Dark Choices - I. T. Lucas Page 0,15

shook her head. “Not today, darling. I need to rush home.”

Syssi frowned. “Since when are you in a hurry to get back to the house when Dalhu isn’t there? As long as there is light out, he’ll be painting outdoors. He won’t be back until it gets dark.”

“I want to prepare a surprise for him.” Amanda winked and sauntered away.

Syssi frowned. “I wonder what she has in mind. Amanda doesn’t cook, so it can't be that she wants to prepare a romantic dinner for the two of them. If she wanted that, she would have called Onidu and told him to prepare it for them.” Syssi shrugged. “Maybe she did call him and didn’t tell me about it.”

Edna had a feeling that Amanda’s rush had nothing to do with surprising her mate, and that was even without sending out her ghostly feelers. Something was troubling Amanda, and as was her habit, she didn’t share her troubles with anyone. Annani’s youngest daughter liked to show the world only what she believed was her best side. She hid her pain and her disappointments and put a brave face on it.

But if Amanda wished to hide whatever was troubling her from Syssi, she could count on Edna to keep her observations to herself. “Perhaps she has something more carnal in mind.”

“I guess.” Syssi smiled. “That’s usually what’s on her mind.”

The worst time in Amanda’s life had been when she’d lost her son, and Edna still remembered it vividly. Amanda had been a different person back then, and the tragedy had changed her forever. The diva that everyone saw now had been born from the ashes of the old Amanda.

The truth was that Edna admired her. It might have started as an act, but over time it had become a part of Amanda, and instead of endlessly wallowing in her grief like Edna was doing, she had rebuilt her life.

“Are you still going to join me in the café?” Syssi started toward the elevators.

“Of course. I want to hear what Kian plans to build without informing the council or asking our opinions.”

Syssi cast her an apologetic glance. “He can’t summon the council for every little decision. As it is, he’s severely overworked and barely has any downtime. Imagine how much worse it would be if he needed to convene the council on a daily basis.” She smiled. “I doubt you or the other council members would appreciate it either. You are all busy with your own work and responsibilities.”

“That’s true. But he could at least email us a memo. I don’t appreciate finding out about a new building project by following the delivery truck.”

“You’ve got a point.” Syssi found a table in the shade and waved hello at Wendy and Wonder. “Look at that girl. She’s like a different person.”

Edna was ashamed to admit that she hadn’t noticed because she hadn’t been paying attention, but Syssi was right. The girl didn’t stop smiling, and she was chattering happily with her customers as if serving them was her favorite thing to do.

“I didn’t expect Wendy to be so social.”

“That’s the power of love.” Syssi sighed. “It seems to be even more transformative than the activation of immortal genes.”

The subject of love was the last thing Edna wanted to talk or even think about. “So what is Kian building?”

“He is not building yet. The Chinese crew wouldn’t come just to put up the fence, and he didn’t want to hire locals to do that. So, he decided to prepare fifty more plots for future homes. More bang for the buck. They are only charging us for the grading and prep work and are putting the fence up for free.”

“Unless you know something that I don’t, we don’t need fifty additional plots. Most of the houses in the new phase are unoccupied.”

“That’s about to change. Kian hopes that the majority of the new couples will choose to live in the village, and with Merlin’s help, we can expect many new babies. They will need larger homes. We don’t have enough three-bedroom houses. I suggested that we add a third bedroom to several of the existing ones, but Kian doesn’t want the crews to work on phase one. He wants the main portion of the village isolated from outsiders.”

“Oh, yeah?” Edna crossed her arms over her chest. “And what are Kalugal’s men? Insiders?”

Syssi grimaced. “They are something in between. At least they are immortals like us. But that’s another reason for the building project. The new couples will