Sought(83)

“Don’t call me that.” Lock threw him one last glance over his shoulder before he walked away. “Not anymore.”

Deep watched him go, his heart aching in his chest. He was only doing what he had to do, but it still hurt. It’s for the best though, he told himself. For Kat. For all of us.

But seeing misery in the set of his brother’s hunched shoulders, and feeling the echo of both his pain and Kat’s, it was hard to believe.





Chapter Twenty-three





“So you’re going to the Scourge home world?” Sophie’s green eyes were as wide as saucers.

“Apparently.” Kat took a scoop of the ultra-premium vanilla bean ice cream and plopped it unceremoniously onto the homemade chocolate chip cookie. Then she jammed another cookie on top and sighed. “If Baird can get us permission from the council.”

“He got it.” Olivia came into the food prep area and lifted her nose. “Mmm, you can smell those cookies all the way down the corridor.”

“Liv! These were supposed to be a surprise,” Sophie protested. “We’re making you homemade chocolate chip ice cream sandwiches but we’re not nearly done yet. These have to go into the freezer for at least an hour before…”

“Before what?” Olivia said, around a mouthful of cookie and ice cream. Her eyes rolled up in her head and she moaned, “Soooo good!”

Despite her inner turmoil, Kat couldn’t help laughing. “I swear, she’s getting worse all the time! Liv, honey, I don’t want to hurt your feelings but you need to ease up on the sweets or you and I will be able to swap clothes after the baby is born.”

“Uh-uh.” Liv shook her head and grabbed a napkin to wipe her chin. “That’s one of the nice things about carrying a Kindred baby—you don’t have to worry about weight gain.”

“You don’t?” Kat frowned. “Who told you that?”

“Sylvan,” Sophie said promptly. “He says when an Earth woman is carrying a Kindred fetus, she requires so many extra calories that she could live on Krispy Kreme donuts and Godiva truffles and not gain an ounce—the real problem is to keep yourself from losing too much weight.”

“Seriously?” Kat could scarcely believe it. But it was true that though she ate from morning until night, Liv didn’t appear to have gained a single pound. Which was really kind of unfair when you thought about it.

“Uh-huh.” Liv nodded and took another bite of the drippy ice cream sandwich. “Of course I try to get plenty of fruits and veggies too. But I’m not holding back on the stuff I like, either.” She turned to Sophie. “And these are heavenly. Thank you so much!”

“Well, you did say you were craving something sweet.” Sophie gave her a one armed hug since she was holding a dripping ice cream scoop in the other hand.

“When am I not?” Olivia laughed and nodded at the plate. “Well, go on you two—might as well dig in. I can’t eat them all but I might be tempted to try if you don’t help out.”

“Oh, all right.” With a sigh, Sophie put down her scoop and picked up a sandwich. “But you’re supposed to freeze them first.” She looked at Kat. “Have one. You better get them quick before Baird and Sylvan get home—Baird has a sweet tooth almost as bad as Liv’s.”

Kat shook her head. “You two go ahead. I’m not hungry.”

“Oh no.” Sophie put down her cookie at once and gave Kat a worried look. “Are you sick again? Did the pain come back?”

“And how did it go away in the first place?” Olivia demanded. “Was it that wise woman they took you to see or what? Now that you’re home and we’re finally all together again you have to spill.”

“I’m fine,” Kat told them, more or less truthfully. “I’m a little weak but there’s no pain.” Not yet, anyway. But she didn’t say that aloud—no point in worrying her friends when there was nothing they could do about it. “As for how the pain went away in the first place…well, remember that I told you Deep did something you’d never guess?”

Liv and Sophie gave each other a look she couldn’t interpret. “We remember, all right,” Liv said. “But neither Sophie or I could get anything about it out of Baird of Sylvan.”

Kat frowned. “Baird and Sylvan? How would they know?”

“I don’t know but they do—only they won’t tell us,” Sophie said. “Sylvan said he couldn’t reveal the past of another warrior or something like that.”

“Baird said the same thing,” Olivia chimed in.