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I glared at him. “It wasZarawho didn’t seem to know his guardian identity was to be kept a secret. She’s the one who told him. Maybe you should have notified her as well.”

Orlin rubbed his forehead. “What did Zara say to him?”

I turned and looked at Rasmus. “She told him he was like her. She announced to us both that she used to be a guardian. I thought there were no female guardians.”

“There aren’t any.”

“Don’t play semantic games with me. She has yer powers. Maybe she can’t shift and change like ya do, but she can do pretty much everything else. If I fought her today, I would have lost. Why do ya think I used yer feather?”

“I thought you got mad and told Rasmus the truth.”

I crossed my arms and rolled my eyes. “Believe me, I wanted to at first but I stopped wanting to after he laughed. It would have been cruel to take his new sense of humor away from him. Not that I like this version.”

“Why?” Orlin demanded.

I uncrossed my arms and pointed to Rasmus. “He’s still a child and nothing like the grown man I knew. I can’t bring myself to touch him. Change him back and be done with this charade. I’ll send him away from me if that’s what it takes. Anything would be better than this arrogant farce ya think I should be accepting.”

“No,” Orlin said firmly. “I promised him my support. We just need to modify his story.”

I closed my eyes and swore under my breath. “I bet everything Zara said about the lot of ya is true. If she wasn’t killing innocent people, I’d probably be on her side and invite her to dinner. Yer kind is getting a terrible reputation with yer manipulating ways.”

“We are doing what we were created to do.”

“No, ya aren’t. Ya’ve perverted the original intention because ya’re causing more harm than good. I saw Rasmus was doing the same, which is why we argued so much. It’s yer superiority complex that needs tweaking, Orlin, not the lies ya make up to cover the truth. Why don’t ya go back to yer cave and dwell on that?”

“We don’t live in caves,” Orlin said with a glare.

“I don’t care where ya live. I care about what ya do. Go dig up the other female guardians and put them into new bodies because I know ya can. What ya did to yer female counterparts would make any woman angry enough to want yer death. Strangely, all Zara seems to want is fame and glory among humans. I’ll have to ask her what she did with her murderous inclinations about ya because I’m developing more every time I see ya.”

“Helping humans is not her purpose. She wants to turn humans into Venusians. That is not acceptable.”

“That wasn’t what she said to me, but I can see how ya would think that since she still idolizes their achievements.”

Orlin blew out a breath. “Zara took a Venusian lover. He left her to evolve with the rest of his kind. She’s trying to recreate the environment where her lover once thrived hoping to find another like him. And the reason she was stripped of her guardian body is because grief drove her insane. After the humans took over Earth, she was cruel to them, as were all the females. ”

“So instead of helping them deal, ya put them down like sick dogs and convinced yerself they couldn’t be cured. I suppose that made ya feel all righteous and logical about yer actions.”

Orlin gaped at me in shock. “That wasn’t what happened.”

“Ya’re completely determined to save all yer wicked guardian offspring. Ya’ve devoted all kinds of yer precious time to mentally fixing them. Isn’t that why ya want me to lift the demon compulsion from Jack? Tell me why yer children are worthy of that much effort, but the female guardians are not.”

Orlin made a low growling sound that I snorted over.

“It’s a completely different situation,” he said.

“Yes… and it’s worse. Ya turned yer back on yer own kind, Orlin. I’ll think twice before calling on ya again.”

Orlin shook his head. “You won’t be able to win, Aran. Zara has recovered many of her powers over the years. Destroying her human body is the only thing that might save you.”

I lifted my hand. “I’m going home now, Orlin. I have to figure out how to stop Zara from killing more women. She’s already turned some into demonic animals. I have no choice except to do what I can to discourage her.”

I gathered my purse and glanced at Rasmus still slumped in the seat. “None of this was his fault. Zara froze everyone in the auditorium, but it didn’t work on me or him. Like any rational being, Rasmus wanted to know why. I suggest ya lie to him about it—something ya seem to be good at—and tell Rasmus a story he can live with. Send him back to me if ya go that route. If ya change him back to his real self, tell him I tried to do what I could, but that my brain will never work like a guardian’s. Can ya do that for me, Grandpa?”

I walked up the aisle and out of the room.

ChapterEighteen

Imade my way back to the front entrance which is where I found Conn and Mulan waiting for me. “It was smart of ya to leave when ya did. Things got weird after I called Orlin to help. Zara is a guardian—or rather was one. She kept some of her powers or found a way to gain them back. Ya saw what she did in there. She froze the audience like Rasmus froze the scientists in the lab.”