me."

Tula lowered her head. "Forgive me. I didn't think I was worthy. I'm a nobody. I'm a glorified maid."

"Oh, Tula." A tear slid down Areana's cheek.

"Don't you know that you are like a daughter to me?

I love you, and I will be inconsolable when you leave, but I will always put your well-being and happiness before mine.

" She rocked Tula in her arms as if she were indeed her child.

"But you can't allow yourself to get so deeply emotional, so distressed. It's not good for the baby."

Areana was such an angel, and she believed in the innate good in others, including her terrible mate. However, she was naive in thinking that the clan would mobilize its forces and risk confrontation with the Brotherhood in order to rescue a former servant girl and her three companions.

The realization, combined with the goddess's empathy and kindness, undid the little control Tula had managed to muster. The sobbing intensified, rocking her entire body. "I can't help it. I'd rather die than let them take him from me."

"They are not going to." Areana hooked a finger under Tula's chin. "I promise you that your child is not going to be born on this island."

The goddess was wrong. The only way the clan would come to save Tula and the others was if Areana told her sister that she was ready to leave Navuh and asked to be rescued.

Annani would do that for her. But that wasn't going to happen.

Areana would never leave Navuh, not to help Tula escape a fate that Areana herself had endured with grace and dignity, and certainly not to help the other three to get off this island.

"Come." Areana wrapped her cool fingers around Tula's wrist. "Come sit down and calm yourself."

Tula let the goddess lead her to a chaise facing the glass doors to the balcony overlooking the interior courtyard.

"Sit," Areana commanded.

Tula sank onto the chaise. The velvet was soft against her skin, luxurious, but she found no comfort in its welcoming embrace, not while watching Elias close the tunnel's secret door. The rotating bookcase ground into place, sounding like the crypt's closing, locking them in.

Talk about a perfect analogy.

Areana turned toward the men. "Take the plant back to the courtyard. You can tell the guard that I didn't like the fern. Then put everything back where it belongs before anyone notices it's missing."

"Yes, my lady." Tony dipped his head. He looked just as heartbroken as Tula, but he was masking it better. To someone who didn't know him as well as she did, he looked composed. He met Tula's eyes across the room. "Are you okay?"

"No, but I will be." She took a deep breath and then waved him off. "Go. The sooner we put this disaster behind us, the better."

Areana pinned her with a hard look. "This disaster, as you call it, would have been much worse if I hadn't caught you in time. You might not have made it back at all."

Elias grimaced. "I'm glad Tony stopped me from cutting the electrical wires connecting the surveillance cameras in the tunnel.

I wanted to do that after we found the submarine during the power outage and realized that we needed fingerprints to access it, but Tony suggested that we wait.

Dead cameras would have been a dead giveaway. "

"Thank the merciful Fates." Tula didn't bother to hide the bitterness in her tone. The Fates hadn't been merciful. They had been cruel to dangle a possible escape in front of them, an escape that wasn't possible at all.

Tamira flinched, guilt flooding her beautiful face. "I'm sorry for giving you false hope. I'm sorry it didn't work out."

"It's not your fault," Tula sighed. "The escape plan was stupid and doomed from the start. We were idiots for even trying."

"Tula—" Tamira started.

"Just go." Tula slumped down on the chaise, resting her head on the soft velvet pillow. "Go back to the library and make up an excuse for why I'm absent."

"You should hurry back before you're missed," Areana said, walking over to Tamira and placing a hand on her shoulder. "You can tell the others that Tula isn't doing well emotionally, and that I'm taking care of her. We will join you at the library when she's feeling better."

Tamira nodded, cast one more glance at Tula, and followed the men out of Areana's bedroom.

Once they were alone in the presidential suite, the silence felt suffocating.

Tula closed her eyes. They had been so close. For one brief, shining moment, she'd believed they might actually succeed. That she might escape this place, might save her child from the fate that awaited him.

Now that hope lay in ashes, and she felt hollowed out, empty except for the growing life inside her that would be stolen away in a few months.

"Why didn't you come to me?" Areana sat on the chaise beside Tula.

Not touching, but close enough that Tula could feel the coolness that always seemed to emanate from the goddess.

"When you discovered you were pregnant and were desperate to avert the fate that awaited you and your child.

Why didn't you come to me then? And I don't want to hear any nonsense about you not being worthy of the clan's help. "

Areana might think that Annani would do that for Tula, but Tula knew better.

Carol, who'd infiltrated the island and risked everything to try to rescue Areana, had offered Tula a chance at freedom, but Tula had refused to leave the goddess who had become her mother, her sister, and her best friend all wrapped in one.

That rescue attempt had been incredibly dangerous, and it had taken months of planning. Carol and her team would not do that again.

"The clan won't come for me," Tula said flatly.

"Why wouldn't they?"

"Why should they?" The frustration, the fear, the desperate hopelessness came pouring out.

"Carol was sent to rescue you. The clan mobilized its resources to save Annani's sister.

They didn't even suspect that I was here, and yet Carol offered to take me.

I refused because I didn't want to leave you.

I couldn't." She put a hand over her belly.

"If not for the baby, I would not do it now either. "

Areana's arms came around her, pulling her close. Tula resisted for a moment, then gave in, burying her face against Areana's shoulder and letting the tears flow freely.

"You are distraught and not thinking straight.

" Areana stroked Tula's hair in a gesture that was so maternal it made Tula's chest constrict again.

"Wonder is your sister. And Wonder is Annani's best friend.

If Annani won't do it for me, she will do it for Wonder, and what Annani says, the clan does. "

Tula pulled back, wiping the tears that had accumulated under her eyes with her thumbs. "You said yourself that Wonder and Annani are not all that close anymore. They were childhood friends, but that doesn't mean that Annani feels obligated to Wonder."

"Annani will do it because it's the right thing to do." Areana's blue eyes were intense, compelling. "Do you truly think my sister would refuse my request?"

The truth was that Annani owed Areana a debt so great that she could never repay it.

Areana had volunteered to take Annani's place as Mortdh's bride, enabling Annani's marriage to Khiann and probably saving her life.

Regrettably, though, it had led to Khiann's murder at the hands of Mortdh, so maybe Annani was not as grateful to her sister as she should be.

Mortdh had died along with all the gods he'd killed, so Areana mated Navuh instead and, against all odds, she'd gotten her happy ending.

No one could understand how and why the Fates had chosen to join those two.

Navuh hadn't sacrificed for others or done good deeds that justified the boon of an incredible mate, a goddess no less, and Areana hadn't done anything bad enough to deserve such a rotten one.

Not that Areana thought of it that way. She loved Navuh, and to her, he was everything.

Annani had lost her mate while Areana had been rewarded for her sacrifice with a truelove that Tula wouldn't have wished on her worst enemy. However, Areana seemed content, while Annani was still mourning her murdered husband.

It was possible that there was some resentment toward Areana on Annani's part.

Would she refuse her sister because of that, though?