Chapter 27

NICOLETTE

I returned to my apartment late that afternoon.

My eyes went directly to the slender vase of long-stemmed white roses that were on my coffee table, which weren’t there when I left.

I quickly looked around my apartment, turning on every light and searching every corner, but when I found nothing else awry, I went back to the coffee table. That’s when I saw the box.

I plopped on the couch and picked it up. It wasn’t big, about the size of my palm, but it also wasn’t light. I shook it and heard nothing. I frowned and carefully opened it.

Inside the black outer box was a silver box. And not silver the color but silver the material. Which explained why the box was heavy. And inside that was a ring.

My breath hitched when I saw it. But I quickly realized it wasn’t a woman’s ring. And then I got confused. I took it out and inspected it.

The metal was silver in color, but its weight made me think it was platinum. Eight rubies were embedded along the middle, placed equidistant all around, and around them were intricately carved lines.

The ring was exquisite. And was likely valuable, so I gently placed it back in the box and set it on the table. Then I saw the envelope inside the flowers.

I opened it and read the card inside out loud. “No. This is certainly not a proposal.” I scoffed. “Just wear this ring, and never take it off your finger. I do not normally beg, but this time, I am. So, please.” Then I saw the initials, ~D. O~.

Darien hadn’t needed to sign the card. I would have guessed the ring was from him. But what a strange gift. And what a strange demand—no, request.

He’d never said please before, so I immediately suspected the ring to have some kind of magical power. GPS, most likely.

Then I remembered him saying he would keep me safe on the trip. This must have been what he meant. Though how a ring could do that, I had no clue.

I took the ring back out of the box and looked at it again. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, and I slipped it on to see if I would feel anything. But I felt nothing.

I put it back in the box and took it with me to my bedroom. Now, I had to pack.

LUCIEN

“Thank you for coming, Your Majesty.” Dr. Danes was standing at his desk when I entered his office. He motioned to the chair opposite his. “I trust you’re doing well.”

“Never been better.” I unbuttoned my suit jacket and sat. “What have you found?”

He sat. “Yes, let me pull it up.” He looked to his monitor, typed something, and turned it to face me.

“This,” he said. “As you know, the Siberian plant compound was the most present among the components of the poison, and this here was the second most present.”

I sat forward and looked at the image on the screen. It was a grayscale high-definition image, likely from a scanning electron microscope. It meant nothing to me. “What is it?”

“That’s where you need to come in,” he said. “You see, I ran it for elemental analysis, and the result was inconclusive.” He looked at me like he’d given me my answer.

My face told him he hadn’t.

“Some of its elements aren’t in the periodic table, which means it didn’t come from Earth, which means it came from your world, and which means…I don’t know what it is.” He looked at me apologetically.

I gave him a hard look, thoroughly annoyed. “This is what you brought me here for?” I leaned back in my seat.

“To tell me that the poison—which I originally thought was ~fully alien~—the poison that I brought from my ~alien home world~ had a component in it that was ~alien~?” I stood and buttoned my jacket. “What a waste of time.”

“No, wait!” Dr. Danes stood quickly. “That’s not what I meant, Your Highness. Please, sit back down and let me explain.”

I exhaled loudly, unbuttoned my jacket again, and sat.

“What I found of significance was ~how~ the two compounds worked when put together.” He paused and his eyes asked me if I was satisfied. They asked for permission to continue.

I nodded and he pulled up a video file on his monitor.

“We isolated both compounds and ran some tests. This video shows the Siberian plant compound reacting to human blood.” He played the video.

I watched with great interest as nothing happened. I looked at him, unimpressed.

He brought up another video. “This one shows the unknown compound reacting to blood.” He played it.

Again, no reaction. I looked at him again, but this time he was smiling. He was excited to show me the next video he pulled up, and I got excited too.

“And this is what happened when we put them together with blood.” He pressed play.

“Woah!” I jerked my head back from the screen, not expecting what I saw. But the reaction happened so quickly, so I asked him to play it again slower.

The video was a split-screen presentation. The left screen allowed me to witness the reaction directly on the slide, while the right gave an external perspective, letting me see the lens and slide in profile.

The video began with blood already on the slide. In slow motion, the greenish-violet mixture was added, and the reaction was almost instantaneous.

The crimson blood shimmered momentarily, then became crystal clear and began erupting from the slide, producing liquid seemingly out of nothing. The water overflowed the slide.

Then the image on the right shook and tilted. The camera must have fallen onto its side. And the video ended.

“The liquid overflowed the table. I knocked the camera down as I panicked to get away from it.” Dr. Danes looked down, then turned his screen back to face him.

We sat in silence for a moment, then I asked, “So what is it? The clear liquid?”

“It’s water. Normal water.” He looked off into the distance and shook his head slightly. “Blood into water. Fascinating.”

“Not when you see it happening to someone you care about,” I said, forcing the images away from my mind’s grasp.

Dr. Danes sat up and cleared his throat. “I apologize, Your Highness, and I’ll keep doing what I can on this end, but you’ll need to find someone on your end to locate the source of the second compound.”

I nodded and stood. “Any other information to report?” I buttoned my jacket.

He shook his head and gave me a sad smile.

“You have done well, Dr. Danes.” I extended my hand and he shook it. “Thank you.”

“It is my pleasure, Your Highness.” He bowed his head. “Thank you for your confidence in me. And your trust.”

I nodded and strode to the door.

“Oh, Your Highness?” he asked as I crossed the threshold.

I turned to look at him.

“Say hello to Ms. Holland for me,” he said, a grin spreading across his lips.

A small smile came to mine as well at the mention of her name. “I will,” I said.

***

My mind wouldn’t still as I lay in bed. Questions kept piling onto more questions, and no answers were to be found.

The two I was most concerned with now, though, were how I could find out the source plant of the second compound without anyone in my world knowing I was looking for it and what Ira Andretti wanted in Brazil.

Besides my desime, that is. She was mine. I had claimed her.

I hoped she was wearing my ring. It was originally enchanted to protect the wearer, but I added a few extra enchantments before giving it to her.

GPS was the first extra. And the second, I wanted to test out now.

I closed my eyes and focused on her. After a moment, I heard her heartbeat. It was slow and rhythmic. She was sleeping. I smiled knowing she was safe.

But if her heartbeat increased sharply for any reason, I would know. I’d hear it and I’d come running.

This sound was what I needed to calm my mind. It calmed my soul.

For now, my beautiful desime was safe.