touch her or hold her to provide reassurance, for he was also in warrior mode. But she felt his worry as keenly as if it were her own. And his presence next to her, their linked minds, gave her comfort though they remained physically separate.
“How is Tristan’s shoulder wound?” Eveline asked, having been briefed in the aftermath of Benji’s abduction.
“Rain wrapped him in a bandage made of zhen. He’s no longer bleeding, already back in the tech room working on the search with Ayelet and Adam. Seth is helping Jade heal, and Aella is with Cloud.”
It was fortunate that the injured warriors, at least the Immortals, were Mated. As such, they healed much faster by taking Nourishment or Sustenance from their Mates. Unfortunately for the human Chevaliers, they could only take pain killers for their aches and pains, but at least modern drugs worked on them.
“Until we pinpoint where they are, our hands are tied. We don’t even know why the Paladin took him,” Gabriel growled.
Eveline, Inanna, and Tal shared a look.
Ishtar insisted on being present also, though her stab wound obviously still pained her, the flesh barely knitted together. They all congregated back in the library as if led here by invisible hands. The answers were near, among the ancient tomes, parchment and scrolls. They all felt it.
They just didn’t know where to start looking.
“What? What did I miss?” Gabriel demanded, noticing the silent communication.
Across the wide oak table, Ishtar looked to Tal for answers as well.
“We have a good idea why Benjamin was taken,” Eveline said grimly.
Just as she uttered the words, Cloud entered the library with Aella slightly limping at his side. Rain and Valerius filed in close on their heels.
As succinctly as she could, Eveline caught them all up on Sophia’s and her revelations a couple hours ago.
“Benjamin is the Light Bringer?” Gabriel asked, frowning as he tried to make sense of it. “What does it mean? What powers does he have? Even if he possesses some great Gift, he’s only a child. And a human one at that.”
The Dark warrior with an ancient Akkadian Pure soul clenched his jaw, biting off the words that frayed gutturally at the end. They all heard what he didn’t say—my child. Though Gabriel wasn’t Benjamin’s biological father, he was the only father the boy knew.
The very best papa, Inanna’s heart cried. Despite her determination to remain stoic in the face of this crisis, she took Gabriel’s hand in hers and squeezed his fingers tightly.
Her Mate took a calming breath and continued in a steadier voice, “He wouldn’t come into his Gift until he reaches adulthood. Isn’t that the way Gifts work with Immortals? Doesn’t he also have to have an Awakening?”
Having been human in this incarnation before Inanna turned him, Gabriel was still learning the various mysteries of Immortal Kinds, especially those who were not born Pure, as his soul had been in his past life. He himself, for example, did not possess a particular Gift beyond his immortality, even when he had been a Pure One.
“I came into my Gift of foresight when I was just a few years older than Benjamin,” Tal said quietly. “It is different with each individual and each Gift.”
“We don’t know for certain if he is the Light Bringer,” Eveline reminded everyone. “Erebu could be The One as well. And I haven’t discovered any clues as to what could be the Gift—”
“My cousin marked both of them,” Cloud interjected thoughtfully, and all eyes went to him.
“You mean, White Dragon? When did that little devil come visit?” Aella asked.
“When Erebu was here, during an art session with Benjamin, the dragonfly came. You were there too, Rain. Do you recall?”
The healer’s eyes sparked with the memory.
“I recall Benjamin chasing Erebu around in the crafts room while Erebu tried to swat at some sort of buzzing insect, yes.”
“That was my cousin in dragonfly form. Remember what I told you?” Cloud turned back to Aella.
She nodded, her eyes widening in recollection as she said, “He will show us who the savior will be. A warrior dragon borne of earth.”
The total silence in the library was only disturbed by soft exhalations of surprise.
“It is thusly written in one of the three scrolls we found during our journey to the Middle East,” Cloud explained.
“When the Universal Balance needs it, a dragon warrior will appear. And I will be the one to train him, for only I have the knowledge and experience to do so, having once been a celestial