“He’s coming!” I repeated, realizing I was speaking through telepathy.
“Who is coming?”
“Rhone! There are bombs in the air, coming toward us right now.”
The priestesses had stopped their work and they looked exhausted. I swung my legs off the altar and looked at Kajo. His eyes had glazed over, and he was seeking something mentally. Or conversing with other people.
Suddenly, a whistling sound came loud and clear above us. A missile streaked through the air and exploded in the amphitheater seats, sending broken and burning bodies plummeting through the air, limbs severed, blood gushing, flames roaring.
Another one hit directly on the altar as Kajo and I ran toward cover of the trees. The altar shattered and was engulfed in flame.
The priestesses were back on their feet and many of Kajo’s telepathic soldiers were standing in the middle of the clearing, their hands held to the air, their eyes glazed over, as they searched the air for missiles, to still them in their pace, stopping them from raining more hazards on the people gathered for my ceremony.
Soon, dozens of missiles and grenades were hanging in the air over the clearing. When it seemed like no more were raining down, the guards launched them all far into the sky, releasing the hold they’d had on the grenades.
With a resounding boom that shattered windows and flattened tree canopies, the grenades exploded, triggering the explosion of the remainder of the missiles. High in the sky, like fireworks popping and glittering their joy to the ground. Only, this time it was shrapnel.
Kajo had been standing at attention near me, hands raised, in case he needed to catch any projectile, three bodyguards around us. I held my head in my hands, dizzy from my first true telepathic connection. I had heard Kajo in my mind before, but I had never been able to read anything except for what he sent me. I had just sensed an entire army of missiles in the air through Rhone’s incredibly poignant thoughts.
There were people screaming and medics teleporting into the garden, applying emergency first aid, covering the dead or organizing body parts. Smoke swamped the clearing.
Kajo finally dropped his hands and hugged me immediately. The attack seemed to be over. No soldiers appeared on the ground and no hostiles teleported in to continue the onslaught. But, it had been deadly enough. At least ten people who had come to watch me crowned a Curan Queen were dead.
Kajo kissed my forehead.
“You did it, Daphne. You have been imbued with the telepathic and telekinetic skills of a Curan. We will work to refine them, but, thank you. If you hadn’t been so sensitively attuned at that exact moment, we would all be dead.”
I didn’t know what to say, so I just hugged him and allowed him to hold me until a hovercraft came to take us back to the castle. I was still human, I was still myself. But, now, I was even more. I shared my soul with someone else and we were headed to my castle. My home. My destiny.
Fourteen
Rhone
Vania hadn’t been difficult to capture. Daphne’s little brunette best friend had been seated in the same courtyard gardens outside my old place of work. I would never care to return to being the CEO of Associated Development Inc. I was in the middle of a revolution.
I had made the trip to Earth while the King was healing, guarded well by his fleet of soldiers and those from Commander Sasrin. I was attempting to recover my army, as well.
I couldn’t believe that Kajo had taken an Earthling Queen. Not only that, he had accepted her as a Curan. I heard she even had some early telepathic and kinetic skills. She had been the one to sense my missiles coming in the air toward her Curan conversion ceremony. She hadn’t helped stop any of them, but she had alerted the guards that they were sailing toward them. I had only killed a handful of people in what should have been a massacre. The King should have died today. Again, she had saved him…
Maybe there was something about these girls…
We would soon find out.
I rounded the corner and signaled to the two guards to step aside. I laid my palm on the door’s paneling and it clicked and glowed to accept my signature. It slid aside. Inside, on a luxurious canopy bed, Vania lay curled up, facing the opposite wall. She scrunched up even smaller as she heard me walking closer.
“Vania—”
“Fuck off, monster.”
“Now, now. There’s no way to talk to your best friend’s boss.”
She spun around on the bed.
“Where is she? What have you done with her? Where’s Daphne?”
“Daphne is safe. With my rival, actually. Bound to be married sometime soon and accepted into a whole new culture.”
“Who is your rival?”
“Well, he is the King, you see. The King of Farian. I am trying to overthrow him.”
Vania looked at him and laughed bitterly. “You’re joking, right?”
“Not at all. And you’re going to help me.”
I reached my hand out to her cheeks and she scooted away on the bed. “Don’t be frightened. I just need to test something.” She stiffened as I touched her, and I waited to feel some type of electric shock. There were reports that every time Kajo and Daphne touched, it was like lightning fired through the air. “Dammit. Nothing.”
“I’ll say. That wasn’t so good for me either.”
I looked at her and frowned. “Such a smartass. Well, never mind. We will just have to use your blood, then.”
I motioned to the guards and they alerted the medical personnel to enter. I rolled up my sleeves. If Kajo had become stronger because of Daphne, maybe it had been because of her blood transfusion. There would certainly be no harm in trying.
Vania stood up, jumped off the bed, and ran to the corner as needles and restraints were brought before her. The guards grabbed her
