Page 89 of Dark Witch: Twin Destinies

And yet, the feeling of unease refused to abate and only worsened. Someone wanted the prince and the princess dead, and given the chain of misfortunes they had met with, that someone was powerful and possessed a long reach.

A knock at the door had Jasmine nearly leaping out of her skin, her heart pounding against her ribcage.

Damn, she'd let her imagination hijack her common sense. A perpetrator wouldn't have knocked. They would have kicked down the door and attacked.

Taking a deep breath, she tried to calm her racing pulse.

"Come in!" she called, wincing at how her voice cracked and wavered.

The door opened, and Ella entered with a steaming cup of tea in each hand. "I thought you might like some tea and some company."

Jasmine smiled. "I would. I'm going crazy sitting here, watching the stasis chamber and letting my imagination run wild about the potential danger to the prince and princess." She let out a breath. "Someone wants them dead. That much is obvious."

Ella closed the door behind her by giving it a slight push with her foot, walked over to the bed, handed Jasmine a cup of tea, and sat down on the edge of the bed beside her.

For a long moment they sat in companionable silence, sipping their tea and listening to the muffled sounds of life beyond the thin walls of the hotel.

"So," Ella said at last. "How are you doing?"

Jasmine sighed, her shoulders slumping. "Besides imagining assassins coming after the barely alive prince, I'm fine."

Ella frowned. "Did you see anything in your cards that made you think the royal twins are in danger?"

Jasmine shook her head. "But now that you mention it, I should do a reading."

"So, it's just a general uneasy feeling?"

Jasmine nodded.

"Does it have anything to do with Edgar and the kerfuffle you two had?"

Jasmine shrugged. "I'm not mad at him anymore, but honestly? I think that this relationship is going nowhere." She slanted a look at Ella. "I'm not one to pass on a good tumble in bed, and Edgar is definitely a good one, but I was relieved that he spent the night on the mountain."

The words hung heavy between them, a confession Jasmine hadn't even realized she'd been holding inside. But as soon as she spoke it aloud, she knew it was true.

Ella was quiet for a long moment. "Is it because of him?" she asked at last, her eyes flicking to the stasis chamber.

Jasmine let out a bark of laughter, the sound harsh and grating to her own ears. "The prince?" she asked, shaking her head in disbelief. "No, I'm definitely not thinking of a corpse-like alien in terms of a new boyfriend. After what Aru said about his condition, I'm afraid to even look at him."

Ella grimaced, her nose wrinkling in distaste. "No kidding. Julian told me that the dead Kra-ell looked like they were sleeping. But the twins' bodies had consumed themselves until there is barely anything left."

Jasmine shuddered, a chill racing down her spine at the image Ella had painted in her head.

"Where are they taking the other chambers?" she asked. "I mean with the dead Kra-ell inside?"

"Also to the keep," Ella said. "There are many underground levels that are even lower than the one the clinic is located in, and the lowest contains the catacombs. Although, given that the Kra-ell custom is to cremate their dead, I don't think they will stay there for long."

"Who is going to do that?"

"Their people, of course. They don't have a priestess among them, but maybe Jade can assume the function since there is no one else. Or they could wait for the twins to be revived, and they can perform the final rites. They are both priests."

Ella continued to tell her about how the Kra-ell queen hid them behind veils and isolated them behind the temple walls.

Jasmine's eyes widened. "But they are half-gods. So how can they be Kra-ell priests when the Kra-ell think that they are abominations?"

"They didn't know. That's why the queen did that. From what I understand, the Kra-ell priestesses are always veiled when in public, and they are celibate."

Did that mean that the prince was a virgin and was prohibited from having sex?

---