That got Reese’s attention.
“Many people love Cana on sheer instinct. Especially if they’re Varu.”
“Why?”
“I told you our wolves are everything. And the Cana is our link to them. They are the only entity we value over the Fenrir because, without them, we’re cut off from theVarana,the bridge for the wolves to cross. We have died by the tens of thousands to protect them. And we’d do so again and again.
“Because to us, Cana might as well be a living god.”
“And what Koda radiated?”
“Peace?” Dr. Dante said. “Although that seems too plain.”
“What about holy?”
Looked like Phillips might have been closer than Reese thought when she’d tried to label what he’d felt when Koda woke up.
“We thought if we could make contact with you,” Seung said, “you’d be willing to help us get Koda out.”
And the ability to save Koda would have made deception second nature for Reese.
Because, like Seung, he would have died for Koda if he thought it meant saving his life.
“But you left before we could contact you.”
“I’m sorry.” To think, these people might have been able to prevent Koda’s death.
“Don’t be,” Johnathan said. “If you’d stayed, you’d be dead.”
“Not if you’d succeeded.”
“Thanks to Paul, our plan was doomed from the start.”
“You still got the VrK.”
Johnathan leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “And it’s not what we wanted.”
“You said it wasn’t unstable.”
“It isn’t. It works flawlessly. Too flawlessly.”
How could something work too well? “In what way?”
“When the Anubis gifted the Sarvari to my ancestors, they were dead or dying or willing to die. Reproduction was left to family members who hadn’t taken a wolf.” Johnathan lifted a shoulder. “The VrK has altered the ichor to bind to living tissue. The results give us the Sarvari but it also renders us sterile. Also, like the ichor, it doesn’t work on egg-bearers.”
Reese scrunched up his nose. “Egg—what?”
“It’s what we call females with two X chromosomes,” Seung said.
Reese shook his head. “When do women not have—” He widened his eyes. “You mean—transgender.”
“Yes,” Jonathan said.
“No,” Seung said.
Reese rubbed his temple. “I’m not even sure I want to know how it can be both.”
“It can’t.” Seung shot Jonathan a look that practically dared him to contradict her.