Page 3 of Dark Rover’s Luck (The Children Of The Gods #95)

3

FENELLA

A s Fenella's phone rang, she glanced at the screen, and when she saw Din's name, her heart did that annoying little flip.

"Speak of the devil," she murmured, then answered the call. "Din? Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine, and hello to you too, Fenella." There was a hint of weariness in his tone, but also amusement.

"You sound okay, which is a great relief given your bad luck lately."

"About that." He let out a sigh. "It seems your premonitions were on target."

Fenella's stomach dropped. "What happened?"

"We've just made an emergency landing. There was a landing gear malfunction, and the pilot decided that the river was the best option, and he was right. I don't want to think what would have happened if he had tried to land on the ground with no wheels."

"Is everyone alright?" she asked.

"People are obviously shaken, but no one is seriously hurt. I just wanted to warn you before you see it on the news and imagine much worse than it actually was. All the passengers are fine, and they are putting us all up in hotels for the night. We'll fly out tomorrow afternoon."

Fenella closed her eyes, a chill running through her. "That's the fourth delay."

"I know what you're thinking, but sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, lass. These things happen."

He didn't sound at all sure of that, and Fenella had a feeling he didn't believe it himself at this point. "Four times is not a coincidence. The universe is clearly trying to tell us something."

Din chuckled. "And what would that be? That I should stay away from you?"

"Yes." Fenella didn't sound convincing even to her own ears. "Not that I want you to stay away. It's just that I don't want you to die trying to get to me. Perhaps I should fly out to meet you?"

That was actually a brilliant plan. She could get out of the village without offending anyone.

There was a pause. "I'm coming to you, love. I don't want you leaving the safety of the village for me. Maybe it's the devil who is putting all those obstacles in my way because it wants to lure you out of safety."

Her first response was to laugh, but Din hadn't sounded like he was making a joke or teasing. "Do you really believe that?"

He snorted. "At this point, I don't know what to believe. Evil is real. We've all seen it. So why not the devil?"

"Aye." She nodded. "I've seen it plenty of times wearing human and immortal skin." She glanced at Jasmine, who wasn't laughing at the exchange either. "Go to the hotel, Din, and after you shower and eat something, call me again."

"I will," Din promised, and she could hear the smile in his voice. "I'll text you my updated arrival time once I have it."

"Please do."

"Talk to you soon, Fenella."

Ending the call, she found Kyra and Jasmine watching her with identical concerned expressions.

"Is he okay?" Jasmine asked.

Fenella nodded. "I hope that this was what my premonition warned me about, and nothing worse is going to happen, but I would really like for you to do that spread for me."

"Maybe the universe is just testing his commitment," Kyra offered without much conviction.

"Or maybe it's warning me away from disaster," Fenella countered.

Jasmine shook her head. "If the universe didn't want you two together, it wouldn't have arranged for us to find you while we were rescuing my mother."

"That's true," Fenella conceded. She hadn't thought of it that way. "Although I really don't want to fall into the trap of believing in destiny or some other nonsense like that. It's like putting blinders on and pretending everything is made out of rainbows and unicorns."

That was a little ironic coming from her after all her talk about bad omens. If she believed in that, she should also believe in all the sunny crap, but in her experience, there was much more of the dark than there was of the light.

Jasmine and Kyra exchanged another one of those irritating knowing glances.

"Stop that," Fenella snapped. "You two have known me for all of five minutes. You don't get to have silent conversations about my love life or lack thereof."

"Sorry," Jasmine said, not sounding remorseful at all. "It's just that you keep protesting so loudly that it's comical. You want it to be the real thing as much as Din does."

Fenella groaned. "Don't you see? That's the problem. Neither of us should turn this into a chick flick in our heads. This is real life, and we are both adults."

"That's very mature and responsible," Jasmine said, and Fenella wasn't sure if she was mocking her or being serious. "Now, about the tarot reading you asked for."

"Yes, please." Fenella steepled her fingers. "I could use some insight, even if it comes from pieces of cardboard."

"They're not just pieces of cardboard." Jasmine glared at her. "In the right hands, the cards are tools, conduits for the initiated to connect to the Goddess, to the Mother of All Life."

Apparently, Fenella had stepped on the proverbial toe. "I believe you. Otherwise, I wouldn't have asked for a reading. Sometimes, I just say things in a way that sounds offensive. I'm sorry if I insulted your beliefs."

Jasmine's shoulders lost their stiffness. "That's okay. It's just that my father used to taunt me about the cards, so I'm a little sensitive about people mocking them."

Fenella lifted her hands. "I'm not mocking, I swear, but I've never had a magical anything guiding me, and I did fine. Well, until I crossed paths with that devil-spawned Doomer, that is." She sighed. "I thought that it was the worst thing that could ever happen to me, and it was, but on the other hand, it led me to finding out who I am and this entire world of immortals, aliens, and gods."

It had also led her back to Din, but it still remained to be seen if that was a good thing or not.