Page 15 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

He nodded.

She patted his knee and ran back the way she had come, and a moment later, they heard her in the other room, talking to her toys.

Kian chuckled. "The chairman of the board is back in session. Allegra sets her dolls on their little chairs and lectures them about the importance of sharing with friends, not yelling at each other, and so on." He shook his head. "I don't know who she is emulating. She must have been a queen in a prior life."

"She still might be one in this life." Syssi set the cake on the table. "You never know."

7

SYSSI

"Now the cappuccinos." Syssi plastered a smile on her face and turned to Khiann. "If you want to see how they are made, follow me."

"You should see that," Annani encouraged. "For Syssi, coffee is a work of art."

"Then I must." Khiann pushed the stick that navigated his chair and followed her to her coffee-making station.

"This is a professional-grade machine." She patted her newest acquisition, a made-to-order, one-of-a-kind machine imported from Italy. "Nothing makes better cappuccinos."

She kept the chatter going while making two cups at a time, and thankfully, Khiann asked a lot of questions, which distracted her from the unease that had been souring her mood lately.

Her visions were always vague, but this time the message was so hazy that she couldn't make any sense of it, and it worried her because a vision was a vision, and it had been sent her way for a reason. Especially after such a long stretch of nothing.

At some point, Syssi had thought that the visions had dried up for good, but even though she'd expected to be happy to see them go, she wasn't.

She'd been worried.

She was supposed to decipher it, but the clues didn't add up. There had been a crown, which prompted her comment about Allegra because at some point she'd thought it might be a premonition about her daughter's future. Then she saw an island steeped in fog, and she'd thought it was the Doomers' island, but the fog seemed cold, and it made her think of Norway, so she'd thought that it might have to do with Annani's past in the Northern Lands.

"That seems like a lot of work for a beverage," Khiann said when she was done with the second round.

"It is." She loaded the four cups on a tray, added a container of sugar cubes, and carried it to the coffee table. "But it's worth it."

The oddest part about the vision was the dragons, soaring in the fog over the island. That had made her think about Queen Ani, who was touring the colonies. According to Negal, some of those colonies were infested with dragons, and when El wanted to get rid of dissidents, he sent them to one of those colonies where they could meet an unfortunate end. Per Negal, even gods couldn't survive dragon fire, so it was a convenient method of eliminating undesirables.

Syssi cut the cake and started transferring slices onto plates.

When each of them had a cup and a piece of cake, they all turned to Khiann, and he understood that they were waiting for him to get the first taste.

He took a sip of the cappuccino first, holding the cup with both hands, and closed his eyes.

"Well?" Syssi asked.

He opened his eyes. "I have never tasted anything like it, but coming from me, that does not mean much."

"Was it tasty?" Syssi probed.

"It was superb." He took another sip, which confirmed his statement. "I might want to add a cube of sugar, though."

"Don't. Sweeten it with the cake."

He did, and as his eyes rolled up in his head, she had to press her lips together to keep from laughing.

Annani's glow brightened as if someone had turned up a dial, but Syssi wasn't sure if it was because she liked the cake so much or because she enjoyed seeing Khiann losing it over chocolate.

He devoured the generous slice she'd given him in moments and then eyed the platter with the remaining cake.

"Would you like another slice?" Syssi asked.