Now I was sad. I didn’t want to think about Mama’s suffering because of some rival leader’s wrath. It made me want to unleash a wrath of my own!
“You’re tough in your thoughts,” Roki said, teasing me like old times. “Now get some sleep, Kaelyn. We will talk more later.”
“When?”
Roki flashed his perfectly white teeth. “When you wake up.” He waved his hand in front of me, hypnotizing me deep into a slumber.
It felt like I had slept for a whole week. I dozed dreamlessly in a black nothing. When I finally awoke, it was to the sight of Roki’s bright eyes blinking at me.
“Good afternoon,” he said softly.
Roki was kneeling at my bedside. I groggily reached up and caressed his face.
“Afternoon?” I immediately took my hand back. I was in the real world again. I couldn’t touch Roki without betraying Zawne. I had to keep this as a friendship, a very close friendship.
“Yes,” he said. “It’s already noon. And don’t stress about it. We’ve done nothing inappropriate.”
Before I could respond, Roki vanished into thin air. At the exact same moment, Zawne walked into my room.
“Sorry to barge in like this,” he said, “but I’ve been calling you on your visin all morning. Are you all right?”
“Yes,” I said, finding it hard to sit up straight. I was incredibly tired from my time in Shiol. “I must have slept in again. All the excitement has got me fatigued.”
“That’s understandable,” he said. Zawne crossed my bedroom in four brisk steps, leaned over, and planted a kiss on my lips. He pulled back just enough to look in my eyes. “I’ve been missing that.”
I needed more. The talk with Roki, the fact I was to be married—it had a fire burning inside me. “Again,” I said, then grasped the nape of Zawne’s neck and pulled him close. Our lips touched, then our warm tongues swished and pressed and tugged; I was lost in it. I knew then that Zawne and I could rule the world.
“That was unexpected,” Zawne said as he sat on the edge of my bed, panting. “You’re fiery for such a sleepy woman.”
“I guess I needed the affection,” I said, which was true.
Zawne gave me a smile. “You’ll always have mine.”
I wondered if that was true. Would we always be so close and loving? I felt ashamed all over again for allowing Roki back into my life.
Zawne said, “I’m going to have a quick shower, my love,” and he went into the bathroom. The second he closed the door, Roki was right back at my bedside, and I was lost in his eyes and his wild hair, his cut jaw. I was pulled between two worlds!
“How did you do that?” I asked, trying to keep my voice low.
Roki grinned, devilish in the way he silently teased me. “Every Min has heightened senses and extrasensory powers. I can detect moods, changes in temperature, slight fluctuations in air molecules. It means I can sense when someone is coming. I can even sense what they are going to do. It’s how I knew Raad was about to barge into your room with bad news that day. It was why I left, to let you and your brother mourn together.”
“Wow,” I said. “That’s amazing. It must be so great to be a Min. No wonder Lordin gave up her human form.”
“That’s not all,” Roki said. “We each have one special ability. It comes with the package when you’re transformed. Mine is that I can mask presences. For example, I could mask my presence, and you would forget I was here. I can mask smells, feelings, even entire ideas. It’s incredible.”
I gawked at Roki. “All these you can do … and you choose to visit me.”
“You’ve sold yourself short for too long,” Roki told me. “I’m happy to see you’re coming into your own. You’re turning into a splendid woman, Kaelyn. I’m eager to see what the next forty years of your rule have in store.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but the bathroom door was opening. Roki vanished and out came Zawne, naked but for the towel wrapped around his waist. He was wet, bearded, and delicious. I suddenly felt like a very bad person, like a little girl and not at all like a queen. I motioned to him. “Come here. Sit close to me.”
Zawne smirked. “I thought you might say that.”
As he sauntered over to me, I remembered there was something important to tell him. My strange new obsession with his body would have to wait.
He sat on the bed, stretched one arm over me, and said, “So, now what?”
“Now we have to talk.” It made me feel bad that his expression went slack. Zawne had had something else on his mind. The silly man would have to wait.
He sat up straight, suddenly a bit edgy. “Talk about what?”
I remembered what the Crown of Crowns had said about Zawne being a simpler person than me. There was no way he would deny the offer to be king. So I spat it out.
“Zawne, you and I are the chosen ones. We’re going to be king and queen.”
His expression remained unchanged. His eyes were locked on mine, but there was no emotion. Was this part of his Aska training, to be as cold as ice when he needed to be?
“Could you repeat that?”
“We’re chosen,” I said. “We are the chosen. The Crown of Crowns came to me—well, sucked me into their dimension. I know the Crown of Crowns is a bird, and they are a bird—well, they take turns. Anyway, they told me we would be selected as the next king and queen.”
I told him everything from beginning to end, every rule and every crazy new universal truth I had learned over the past forty-eight hours. I even snuck in some of the stuff Roki had told me. When all was said and done, I sat panting on the bed, and Zawne stood by the window,
