Page 96 of Dark Witch: Twin Destinies

"Dummies will not fool our recording equipment, but you are onto something. We could wait until they are revived and back to looking healthy and then somehow make them appear dead."

"Right." Negal chuckled. "Our equipment will register even the faintest sign of life, and don't forget the pyre. That's going to be hard to fake as well."

Negal wasn't wrong, but Aru had no other ideas. "If you have any constructive suggestions, I'm listening."

Negal shrugged. "Simple. We never found the pod. The mission to Tibet was a failure, and we are exploring other leads."

That actually was a good idea, but the question was whether the queen would agree.

Aru had a feeling that she wouldn't. She'd wanted him to stage their death before reviving them for a reason. If the trickery didn't work, she wanted them dead.

"The choppers are coming." Negal pointed a finger at the sky.

If not for the remaining salvaged equipment, they could have all fit in one helicopter, but they had managed to get a few more components loose, and Aru didn't want to leave them behind. Since nothing worked, he didn't know whether he'd found the flight recorder or anything else that could hint at the cause of the accident or where the other pods could be. Still, perhaps William could do something with all this junk without destroying it in the process.

As the birds touched down on the rocky mountaintop, Aru and Negal rose to their feet. Each lifted an armload of equipment before striding toward the helicopters.

Yamanu got out, holding several boxes of food from the restaurant. "Hungry?"

"Very." Aru put the components on the chopper's floor and took one of the boxes from Yamanu. "We finished the last energy bar after you left." He opened the box and sat down on the step. "Everything is ready. So, once we get the rest of the equipment in, we can move out."

While Negal and Aru ate their lunch, Dagor and Edgar got busy bringing in the rest of the stuff, including the ropes and the rappelling equipment.

When everything was loaded, Aru and Yamanu got into the helicopter with Edgar, while Negal and Dagor got into Kalugal's.

Clutching the detonator in his hand, Aru waited until they were in the air and Yamanu was shrouding the mountain before pressing the button.

As a muffled thump shook the ground below them, the sound of the explosion was almost anticlimactic. It was a fraction of the noise and fury he had expected.

A cloud of dust billowed up from the cavern's depths, a blinding haze that obscured the mountain in a veil of gray.

Aru squinted against the onslaught, his eyes watering as Edgar guided the helicopter up and away until the dust settled a little. Then, he angled back for a better view.

It was hard to see, the dust still swirling and eddying in the air, but as Edgar made another pass over the mountain, Aru fought to peer through the haze and the sun's glare and was satisfied with what he saw.

The crater was mostly gone, buried beneath rubble and debris. Only a shallow depression remained, a barely there divot in the rugged landscape that, in a few hours, would give no hint of the secrets that lay buried beneath.

All that remained was for them to return to base, gather the last of their belongings, and make their way to the nearest airport, where two private planes awaited them.

73

JASMINE

Jasmine's heart ached at the distance that had grown between her and Edgar. She knew that she needed to end things, to set them both free to find their true paths in life. But the thought of hurting him, of seeing the pain and heartbreak in his eyes, made her want to recoil, to retreat into the safety and comfort of the familiar.

Except, they both deserved better than this.

Strangely, it wasn't about love or lack thereof. Jasmine cared for Edgar, and in time, she knew she could have learned to love him, but deep down, she knew that he was not her forever. He was not the one she was meant to walk beside through eternity's long, winding road.

As much as it pained her to hurt him, she knew that she had to let him go. They both deserved to find their true soulmates, the other halves of their eternal being.

But as she looked at him now and saw the hurt and confusion in his eyes, Jasmine felt her resolve waver and her courage faltering.

How could she do this?

There were no easy answers, no painless paths to follow, but she had to find a way to end things with grace and compassion, to part as friends rather than enemies.

And so, with a deep breath and a silent prayer for strength, she turned to face him, ready to speak the words that would set them both free, but a knock on the door stopped her before she could open her mouth.

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