Page 79 of Dark Witch: Twin Destinies

Dagor's expression was skeptical. "All the pods that still functioned have opened already, and their occupants are the pureblooded Kra-ells who are currently living in the village."

Igor had slaughtered most of the males and taken the females, but since then, more purebloods and hybrids had been born. Their community didn't have enough genetic variety to sustain growth, but mating with humans was prolonging its survival.

"Mey and Jin's parentage indicates otherwise," Aru said.

Dagor waved a dismissive hand. "A hybrid Kra-ell had a secret affair with a woman who he thought was human but who carried godly genes. It was a fluke, not proof that other Kra-ell survived. Igor didn't find the other pods because their occupants never woke up from stasis, so their trackers couldn't transmit a signal."

Aru rubbed a hand over his jaw. "We've talked about this. It's possible that some of the pods had opened before Igor found a way to locate the signals from the implanted trackers, and they might have removed them."

Dagor sighed. "Let me remind you that the settlers didn't know they had been implanted with trackers. Why would they even look for them? They couldn't have removed what they hadn't known existed."

Aru was not ready to give up. "They could have discovered it by accident. Maybe someone sought medical help and went through a scanner for some reason." He was clutching at straws, but the alternative was losing hope, and he wasn't ready to do that. "It's a flaw in the tracker's design that they need a live host to transmit a signal. Otherwise, we could have found them even if the settlers removed them."

"It is a huge flaw," Dagor agreed. "If they transmitted a signal even when the bodies hosting them were dead or in stasis, we would have found them long ago. They were designed to use the host's body for energy because they had to last for a very long time, and even now, we don't have batteries that can last that long."

The truth was that Aru didn't know if he should feel hopeful at the prospect of other Kra-ell surviving or dread it. After learning that there had been assassins planted among the settlers, perhaps it was better that they were all gone, especially now that the life of the heir to the throne was on the line.

"The upside of finding everyone in this pod dead is that it would be easy to convince the commander that there is no chance of anyone else surviving."

"But not everyone was dead," Dagor said. "The commander will want proof, and I'm not sure that our trickery with the heartbeats will convince him, especially since the Kra-ell bodies are well preserved and the royal twins look like corpses. The commander and whoever else looks at this will immediately realize why they don't look the same."

"Not really. He knows that the royal twins are in one of the pods, but not this one specifically, and not that they are half-gods. It was only a rumor. He will be more inclined to believe that these two stasis chambers belonged to two unfortunate Kra-ell and that they malfunctioned before the others. With how emaciated the twins are, it's impossible to tell they are not purely Kra-ell."

Dagor regarded him with an amused smile. "That doesn't make any sense, Aru. The pod runs all the stasis chambers. There is no reason for one to malfunction before the others."

"Right." Aru rubbed a hand over the back of his neck. "I don't know enough about how these things work. Maybe we will have to stage something. We can't let the Eternal King find out that the twins are alive. We need to make a convincing case for them being dead."

He would have to pose the question to his sister and let the queen decide what to do about reporting the finding of the twins.

Dagor groaned. "We should just fake our own deaths like Kian suggested and be done with it. If we are presumed dead, we can't tell them anything, right?"

"The Eternal King will just send another team. The only way to prevent it is to pretend that we are still searching for clues about the Kra-ell and drag it out for as long as possible."

Dagor tilted his head. "If we don't want to find the other pods, then why are we going to all the trouble of dismantling components from the pods in the hopes of finding clues about their locations?"

Aru shrugged. "I want to find them, but that doesn't mean we need to report everything we find to the commander."

61

MARINA

As Marina bustled about the tiny kitchen of the bungalow she shared with Peter, she looked out the window toward the lodge and the ocean beyond. The view was spectacular, with the water stretching into the infinity of dark blue. The sun had barely begun to peek over the horizon, painting the sky in soft shades of pink and gold.

The aroma of freshly brewed coffee mingled with the sizzle of eggs in the pan, creating a comforting and familiar soundtrack to the start of another day.

She hummed to herself as she worked, her mind busy planning the rest of her day off. Peter was due back any moment from his night shift, so after breakfast, he would want to get in bed for a few hours. He would probably want to make love before falling asleep and again when he woke up, which would work out great. The bite would send her on a psychedelic trip that would last a couple of hours, and when she woke up, she could laze in bed until Peter got enough sleep, either reading or watching television.

Life with Peter was good every day, but especially on a Sunday when she didn't have to work.

In the short time they had been together, living in this cozy little haven, she had discovered that happiness and fulfillment were rooted in the small things. Sharing breakfast, going for a walk, walking on the beach, spending time with friends, and making love. It was more than she had ever dreamt of, and even if Kian didn't approve her transfer to the village and she and Peter stayed in Safe Haven, she would be perfectly happy.

With its views and privacy, the bungalow was truly her Safe Haven.

Even the prospect of cleaning guest rooms for the rest of her life didn't seem as daunting anymore. It was hard work, but it wasn't emotionally or intellectually demanding, and the simplicity and repetitiveness of the tasks were calming. Besides, she got to spend her days working side by side with her best friend and her evenings with the best male she'd ever known, so all was good.

As Marina flipped the eggs onto a plate and reached for the toast, a loud ringing noise pulled her out of her pleasant reveries.

Turning the heating plate off, she picked up her flip phone, which, unfortunately, didn't have any of the bells and whistles of a modern smartphone, so she couldn't tell who was calling her.

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