Page 69 of Seeded By Two

Aslas snorted. “Of course that was! It must have come as quite a shock! But you’re here now. That’s all that matters.”

He downed the last of his drink and moved to place it on the desk before recalling it was smashed to pieces.

Another mystery, I thought, harking back to the torn carpet at the foot of the door.

Clearly something had taken place but neither of them were forthcoming with the explanation.

Aslas bent down and placed his empty glass on a shard of the desk on the floor. “Well, I suppose we ought to get started,” he said, clapping his hands and approaching me.

Feon raised an arm, stopping him a full yard from me. “Cool your jets. We won’t be the ones to orchestrate this. She will. She’ll let us know when she’s ready, what she wants to do, and when. We are at her mercy.”

I couldn’t deny the shiver that ran through me at the word “mercy.”

It was strange, the effect a single word could have on a person.

But he was right.

I did want to have full control over the situation. “First,” I said, “I’m going to shower and then I want you both to do so too.”

“Up and clean before we get down and dirty,” Aslas said with a grin.

When neither of us reflected it back to him, he lowered his head and kicked his feet.

Feon’s eyes were still drilling into me and I worried for a moment he had picked up on something I had not wished him to see.

I thought over what I had said up until now but couldn’t identify any hint of what I was truly thinking.

“Of course,” he said. “We’ll do everything you command.”

Command.

Another shiver.

I nodded. “Good. I’ll be… right back.”

I moved into the bathroom and locked the door behind myself — not that I expected them to try anything — before stripping off the négligée and turning to face myself in the mirror.

I let out a deep breath.

It came out a shivering shudder.

I opened my hand and peered at the tiny items in my sweaty palm.

Two tiny balls, no bigger than marbles.

Both were black, one had a red line running through it and the other a blue one.

They were tracking and listening devices, the spies had told me.

They were the reason I had returned to the suite, the reason I had come back.

The reason I had come back at all.

I placed them on the side table, moved into one of the two showers, and let the hot spray wash over me.

I lathered up and scrubbed myself clean.

I thought back to the moment I had learned of the Twin Joisa “prophesy” the Krev males had told me about.

---