He’s my brother in all but blood, she reminded herself. It’s good that he’s promising this. Good that he’s swearing not to lay a finger—not even a whisper-finger—on me. So then why did it make her feel so sad?
Lissa didn’t know. She pushed the useless emotion ruthlessly away and nodded at Saber. “Thank you for your promise, my brother. I feel better about going on this mission with you now.”
“Of course.” He inclined his head and turned away. But before he did, Lissa thought she saw a sorrow shadowing his golden-flecked eyes. A sorrow so deep there were no words to express it.
Chapter Forty-seven
“So you got your bond back after all! Oh, Elise, I couldn’t be happier for you.” Olivia grinned at her ecstatically.
All the girls were all gathered in Elise and Merrick’s new suite for brunch. It hadn’t exactly been a planned event but Elise had been too happy about her new bond not to share the news. And when Olivia had heard, she’d declared a celebration.
“Liv is so happy for you she’d jump up and down and hug you—if she could just get off the couch,” Kat said dryly. “But she’s too busy being extremely pregnant and eating creamed-spinach-and-strawberry waffles at the moment.”
“You be quiet.” Liv shook a finger at her friend sternly. “You’re going to pay for all these little comments when you get preggers yourself, you know.”
“Can’t do that until I get married, doll.” Kat winked at her.
“And she can’t get married until she works up the guts to tell her grandma she’s meeting two grooms at the altar instead of one,” Sophie, who was working the waffle iron, said.
“Look who’s talking about guts,” Kat remarked. “When are you taking that pregnancy test, Sophie?”
“Actually, I already took it,” Sophia said calmly.
“What?” they all gasped in unison.
“When?” asked Lauren.
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Olivia demanded.
“What was the result?” Elise chimed in.
“I don’t know yet.” Sophie looked uncertain. “I had Sylvan run it last night on the little machine he brought home but he said the results were inconclusive. So he took some more blood and he’s running it again at the med center today.”
“Inconclusive?” Liv frowned. “How can it be inconclusive? Either you’re pregnant or you’re not.”
“I don’t know.” Sophie looked worried. “I wish I did.”
“Oh Sophie, I'm sorry.” Kat rose and went to put an arm around her. “Are you going to be okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine.” Sophia nodded bravely. “Sylvan told me not to worry—he said everything was fine, he just…said he needed a second opinion.” She sniffed and straightened her shoulders. “But we’re not here to talk about me. I want to know how Elise got her bond with Merrick back. I thought it was supposed to be impossible since he’s a hybrid.”
“We really don’t know,” Elise said, putting down her mug of hot klava, a coffee-like drink that was popular aboard the Mother Ship. “We didn’t really have any indication, it just…well, it just happened when we, you know…”She blushed.
“And did the bonding fruit do the trick?” Kat asked, grinning.
Elise nodded. “Only I ate too much of it. I, uh, sort of overdosed. Even though you told me not to.”
“Oh, no!” Lauren put a hand to her mouth. “I did that once and I had poor Xairn up half the night trying to, uh, put out the fire, so to speak.”
Elise laughed. “Well to be honest, we only got about two or three hours sleep last night. But other than being a little sleepy, I feel great.”
“Of course you do,” Kat said dryly. “Having amazing bonding sex all night long can have that effect on a girl.”
Elise gave a satisfied sigh. “If I’d known it could be that wonderful and that we would get our bond back, I would have tried the bonding fruit a long time ago.”
“Well, maybe you weren’t quite ready,” Liv said tactfully. “And besides, how could you know?”
“I couldn’t, I guess.” Elise smiled. “It just goes to prove that dreams do come true sometimes.” She shivered. “Kind of like those weird dreams I had about Merrick back when I thought he was gone.”
“Wait a minute—what?” Olivia looked at her intently. “Say that again, Elise. What exactly did you dream?”
“Well…” Looking around, Elise saw that all eyes were fixed on her. “I just dreamed about him doing…what he was doing, I guess. You know, he was being held captive by that horrible Draven person, and I saw him…saw him torturing Merrick. But I also saw Merrick working, building the part for the ship Draven wanted so badly.”