The Husband With many Identities

Ch 6 - Come With Me

Danaya lowered the photograph.

“My grandmother became ill after you disappeared,” she said. “The scandal damaged her health and gave my relatives an excuse to question my position. Garrick has been using your disappearance to demand control of the family and our Energy Bank holdings.”

Akeel gave her no reply.

Her family’s problems had nothing to do with him. However, the man in the photograph did.

Someone in Virelia had his exact face and name.

Akeel needed to learn who that man was.

He also understood why Danaya refused to believe him. Her missing fiancé had already run once. Any denial would sound like another attempt to escape.

The Valcrest guards had made a serious mistake. They had acted on a portrait and a first name. They had not investigated the life Akeel had built.

They did not know his registered surname. They did not know about the Second Spark Workshop or his public Level One status. They knew nothing about the identities he kept hidden.

Akeel intended to keep it that way.

A crystal on Danaya’s wrist flashed red.

She activated it at once.

A man’s frightened voice came through the crystal.

“Lady Danaya, Madam Seraphine’s core has collapsed again,” the man reported. “Chief Healer Odran and his team are with her, but the preservation field is losing power. They have already used twenty high-grade Energy Vials. Chief Odran believes she may not survive another hour.”

Danaya gripped the edge of the table.

“How long has she been unconscious?” Danaya asked.

“Nearly fifteen minutes,” the man replied. “She has not responded to any treatment.”

“Prepare the emergency reserves,” Danaya ordered. “Give the healers every vial they request. I am returning now.”

Danaya ended the connection and opened the door.

The captain and two guards waited in the hall.

“Prepare the hover car,” Danaya ordered. “We are going to the main residence.”

The captain bowed and left with one of the guards.

Akeel picked up his coat.

Danaya watched him put it on.

“You are coming with me,” she said. “My grandmother spent months waiting for her future grandson-in-law to return. If you truly are my fiancé, she deserves to see you. If you are not, I will determine that after her condition becomes stable.”

“Taking the wrong man to a dying woman will not comfort her,” Akeel replied. “It may make her condition worse.”

“I will not present you to her unless she wakes,” Danaya said. “You will remain outside the healing chamber. For now, I cannot leave you here or allow you to disappear before my people confirm your identity.”

Danaya had finally given him a clear answer.

She was not taking him because she believed he possessed medical knowledge. She wanted to keep him under guard while she dealt with the emergency.

Akeel could have refused.

The guards outside would not have stopped him. Neither would the estate barrier.

Then he sensed a disturbance passing through the silver energy lines in the walls.

The main residence was drawing power from every available reserve. Large amounts of energy were flowing toward one part of the estate, but the flow kept breaking apart.

Someone’s core was failing.

Akeel closed his coat.

“I will come,” he said. “But your guards will keep their hands to themselves.”

The remaining guard moved toward him.

Danaya raised one hand and stopped the man.

“He agreed to walk,” she said. “Do not touch him unless he tries to escape.”

Akeel followed Danaya through the estate.

The guards believed she had forced him to cooperate.

Danaya believed she was preventing her missing fiancé from running again.

Neither of them knew that Akeel had already decided to remain.

The hover car waited outside.

Danaya sat near the door while two guards took the seats across from Akeel. No one spoke during the journey.

Akeel watched Asterra through the window.

Crystal towers rose above the northern district. Energy rails carried public hover cars between the buildings. Glowing advertisements floated over the crowded streets.

Every light and machine required energy.

Every Energy Vial had been produced from a human core.

In Virelia, stronger people could produce more energy. That energy could be stored in banks, transferred through cards, or written into checks.

Power created wealth.

House Valcrest possessed both.

The hover car passed through another set of guarded gates and stopped before the family’s main residence.

Servants rushed across the entrance hall carrying cases of charged Energy Vials. Healers called for more supplies from the upper floor. An emergency alarm pulsed through the walls.

A servant met Danaya near the stairs.

“Lady Danaya, Chief Odran has used thirty high-grade vials,” the servant reported. “Madam Seraphine’s core is no longer responding. The healers are trying to maintain the preservation field, but it may fail at any moment.”

“Take me to her.” Danaya ordered.

The servant led her upstairs.

A guard motioned for Akeel to follow.

He could have remained in the entrance hall. He could have left through the open doors before anyone noticed.

Instead, Akeel followed Danaya while the guards remained behind him.

He wanted to see the failing core for himself.

At the end of the upper hall, two large doors stood open.

The room beyond them had been converted into a private healing chamber.

Seraphine Valcrest lay motionless at its center.