Dark Awakening: Echoes of Destiny (The Children Of The Gods #88)

39. Annani

39

ANNANI

" N o joke." Kian took a deep breath. "Ell-rom and Jasmine went for a walk, wandered into an alley to take a shortcut, and a druggie grabbed Jasmine by her throat and pressed a gun to her head. Ell-rom was afraid to move a muscle because the druggie's hand was shaking, so he just wished for him to drop dead, and the attacker obliged him and immediately did just that. That's more or less the whole story."

Annani stared at her son for a long moment. "You know that was not what happened, right? If people could kill by wishing it, there would be no humans left on Earth."

It was only a slight exaggeration.

She herself was guilty of sometimes thinking bad thoughts of that kind, but even though she could actually kill with a mental command, like thralling a human to jump off a bridge or out a window, she would never do that.

Could she thrall a human to stop breathing, though?

Annani had never tried, but it might be possible. "Ell-rom must have thralled the human," she said. "He must have entered his mind and commanded him to stop breathing or something like that. Ell-rom does not remember how thralling is done, but in an emergency, his ability might have manifested."

"It's possible." Kian rose to his feet and walked over to the bar. "Julian ran tests on the dead human, and he found no obvious cause of death. I think that asphyxiation would have left its mark. And before you suggest that he commanded the guy's heart to stop, that's not possible. Not even with compulsion."

"Thank the merciful Fates for that." Annani adjusted the folds of her gown.

As Ogidu returned with the tea and poured her a cup, she was glad for the short break to collect her thoughts as she sipped on the tea.

"Are Ell-rom and Jasmine alright?" she asked.

"I'm sure they are shaken." Kian returned with his refilled whiskey glass and sat down. "I spoke with Julian, who told me what happened. I didn't speak with either of them."

Annani pulled out her phone to check the time. "Do you think it is too late to call them?"

"Probably not, but both of their phones are monitored. We do not want anyone learning of Ell-rom's ability in case it is real. Imagine what he could do. What he could be coerced to do."

The possibilities were frightening, and Annani's first instinct was to hide Ell-rom from the world so no one would ever discover his ability. He was such a gentle soul, and if his talent was real, then the Fates were cruel to choose him to carry such a burden.

Then again, perhaps he was the perfect carrier of such a terrifying talent precisely because he did not have one evil bone in his body. But why would they gift such a talent to anyone at all?

The moment she thought of it, her mind conjured the image of the Eternal King. Was that why he was so adamant about disposing of the twins?

How could he have known that they would possess such a talent?

Perhaps that was the reason the gods were not supposed to produce offspring with Kra-ell.

Maybe that was why they referred to such hybrids as abominations. It wasn't because they were born physically deformed but because they had monstrous abilities.

"What are you thinking?" Kian asked.

"That Ell-rom needs to be protected, and this secret needs to stay between us."

"I agree. We still need to test him in a controlled environment to make sure that his claim is true, but if it is, it raises many potential problems."

"The power to kill with a thought," Annani murmured. "I wonder if it is distance dependent." She looked at Kian. "What if he could kill the Eternal King? Not that I will even suggest it. Not before there is a replacement who can hold Anumati from falling apart. But what if that is why the king wants the twins dead so badly that he's still sending ships to this sector to make sure that they were not found and, if found, immediately eliminated?"

Kian nodded. "That's a logical assumption. Although how would he know when Ell-rom himself did not know he could do that?"

"Ell-rom did not remember the ability," Annani said. "That does not mean that he did not use it before. Someone in the temple might have been feeding the Eternal King information, and when the Kra-ell queen discovered it, she snuck her children out of Anumati before he could get to them."

"There is another possibility." Kian cradled his half-empty glass. "Perhaps hybrids like Ell-rom and Morelle had been born before and possessed terrifying powers, so they were just summarily eliminated, and no one was allowed to mention them."

"The same thing has occurred to me." Annani took a sip from her tea and put the cup on the tray. "If that is true, no wonder the gods and the Kra-ell called them abominations. Perhaps the first hybrids of that kind did terrible things, like killing scores of people with their minds."

She would never have allowed herself to talk like that with anyone other than Kian. Annani was determined to protect Ell-rom and Morelle and keep them from harm, but she was not about to trivialize their potential threat to the world.

Kian put his glass down and reached for her hand. "It still might be a storm in a teacup. Ell-rom is in many ways like a child who believes he has magical abilities. We will test him, and if he proves his claim, we will worry about his power later."

"How would you test it?"

Kian's smile would have been terrifying to anyone else, but she knew the pure heart beating in her son's chest. "Onegus voiced a wish that I dismissed at the time, but now I might implement it. He said that it's not enough to go after the traffickers. He wanted to find the monsters who buy children to do unspeakably evil things and eliminate them. We don't need to go through the same process as the humans to determine their guilt. We can enter their minds and see what they have done recently. If they are guilty, they are dead. I don't think that even Ell-rom would have a problem testing his ability on the worst kind of demons in human skin."