The Return of the Gods (Children of the Sun Book 1)

Chapter 23

It had taken Kaleth almost half an hour to find the only remaining laptop in the mansion. For some reason, Rayni had thought that hiding it under a pillow on the couch in the living room was a good idea. Kaleth shouldn't have tried to be considerate and should have just woken her up and asked where the laptop was before he had even started looking.

While he began searching for suspicious apartment buildings in Ghera, Mel mopped up the floor to get rid of the blood Kaleth had somehow managed to ignore completely until then, and went then to explore the house, coming back often to tell Kaleth about the amazing features that he had found. It would be quite amusing if not for the fact that Mel was amazed by absolutely ordinary things—such as electric toothbrushes. It was a bit sad that he'd never seen things like this in person, but Kaleth didn't want to ruin the Eternal's mood, so he just smiled or added an explanation when he asked about the things he didn't understand.

Once Mel found books and told him that he'd never read one, Kaleth tried not to choke on his coffee and pity him. Instead, just recommended the first book in the Sentra Lenohl series. Mostly because it wasn't too depressing or deep, and it seemed like a lighthearted fantasy adventure would be the kind of book that Mel might enjoy.

"Is this it?" Mel asked when he came back, showing Kaleth the familiar hardcover book that was no doubt the same one he had read many times when he'd been young. That was the only reason the book was even here. His father didn't see books without deep philosophical pondering as worth reading, much less keeping around.

"Yes," Kaleth confirmed, about to add that if Mel didn't like it, Kaleth would just recommend something else. However, before he even opened his mouth, Mel was already reading with a look of wonder on his face. Kaleth smiled to himself and just went back to work without saying anything. He would probably like it anyway. The poor thing had no frame of reference, so even bad books would probably seem good to him.

They spent the next several hours in a companionable silence without either of them realizing how much time had passed. Kaleth was so invested in what he was doing in fact that he hadn't even noticed it was morning already, not until Mel pointed it out to him.

"This was great!" Mel announced suddenly, closing said book and looking fondly at its cover. Then his smile faded. "I kinda want to go read the second book."

Kaleth blinked. "You've already finished it?" Mel was a fast reader, then. "Well, I'm sure it's here somewhere. I bought all five of them."

"Oh, no, I mean it's almost six o'clock, so I should go make breakfast, right?"

Kaleth blinked in surprise once more. "You can cook?"

"Kinda. I don't have that much money, so I couldn't afford to buy cookware, but I've watched a lot of cooking shows, so I think I can make something simple. Pancakes are okay for breakfast, right?"

Kaleth raised an eyebrow as Mel pulled out a pan from somewhere and started looking for ingredients. Deciding that it would probably be better if he kept an eye on Mel to make sure he didn't set the house on fire, he closed the laptop and found an online recipe. He was basically done with the research anyway. He had identified the apartment building, and there was no way to figure out which apartment Nira and Nef were in from here, so there wasn't much else to do.