Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) (7 page)

“Thank you, Mr. Willep,” Kailin said and turned to follow the boy struggling with the keys while his two hands held the trunk. It was a small trunk, but heavy, and the boy’s arms were thin.

“Much obliged,” Jackson said, tipped his hat and stepped forward. Without a word, he took the trunk from the boy, placating him with a few words in Arabic. Jackson nodded for him to proceed and the boy waved them to follow. Jackson’s own duffle slung against his narrow hips as he walked ahead of Kailin. Occasionally he glanced back to ascertain she was still there.

“Don’t fear, Mr. Black,” Kailin called. “I will scream if anyone tries to abduct me on the way to the room.”

“Just making sure you’re not ducking alone down any more alleys on the way,” he shot back. Several bystanders stared and Kailin almost laughed at their open-mouthed reaction to their banter. Really, current mores were so ridiculous. Perhaps that’s why she much preferred studying long dead societies to the annoyingly alive one she lived within.

With curious eyes taking in her every gesture and glance, Kailin kept her gaze level with the back of Jackson’s neck where his hair touched his broad shoulders. The way the muscles played through his shirt as he hauled their luggage was stimulating enough. She pursed her lips and fought to keep her gaze from sliding down to where she knew his pants lay in a perfect fit. If she wasn’t careful all the ferns in the hotel would shrivel with the irritating heat the man lit in her. She’d never before had such a reaction to an individual. Even embarrassed or irritated at the parade of eligible men Anthony and Bruce insisted she be exposed to, she didn’t lose control of her magic. Jackson Black was different. He loosened the tight knots she purposely tangled around her talent and he’d been clever enough to see through her necessary façade.

Kailin clamped a tight cage around her reaction and chilled herself from the inside out. At this rate, she’d have to take a nap before dinner.

Room 302 looked like any other simple suite. Kailin strode through the confines of the walls to the balcony doors, swinging them wide to the dry open air. She leaned against the rail and overlooked a tamed central garden. A trickling waterfall fed a rock pond with large goldfish. Wrought iron tables with chairs sat at random intervals amongst the manicured beds set apart by an inlaid stone path. Quaint, pretty, but more importantly… Kailin glanced upwards at the empty sky. Open.

Kailin glanced at the breadth of the small balcony. It was big enough to accommodate some cushions from the lounge inside. Yes, she’d be comfortable enough here. She turned to investigate her father’s old room.

Jackson stood by the open door. Avil waited in the corridor. Jackson walked to the rail and leaned over. “Three floors up. Safe enough.”

“Apparently not for my father,” Kailin answered and began her inspection of the room. “They must have come through the door. Were there signs of forced entry?” she asked Avil.

His eyes grew wide, confused. She repeated her question in Arabic. Avil shook his head, eyes still wide as moons.

“I did not see,
madam
, but I did not have to repair the door afterwards,” the boy supplied and glanced at the door jamb as if looking for evidence. He shook his head and looked back at her. “No broken wood.”

Kailin nodded, her bun rubbing against her nape. She reached behind and cupped her neck to soothe the ache already building there. She turned to survey the rest of the orderly room. Several potted ferns and a miniature palm stood in corners. Green curtains tied back around a regular-sized bed with matching coverlet and plump rust-colored pillows. A small chandelier in orange and burnt-umber cut glass hung just off the footboard over a wooden chest. She lifted the lid. Extra blankets and a robe sat folded inside. Several paintings depicting Egyptian artifacts hung about the room and a water pitcher with basin perched on a wooden table near the balcony door. A rich rug in a matching palette covered the polished wood floor. No obvious sign of scuffle. Kailin bent to the rug and lifted it. Dust, crumbs, but nothing else.

A silent movement on the balcony accompanied Avil’s gasp and Jackson’s chuckle. “Your pet has found you again.”

Kailin straightened. Tuto perched on the rail, his head swiveling in a disjointed perusal of his new roost. She smiled. “He’s never far from me.”

She turned toward Jackson, the smile still in place. His grin relaxed and their gazes locked for a full breath. Kailin blinked several times while the flutters in her stomach made it hard to inhale fully. Jackson shook his head but didn’t say anything. He gestured to the boy who clutched the side of the door jamb, his body half out in the hall. “I suppose you’re safe enough for now,” Jackson murmured. He gestured to Avil. “On to room 206. I will see you below for dinner at seven?”

“I will eat in,” she said. It was definitely best to keep her distance.

“Rather closed in here. There’s a cool breeze that comes from the wharf as the sun drops. It’s more refreshing along the front promenade.”

“Hmmm…” Kailin hesitated, feeling the trail of perspiration gathering under the bodice of her gown. His argument was good; she’d give him that.

“Seven-thirty,” she said. She looked to Avil and dusted off her rarely used Arabic. “I would like to bathe before dinner if that can be arranged.” The boy nodded and promised to send a bathing tub with water. She nodded a thank-you.

“Would you be in need of assistance?” Jackson drawled in English. Kailin could hardly swallow against the hard flutter of her heart. She paused, mesmerized by the fire reflected in his wolfish eyes. Yes, eyes of a rogue, a gambler and treasure hunter, a liar. Kailin clamped a cold fist on the heat pooling in her stomach. “I could hire a maid for you,” he continued.

She blinked, her brow wrinkling and taut. Could she have possibly misunderstood his look? It took several long even breaths to control the heat rising in her face. Avil pulled at his high collar as if feeling the rise in temperature but then she cooled.

“No need, Mr. Black.” Cold voice, strained and straight, clipped. It was as it must be, distant, confined. “I can care for myself. I’ve done so my entire life.”

“Ah, another thing we have in common, Miss Whitaker.” Jackson tipped his head and followed Avil out the door.

****

Kailin sunk down through the blended layers of warm water in the small wooden tub. Buckets had followed her request for a bath, and she’d stomped down the impulse to lift the burden from the laboring maids. In the privacy of her home in England, she’d always been able to heft the buckets herself with a small bit of magic. Perhaps if she’d not possessed her “gift” she’d not be nearly as clean. In truth, Bruce grumbled over her daily bathing rituals. Even on long expeditions, Kailin stayed cleaner than most by bathing in icy streams or washing with a wet cloth when it was too cold to be endured.

But this bath, she thought and rested her head against the high back, was pure luxury. Kailin’s knees just broke the water where she sat mostly submerged. Her breasts teased the surface. A slight rising of steam hovered, scented with her favorite rose-and-mint oil that she’d added.

Kailin breathed and closed her eyes, allowing the knots in her back and shoulders to warm and untangle along with her nerves. In through the nose, out through the lips. She exchanged air and channeled her mind toward her favorite mental destination, the stone circle. High in the rugged terrain of western Scotland, within earshot of crashing waves, sat a circle of ten soaring stone monoliths. An immense slab table sat in the center, rooted into the ground. Kailin breathed deeply of the rose and mint and let her mind float amongst the wild flowers growing there, unharassed by the confines of polite society, living their lives outdoors under God’s immense sky.

The stone circle had been Kailin’s first expedition. She’d barely been of an age to venture into the marketplace alone when Anthony had broken down and taken her. She smiled at the memory of poor Bruce blustering the whole way as they climbed crumbling boulders and rode along washed out mountain roads. She hadn’t known what she would find, but she’d known something was pulling her. Ever since she could remember she’d felt tugged north and west, toward the circle. Bruce had stood trout-mouthed while Anthony just said “well then” when they’d broken through the thick evergreens and first spied the magnificent circle. They hadn’t even felt the press of magic that had lit through Kailin. A giddy bubble of tickling warmth had flooded her senses of well-being. The tug stopped. She had found her true home.

Kailin rubbed her wrinkling fingers along her skin, caressing off the grime of travel. A quick glance showed Tuto perched on the balcony, keeping watch or falling asleep, she wasn’t sure. She closed her eyes again. She’d be fine even without her eternal watch guard.

She thought of the strange apparition from earlier. Who was she? Where was she? Was she someone to fear? She’d known her mother. Surely the spirit meant no harm. With power nearly overflowing her control, who then could she possibly fear?

The handsome face of Jackson Black surfaced behind her lids, disrupting her calm visualization. Kailin dimmed his features as she tried to remember the exact structure of the granite slab in the stones. The pocked surface grew tiny microcosms of moss and lichen giving it a green velvety surface. She’d actually slept in its comfort, lulled by the hum of magic weaving amongst the sentries, chasing the nightmares back into the tombs she refused to enter again. Yes, details of her last dig would squelch from her mind the lightning in that aggravating man’s storm-gray eyes and the feel of his warm hands through the fabric of her gown. Kailin scratched gently along the dragonfly-shaped birthmark on her upper arm.

Tuto ruffled his feathers in the background. A feather flitted against her cheek and Kailin opened her eyes with a gasp. The filmy iridescent wings of several dragonflies zipped around her face. Water splashed over the side of the tub as she sat upright, her head snapping around. She wasn’t alone.

Chapter Five

“Gilla’s daughter,” the smiling spirit said and floated down toward the damp floor.

“You are Drakkina,” Kailin returned and sank into the water so only her neck broke the surface. “What are you?”

“Good question.” The spirit canted her head. “I feel great power radiating from you.”

Kailin followed her inquisitive glance around the room. She swallowed, breathed, and gingerly lowered the table, pitcher, and trunk back to the floor.

“Perhaps you are the wisest of your sisters too?” Drakkina asked.

Kailin snorted on a huff. Even in her utter astonishment over talking to a ghostlike presence she found the humor in the observation. She sobered quickly though. “Sisters? You know my true family, my birth mother?”

Drakkina nodded, her eyes shifting briefly to Tuto who watched her but did not enter the room. Did her owl find the woman no threat?

“Yes, I knew Gilla and your father, Druce. And your siblings. You look very much like your twin, Katell, though you have more red in your hair.” She flicked her fingers toward Kailin’s right cheek. “And without the scars of course.”

Kailin’s breath stuttered somewhere around her collarbone. “My…my twin?”

“Don’t you remember her? Well, you were young, three I believe. She didn’t remember you at first either.”

“Where is she?” Kailin stood up out of the water. The bathing sheet flashed through the air into her hands. Sloshing water over the side, she stepped out and wrapped herself in the clinging linen. Tall and straight, she stared at the apparition.

The woman frowned slightly. “Not somewhere you can find her, without my help that is.”

Kailin watched the spirit carefully. “Is my mother with her?”

Drakkina’s face softened. “No.” She blinked rapid fire, a very human gesture in a more-than-human face. “She died, not long after she sent you away to safety.”

Kailin’s legs wobbled. How long had she wondered why she’d been sent away? How often had she asked the stars and her friends over the years as she lay under them? Forever. She sat on the small chair beside the tub that held her soap. “Why?” She forced her focus back to the spirit. “How did she die?”

Drakkina floated lower, closer. “Listen carefully, Kailin.” Her eyes pierced. “The world is in jeopardy. A coven of thirteen demons grew so powerful they were able to slip past my defenses.”

“They killed my mother?”

Drakkina nodded. “They killed many.” Her face saddened. “Stole good souls.” She paused. Her striking blue eyes reflected the light as if tears sat in them, unacknowledged. “They seek power to steal the world, control the world by cutting the temporal lines that hold all times apart. If they are successful, all times will crush together until the world is overrun, unrecognizable. Billions will die or wish they’d died.”

“And killing my mother,” Kailin led softly.

“First they killed your father, stripped his powers. He was a great wizard, one of my best students. But Druce was cocky, a common fault of handsome warriors.” She shook her head. “He met them alone and they shredded away his essence for their own until only the husk of his physical body remained. Then they were strong enough to breach your mother’s massive defenses. She fought to save you and your siblings. When she knew she couldn’t hold them off much longer, she threaded each one of you into time, into a different time, hidden away from the demons.”

“And from each other,” Kailin murmured.

“It was safer to live separate, harder to trace.”

“The demons sought us for our magic then?”

“Seek you,” Drakkina corrected her eyes growing wide. “Gilla sent her magic with each of you. You received the—”

“Ability to move things,” Kailin finished softly.

Drakkina snorted. “Aye, the ability to move things. Sounds so simple and benign, but I have a feeling that you’ve had a difficult time keeping it in check.” She motioned to the pitcher. “Without my training, the magic inside you…” She tilted her head and neared Kailin. Kailin stood her ground. What exactly was the spirit looking for?

“Gilla was right. You are very strong. I think she sensed it in you as a babe. The magic she sent with you was her strongest. Power to manipulate the elemental parts of physical objects.”