Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) (36 page)

Kailin inhaled the still frosty morning air and let it out in a long exhale. She nodded.

Judith smiled and patted her leg. “Well then, you’re off to find your mate.”

Kailin frowned but didn’t respond. She turned to William, and Judith’s husband, Sean. “Thank you for your grand hospitality and your mare. I will return her.”

“Sean will make certain of that,” William said and Sean pulled another horse around. “He’ll escort ye home, Kailin.”

Kailin let out a long, frustrated sigh with a significant eye roll. “Really William, do I have to show you that I will be totally fine on my own?” She pointed at the large mountain looming behind Kylkern. “Shall I blow the top off to prove it?”

William walked over and patted the neck of her mare. He lowered his voice. “We’ve all noticed ye haven’t used your magic since you came two days ago. Even when trying to control your temper, lass, you let loose with at least one bowl of soup dumping in someone’s lap.”

She would have snapped back but there was real concern in William’s eyes. He would make some lass a very good husband someday. Kailin pursed her lips in an
O
and blew gently. Loud guffaws grew behind William. “Feeling a draft?” Kailin smirked.

“Holy! William, drop yer kilt,” Judith called.

William didn’t move but allowed the whole bailey to get a good view of his bare arse. Kailin began to laugh and William joined in.

“Sean, ye can stay home with my sister,” William called out and Kailin let the kilt drop back into place.

He winked at Kailin. “Aye, ye need a man that your magic doesn’t work on. Go find this Jackson Black.” A small shadow fell across his face. “But if he lies to ye again, just send word. The Macleans will become
involved
,” he stressed with much male bravado backed up with a threatening facial expression.

Kailin smiled. “You’d brave getting English soil on your boots for me?”

She teased but William remained serious. “Aye lass, we would, I would. Ye’re kin. Ye’ll always have a home at Kylkern.”

She didn’t need to say anything more. The thank-you sat in the pools of tears burning in her eyes. With that William patted the back of the mare and Kailin trotted out of the bailey toward the gates. Toward home.

****

The tingling on Kailin’s arm put her on alert. “Hello Drakkina,” she said and watched her breath puff out into the early morning air.

“You need to get rid of that orb,” the witch’s voice echoed in Kailin’s mind. Drakkina’s ethereal form materialized, somewhat, off to her right. The mare shied to the other side of the pebbled path causing Kailin to have to rein her back. She was sure-footed, used to Highland paths, but too far over and they’d tumble down a ridiculously perilous mountain slope. Kailin ran her palm over the mare’s shaggy neck.

“I’m trying not to use my magic.”

“But you will, like you have all your life. It’s the magic of the orb that really attracted them.”

Kailin wished she had Judith’s ability to read minds. Her eyes narrowed. “So, if I give the orb away—”

“Gift it away,” Drakkina corrected.

“Gift the orb away, then it won’t enhance my magic so much that it would call to them.”

Drakkina nodded as dragonflies zipped around her veiled hair.

“Don’t they know where I live now, so to speak?”

“You didn’t come back exactly at the time you left. They’ve already searched that time. You came back months later. You’re on a different thread of time than originally. Even a day can throw them off. Which is why your mother hid you and your sisters throughout time. There are an infinite number of places to hide. But the orb magnifies your powers since it was gifted to you.”

“They aren’t here now.”

“You haven’t been using much magic. I only just felt it a little over an hour ago.”

The kilt lift. Not good. She doubted she could go through life without using her magic. It was a reflex.

“So you must gift the orb away. Gift it to me so I can safeguard it for the final battle.”

“How do I do that?”

Drakkina smiled triumphantly. “Yes, yes. Well you just state your name while holding it and state clearly that you are gifting it to me, Drakkina of the ancient Callum clan. And then it will no longer enhance your magic or call the demons any more than before in your life. Apparently the magic in Egyptian sand and the magic in Scotland’s guardian stones have shielded you until now. They should continue to do so.”

“Will the orb call the demons to you?”

“I know where to hide it.”

“Hmmm…good. But if you were, say a normal alive person. Would…if it were gifted to you, if you had no power, would it call the demons?”

Drakkina frowned. Kailin wasn’t very good at lying and the spirit wasn’t stupid. “I don’t recall if the last mortal, that pharaoh in the tomb, was killed by the demons or not.”

Kailin nodded as if she was contemplating, but she knew. It was her life’s work to decipher hieroglyphs and the age of mummies or remains that people brought out of tombs for her to inspect. The prince had died young from an illness so common to ancients. There were no glyphs in the tomb that she’d seen that mentioned supernatural tornados or demonic beings coming to claim him. Plus, the demons would have taken the orb then if they’d been drawn to him.

Kailin pulled the bag with the orb into her lap. The mare walked calmly along a path leading into a meadow. Kailin swayed naturally with her gait and rolled the sides of the bag down so that the Orb of Life sat like an egg in its leather nest in her lap. Best not to touch it.

“Fine then,” Kailin nodded. “Let’s get this thing turned off to me.”

Drakkina smiled again. “Cup it, you must touch it. I’ll keep watch and try to block your magic beacon for the time you need. Be quick.”

Kailin picked the orb out of the leather nest. It tingled up her arms and glowed even without her magic. It pulled at her powers, filling her with unnatural strength. She would be invincible with this in her hands. “Are you sure it wouldn’t be better for me to just finish them off before the final battle?”

“Don’t be a fool, Kailin,” Drakkina said softly. “Druce—”

“But I have the orb; he didn’t. I feel so powerful.”

“We need all the sisters and their mates in the circle for the final battle to end in our favor. I’ve seen this in the scrying bowl. Wisdom from the Earth Mother, wisdom you must heed.”

Kailin sighed as if resigned. She stared at the glowing, golden orb. “I, Kailin Whitaker, daughter of Gilla and Druce, gift the Orb of Life to Jackson Black.” Kailin shot a mental picture of Jackson with a bolt of her own magic into the orb.

“No!” Drakkina yelled and dropped her arms, but it was too late. The magic sizzle from the orb faded, leaving only a round, rather ordinary looking large rock with a dragonfly painted on it.

Kailin shoved it back into the leather bag and tied it tight as if that would keep the shocked witch out. She took up the reins. “I’m sorry, Drakkina, but I don’t know you, at least not very well. Hell, I don’t even know if you’re one of them”—she pointed to the sky and swirled her finger like a tornado—“disguised as Drakkina.”

“But you’d be gifting it to Drakkina. It would only work for me,” she said in a voice both breathless and high pitched like the whine of a child.

“We will bring it to the final battle.”

“So you are going to him? To give him the orb. Have you accepted him as your mate?” There was hope in her voice.

Kailin looked forward. She’d expected much worse from the witch, had readied her own powers to strike if need be. But this Drakkina seemed different than the one she’d glimpsed in her destroyed home in some far off time, softer somehow. “I…I don’t know, but if you say he needs to be there, he’ll be there. We’ll bring the orb.”

Drakkina started to fade.

“Wait,” Kailin called out. “What happened to the baby? The boy, my brother? You only mention my sisters. Can we give him back his guardian?”

“He was touched by darkness.” Kailin didn’t know what that meant but Drakkina said it as if she was proclaiming his death, such sadness in her tone. It leaked out with regret. Her face pinched tight as if holding in a sob.

“Where did he go?”

Drakkina shook her head. “He’s lost to us.” And then she disappeared.

****

“Ugh! Too tight,” Kailin complained to the maid who yanked on the ties to her corset. It had been weeks since she’d been forced to shove her body back into current style. The maid murmured an apology in Arabic and loosened the straps.

Kailin closed her eyes for a moment and breathed. “I’m sorry,” she said and the maid paused, eyes wide. She was young and probably used to being bullied. Kailin forced a smile and made a mental note to pay her extra for her impatience today. It wasn’t the girl’s fault that Kailin was as nervous as a girl going to her first ball.

Rap
!
Rap
! “Are you ready, Cleo?” Anthony called from the adjoining room.

“Not quite. These bloody costumes are what hold women back from ruling the world, you know.”

Her father’s muffled laughter through the door brought out her first smile of the evening. He’d insisted on returning to Egypt with her when she showed up at Whitaker House on a Highland mare. It was all she could do to convince Bruce to stay behind, but Anthony wouldn’t be swayed.

The small maid giggled as she continued to tie and fasten the hooks and tapes that held Kailin’s crinoline over her hips. The maid stepped high upon a chair to lower the raspberry-colored organdy material over Kailin’s head without brushing the intricate curls and matching ribbon in her blond hair.

“I could hide a sarcophagus under these skirts,” she mumbled as she waited for the maid to manually close her gown and tie the loose organdy ribbons at her back.

“Look,” the maid encouraged Kailin to stand before the reflecting glass.

Kailin blinked at the elegant woman standing tall before her.
Who are you
? Dusted, bathed, brushed, nails filed and clean. Her hair stood curled and twirled up high on her head with raspberry ribbons woven within to match the dress. The square neckline was quite modern and low to show a hint of her cinched bosom. Pale gold braid that matched her hair edged the dress as if keeping the fabric fenced away from her exposed skin. White pearls and raspberry-colored glass beads dotted the gold braid, adding to the interest. The braid ran along the edge of the gathered upper skirt, accenting the break in the layers of flowing fabric.

“Beau…ti…ful,” the maid said in stilted English.

Kailin smiled and nodded, though she wasn’t feeling so beautiful. Inside her stomach twisted around the small fare of beef and vegetables she’d eaten. Ridiculous! It was just a ball. She would bring the orb and pass it to Jackson in a public place where nothing but trivial salutations could be exchanged.

She would call it a gift so he’d know she had passed it to him. It was risky, this gifting. What if Jackson planned to sell the orb? No one else could make it work. She’d remind him to keep it at least until the final battle, whenever that was to happen. Then he could do what he wanted with it. She wouldn’t tell him how she’d gifted it to him either, although he’d figure it out easily if desired.

Why had she gifted it to him in the first place? If Drakkina hadn’t been pressuring her, perhaps it would still be her orb. Kailin’s stomach clenched under the corset. Ugh! And her magic would be a beacon to the demons, bringing them down on hapless Luxor.

No, it was better to gift the orb away, but not to Drakkina. She was still an unknown. Her cold judgment about killing her infant brother, even though she seemed different now, still sat in the front of Kailin’s mind. Perhaps once she spoke with her sisters about the priestess, Kailin would trust her more. Perhaps she should have gifted the orb to Anthony. But it was Jackson who was supposed to be at the final battle, not Anthony. The hasty decision was the right one as long as Jackson kept the blasted rock.

“Ready yet?” Anthony called once more.

“Yes.” Kailin flipped open a broad, white-plumed fan with a gold braid dangling in a loop while sliding her feet into golden slippers. She coiled the fan’s braid around her wrist and fluttered its soft span back and forth in little coy movements before her face. Only her eyes peeked over the edge as Anthony walked in.

“My dearest Cleo,” Anthony said. “You are a vision.”

She lowered her fan slowly, playing. “A fluffy vision of raspberry cream.”

He took her gloved fingers and kissed the top. “With your coloring, your golden hair, the color is gorgeous. No fluff, just sleek, sophisticated beauty.”

Kailin half smiled. “So says my papa.”

“And everyone else who will set eyes on you. Well, perhaps not Samantha.”

“Will she be there?”

He shrugged. “I’m assuming Miss Cassandra invited all the prominent British in the area.”

“It certainly would make a statement if she didn’t invite her.”

“Sorry, love,” Anthony said and looped his arm through hers. “I think she’ll be there with her father. We don’t need to attend, although you seem intent on finding this Black fellow.” Anthony frowned. “Although slippery, he should be at his own home.”

Kailin pressed several coins into the maid’s hand as she left the room on Anthony’s arm. The orb felt heavy in Kailin’s satchel to match the weight in her stomach.

The air was cool and dry as they stepped onto Hotel Moudira’s terrace. Kailin’s gaze fell across the small round table where she and Jackson had laughed over Samantha’s smoldering feathers. Kailin frowned remembering the seemingly gentlemanly Henry Dallinton.

Moghadam stepped from the shadows with the wolf beside him. The two had become uneasy comrades in their quest to protect Kailin.

“Bloody hell,” Anthony cursed in a hushed tone, his hand against his heart. The pair, large man and hulking beast, walked behind them as they had been doing since they arrived in Luxor. Kailin had started calling the wolf Tenebris, meaning
dark
in Latin since his fur blended in with the night. She had needed a name instead of “wolf” to help pass him off as a large dog to board the boats to Luxor. Luckily they’d boarded at night and she’d let Tenebris have her cabin. She’d paid extra for the cleaning upon disembarking.