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Smiling, Karen leaned down and embraced her daughter. "Thank you for always being there when I need you."
Cheryl's arms tightened around her. "Thank you for being the best mom. Just come back to us."
"I will." Karen straightened. "Probably sooner than I want to because this is a false alarm."
"It's not," Cheryl said. "I have a feeling that this is it."
The knot in Karen's stomach became tighter. "What else is your feeling telling you?"
Cheryl smiled. "That you're going to be okay. You are a fighter, Mom. You will fight to stay with us."
54
MARGO
Ditching the god hadn't been easy, and just thinking that had Margo chuckle.
Life was good when a god wanted to spend every moment with her, but she needed to talk to Frankie privately, so she'd convinced Negal to take Dagor to the dining room with him for a proper late breakfast.
Frankie groaned. "If Bridget doesn't let me out of here today, I'm mutinying." She turned on her side. "Can a passenger mutiny? Is that even a verb?"
"I don't know, but if you need help breaking out of here, I'm your girl." Margo chuckled. "And I think that you can get three gods to assist you as well. That's one hell of a formidable force."
''Not against Bridget." Frankie groaned. "She could incapacitate them with one of her frosty looks."
"I can believe that." Margo cast Frankie one of her own hard looks. "I had an interesting talk with Negal last night, and it turned out that you and Mia omitted the most important details about how a Dormant gets induced."
Frankie hissed and scrunched her nose. "We didn't want to overwhelm you, and we didn't expect Negal to spill the beans so soon. What did he tell you?"
"That to transition, I will need to have unprotected sex with him, and he will have to bite me, injecting me with his venom."
"Yep, that's the gist of it."
Margo arched a brow. "Is that all? Or are there any more shocking details that I need to know that you have conveniently forgotten to mention?"
"Well, it doesn't have to be Negal. Any immortal male would do, but he is your best chance because he's a god, the original artifact, and his venom is the most potent. The other thing is that the transition is not without risks, but since you are young and healthy, chances are that you will be just fine, especially if Negal is the one inducing you. I have no doubt that I'm doing so great because of Dagor's venom."
Margo wanted to ask Frankie how she'd reacted when she'd found out about all that, but she stopped when the door opened and the doctor walked in.
"I have good news for you, Frankie," Bridget said. "You are free to go." Bridget pulled out her measuring tape. "I just need to take a few measurements first."
Frankie sat up in bed. "You didn't even administer the test yet, and you are letting me go?"
Bridget motioned for Frankie to lie back. "Karen is transitioning, and I need the room for her. I'll come up later to your cabin and do the test there." She stretched the tape from Frankie's hip bone to her heel. "It's just a formality. You're obviously transitioning. You've grown half an inch in two days."
"Wow. No wonder everything hurts."
The doctor lifted her head. "I'll give you medication to take with you."
"Thanks." Frankie lifted her arm for the doctor to measure.
Margo cleared her throat to get Bridget's attention. "I have a question."
"Go ahead," the doctor said without looking at her.
"Frankie said that there are risks involved with the transition, but because I'm young and healthy, I should be fine. She also said that having Negal induce me will improve my chances. Is all of that correct?"
This time, Bridget paused what she was doing and turned around. "Twenty-seven is not that young as far as transitioning goes. We've had younger Dormants than you who had a rough time going through it. Also, every transition is unique, so there are no guarantees. That being said, having a god induce you might be beneficial. Mia was induced by Toven, and given how poor her health was before that, she did remarkably well. Frankie didn't have any serious health problems, but her transition was one of the easiest I've seen, so that's additional evidence of the benefit of a god's venom. Still, I would be remiss if I told you that you shouldn't worry at all, and even if everything goes well, you might go through a much tougher time than Frankie."
