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“The pods are not the only thing we should be searching for.”
The immortals were hiding gods among them, and Aru knew about it. He just didn't seem to think that his teammates were trustworthy enough to tell them about what he had discovered.
No matter how Dagor tried to excuse his leader's motives, the insult stung.
The smirk slid off Negal's face. “We are not supposed to know about the gods, and I feel conflicted about not telling Aru that we do.”
The guy at the other table looked at them with curiosity in his eyes. “What language are you two speaking?”
“It's a dialect of Hungarian,” Dagor said. “We are from a small village high up in the mountains, and our people are the only ones who speak this particular form of the language.”
The guy nodded sagely. “I thought that it sounded European.”
Dagor wasn't sure whether Hungarian sounded like their native tongue or even if the country had mountains, but this explanation had worked before, so he used it again.
Negal shook his head. “If you want to keep talking, we should get out of here.”
“And go where? To the penthouse where Gabi and Aru might be frolicking amorously on every available surface?”
He didn't begrudge Aru his happiness, but he wished the guy would get over the honeymoon phase so they could get moving again.
They had a mission to complete.
Negal released a sigh. “We could go to a museum or to a library. There is so much we still don't know about these humans, and we can use this idle time to learn more about them.”
“The humans are of no interest to me. I want to find out who the gods are that Gabi's brother talked about. Perhaps we should just confront Aru and tell him that we know.”
The conversation between Gabi and her brother had been recorded by the spy bug they had attached to the brother, and Aru had later erased it. Their leader wasn't familiar enough with human tech and didn't realize how primitive it still was. He couldn't have guessed that deleting the recording wouldn't do the trick.
Dagor's intention hadn't been to spy on their leader when he'd checked the trash folder. Suspecting that Aru had messed with the laptop, he had checked it just to make sure that nothing important had been deleted by mistake.
Listening to the recording, he'd realized what Aru had been trying to hide, but not why he had done it. They were supposed to be a team, and they were all members of the resistance.
Aru should have trusted him and Negal with the information, and it was disturbing that he hadn't.
What else was he hiding from them?
Annani
After spending the weekend in atypical solitary contemplation, Annani had a little more clarity about the information they had learned from the three gods who claimed to belong to the resistance. Regrettably, it was not enough to help Kian form a strategy regarding the threat of the Eternal King.
Her paternal grandfather.
Her greatest nemesis.
It was funny how inconsequential Mortdh and Navuh seemed in comparison.
Mortdh had been a bully with delusions of grandeur, a powerful compeller, but a mediocre politician at best. He had not been difficult to outmaneuver, but in the end the law of unintended consequences had prevailed, resulting in a disaster that had eclipsed anything Mortdh had in mind for her and the future of the gods.
Perhaps things would have ended the same way regardless of her role in shaping the events, but Annani would always carry the guilt of inadvertently being responsible for her people's demise.
For Khiann's death.
His murder at the hands of Mortdh.
If she could have seen the future, she would never have pursued him. It would have been better to have never known the great love they had shared than to mourn his death.
Mortdh was dead, and his successor, her current arch-nemesis, was not as delusional and not as powerful as his father, but Navuh was smarter and a better politician. It took more than his incredible compulsion ability to lead an army of immortal warriors dedicated to the cause and eager to do his bidding.
