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FENELLA

Life in the immortals' village was good, Fenella decided as she stirred a packet of sugar into her cappuccino cup. Spending a Sunday afternoon in the outdoor café with her new best friends and exchanging flirtatious smiles with hunky immortal males was a very pleasant way to pass the time.

After spending the last fifty years believing that she was some kind of anomaly and roving from place to place to avoid discovery, Fenella was now surrounded by other immortals like her, and it was all thanks to the two women sharing her table in this lovely café.

She owed everything to this mother-daughter duo.

If Jasmine hadn't arrived with an immortal and Kra-ell cavalry to free Kyra, Fenella would still be a prisoner in the hands of that monster who'd called himself a doctor.

As a shiver ran through her, she imagined pushing the horrific memories to a dark corner of her mind, closing the door on them, and throwing away the key.

There was no point in dwelling on the past. She should enjoy the present instead.

The lunch crowd was thinning out, the residents moving on to whatever activities immortals indulged in when they weren't plotting world-saving missions or running from evil Doomers and other boogeymen.

God knew there were many of those, and the monster doctor was just one example in an ocean of them.

That was why Fenella doubted that this place was as idyllic as it looked. Every inch of the village was meticulously maintained, and everyone was too bloody good-looking and cheerful. Frankly, she preferred the Kra-ell with their somber faces and pent-up violent energy. They looked dangerous, deadly even, and they didn't bother with trying to look civilized and harmless like the immortals.

"Earth to Fenella." Jasmine waved her hand in front of her face. "You've gone from looking content like a happy kitten to frowning like the sky is about to fall."

Fenella winced. "Not a good analogy given that Din is in the air right now."

The guy had had a crush on her fifty years ago, and despite every possible obstacle fate had thrown in his way, he was still adamant about reuniting with her. It was flattering, but it was also worrisome. Fenella had learned to listen when fate joined hands with intuition to warn her against this or that.

Not that it always worked. Failing to realize that the charming, good-looking guy who'd called himself a doctor was the devil incarnate hadn't been the first mistake she'd ever made. It hadn't been the second either.

There had been quite a few of them.

"Are you worried?" Kyra asked.

"I am, but that's not why I was frowning. I was just thinking how bloody nice everyone and everything here is, and that it can't be real. The funny thing is that the aliens are the ones who look normal. They are not as sickeningly saccharine as the immortals."

"You mean the Kra-ell?" Jasmine asked. "Because, for your information, we are all aliens here. Well, part aliens is a more accurate description. We are mostly human with a little godly mixed in."

Fenella waved a hand. "Of course, I mean the Kra-ell. They are the ones who look alien."

"I think you are just stressed because of Din." Kyra took a sip of her coffee. "And I don't blame you for being anxious. I don't know much about international travel, but I've never heard of anyone encountering so much trouble to get from one place to another, and I've spent the last twenty-three years in the Kurdish resistance, so that's saying something."

Kyra was right, and Fenella knew that her irritation stemmed more from concern about Din's travel troubles than from the village being too perfect. It had been one thing after another, but the stubborn guy insisted that the universe was not trying to tell him to stay home. In his view, the universe was piling up difficulties to make him work harder to reach her, so he could prove to her that he was serious this time.

As if he hadn't been serious before and hadn't shunned his best friend for fifty years because that friend had supposedly stolen her.

It was sweet, and she wanted to believe that Din was right about the universe just testing his resolve, but that nagging churning in her stomach said otherwise. Something bad was going to happen, and her gut knew it.

"Was this the third or fourth delay?" Jasmine asked.

"It's the third." Fenella leaned back in her chair, crossing her arms. "First, it was the accident on the way to the airport, then the next flight was canceled because of some mechanical problems, and then a storm hit, and all outgoing flights from Edinburgh were canceled." She shook her head. "Though I don't understand why I'm worrying so much about someone I can barely remember." She waved a hand. "Look at all these guys. I can have my pick. Why am I waiting for a man who already has a bad track record with me?"

"You're curious." Kyra cast her a knowing look. "You need to see the guy who's spent five decades obsessing over you."

"Yeah," Fenella admitted. "I guess that's as good of an explanation as any. But enough about my non-existent love life." She gave Kyra a knowing smile. "Tell us how the meeting with your ex-husband went."

Kyra lifted her coffee cup and took a sip. "It went well. Eva's disguise worked flawlessly, making me look the age he expected me to be, and he didn't suspect anything. Poor Boris has been blaming himself for my disappearance throughout all these years, thinking that I was dead, so he was very happy to see that I was alive and well. I think I gave him closure and got some for myself." She smiled. "I felt like I couldn't really start my new life with Max before tying up that loose end. I also did it for Jasmine. She deserves to have both parents for a change, and I told Boris that I intend for us to visit him from time to time. It made him happy."

Jasmine nodded. "We all need healing. I would love to improve my relationship with my father. We were practically estranged."