Page 53 of Dark Witch: Entangled Fates

Kian lifted his hand. "Enough. This is not the time for accusations or recriminations. Aru has risked everything to share this truth, and we should be grateful to him and Aria for providing this channel of communication that wouldn't have been possible otherwise."

Amanda snorted, her eyes flashing with anger. "It would have been better if they hadn't. I don't want our mother to get involved in the biggest uprising in the freaking galaxy. Chances are that she won't survive it, and neither will Earth. Instead of plotting insane coups, we should adopt the same strategy that has helped us survive against the Brotherhood. We need to find a way to hide Earth and its capabilities from the freaking Eternal King."

39

ANNANI

As Amanda's words hung heavy in the air, Annani felt a ripple of unease pass through her assembled family. She could see the conflict playing out across their faces, the struggle between the desire to protect the mother they loved and the sense of duty to do the right thing.

"Amanda has a point." Sari's eyes drifted to meet Annani's. "In the grand scheme of things, we are nothing. We can't even obliterate our enemies at home. To think that we can move the needle against the Eternal King is too ambitious even for you, and frankly, it's delusional. And I mean no offense, Mother. I'm just stating the facts."

"It is not ambition, my child." Annani's heart clenched at the fear in her brave daughter's voice. "I understand your concerns, my darling, and I would be lying if I said I didn't share them. But here are the facts. This is not the clan's fight or even mine. I will have one job in this grand scheme, and it is to become a figurehead the people of Anumati can unite around." She smiled. "I do not intend to lead armies into battle or challenge my grandfather to a duel to the death."

Sari shook her head. "The moment he learns of your existence, it's game over for you and for all of us, including every human on Earth."

Annani swept her gaze over the faces of her children and their mates. "That is a valid point, but I cannot let fear dictate my actions. I cannot hide from the truth of who I am and the responsibility that comes with it."

Orion leaned forward, his brow furrowed. "But is it really your responsibility, Clan Mother? The Eternal King is the ruler of Anumati and its colonies, and he might be a tyrant, but he is out there, and you are here, and until not too long ago, you didn't even know that he existed. Why should you risk your life and ours and the safety of our entire world to overthrow a tyrant on a planet hundreds of light years away?"

Annani sighed. "Because it does not matter if he knows about me or not. Sooner or later, his gaze will turn to Earth, and when it does, he will not hesitate to eliminate this planet we call home if he perceives humans as a threat. We cannot wait and hope that he will one day disappear and that the threat will be gone. There is a reason he calls himself the Eternal King. He has all the time in the galaxy to find us and destroy us. If we do nothing, we are as good as dead."

She turned to Amanda. "Hiding was a good strategy against the Brotherhood, and still is, but it is not an option against the Eternal King. Not in the long run. The only way we can prevent Earth's destruction is to make sure humans never achieve interstellar flight capability. Do you really think we can do that?"

Kian nodded. "Mother is right. We cannot bury our heads in the sand and hope that the storm will pass us by. I've seen enough human leaders adopt that approach and get wiped out. History forgot about them."

"But at what cost?" Alena whispered, her hand coming to rest on the swell of her belly. "Are we really willing to risk everything, to put our children and our future in jeopardy, for a war that is not our own and might never get here? The Eternal King has declared Earth a forbidden planet whose name was erased from Anumatian records. He might have forgotten about us."

Aru cleared his throat. "The fact that he sends a patrol ship every seven hundred years or so indicates that he has not forgotten about Earth. In fact, he probably keeps closer tabs on it than many of the colonies that are in the records."

"It's because of the Kra-ell," Amanda said. "He's afraid of the damn royal twins…" Her eyes widened. "The prince and the princess, the son and daughter of the Kra-ell queen." She looked around the table, a smile forming on her face. "Jasmine is obsessed with finding the prince that her tarot cards keep promising her. She even hooked up with Alberto because the damn cards told her to. What if the Fates are steering her toward the Kra-ell prince?"

Syssi chuckled. "Of all of your harebrained ideas, that is the wackiest. We talked about seeing patterns where there are none. It's nothing more than projecting your wishful thinking onto things and connecting dots that don't connect."

Annani was grateful for the change of subject.

Jasmine's preoccupation with tarot cards and royalty was a much lighter topic of conversation than the threat of the Eternal King and Annani's aspirations to save the home planet of her people and Earth along with it.

Kian shifted and put his hand next to hers on the table. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly as his wife and sisters continued arguing with Amanda about her latest hypothesis.

"Yes, my son." Annani drew herself up, her shoulders squaring and her chin lifting in resolve. "I am the daughter of Ahn, the granddaughter of the Eternal King, and even though I may not have sought this destiny, it has found me, and I will not run from it. I will not hide from the truth of who I am and what I must do."

The Eternal King might be a formidable foe, a tyrant with an iron grip on the galaxy and a heart as cold as the void of space. But Annani was not weak, even though her heart was full of love. Maybe that was why the Fates had chosen her. She was all about love and hope, while her grandfather was all about cruelty and despair.

40

MARGO

Margo stretched out on the couch, feeling more energetic than she had in days. The fatigue and dizziness that had plagued her since the onset of her transition seemed to have vanished overnight, to be replaced by a sense of vitality that had her itching to do something, anything, other than lying around.

So what if she had a little fever and her blood pressure was elevated? She didn't feel it, and if Bridget was allowing her to stay in her cabin instead of hooking her up to the monitoring equipment in the clinic, she wasn't worried about her suddenly losing consciousness either.

The phone call from Kian had also been a major mood boost. She couldn't wait to show Jasmine around the ship. Well, her cabin would have to do for now, but maybe tomorrow she could take her to the Lido deck and they could share a drink.

Regrettably, there was no way Negal was going to let her go down to the staff decks to look for Jasmine, and leaving her alone to go himself was also not going to happen.

Frankie wasn't back yet from lunch, so Margo couldn't ask her to do it. Maybe instead of waiting for Frankie to come back, she could call her and ask her to stop by the staff lounge before returning to their cabin.

When she reached for her phone, Negal frowned. "What are you doing, Nesha? You should be resting."

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