Chapter 113 Donna's baby
I left my bereft little wife on the floor of our bedroom, with the taste of honey in my mouth.
She wanted more. I did too, but I had only offered to touch her, nothing more.
High on my mean streak, I decided to simultaneously torture Hale with pictures of her on the floor. He would wake up to the messages, and man, would it ruin his day.
He would be unable to push it off his mind as he went about his day, and maybe he would excuse himself from an important meeting to jerk off to the images.
Fuck. I was harder now just from the thought of it. And I walked into my study with a tent in my pants.
“Let’s have it.” I walked around my desk as my guests rose to their feet at my entrance.
“There, Draki.” The Chancellor gestured to the print on my table, as well-designed as any business report.
Even on the cover, I could already see how similar it was to Finn's.
“Please sit,” I gestured to the witch beside me who stood frozen, staring with wide eyes. The Chancellor touched her shoulder and gestured for her to take her seat.
With a slightly amused scoff, I turned towards my built-in safe in my study. I retrieved Finn's report and returned to my desk.
“Interesting.” I looked between the prints after taking a seat, my eyes scanning the graphs, illustrations and headlines. They were almost the same. “How come she never came under your radar, chancellor.”
I swept my gaze up to the man who seemed stiff with fear. Unusual for him. “You would agree these two look very similar, no?”
“Yes Draki.”
“Why then was she never a subject of interest?” My voice remained even despite the fact that I was feeling far from calm internally.
This news would break Finn. He claimed to hate my attention and extra fussing since I got the report that he was Nymphaea, but information proving otherwise will be cruel to him.
And if he was perhaps the reincarnated Konrad…
“Forgive me, Draki. She was never excluded in our search. But at that time, there had been nothing interesting about her. If you move to page thirteen you will find the previous analysis was cited. The results were entirely different from what we found last night.” The man said in a rush, his words broken and his breathing shallow, “Her soul was definitely intent on hiding.”
“Let’s not rush to conclusions now,” I flipped backward to page thirteen and then stared at the grey page with a data set so common it was boring.
I could see why they would move past her without a second glance.
I met his eyes again. “Great. But you cannot convince me that her Lineage Tensor simply changed overnight.”
“I think it simply activated.”
“By what?”
“I’m not sure, Draki.”
“You understand that these kinds of mistakes are…” I searched for a gentler word, something my diplomatic Hale would approve of. “Sensitive. Your life is only as significant as your efficiency, and when you begin to make grave mistakes like these…” I let my words hang, watching him shiver.
“It will not happen again, Draki.”
“Of course,” I smiled, nodding. I returned my gaze to the print.
From the moment Astre died, we did these checks monthly. It was bloody expensive to keep the lab and supernatural data center running, but I will keep it open for an eternity for Nymphaea's sake.
At first, we had stuck to checking just newborns, but as years passed with no sign of my queen, we included adult women, and only last month, the Chancellor took the initiative to include men too.
This meant that Lys had basically gone through our radar every month. And nothing about her had triggered the sensors. Until now.
“When was the last time you did this?”
“We concluded the check for November in the first week of December, and I got the report to you immediately.”
To the best of my knowledge, there has been only one major difference in Lys's life in the last month. Meeting us. If the Chancellor was correct, and her Lineage Tensor was simply activated, then… The wedding.
That wedding I had been hesitant about, but participated to please Hale, who had appeared oddly concerned about her.
The wedding we had done because that was the only way I could get her to walk again without incurring more debt. The wedding which was the only solution because that accident, had been written into the fabrics of her destiny. She should have never walked again.
That wedding was the only difference in her life.
“Information on her Spirit Helix?”
“On page forty-four.”
“Should have been page one.”
“Forgive me, Draki.”
I shot a glance at the witch as my fingers flipped through the pages. She looked like she was about to faint. Good thing I had not worn my mask then. She would have definitely passed out.
“Please get the lady a drink, my good man.” I returned my gaze to the report as the Chancellor hurriedly left the study.
When he returned, I was still staring at the page. I looked up, “Please tell me your team always begin these lineage checks with a test of the Spirit Helix.”
“Of course.” My chancellor looked flustered as he handed the glass to the witch, who took it with shaky hands. “We do, Draki.”
“Yet, this never showed up?”
“No.”
I nodded, closed the documents and turned to the witch, patiently watching her finish her drink.
“You propositioned a woman at Moon Exchange Market last week.” Her eyebrows rose high in her forehead. “No, there’s no need to get scared, I understand it's business.”
Her face relaxed, then she said, “I meet a lot of women and men daily, maybe if you could describe her?”
“Blood-red hair, silver eyes. Hard to forget.”
“Donna’s baby?”
“The very one.”
“Oh.” She looked away now with an intense light in her eyes. “She…” She stopped. “She is about to die.”
I took this news calmly.
I gripped my desk till the edge came apart in my hand, but I would still call that calm because my instinct was to burn the world to hell instead, starting right here in California.
“If you had asked me last week I would have told you to get the man away from her, because he is going to kill her.” The witch continued. “But now, I know she would die much quicker if you separated them.”
“What man?”
“Her soulmate.”
“Do you know who I am?” I asked, leaning closer now. Fear danced briefly in her eyes for a second, but then it was gone again.