Devotion (Chosen by the Karal #5)(27)

“Okil? Now, that was a surprise. Darl told Marin last night. Marin then kept it from me. Can you believe that?”

“If I hadn’t, you would have been over here at midnight. And I expect your sister and Okil had other things on their mind,” Marin said, his polite inflection not lost on either woman.

If only you knew, thought Tikki, hoping that Charlie would keep himself hidden. Although she trusted her sister, the more people who knew about Charlie, the harder it would be to keep him a secret. Although she did want to see if Elissa knew anything about the new life Sienna had with her pent. It was looking more likely that the whole thing was a lie, and Elissa might just know something that may shed light on what Sienna was doing. And how she’d ended up caring for Charlie.

Taking a risk, but knowing that time was not on their side, she asked Elissa in. “I have no idea how anything works, maybe you can show me.” She led Elissa to the kitchen.

“Listen, I have some errands to run. Why don’t I pick you up in an hour?” Marin said, looking between the two of them and realising that if he stayed he would be subject to an hour of sisterly catch-up chitchat.

“Great idea, Marin,” Elissa went to him and kissed his lips. “I’ll see you soon. Just don’t be too long.” Elissa touched her belly again and said to Tikki, “We have a scan this morning. It’s why Darl came over, to let me know he is back. And with Reja too. Who would have thought we would all be here together?”

“Who would have thought?” Tikki said absently. She hadn’t banked on Marin leaving them alone. Now she was bursting to ask Elissa what she knew about Sienna and even considered telling her about Charlie. But would it put her sister in danger?

“So, let’s make some tole and then you can tell me how exactly you and Okil came to be an item,” Elissa said, taking cups from the cupboard and showing Tikki how to make the coffeelike drink. “It’s easy; you just have to make sure you don’t put in too much of the powder.”

“While you do that, would you excuse me, I just have to go to the bathroom,” Tikki said, taking the opportunity to go and check on Charlie.

“Sure. It takes a couple of minutes to brew.” Elissa made herself busy, while Tikki went back to the bedroom and shut the door.

Going to the bathroom, she opened the door quietly and was thankful to see Charlie still where she had left him. “Come on. It’s only my sister, so I think you will be safe on the bed. Wait there quietly, and as soon as she has gone, we can go and look in the garden. Is that OK?”

Charlie nodded. He showed no sign of wanting to speak, and dived under the covers as soon as he could, pulling them up over his head. Tikki was pleased that she couldn’t tell he was there, but felt a pang of guilt for not sharing this with her sister. Then she thought of Harri and knew her sister had kept personal stuff to herself. It was what you did to protect people, she was realising that now.

Still, she had to find out what Elissa knew about Sienna.

“So, tell.” Elissa passed a cup of tole to Tikki.

“Well, after you left, Okil came to visit. He wanted to make sure I was OK and to let me know that you were happy with Marin. You know, not having contact with you was hard. So I was extremely grateful, especially when it was my fault you were here.”

“I must admit I got lucky. It was scary at first, being the only human on Karal, and knowing that I was chosen on purpose.” Elissa let her eyes drift up to Tikki’s. “I don’t know if Okil told you that they thought I was a threat to them?”

“No. He didn’t.” It wasn’t a lie, Darl had told her about Elissa’s involvement with the resistance.

“I never knew how much he knew. Lytril, the Hier Ruler, keeps a lot to himself.” She sipped her tole. “I was involved with the resistance.”

“Why?” Tikki had never expected the conversation to get to this point so quickly.

“I got caught up in with a group of people who thought the Karal had come to Earth to enslave us. When I realised I was just being used, I left. The whole thing was stupid, and I should have told you, but I wanted to forget about it. I was ashamed.” Elissa wiped a tear away. “Pregnancy hormones, they make me a blubbering fool.”

“No. I’m glad you told me. Although some of it, I did know. But not from anyone here.”

Elissa looked up at Tikki. “Then who told you?”

“I … I had a visit.” Tikki was still trying to gauge how much to tell Elissa.

Elissa’s face went pale. “A visit from who?”

“Harri.”

Her sister put her hand to her mouth. “Oh, Tikki, I am sorry. He came to see me at the hospital, tried to get me to be a spy for them. He even gave me a stim, poison, in case I wanted to end my life. I swear I never thought he would drag you into all of this.”

“He didn’t. But he is the reason I am here.”

“I don’t understand, I thought Okil was the reason you are here.” Elissa’s face was serious now.

“He is.” Tikki put her face in her hands. The whole story was bubbling up inside her, and she needed to share it with Elissa to get some answers.

“What is it?” Elissa asked softly.

“Harri came to see me the day before I came here. He was looking for something.” This was it: did she tell her sister about Charlie, or not? “It had to do with Sienna.”