Hidden Heirs and Fallen Crowns (Complete)

Chapter 32

A/N:

Another dedic. for DanielleElizabeth604 for voting all the way through, thanks!! :P

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"He's not dead!" I said, rushing up from the sofa. "He's not dead!"

I met Jasmine half way to the kitchen, and she regarded me with alarm. "Relax, Suz, it's alright. Who's not dead?"

I grabbed her wrist and dragged her to the table, where Zed lay. It must have been the middle of the night, as I could see the shining crescent moon hanging in the pitch black sky from the window.

"He's not dead," I kept repeating. "He's not dead."

"We figured that he's not dead, thank you," Mark noted from the other side of the kitchen. "Anything else you found in the underworld?"

I stared at him in confusion, and quickly came to the conclusion that Jasmine must have explained the whole Hades and the underworld situation. "No, I mean I know he's not dead, but I saw Blade!"

The sound of steel against steel reached my ears, and I turned to find Jasmine with a sword in her hand, looking around. "Where?" she demanded.

I almost laughed. "No, not here, in my dream!"

She raised here eyebrow at me. "Really, Suzanne. In your dream?"

"Look, I'm serious!" I insisted. "He said that Kryden didn't let his assassins die of 'mere human wounds' or something. Like there's something that doesn't let sword cuts kill them. That's why," I added, nodding in Zed's direction, "he's not dead. Like Mark said, there's something stopping them. Something Kryden must have designed."

I had their full attention now. "Did Blade say anything about what it was in particular?" Mark asked.

I replayed the dream in my mind for a moment. "No, I don't think so," I concluded. "Just said that they don't die of wounds."

"So it must be something in their body," Jasmine said more to herself than anyone else. She started pacing the kitchen again. "A chemical, maybe? But how does that stop a physical cut in their body ... I mean, it seems pretty far-fetched ..." She kept going on, ruling out impossible theories and mulling over possible ones. I tuned her voice out after a while.

After sitting down and waiting for Jasmine to come up with an explanation, I did the first thing that came into my mind. I got up, and walked towards Zed. Leaning over him, I assessed his wound.

Then I did again.

"Er, Jasmine?" I said.

She ignored me, waving her hand in my direction to silence me. "Fine, be like that," I muttered. I turned to Mark. "Mark, look at this."

He walked over, and peered at Zed's wound. His brows knitted together. "Jasmine." His voice was impossible to ignore, and she looked up, still seeming distracted. "Yeah?"

I placed my hands on my hips. "Oh, so that's how it is, is it?" I said. She didn't even notice me, her mind still in the midst of her possible theories. "Fine! Ignore me," I added. She did, again. "Pfff, whatever."

"Look at Zed's wound," Mark ordered.

Jasmine did. Then she did a double take. "Wow, wow, wow, what the hell happened?"

"It shrunk," I said. "It's healing. That's the chemical in their body. It heals the wounds." I looked towards Zed. "He must be in a frozen state for the chemical to work. That's what Blade meant."

Jasmine's mouth opened in a small 'O' of understanding, while Mark just nodded approvingly.

"It makes sense," he pointed out. "It makes perfect sense. Just a little ... advanced on the biotechnology, but that's hardly a surprise."