Page 49 of Dark Rebel’s Reckoning (The Children Of The Gods #93)

49

MAX

M ax leaned against the glass railing with his phone clutched in his hand, gazing at the street below without really seeing it.

After fifty years of silence between him and Din, he wondered if Din had his number in his contacts, even though William and his team regularly updated everyone's phones. Knowing Din, the guy had erased Max's contact information out of spite after every update.

If he had, it would be an advantage because he wouldn't know who was calling him and would have to answer to find out. It was the middle of the night in Scotland, which would also work in Max's favor since Din would hopefully be confused.

The strategy was shock and awe—blast Din with the incredible news before the guy could say a single word or hang up.

Max hit the call button and waited to deliver the opening he'd rehearsed in his mind. The phone rang a few times, then stopped, replaced by a groggy, "Hello?"

After all this time, Din's voice was unmistakable even when thick with sleep.

"I found Fenella and she's immortal." Max rushed the words out before Din could fully wake up and realize who was calling. "She was a Dormant, and I must have induced her unknowingly."

The silence that followed stretched so long that Max wondered if the connection had dropped. He checked his screen, and the call was still active.

"Din? You there?"

"Say that again." Din's voice had lost its sleepiness, replaced with a razor-sharp focus that Max remembered all too well.

"I found Fenella," he repeated, more slowly this time. "She transitioned after we were together fifty years ago, and now she is immortal."

Another pause, shorter this time. "Where did you find her?"

Max exhaled, relief flooding through him. Din was still on the line, which was more than he'd dared to hope for. His tactic had worked—curiosity about Fenella had overridden five decades of stubborn silence.

"In Iran," Max said, leaning against the terrace railing. "We were on a rescue mission to extract Jasmine's mother, you know who I'm talking about, right?"

"I know who Jasmine is. I don't know anything about her mother."

Fair enough. The news about the rescue mission must not have reached Scotland yet.

"Jasmine's mother, Kyra, was being held in a compound in northern Iran. Syssi had visions about her, and we mounted a rescue operation. When we got there, I found Fenella imprisoned in the same facility."

Max deliberately kept his tone neutral, sticking to the bare facts. Din didn't need to hear the details of what they'd found—the state Fenella had been in, chained to a metal bed and heavily drugged. That was Fenella's story to tell, if she chose to.

"Is she okay?" Din asked.

"She's fine, physically," Max said carefully. "But she's been through a lot." He paused, uncertain how much to reveal. "She's worried about Doomers going after her family and she asked me to call you so you can check on them."

"She did? She remembered me?"

"Vividly." Max didn't add that she'd called Din an asshole. It would have been counterproductive right now.

There was another long moment of silence. "Why would Doomers target her family?"

Max grimaced. There was no delicate way to explain this part. "The Doomer who held her captive was trying to create his own breeding program with the two immortal females he'd found, Kyra and Fenella, and he also abducted four of Kyra's nieces because he figured out they were Dormants. Toven got him to reveal that he sent his buddies to collect more of Kyra's family members, and even though he didn't mention doing the same in regard to Fenella's family, she's worried her brother's children might be in danger."

"Fates," Din muttered. "How did he know about her family?"

"She told him that she had only one brother and no sisters, and that her mother had no sisters either, but she was drugged during interrogations, and she's concerned she might have said other things. You know how it is in situations like this. People say what their captors want to hear just to stop the pain."

"She was tortured?"

Max winced. He'd said too much, but it was too late to take it back. "Yes."

"Where is she now?" Din's voice sounded slurred, and Max imagined his friend's fangs punching over his lower lip.

"She and the other rescued women are at the keep in Kian's old penthouse but will be transferred to the village soon."

"I'll check on her brother and his family," Din said. "And then I'm booking a flight to California."

A big grin spread across Max's face. "Good. That's what I wanted to hear. It's about damn time you removed the stick from your ass and did the right thing. If you'd done this fifty years ago, we might have realized that she'd transitioned, and you could have been with her this whole time."

The unspoken hung between them—all the hardships Fenella might have been spared if they'd known about her transformation and brought her into the clan's protection.

There was another long moment of silence, and Max imagined Din's face hardening after hearing the uncomfortable truth.

"Are you sure you're not interested in her yourself?" Din surprised him with the question. "You always were a competitive bastard, and immortal females who aren't our relatives are too rare to give up so easily."

The question was fair, given their history. "I have absolutely no interest in Fenella other than friendship. I'm only interested in Kyra. In fact, I think I'm falling in love with her."

Din snorted. "You? Falling in love? I'll believe it when I see it."

"A word of warning. Fenella is just as snarky as she was fifty years ago, maybe snarkier, if that's possible."

"That was one of the things I loved about her," Din admitted. "It also made her intimidating as hell to approach."

"Look deeper than what she projects to the world," Max advised. "Fenella is hurting on the inside. She needs someone she can trust not to hurt her emotionally or in any other way."

"When did you get so insightful?" Din asked.

"Five hundred years of pissing people off and ruining relationships teaches you a thing or two. I'm still an asshole, but I'm trying harder not to be. Just don't tell anyone. I've got a reputation to maintain."

Din laughed. "Your secret's safe with me."

"Thank you. I'll tell Fenella that you are going to check on her brother and his family. Her parents passed away, naturally."

"Thank you for saving her. I owe you."

Max let out a breath, the gratitude in his old friend's voice making something in his chest loosen—a knot of tension he'd been carrying for fifty years. "You don't owe me. I just corrected a wrong and I hope that we can be friends again. I've missed you, bro."

"Can't say that I missed you, but maybe we can start over."

Ouch, that hurt. "I'd like that."

"I'll call you after checking on Fenella's brother."

"Thanks. See you in the village."

"Yeah." Din ended the call.

Max leaned his elbows on the railing and took a moment to process. The conversation had gone better than he could have hoped. Not only had Din not hung up on him, but they'd managed to navigate the complicated minefield of their shared past without reigniting old hostilities.

Best news was that Din was coming for Fenella. Hopefully, he wouldn't be disappointed.

Max headed back inside with a lighter heart than he'd had in years. The living room was a flurry of activity, with shopping bags and boxes strewn across every surface. The girls were nowhere to be seen, likely in their rooms trying on their new wardrobes, but Fenella and Jasmine and Ell-rom were there.

"Well?" she demanded as soon as he closed the sliding door behind him. "Did he hang up on you?"

Max couldn't suppress his triumphant grin. "Not only did he not hang up, but he's checking on your brother and his family, and then he's flying out here to see you."

For a moment, Fenella just stared at him, and then, to his astonishment, her face lit up with genuine pleasure—not the sardonic smile he'd grown accustomed to, but something brighter and more vulnerable.

"Really? You're not shitting me?"

"I'm not," Max confirmed. "He sounded quite eager."

Fenella rose to her feet and before Max could react, she threw her arms around him in a fierce hug that nearly knocked him back a step.

"Thank you," she said, her voice was muffled against his chest.

Touched by her uncharacteristic display of emotion, Max returned the hug, awkwardly patting her back before she pulled away, looking almost embarrassed by her reaction.