Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) (32 page)

“Kailin, thank goodness you are all right,” Henry said nervously. “This scoundrel has duped you. Anthony is safe at your hotel.”

Power frothed into billows inside Kailin, filling her focus, pushing the pain to the breaking point. Heat, angry and vengeful, wafted out of her, magic exciting the metal structure of the weapons. Grunts and gasps. The men dropped their guns as the metal warped and sizzled in the sand, melting through the grains as if they were molten.

Kailin couldn’t break her gaze away from Jackson. “Leave him, Kailin!” Henry demanded. “He’s nothing but a liar, a paid mercenary bent on tricking you, laughing at you.”

Kailin unleashed a blast of magic, her hand pointed to the sand under Henry Dallinton’s feet. “Down,” she mouthed with such ice that the word nearly froze her lips.
Wham!

Henry screamed as the sand beneath him flew upward a hundred feet into the air as he sunk down into the dune. “Down,” she snarled until all that remained was Henry’s head, his gaping chin resting on the sand.

“Help!” he yelled, his eyes wildly searching the group of thugs around them. “Get me out of here!” Two large men came forward, their arms outstretched to grab her.

A twitch of her fingers tossed the men into the air. Loud curses and screams ensued as she moved her hands, directing the thugs to weave amongst each other at her whim. “Far,” she whispered and watched the men fly through the dawn back across the dunes a mile or two. She almost dropped her arms, but at the last minute lowered them slowly before turning back to Henry.

She flicked her finger and the tent exploded. The orb lay exposed, throbbing with her power.

“Kailin! Listen to me!” Henry yelled and spit at the sand pecking his face in the wind. His eyes were huge with fear, but she didn’t care. “Calm down. Let’s talk about this.” Henry screamed as geysers of fire shot up from the sand, encircling him in a cell of flames. Fury like she’d never let herself feel, raced freely through her limbs.

“Freak!” he screamed, but Kailin barely heard him.

She stared paralyzed as the blood oozed through Jackson’s shirt. Red painted the edges of his fingers where they laid over the torn flesh. His head lulled to the side, eyes open, they bored into her. He didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. Regret, anger, pain twisted in his gray eyes until they blinked long and closed.

“No!” Kailin screamed and dropped to the hard ground next to him. A geyser of sand rose around them to slice the clouds above. “Jackson! Don’t!” she yelled.

“Kailin—” Henry started. Kailin flipped her hand and Henry’s body flew up out of the dune to follow his men, his yell fading in the distance.

With barely a thought, Kailin summoned the orb. It rolled across the shifting landscape to her side. Her fingers dug into the sand next to Jackson. She didn’t touch him. That wouldn’t help. The orb glowed, drenched in the waves of her uncontrolled magic. She picked it up. Its mass filled her cupped hands. It felt warm, almost hot. There was nothing to guide her, just instinct or perhaps the orb itself. Sand and heat swirled around Kailin. She stood, holding the glowing sphere, centering it above Jackson’s blood drenched middle.

“Kailin!” a frantic whisper penetrated the wind but she ignored it, her entire being focused on Jackson spread out below her.

“Heal him,” she spoke aloud and funneled her magic and vision of his healed body into the orb. “Heal him.”

Kailin’s magic focused into a sharp stream down into the orb in her hands. The whirlwind of sand dissipated. “Kailin! The demons! Stop!” the whisper grew to a shout as the world around her grew quiet once more.

“Heal him,” she whispered, the words thrumming through her body, pounding with her heart. The orb glowed brighter, expanding its light to encompass Kailin and Jackson.

“They are coming now,” Drakkina’s voice became a whisper from outside the orb’s glow.

Kailin leaned over Jackson’s prone body, hovering without touching. The orb spread heat within its surrounding area. The heat penetrated her body, warming her muscles, her very bones, seeking and mending sore spots. Kailin dared not open Jackson’s shirt. If she touched him and muted the magic, could she make the orb work again?

“Heal him,” she whispered and watched his chest inflate, compress, then rise again and fall. The light hummed, heated, and penetrated, resonating the sand under them until they sat on a thin surface of warped glass.

Jackson’s hand rose.
Alive! He’s alive!

His fingers moved to her hair, dangling over one shoulder to the desert floor. One touch, one glance of his finger across a single strand of hair and the orb sucked the magic back into itself. The sand around them dropped back to earth.

“I have to get you out of here!” Drakkina screeched. “By the Holy Earth Mother, control your magic. Cap it, tie it within yourself, but stop spreading it around like a spurting volcano!” She waved her arms around. “Look here, demons! Come and get me!”

“
Atsila
,” Jackson said and sat up.

The word, little fire, curdled in her mind and stomach.

“Don’t call me that,” she whispered numbly. “Don’t call me anything.” Kailin stood up and set the orb back on the sand so as not to touch it. It remained nearly dormant without her magic engulfing it. Just a small glow in its center remained.

“Kailin,” Jackson said. “I...”

“Who do you think you are?” Kailin felt the tears pierce the back of her eyes.

“Someone who doesn’t deserve you.”

Wind whipped across the dunes as dark clouds gathered on the horizon. Tuto screeched as he circled them turkey-vulture style, gliding on the shifting currents of air.

“Quick, Kailin, you must hide and the orb,” Drakkina said. She ran her hand over her face and up into her wild hair. “Where, where? Where do I send her?”

Kailin stared in horror at Jackson. He didn’t say anything, just looked at her, his gaze roaming her face, her form as if memorizing her.

“You lied. You…you used me.”

Jackson didn’t refute anything, didn’t try to explain. His eyes appeared…sad. An apology? That said it all. How could she have been so blind? She was intelligent yet Jackson’s large, handsome form and sly tongue had duped her, shown her to be the idiot in this farce. She turned away and looked at Drakkina.

“Send me somewhere then, far away.”

“Yes, yes, but where? Somewhere you can be hidden, you and that blasted orb.” Drakkina looked at her. “I could stuff you in a tomb.”

“Not if you want to keep what’s left of your essence together,” Kailin threatened, readying her magic to strike.

“
Cac!
Put that magic away, girl.” Drakkina flapped her hands. “It pinpoints your position.”

Kailin studied the racing clouds. Lightning cracked through the thunderheads. “I think I’ll stay. Today is a good day for that final battle.” Pain and fury mixed inside Kailin. Hurling her destructive magic at the demons that murdered her parents and threatened all human kind seemed appropriate.

Thunder shattered the wail of the wind. Kailin’s hair flew up on the gusty currents, twisting and snagging together. She stared up at the building chaos of evil and hardened her heart. She held the magic coiled and ready like a curse sitting on one’s tongue.

“Gift me the orb!” Drakkina shouted.

“No!” Kailin and Jackson yelled at the same time. Kailin glared at him.

“Get Kailin out of here—and the orb,” Jackson yelled. He stood, his shirt stained with his own blood.

“I’m not going anywhere!” she yelled back. “I’m ready for this fight.” The hairs along her body stood on end as the magic flowed just under her skin. “Let them come.” She stared up at the mass of black forming a funnel.

“Don’t be stupid, girl!” Drakkina screamed. “They’ll rip you apart just like your father, just like Gilla!”

“You don’t know that,” Kailin said, her voice above the roar. “I’m more powerful than you can imagine.” With that, Kailin released her pent-up energy, her anger, her shame and embarrassment into a mighty blast that sent the top of a dune shooting up into the tornado. Sand, earth, rock, and buried relics shot out from the funnel cloud to be strewn for miles around. The debris fell around them, bouncing like hail. Jackson dodged a falling jar that shattered on the dune.

“Better run and hide, Mr. Black,” Kailin warned, her armor of ice in its familiar place. “This is likely to become ugly.” She turned her gaze back to the demons and raised her arms. White lightning shot from her hands, splintering over miles up into the air. Kailin cupped her hands, the palms forming a ball, and the energy wrapped around the tornado, encapsulating it. The dark clouds condensed.

“Just like Druce!” Drakkina yelled, but Kailin ignored her rant.

She hurled a blast of power toward the demons. Her bullet of magic smacked against a barrier and dissipated as if it were mere wind against a wall. She gathered more energy, pulling from the glowing orb she balanced on the tops of her bare feet. The orb throbbed in time with her heartbeat, linked to her, centering her magic into a dagger.

“What can I do?” Jackson yelled and Kailin realized he was talking to Drakkina not her.

She ignored them and concentrated on funneling a lifetime of muted magic into a weapon of demonic destruction.
Whoosh
! She sent a stream of disruptive force toward the demon storm.

Her magic pooled into the center of the funnel. She could see its white light. What would happen? Could it blow them apart? Could she single-handedly destroy the greatest threat to humanity the world had ever seen? It would make having to spend her life controlling this cursed gift worthwhile. It would maybe even ease the pain of her own stupidity, her gullible foolishness to believe a liar with the most mesmerizing gray eyes.

Whoosh!
She snapped another blast. It added to the pool in the center. She frowned. It was as if she had just fed it.

“Stop throwing your tantrum,” Drakkina yelled.

The white light intensified. It was hard to look at.
Boom!
The white magic slammed back down to the earth, hitting a dune to the south, shattering it. Kailin found herself on the ground, the wind knocked out of her.

The world shook as if in fear. Ripples of earthquakes shuddered under her back. Wind threw rocks the size of billiard balls across her line of sight overhead. Tuto swooped down to land next to her on the sand, the safest place to be. Bloody hell, what had she done?

“Get her out of here!” Jackson roared as he yanked her to her feet. A rock hit her toe with enough force to break it, and the pain shot through her. She grabbed it, wincing and wrestled her arm free of Jackson’s grasp. She hobbled to the side and grabbed the orb, tucking it under her arm. She wasn’t losing the prize everyone wanted now. As she touched the sphere, her toe instantly stopped aching.

“On the currents of my blood,” Drakkina intoned, her face raised to the black sky. “On the currents of my need to save this world and for redemption, send them, Earth Mother, within my thread of power!”

“No, wait!” Kailin yelled as the desert warped before her eyes. She focused on the tent as it wavered and rocks as they rolled against the ground.

“Hold onto her,” Drakkina said. Jackson grabbed her against him. “And take the bloody orb, but don’t lose it!”

“Let go of me,” Kailin ordered as she felt her magic fade.

“Stop being a bull’s-eye for them,” he said against her ear.

Kailin would have responded but she was too busy trying to hold her body together. Her fingers dug into Jackson. “I’m unraveling,” she said.

“Just hold on,” he said as if he knew what the hell was going on. Which he couldn’t. Once again Jackson Black was acting.

The world began to flash past Kailin’s line of sight. Up in the sky, the sun flew through its daily arc, then the moon, chasing one another in a stellar game of tag. Then again faster and faster until it was a blur of light. Kailin tried to speak, but no noise came. She tried to blink but only the flashing light remained in sight. She tried to breathe but couldn’t feel the breeze of breath slide through her mouth. Did she have a mouth?

Pay attention and learn, child
. Drakkina’s voice floated through Kailin’s mind instead of her ears. The flashing slowed.
Hold onto her so they don’t realize she’s there
.

Was Drakkina speaking to Jackson? Was Jackson still with her? She couldn’t feel anything. Was this what it felt like to be paralyzed? To die?

I will lead the demons of your time away so they don’t destroy Egypt of 1871. Then I will retrieve you. By the blessed Earth Mother, stay quiet and hidden!

The moon overhead slowed to a standstill. Kailin looked down and realized they were falling. She instantly threw out a net of magic to catch her and realized that Jackson held tight. Her magic didn’t work!

“Ahh!” she began to scream but Jackson’s hand covered her mouth. His hold tightened on her as they fell through branches toward the earth. She closed her eyes and buried her face in his chest.

She hated him, despised that he’d tricked her into falling in love with him. Yet if she was about to die upon impact, she was glad it would be in his arms.

Instead of jarring pain and oblivion, Kailin’s toes and then heels touched a cushiony, damp ground. She opened her eyes, pulling away. Jackson let her move but held onto her arm. She was too stunned to yank away.

They stood in a dark forest of old, soaring trees. The silvery moon threw splashes of light down through the shadowed canopy to fall upon gnarled roots and moss-covered boulders. This place was familiar. Kailin peered through the night and glimpsed a far off standing stone. Even without the tug on her birthmark, Kailin knew that the stone was just one of ten standing around a stone slab table. They were just outside the stone circle that she had studied since she was old enough to demand her own expedition. She’d studied every inch of the circle, digging at the ancient hearth, holding the shards of pottery, lying upon the stone slab to stare up at the stars, wondering why the only time she wasn’t pulled in a direction was when her being resided within the stones.