Page 38 of Dark Witch: Entangled Fates

"You could, but I assume it's too late?"

She nodded. "He took her dinner and didn't come back up yet."

"If he returns after we leave, question him about her."

"Yes, sir." Amanda saluted him. "Goodnight, you two, and kiss Allegra for me."

"We will." Syssi pushed to her feet and stopped by Amanda to give her a hug. "Enjoy the rest of the party."

After a round of congratulations and goodnights to the groom and bride and to their families, Kian and Syssi walked out of the dining room.

The music and laughter faded behind them as they entered the elevator, and as soon as the doors closed behind them, Kian pulled Syssi into his arms. "Can I steal a kiss from my wife?"

"Always." Smiling, she lifted on her toes, cupped his cheek, and pressed her lips to his.

Kian leaned into her touch. "I hate all this damn secrecy. It feels wrong to lie to my sisters and keep this from them. They should know." He couldn't say more in the elevator that had a surveillance camera located in a discreet spot.

"I know, love." Her thumb stroked over his cheekbone. "But it's not up to you. It's Aru's call, and I can understand why he's being so paranoid about it." She waited until they stepped out of the elevator on their deck, where the surveillance cameras were off for the next few hours. "If word got out about Aru's sister and her work with the queen, it could spell disaster not just for her but for the queen, the oracle, and the entire resistance."

Nodding, Kian opened the door to their cabin and drew her into his arms. "I love you," he murmured into her hair as he held her close, breathing in the scent of her and letting it soothe his jagged edges.

"I love you, too." She kissed his cheek lightly. "But we should hurry up and change. We have five minutes to be at your mother's."

He sighed. "That's a shame. If we had fifteen, it would have been infinitely better."

Snorting, Syssi playfully slapped his arm. "Do you ever think of anything other than getting me in bed?" She started walking toward their bedroom.

"I do. I think about getting you in the closet, in the shower, on the kitchen counter…" He stopped to catch the pillow she chucked at him. "Oh, this is going to cost you, young lady."

Syssi laughed, the husky sound fueling his budding arousal. "I'm looking forward to it, big guy."

28

ANNANI

Annani stood in front of the door to the cabin's terrace and looked up at the starry sky. Somewhere out there, hundreds of light years away, was Anumati, the home world of the gods, the corner of the galaxy her father had come from.

In the enormous, incomprehensible scale of the universe, Earth and Anumati were not only in the same neighborhood but on the same street. Maybe even in the same apartment building. She did not know enough about astronomy to know the actual scale, but since they were in the same galaxy, probably even in the same spoke of the wheel, it was considered close.

They called themselves gods and believed that they were the masters of the universe, but that was as misguided as humans thinking the same thing. Somewhere out there, in a different galaxy, there was probably a species of beings even more powerful than the gods, but the distances were so vast that there was no way to physically traverse them. The only way contact could be made was through connected consciousnesses like Aria and Aru's.

Somehow, their minds were entangled like quantum particles.

Vivian and Ella had a similar connection, probably created by the same mechanism of quantum entanglement. The question was whether beings who had never touched each other, physically or otherwise, could be conjoined.

Theoretically, it was possible.

After all, the entirety of matter and all of energy in the universe had supposedly been created in the Big Bang, so every particle in all of creation had at one time touched all others.

Everything was intertwined.

Annani lifted a hand to her temple. She was giving herself a headache by thinking and theorizing about things she did not know enough about and had no patience for learning.

Sometimes, she suspected that she suffered from what humans called attention deficit disorder. She had all the classic indicators, starting with poor impulse control and continuing with a dislike of learning anything that required concentrating for a long time.

Oh, well.

No one was perfect. Not even the royal heir to the throne of the Eternal King. Annani was a powerful goddess, the most powerful being on Earth, and deep down she knew that she had not explored the extent of that power.

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