A Glint of Shadoewynne: Book 1 of the Shadoewynne Series Page 19

  He shrugged. “I’m serious, too, Babe. I can’t explain it, but I have to keep you safe, and you mean way more to methan I can explain.”

  I stared at him. I didn’t know how to react. No one has ever cared about me like this, and now I had two hot guys telling me that they feel like they have to keep me safe. It baffled me. Since I didn’t know what to say, I just laid my head on his shoulder. He stroked my hair. We laid like that for I don’t know how long, while Kait was on the phone. Eventually, Kait called out to me.

  “Okay, Evalia. Do you want the good news or the bad news?” My heart dropped.

  “Good news, please.” I was squeezing Travis’ hand so hard now, I thought I could hear the bones creaking, and my knuckles were white.

  “I reached David on his phone, and he is fine for now.” Kait’s voice and face didn’t give anything away.

  Shit. “Okay, what’s the bad news?” I braced myself to hear that he was working with my mother.

  “Your mother is holding him hostage.”

  My heart seemed to stop. “What do you mean, she is holding him hostage? What does she want in return to release him?”

  Kait walked over to me and took my hand. “Princess, she wants you. What else would she want?”

  “I was hoping she had come to her senses. Were you able to talk to David, or only my crazy mom?”

  “I talked to both. David is fine, and he said he wasn’t being mistreated. Obviously, he couldn’t really talk, and I’m concerned how your mom was able to overpower him in order to abduct him. We have about an hour before she is going to call me back to make the exchange plans. We need to determine what we are going to do.”

  “How do we know that he isn’t working with her? That would explain how she was able to take him. Do we know what my mom wants? Like, this is all so random, and I can’t figure out what she could possibly gain, besides my hate.” I took my hands back from Kait and Travis to rub my eyes.

  Kait sighed. “Princess, I think she is unbalanced, and those people just don’t make sense. I tried to read her mind while in the forest, but all I got was a jumbled bunch of unrelated images. Either she knew what I was trying to do, and was blocking me, or she is completely crazy. The only thought that stayed the same was that she thinks you are the key to a better life for her, but I don’t know what she thinks is better, or how you are the key.”

  Well, that wasn’t helpful. At all. I also noticed he hadn’t answered my question about David. Either he didn’t know the answer, or he thought David was working with her too. I sighed.

  “Okay. What do we do?” I looked at Kait, resolved to finish this. We needed to figure out what was going on with David, and either get him back, or stop him and my mother, somehow.

  He snorted. “Alright, here’s what I think we should do…” We spent the next twenty minutes going over our plan. Kait and I each had jobs assigned to us. Travis was staying behind, since he wouldn’t be fully recovered in time. The rest of the hour was spent gathering supplies. We were going to get to the bottom of this, one way or the other. No matter what, I was done with her. We were packing up the last of the stuff when Kait’s phone rang.

  “Hello, this is Kait.” Silence. The booger hadn’t put it on speaker, like he said he would. I glared at him. “Yes. I know the place.” More silence. “We will both be coming. She is not going alone. This is non-negotiable.” Another brief pause. “Fine. We will see you then.” He hung up the phone.

  “You bastard! You said you would have it on speaker!” I was pissed, and wasn’t going to let him get away with changing the plan on me without talking about it.

  “Princess, I didn’t want you to react to anything she said. We are going to meet her in an hour and a half at the mall by campus.”

  “Good, we have a little time to talk about this. You can’t go making decisions without including me. You said you would have her on speaker, what changed your mind?” I was proud of myself, I was able to make my voice sound like it was calmer, but the anger was still boiling below the surface.

  Kait snorted. “You can’t fool me. I know you’re pissed at me, but I knew you would not be able to keep quiet. I didn’t want her to know that you could hear her. I’m glad I didn’t put her on speaker. Remember, everything I do is to protect you.”

  “Bullshit.”

  “Why do you think that?” He had come up to me, and was standing toe-to-toe with me, like he was trying to intimidate me.

  “You don’t know me well enough for me to be your sole focus. You have other priorities, just like everyone else. I’m not stupid. Travis asked for you to be assigned to me, if they change your assignment, you will leave and not look back. Quit trying to act like this is any more than an assignment to you!” Okay, I didn’t mean to say any of that, and truthfully, I wasn’t even sure where most of it came from. But, I must have hit the mark, because as I talked, Kait’s face hardened and by the time I was done, his eyes were frosty brown flint. I shrunk back from him. He grabbed my shoulders to keep me from pulling away.

  “You know nothing about me. Stop thinking you do. I never lie to someone I’m protecting. I have told you my reasons. We need to finish our preparations, and we need to go. We will discuss this later.” He pushed me away from him. “I have decided that you need more protection, since you don’t seem to listen. I am going to go get you a knife vest. Stay here.”

  I stood, hugging myself, as Kait strode from the room. He was right, I was being stupid. It didn’t really matter why he was helping, did it? I don’t know why the thought of him leaving hurt so much, but it brought tears to my eyes just thinking about it. Travis called my name, but it took a couple of times before I answered.

  I turned back to him. “What?”

  “Come here.” He held his hands out to me. I walked over, and knelt next to where he was still laying on the couch. He took my hand and kissed the back of it. “Don’t worry about Kait. He takes his job seriously. He won’t leave until you’re safe.”

  That didn’t make me feel any better.

  Chapter 21

  I laid my head next to Travis, and he stroked my hair while we waited for Kait to return. He finally came back about ten minutes later, with his arms full. He dumped the items in front of me.

  “Put them on, under your clothes, please.” His face was still cold and angry.

  I looked at the floor. “Okay.” I picked up the pile and went to the bathroom. There was a heavy shirt and pants as well as a weird looking thing I assumed went around my neck, but I couldn’t figure out how to attach it. I put them on, and pulled my regular clothes back on over them. They seemed thick and heavy, but once I put the normal clothes on, the weight and bulk of the other clothes seemed to disappear. They must be magical. I went back out.

  “Kait. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean…”

  He interrupted me. “It’s fine. Just don’t assume you know me.”

  “Okay.” I spun my braid around my finger. “Why do I need these clothes? Also, I couldn’t figure this thing out.” I waved the bit of cloth I figured was for my neck.

  He grabbed it out of my hand, and indicated I should turn around. “They are knife resistant Shadoewynne clothes. They are spelled to be invisible, and lightweight once under other clothes.” He wrapped it around my neck, and I could feel him doing something to my shirt, like he was attaching it to the neck wrap.

  “I figured it was something like that. Are we ready? We need to leave soon if we are going to make it to the rendezvous in time.”

  “Yes, let’s go.”

  Travis grabbed my hand as I walked by him. “Babe, be careful. Kait, keep her safe.”

  He gave Travis a cold look. “Of course.” He heavily laid his hand on my shoulder, and guided me to the door. “Get in the car.”

  My heart was breaking as we walked to the car. I had fucked this up, bad. He shouldn’t mean this much to me, but he did. I just knew he was going to leave once this was over, and I didn’t want that to happen. I wanted to fix it,
but I didn’t know how. Tears were running down my face as I buckled my seat belt. I couldn’t explain it, but I felt like Kait was slipping away. I had not seen this side of him, and it was scaring me. He seemed like a completely different man, one who had no feelings, nothing more than his duty to me.

  He got in the car. When he glanced over and saw my face, he sighed. “What’s the matter, Princess?” His voice was close to normal, but his eyes were still cold.

  “You’re going to leave once I’m safe. I don’t mean anything more to you than a job. I don’t know why that is bothering me, but it is. We haven’t known each other more than two days, but I had hoped, I had thought, that I meant more to you than that.” My voice was barely a whisper, and I stared at the dashboard as I spoke. “I know you have more important things to do than babysit me. I don’t really expect you to stay, but can we at least still be friends?”

  “Oh, Princess.” His voice sounded funny, so I peeked at him from the corner of my eye. He was rubbing his face. “Tell you what, we will talk about this later. There is still much you don’t know about Shadoewynne.” He reached over and rubbed my knee.

  That was a weird non-answer. I opened my mouth to ask about it, but shut it again. Kait had accused me earlier of not listening, so I was going to prove him wrong. “Fine, but when we get home, we are going to have a long discussion.”

  He smiled over at me. “Deal.” He started the car, and backed out of the drive. On the drive to the mall, Kait thawed and we talked about random things, including his childhood, and his experiences. By the time we arrived an hour or so later, I was feeling better about the possibility of him leaving because I knew if he did leave, it wouldn’t be forever. Something in me told me that he would always be in my life. The discussion had centered around Kait, and I think he did it on purpose. It seemed like he knew me pretty well, considering everything, and I barely knew him at all.

  We pulled into the parking lot, which at this time of night was pretty empty. The mall had just closed, and we had just missed the crowd. The few cars were clustered around the entrances, and were most likely employees finishing up their shifts.

  “They are going to be in a silver van with Pennsylvania plates by the south Kohls entrance.” Kait was back into business mode, his voice serious, and his eyes darting around the parking lot.

  I was trying to look everywhere, so I ended up not actually seeing anything. I looked past the van probably four times before I finally realized I saw it. “Hey. There it is.” I pointed at it, like an idiot. I mentally facepalmed. It was sitting by itself, far out in the lot, but under a street light.

  Kait snorted. “I see it. Are you ready? Do you remember the plan?”

  “Pssht. Of course, I remember the plan. I’m ready for anything. I got this. We are going to kick some ass.” I was shaking, and I couldn’t remember my name, much less the plan, but as usual, my mouth was running without input from my brain. “I’m all good. Let’s go get David back.”

  Kait put his hand over the buckle I was trying to release, and laughed. “Princess, take a deep breath. You need to calm down. You are going to give this away if you go out like that. Remember to put up your mental blocks, just in case David is working with your mom.”

  I nodded as I took several deep breaths, trying to flush the adrenaline from my system. Kait was right, I needed to get control. I closed my eyes and focused on slowing my breathing and heart rate. Once those were where I wanted them, I began to build the walls in my mind. It wasn’t very long before I was ready. I opened my eyes to find Kait watching me. He smiled.

  “Good. Are you ready now?”

  “Yes.” I was trying to keep focused on my walls, and the plan, so I kept my answer short. He moved his hand so I could disengage the seatbelt. I got out of the car, and stared over at the van, which was dark and appeared empty. It looked abandoned.

  “Do you think they are actually there?” I asked as Kait came around the car.

  “Yes, they are there. Be on your guard, and make sure you are ready to use your powers.” He put a hand on my waist as we walked toward the van.

  We stopped about halfway between the two vehicles. The van was still dark, but it rocked as we stopped like someone was moving around inside. A face briefly peeked out the passenger window, then drew back into the interior.

  After a moment, the side door on the van flung open. David fell out, landing face first on the pavement with his hands tied behind his back. My mother climbed out behind him, and grabbed him by the bindings around his wrists. She picked him up and set him on his feet. I was stunned. She shouldn’t have been able to do that. Then, I saw David’s face. Both eyes were black, and his nose was bleeding heavily. His shirt was already soaked with the blood dripping down his face.

  “Hi, Honey. It’s about time you got here. David has been entertaining me, but I’m bored with him now. Are you ready to come home?”

  I peeked over at Kait. He was staring at my mom, disbelief on his face. “Untie him.” Kait barked the order.

  She laughed, maniacally. “I don’t think so. Evalia, come over here, then I will release David.”

  David made a noise like he was trying to speak. Mom karate chopped his neck casually, and he started gasping. “You don’t want him to be hurt anymore, do you?”

  “I will come over there, but you need to release David first. I will not go with you until you do.”

  She sighed. “Fine.” She pulled a wicked-looking knife out of nowhere and cut his ties. In the blink of an eye, she had the knife at his throat. “Is this better, Honey?’

  I had reached out a hand when she pulled the knife, but I dropped it down by my side. Our plan was going to hell. I came up with a new plan, dropped my mental walls since it was clear that David was not working with my mom, and risked another glance at Kait. He nodded. I snuck a quick look over at David. He met my eyes, and nodded once. Alrighty. Here we go.

  I held my arms out to the side as I slowly walked toward my mom, trying my best to look intimidated and afraid. Her eyes never wavered, and the knife pressed closer to David’s throat as I neared her. She adjusted her grip on the knife. When I was about two feet from her, she pushed David away, and threw the knife at me. It bounced harmlessly off my chest. I had been pulling all the moisture from the air I could, and I solidified it around her, suspending her in a bubble, like Kait taught me. I was patting myself on the back, pleased that the plan had worked, when the water bubble exploded.

  Electricity crackled between the drops of water as they fell. My mother stood in the middle, her eyes literally shooting sparks as she cackled at the sky. “That was a very stupid idea, Evalia.”

  She dropped her head down, and stared me in the eye. I could see the electricity in her eyes, jumping around her blue irises. Speechless, I couldn’t respond. This being in front of me couldn’t be my mother.

  “I may have been lying to you and your father, Evalia. Come back over here, and I will explain it all.” She grabbed David, who stiffened and jerked like he was being stun-gunned. “Whoops. I guess I should have stopped using my powers before I touched him.” She followed the statement with an insane giggle. Her eyes and voice hardened. “You better get over here, or David will be electrocuted. I’m not going to stop until you do as I ask.”

  I walked over to her stiffly. I had no idea how to handle this, since I had never considered that she may be Shadoewynne, not to mention a lunatic. She released David as I reached her side, and grabbed me instead. I only felt a small tingle, and then she frowned down at her hand. I looked down as well, and I could see the power jumping between us, but it wasn’t hurting me. Smiling, I clasped her hand, and forced it off me. She pulled her hand out of my grasp and backed up.

  “How?” All her bravado was gone, and she seemed to wilt. “You only have Jawn’s powers. You shouldn’t be able to block my electric powers.” The craziness was still evident in her eyes, but the sparks were gone, and there was fear on her face now as well.

  “I don�
��t know, Mom, but there seems to be a lot you didn’t tell me. What is this all about?”

  “No! You don’t get to ask questions. You are my daughter, and you must come with me. They need you. I need you. They won’t work with me without you.” She produced another knife out of nowhere, and started swinging it at me. I glanced at Kait, who was carrying David back to our car. I was on my own for now. I set myself in the stance Kait had showed me and made a dagger out of ice. Without gloves, I didn’t have long in this temperature before it would start freezing my hands, but I didn’t have another choice.

  She screamed when she saw the dagger, cussing me out, calling me ungrateful and every other hateful thing she could think of. The final straw for me was when she screamed “I never wanted you. Jawn was the one that wanted kids. I only agreed to make him happy. I didn’t want an abomination, that’s why I blocked your powers.”

  I bristled at that. She called me an abomination! Fuck her! I attacked, going for the hand with the knife, since I didn’t want to kill her. We feinted back and forth, moving farther and farther from Kait and David, and closer to the mall. Neither of us was very good, so it was a stalemate. She stepped behind a car. I didn’t want to follow her into the darkness, so I waited in the light, thinking she would come back out when I didn’t follow. After about thirty seconds, she still hadn’t emerged, I decided I was going to have to follow her. I stepped around the car, only to find the far side empty. There was an exceptionally dark patch, but no one was there. Kait put his hand on my shoulder, making me jump. I hadn’t heard him coming up behind me.

  “She’s gone, let’s go. David needs medical attention.” He moved his hand down to my waist as we walked back to the car. I was still too stunned to talk. I had so many questions, they were all jumbled in my mind, and I couldn’t form a coherent thought.

  We climbed into the car. David was stretched across the back seat. His eyes were so swollen I couldn’t tell if he was awake or asleep. I didn’t want to disturb him, and I was still confused, so I stayed silent for most of the drive. Kait sped, blowing through red lights and avoiding the few cars on the road with ease. It would have been exhilarating, if I weren’t so worried for David. He must be hurt really bad for Kait to be driving like this. After a few minutes of worrying, Kait reached over and started rubbing my leg. He never looked at me, but his touch calmed me.