Losing Ares (Ares Ascending Book 2) by Kim Conrey

Author:Kim Conrey [Conrey, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Published: 2023-10-11T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 29

JOSEF

Josef walked into the compound garden with seven-year-old Rory on his shoulders. He reached up to the child and spun him down and around, as he had many times. Together, they gathered the last of the tomatoes from the vines and placed them in the bag.

Josef heard stones cracking against each other on the other side of the yard as Goliath, the largest of the children, started in on the stacks of rock that Evangeline had pulled from the ground for him after he’d smashed all the rocks he could find nearby. All the children had boiling fast metabolisms, and Goliath needed the physical release.

Kailani and Cordelia disappeared for hours at a time in the large pool they’d built near the compound; they could hold their breath for nearly 45 minutes, even longer if need be. The golden-eyed twins, due to a natural Mars mutation, Sabre and Favor, could channel light through their bodies, due to the genomic tampering, and they were just beginning to understand what that meant, other than being able to light up the darkness. Jung was a telekinetic as was Evangeline, who also bore the burden of extreme empathy. Martin and Levi each had an incredible head for math. At six, they devoured equations but had no physical manifestation of power. Rory, who had a gift for healing, seldom ventured out on his own. He stayed close to Josef and watched, always. He watched Josef, the others, animals, always looking for an opportunity to relieve suffering. His gift could work in reverse. Mikhail pointed that out many times. Josef had refused to allow him to be used in that way at such a young age; perhaps once he was older and needed to defend himself.

“Tell me about my name again, Father Josef,” the little, red-headed boy said to his caregiver.

Josef smiled every time he or the other children called him Father Josef. He was certainly no priest. One of them wanted to call him father, but he wasn’t their father, though he’d been raising many of them since birth—they’d even taken on a slight Russian accent from being in his care. The children heard others call him Josef, a name he liked because he so admired Josef of the Holy Family who had raised the Blessed Messiah so selflessly.

At some point, one child had combined the two. It had caught on with the ten children, and it felt right to him. These children were small messiahs, not yet aware of their glorious potential. They thought their abilities were normal. The miraculous strength, budding telekinesis, imperviousness to heat or cold, being able to breathe underwater, read auras, and who knew what was yet to emerge. The children had various incarnations of these gifts, all fascinating.

He, Aldric, and Mikhail had found that altering one gene often enhanced others and brought surprising results. He saw it with all the children there and was sure the ones that had escaped them: Harlow, Safia, Tara, and Tamar’s children would be the same.

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