Page 40 of The Gathering Storm

He stepped up to his grandmother, cupped her shoulders, and touched his forehead to hers. “I do love you, Amma.”

“I know, darling.” She cupped his face in her hands and stroked her thumbs along his cheeks. “I’ll have to tell your mother. She’ll probably rush home to see to her little boy’s wellbeing.”

He laughed at that. “Tell her there’s no hurry.”

“Tell her yourself. She texted me last night, wondering what you were up to. I told her you were busy on Council business.”

Which was true enough. It shouldn’t have surprised him that his grandmother knew. “I’ll call her in the morning,” he promised.

He and Anya went back out into the bar proper, him to his duties making sure customers were well satisfied, her to hers greeting newcomers as the councilwoman she was. Will tucked their conversation and its revelations away for another time, though in the back of his mind, he couldn’t help dwelling on Sigrid and the surprise of having her seek a formal relationship with him.

Early Wednesday morning, Sigrid and George met in one of the workrooms set aside specifically for housing and testing the known remains of the Seven Sisters. Three specially designed boxes rested on the long island positioned in the middle of the room, each containing a different set of the Bones of the Just, procured from three different locations.

Pieces of the first skeleton had been hanging on a wall in the nightclub Bones, and were discovered during a battle between Daniella Nehring and her mother, Lilith Cæstus. The puzzle over how the remains of a Sister had ended up there had never been solved, but safe money was on Lilith having had something to do with it. Her secrets had died with her the day her youngest daughter had skewered her to a dance floor, so they would probably never know the whys.

Sigrid would’ve loved to have been there the day Lilith was killed. She and Lilith had had a couple of run ins over the centuries. The other Daughter had been vicious and cruel, and had been one of the few who could best Sigrid in a bout, fair or not.

Jerusha Mankiller and her now fiancé Drew Martin had discovered the second set of remains in Turkey during their hunt for Sanctuary, positively identified as the skeleton of Marnan, and had provided information on the whereabouts of a third set, the skeleton of Eleni, which had been retrieved from Boston.

George entered the room carrying a box identical to the three Sigrid was studying and set it on the table beside the others. He sat down on a tall stool next to the workspace crossing one wall, file folder in hand. His shoulders were relaxed under his lab coat and a shy smile graced his boyish expression. “I finally have the admixture analyses on the Bones of the Just. Sorry it took so long.”

The ethnicity test results, at last. Sigrid perched on a stool beside him. “No apologies are necessary. We’re all busy right now.”

“Yeah, well.” He glanced at the folder in his hand as if he’d forgotten he held it, then opened it. “Right. The results were exactly what we expected. All three show strong Near Eastern origins, nearly pure, as a matter of fact. And guess what? That fourth box there? It’s a near match in ethnicity to the other three.”

Sigrid straightened on her stool. “Another Sister?”

George shrugged. “Female, same mitochondrial DNA, same ethnic origins, and a remarkable similarity in bone structure from the cellular level out, so she probably grew up in the same environment. If she wasn’t a Sister, she was closely related to them.”

“Where did you find that?”

“It’s the remains Moira found in the Archives a while back. It didn’t hit me until I was running the admixture analyses on the Bones of the Just that these remains were very similar.”

Was it true, then? Had a Sister’s remains been stored here in Tellowee, sheltered from time and their enemies, right under the very noses of those searching for it? Excitement raced under Sigrid’s skin. She crossed her arms over her chest and eyed the boxes.

Four sets of bones, possibly four of the Seven Sisters gathered in one of the People’s centers? No wonder Rebecca thought the Prophecy of Light was finally coming to pass.

She shrugged the speculation off and returned her attention to George. “Any mutations in the mitochondrial DNA?”

He shook his head sharply. “Sorry, no. They’re all exactly the same, just what we’d expect of four sisters born of the same woman.”

“So none of these bones belonged to Abragni, though by process of elimination we know two belong to Marnan and Eleni.” Sigrid squelched her disappointment and crossed her arms over her chest. “It’s too bad genetics can’t help us identify which Sisters the other remains belong to.”

“Maybe someday, but hey. We’re lucky we could get enough DNA out of the skeletons to run tests, and really, without documentary evidence, we’d have no way to say for certain that these are the remains of any of the Sisters.”

“True.”

“I mean, we know they’re old. Sure, they are, and we can sort of guess at their ethnic background through the science and technology available now.” George twisted around on the stool and faced the protective boxes, excitement radiating from his eyes and his posture. “But if we didn’t have somebody’s word, if we didn’t know through documents or whatever, how could we pinpoint their identities as much as we have?”

Sigrid relaxed against the edge of the work table, doing her best to suppress her humor. “Good thing we have an Archives full of documentation, yes?”

A faint blush brightened his cheeks and his shoulders slumped. “Sorry. I just get excited about the possibilities.”

“Don’t apologize, George. Cherish your excitement while you have it.” The Lady Ki knew Sigrid had lost hers long ago, and rediscovered it only recently in a towheaded Son with beautiful green eyes and a kiss so potent, it left her reeling two days later.

They had danced last night under the fairy lights strung above the dance floor at The Omega.

Warmth suffused her, from the memory of his touch, from the anticipation filling her. They would dance again tonight, if she had her way, and since Will seemed unable to deny her such simple wishes, she would. Afterward, perhaps he would indulge her again by spending the night in her bed, or she in his. Where her young lover was concerned, she too had a hard time saying no.

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