The other's head tilted, the movement oddly alien looking as he spotted Elena on the bed. "What do we have here?"
Elena shook under the heavy weight of his gaze. Every sense in her body trying to retreat from the utter feeling of wrongness. As if there was something tainted in him that would corrupt her if she let it get too close.
This was bad. So bad. The kind of bad she didn't need Uncle Jin's sidebars to reinforce.
"A present, my exalted one," Kai declared.
There was fascination in the Osiri's gaze as he drew closer.
"This girl arrived in my crèche a few weeks ago. The one who brought her to me claimed she'd been transferred under your orders. It wasn't long before I noticed something wrong with her," Kai said.
"Yes, I can see that." The Osiri’s golden colored gaze trailed down Elena's body. "Tuann—and something else. Not much power but there is something interesting about her."
Elena quelled her desire to struggle as the Osiri drifted closer.
Patience, she told herself. As Auntie always said, your moment will come. Be ready for it.
"That's not all," Kai offered. "She's connected to Elise. I saw the two speaking a few nights ago."
Delight infused the Osiri's features when it looked at Elena’s egg donor. "Oh, my dear, you've been keeping secrets from me again."
Elise's face was blank. Her eyes that of a dead woman.
In Elise's mind, Elena was already lost, she realized with a sinking heart. There'd be no help coming from that direction.
Guess it was a good thing Elena had hardened herself against having expectations of the other. She'd sure be disappointed right now if she hadn't.
And if there was still a tiny kernel of hurt inside her because of it, no one needed to know that except Elena.
"Tell me pet—who is this child to you?"
The smile that touched Elise's face was bittersweet as she finally looked down at Elena. "I'd hoped for a happy ending, you know. Despite everything, I thought that one day I’d be able to go back to the way things were. I should have known a person like me would never be that lucky."
Elena's eyes widened as she caught her mother giving her the sign of love and devotion.
"I'm sorry to leave you so soon," Elise said, her expression hardening.
There was no warning as Elise palmed a blade, lunging at the Osiri. Her arm punching forward in a perfect strike.
The Osiri glided effortlessly out of the way.
Elena's mother reversed the strike, aiming for his heart.
Yes! Elena cried in her mind.
Her jubilation sank like a stone as the Osiri caught the blade with his bare hand. "I thought you would have learned how futile it was to resist after the last time."
The blade whitened, growing brittle right before Elena's eyes. Elise released it, right as the white reached the hilt. A second later, the blade crumbled into dust.
Elise whipped out a pair of knives, hurling them at him.
Elena flinched as the Osiri smacked them away, sending one of them rocketing at her. She squeaked as it embedded in the bed an inch above her head.
"I'm losing patience with you," the Osiri said.
He made a gesture. Elise flew back, landing in a heap a short distance away.
She was laughing as she rolled onto her side. "You're right. I did learn my lesson last time."
The Osiri's eyes widened. He whirled, a shriek leaving him at the sight of the knife above Elena's head. It was buried to the hilt, an odd energy running up and down it.
He set his hand on the bed, his forehead furrowing.
Elena tried to shrink away as a sense of wrongness invaded the space around her before withdrawing.
"You've killed it," the Osiri snarled at Elise.
"No, you killed it," Elise corrected.
The Osiri yanked the knife out of the bed. "You planned this."
Elise lifted onto one forearm, pain flashing across her face before she controlled it. "I did."
The Osiri stared, his rage saturating the air. Harsh and menacing. Fear pressed down on Elena. Though Elise never flinched, meeting the Osiri's gaze with the stubbornness that must have made her the perfect companion for Aunt Kira and Uncle Jin once upon a time.
The pressure in the atmosphere vanished as the Osiri stalked toward Elise with slow predatory steps. "You haven't saved your child, my pet."
Elise's expression changed.
Fyr lifted his head, shock on his face as his gaze flitted to Elena's The Osiri's face gentled. "Yes, I'm aware of her connection to you. You have only yourself to blame for me figuring it out. There's only one thing capable of making you act so recklessly. An offspring. Your one weakness. My informant told me there was a possibility. Though that person assured me your daughter was also dead. A pity, really. It’s so much easier to shape them when they’re young. I’m glad to see she survived after all."
Even with Elise's impressive control, there was a trace of fear in her features as the Osiri loomed over her.
"She's half human, isn't she?"
That same feeling of awfulness increased as tendrils of water rose from the pool behind Elise. Her mother's expression turned wary, her body going very still.
"I always suspected we hadn't fully broken you. There was just something about you," the Osiri said conversationally, his expression almost tender. "We'll have to fix that this time."
The tendrils speared Elise in the back. Her spine bowed, her mouth opening wide on a silent scream.
Elena thrashed against the ropes in desperation. "What are you doing? Stop it!"
Her actions successfully attracted the Osiri's attention.
"It's strange," he said, cocking his head. "We've tried human/Tuann combinations before, but never with such success. I wonder what it is about you that makes you so special."
Elena stilled, feeling like prey as he made his way over to her. She licked her lips, her gaze darting to her mother before returning to the Osiri. "Why do you care?"
If she could just keep him talking. Stall for time until Uncle Jin got here.
There was also a part of her that was curious. She'd heard Aunt Kira and Uncle Jin's theories. Now it was a chance to learn the truth from the source. Lucky her.
The Osiri looked like he was considering Elena's question. "You know—no one has ever asked me that before."
"That seems lonely," Elena said.
His gaze shifted to her, pinning her in place. The look in them made her heart grow cold. Merciless. So alien in nature, Elena suspected she and others would never be able to understand the Osiri and their motivations.
"There is no loneliness in purpose. Only beauty and fulfillment."
"What purpose?" Elena asked.
"To make the universe ours and obtain perfection in form and spirit."
"Is that why you're obsessed with the Tuann?"
"They are ours," the Osiri hissed. "To do with as we please. Their rebellion will not be tolerated. They will learn, as all eventually do, who their masters are."
"And the generals?"
The Osiri stared at her with his strange mono-colored eyes. "Our harbingers. Responsible for spreading our plan throughout the universe."