Page 16 of Dark Destiny: The Turning Of The Loom

"Yes, please," Khiann said as he handed her his empty plate. "If there is enough."

"There's a whole cake." Syssi cut him another slice, bigger than the first. "Enjoy."

"Cake!" Allegra came running from the hallway with a doll in each hand and stopped at the coffee table to assess the situation.

"I want cake. Rafiki and Daniki want cake too."

"You get one slice," Syssi said. "Rafiki and Daniki can watch. And you eat it right here at the table, not in your room."

Allegra considered the terms. "Can I sit in Gapa's lap?"

"No, sweetheart." Annani reached for her before Syssi could. "Gapa is not strong enough to hold you yet."

Khiann looked at Allegra with a mix of regret and embarrassment, but he said nothing because Annani was right.

Syssi cast him an apologetic look, which he acknowledged with a slight nod.

Allegra looked disappointed for about one second before climbing onto Annani's lap and arranging her dolls on either side of Annani's knees.

"Here you go." Syssi handed her a plate. "Be careful and don't let crumbs fall on Nana's dress."

Allegra gave her a look that said, are you kidding? There will be no crumbs left.

And there weren't any as she held out the plate and asked for more.

"That's enough for today," Syssi said.

"One more."

"No."

Pouting, Allegra slid off Annani's lap, collected her subjects, and marched back down the hallway without another word.

"She'll be back," Kian said. "She never stays mad when there's cake in the house, but I don't envy my future son-in-law. The guy will need nerves of steel."

Annani smoothed her skirt, probably checking for crumbs, and turned to Syssi. "What do your visions say about Allegra's future chosen mate?"

Syssi laughed. "Thankfully, nothing yet. I'll start worrying if I don't get any visions when she's eighteen. Though my foresight is more about events than matchmaking. I dreamt of Kian before meeting him, but those were not visions. There was a prophetic element to them, but there is a vast difference between the two."

Reminded of those dreams, she felt her cheeks getting warm and lowered her head to sip on her cappuccino and let her hair fall in two curtains at the sides of her face to hide her damn incurable blush.

"Syssi is a seer," Annani said, getting Khiann's attention. "I have told you this before, but I never know what you retain and what slips away, so forgive me for repeating myself. She has visions of the future, and sometimes of the past."

"I actually remember that you told me." Khiann turned to Syssi. "Have you seen anything about me?"

She hadn't expected the question, so it took her a moment to take inventory of her visions for the past two years.

"Not directly. Before we knew how we were going to get you home, I had a vision about the people who would help us. Two scientists and a woman. I saw them before I knew their names, and the vision didn't show me how they would be involved, only that somehow they would."

Annani cleared her throat. "I have not yet told Khiann how he was found. There was just no time."

Syssi stared at her.

Khiann had been awake for three and a half weeks. That was long enough to have covered the basics. But then, for the first week and a half, he'd barely been present, surfacing for only minutes at a time, and after that it had taken him a while to gather enough language skills to hold on to what he was told. Annani must have been rationing information in spoonfuls.

Khiann looked at Annani. "We have time now."

Annani held his gaze for a long moment, then she looked at Kian. "My son ran the actual operation of your extraction, so he can tell the story better than I can."