Except the kitchen was bare and homey; the sink and refrigerator clean. The den too, was meticulously absent of any stuff thrown around. Kaylee took a walk around, looking for anything out of place. She had to admit, this part of the house looked nice. At least, as nice as it could. She never would have pegged Randy as a neat freak.
The rest of the bottom floor was just as empty. That left upstairs, but something was out of place. It wasn’t until her foot hit the landing of the second floor that she knew what it was: there were no personal touches, no pictures or plants or anything else that truly made this place home. Kaylee hadn’t expected Randy to spruce the house up, but she’d expected something. This…this was this how he had lived his life? In nothing but husks of houses and cold drafts wending their way through silent, bare halls?
Kaylee shivered.
The door at the end of the hall was slightly ajar. Kaylee had a brief flashback of sneaking into Baba’s secret room, and listened extra intently outside. With Randy’s motorcycle, she figured she’d get a thirty second head-start to get out before he came barging in.
She pushed the door open.
It was a study, just as bare and unassuming as the rest of the house, save for a single wooden desk in the corner.
“Bingo.”
A neat stack of papers sat in one corner. The rest of desk looked as if it might usually have held other things, but had been scooped away with Randy wherever he’d gone.
Kaylee, still pushing her snooping guilt aside, wasted no time in peeling aside each page.
Times. Dates. Meeting places. Road maps. Nothing dark or secret or—
A picture fell out.
Kaylee placed the papers down and picked it up. Of course Uncle Randy would have printed off pictures, even in the age of cell phones and computers.
Kaylee’s breath caught when she turned it over. It was her. A school photo she’d had taken last year. It had been right before freshman year had officially started. Before Brendan. Before the Convocation. She was dressed in a new shirt Jade had helped her pick out and had done her hair in a braid she normally never would have bothered with under normal circumstances.
Kaylee had trouble looking into her eyes. Did this Kaylee know what was about to happen to her? Was this Kaylee ready for how her life was about to change?
The Kaylee in the picture continued smiling, as if to say, Lookit! Look at all you’ll never have again! Look at the life that’s gone away, drifted off out of reach—
Kaylee flipped it over. On the back Randy had scratched, Looks just like Brianna
She did? Kaylee had never thought she looked anything like her mother.
There was another picture stuck to the bottom of the papers. It was a Thanksgiving photo her family had taken just after the Slayers’ attack. Looking at it, Kaylee was shocked by how much had changed. Yes, she hadn’t been fully recovered yet. Yes, she’d been in a lot of pain, but the girl who stared back in this picture was—in a word—haunted. Her mouth smiling, but her eyes hollow.
Kaylee certainly hoped she wasn’t that. She had her problems. Brendan still lingered. But this…she wasn’t…she couldn’t.
Randy had written something on the back of this too.
She’s ready. She can help.
Help what? And how long had Randy been planning to come out here? He’d made it seem as if he’d simply answered the call for her training on a whim, but clearly he’d had it in mind for some time.
Kaylee was all at once aware of how long she’d stood there. The wind outside had settled, as if the house had sucked in a giant breath, pre-shout, to alert the world where she was. She quickly replaced the pictures, but as she did another one tucked between the pages nicked her hand. Kaylee pulled it out.
A girl. Her age, maybe a bit older. Blond hair instead of Kaylee’s brown, but her face was so similar there was no doubt they were related in some way. Could she be Randy’s—?
Kaylee almost screamed as something slammed downstairs. She shoved the picture back and slipped down the stairs to the front door and outside, expecting Randy to be furiously waiting for her there.
The shutters slammed again. Kaylee saw them but she didn’t relax, her heart still thudding in her ears. She was tempted to go back in but now that she was outside—now that she had seen those—it seemed like more of a violation than it had before. Randy was hiding something, and exactly what Kaylee didn’t know. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to.
“Have you guys tried the pie yet?” Maddox asked, shoveling another spoonful of it into his mouth.
Jade, a slightly grossed-out expression on her face, shoved him slightly. “How are we supposed to when you keep eating it all?”
Maddox steadied his plate. He pushed himself against the wall as Mr. and Mrs. Azuma slid past them, each carrying glasses of wine.
“Don’t spill anything, you three,” Mr. Azuma said, then vanished into the family room.
Kaylee’s house was organized chaos. Whereas on Christmas Eve the years before their family had often celebrated by inviting Jade’s family over, this year they’d had Maddox and his parents stop by, with the promise of Edwin’s family later on. Food and people shuttled back and forth from the kitchen. The lively hum of conversation filled every room.
Kaylee, Jade, and Maddox shuffled into a small lounge at the back of the house. Snow fell thickly outside, white splotches against a darkened sky. The adults were gathered in the family room, so for a little while they were all able to dodge more prying questions about school or training. Meanwhile, Jeremy had been allowed to invite a couple of his friends over, and the three of them were terrorizing the upstairs. Kaylee had made it painfully clear that if any of them entered her room it would be grounds for instant electrocution. Only Jeremy knew how serious her threat was.
“Your mom sure goes all out with the decorations, doesn’t she, Kaylee?” Maddox said. He brushed his hand over one of the cut-out snowflakes decoratively placed on every windowsill and shelf. This was matched by mistletoe her mom had hung in every doorway (Kaylee nearly died from embarrassment when she’d done this. Maddox had already jokingly made a couple moves on Jade and she’d threatened to punch him in the jugular). Even the stockings her family had had since they were little hung below the holly-draped mantle of the family room fireplace. Kaylee imagined her dad in there right now, regaling the other adults with embarrassing Christmas baby stories.
“Maddox, I already had some!” Jade said, shoving Maddox’s hand away as he offered her pie. “Seriously, aren’t you supposed to be on a lacrosse season diet?”
Maddox patted his stomach. “We’ve won all our games so far. And I’m not the one prepping for the big Tamer test—”
He cut off, realizing what he’d said. Jade glared at him. Maddox looked to Kaylee to back him up, but she merely shrugged.
“You dug that hole.”
“Sorry, Jade,” Maddox said.
“Forget it,” Jade said. “It’s Christmas, let’s talk about something else.”
It had been a while, Kaylee realized, since she’d had a normal conversation with her friends, one that didn’t involve magic, or dragon-kins, or Slayers. As they talked, she was relieved to hear she hadn’t missed much of what was happening in each of their lives. The way the last few weeks had gone Kaylee had felt almost isolated from them all, and it was good to be brought back to where they all were with everything.
Even so a couple times the conversation paused, and despite the unspoken decision not to talk about anything relating to the Convocation, Kaylee felt the urge to tell them about what she had found at Randy’s. The problem was, she had no idea what she’d found at Randy’s, and Randy hadn’t been back the rest of the week so she couldn’t even confront him about it. Not that she would have. When it came right down to it, she didn’t think she could face him yet.
And the weirdest thing about his absence? Kaylee was…actually worried about him.
Randy hadn’t been around for most of her life. She shouldn�
��t have cared if he took off on another one of his vanishing acts. But for the first time since becoming a dragon-kin, she had known someone who had not only been able to train her, but had understood what she was going through. Had empathized with her. Had been in the exact place she was now and gotten through it, though he gave her little to no details on that part of his life, and Kaylee wasn’t sure she wanted to know.
That was why the couple times she’d gone back to Randy’s to see if he’d returned she never snuck back in to see if she could unearth more secrets. It didn’t seem right anymore. She had to content herself with hoping that, as her uncle, he’d tell her anything important.
Wouldn’t he?
“Ambush!”
Jeremy and his friends whipped around the corner, firing nerf guns at them. Barely moving, Jade and Maddox caught three of the darts mid-air and dropped them to the floor. The boys gaped at them. Kaylee suppressed a smile.
“Gonna have to try harder than that,” Jade said, casually taking a sip of her cider.
“Scram, brats,” Kaylee said.
Whispering fiercely to themselves, Jeremy’s friends headed back upstairs. Jeremy threw an annoyed look Kaylee’s way.
“You’re no fun anymore.”
Kaylee summoned a small ball of electricity to the tip of her finger and waggled it at him. “Beat it.”
“Did you see their faces?” Maddox chuckled. “Classic.”
“Yes, because that’s why I joined the Convocation,” Jade said. “To shock the bejeezus out of punk middle schoolers with access to foam weaponry.”
“It’s why I joined.”
The doorbell rang. When Kaylee answered she found Alastair and his wife Amelia standing in front of a shivering Edwin. He shot her a grin as Alastair said, “Merry Christmas, Kaylee! We bring good tidings and cheer!”
“And alcohol,” Edwin said.
“But none for you,” Alastair said.
“Alastair!” Kaylee’s dad called from the hallway as they bundled in. “Glad you could stop by. And is that Mortlach Single Malt?”
“Good man,” Alastair said, raising the bottle to the light. “You have fine taste.”
Edwin rolled his eyes towards Kaylee. “I have no idea how he decides what sort of gift to bring your dad.”
“It must have been an agonizing choice,” Kaylee answered, feeling a smile creep up her face. Their eyes caught each other’s for a moment. Edwin opened his mouth—
“Kaylee, please take their coats,” her mom said, leading Amelia into the family room while Alastair went to the closet.
“Jade and Maddox are in the back,” Kaylee told Edwin. He nodded and went to join them.
“Thank you, Kaylee,” Alastair said, taking the rest of the coats from her and putting them on hangers. “I’m happy to say we were able to get away from Convocation business for a couple days. Things have slowed down on all channels. I suspect even Slayers celebrate Christmas.”
“You haven’t heard…” Kaylee bit her lip. “There hasn’t been anything from…”
“I’m afraid not,” Alastair said. “Randy hasn’t been in contact with anyone from the Convocation for the last few days.”
“But I thought he was running errands for them. Wouldn’t any mission he does here be under their orders?”
Alastair readjusted the sleeves on his suit jacket. “I can’t say whether what he’s doing is or is not Convocation business.”
“Oh, come on, Alastair—”
“But,” Alastair said over her, “he should have checked in. It is a bit unusual that he hasn’t.” He noticed Kaylee’s glum expression. His voice softened. “Don’t worry about him, Kaylee. I may have just started trusting him to train you, but if there’s one thing about Randall I will always trust, it’s his ability to take care of himself.”
“And you know that because of all those rumors you heard about him?”
“Maybe.”
“Are they real?”
“That’s for him to tell you, if he wants. Not me.”
He put a gentle hand on Kaylee’s shoulder. “I’m glad to see you’re worried about him—”
“He’s just screwing up my training, that’s all.”
There was a twinkle in Alastair’s eye. “Of course. But I promise if we don’t hear anything within a couple more days, I’ll send out a team to find some answers.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it,” Kaylee managed.
“Now go have some fun, and don’t worry. We’ll be doing plenty of that per usual once Christmas has passed.”
Maddox was in the middle of telling Jade and Edwin a joke involving the use of one of the cut-out snowflakes and a slice of ham from his plate when Kaylee returned.
“Hey,” Edwin said, scooting over on the couch to make room for her.
“Hey yourself. I thought you’d be throwing a sick party at your house with the rest of the Convocation.”
Edwin grimaced. “We tried that a couple years ago. Let’s just say that too much spiked eggnog can make even trained Merlins a little crazy.”
“Was that the time you told me Dylan got on the roof and—”
“Yes,” Edwin said. “And I highly recommend you don’t mention that to him. It’s still a sore spot. Oh, I just remembered…” He dug into his pocket and pulled out a small wrapped gift. “I—uh—made this. For you. I mean…I made this for you.”
Kaylee unwrapped it. Out tumbled a small carving, woven into an intricate pattern, lacquered and polished so that it shone lustrously under the light. Kaylee held it up. It was a bolt of lightning, circled by a dragon eating its tail.
“Edwin, this…”
“I thought your other charm might be a little worn and I saw this symbol and I’d gotten a lot better at carving so I thought you’d like it, so yeah,” Edwin said in one breath.
Kaylee’s fingers brushed the original charm Edwin had given her soon after they’d met. Despite the magic being gone when not charged she still rubbed it whenever she felt nervous so that now the wood was worn and smooth in the shape of her fingerprints.
“If you don’t like it I can make another.”
“No! No, this is great, Edwin.”
Kaylee unclasped the old one and stuffed it in her pocket. She held her hair back while Edwin fastened the new one. Instantly a sense of calm befell her, though Kaylee wasn’t sure if that was the new magic he’d infused it with, or the fact that something Edwin had given her was once again so close to her.
“You have gotten better at carving,” Kaylee noted, turning the new design over in her hand. “Where’d you see this?”
“It’s a design from ancient times,” Edwin said. “It means ‘wisdom is power’. I modified it a bit with the lightning bolt. Thought it’d match more.”
“That’s cool the dragon circles like that. It’s like the infinity symbol. I never thought—”
There was a small noise from the couch across from them. Kaylee was suddenly aware that she and Edwin had receded into a bubble of conversation all their own. Jade was giving her an amused smirk. Maddox had perched his chin atop his folded hands. He fluttered his eyelashes at Edwin. “And what did you get me, big boy?”
Kaylee was glad the doorbell rang just then. She was pretty sure if Edwin didn’t die of embarrassment, she would.
“I’ll get it!” Kaylee’s mom called.
“I—uh—thought Kaylee would appreciate a gift like this more than you two,” Edwin sputtered. “And, Jade, the last time I carved something you said it looked like a drunk woodpecker had gotten hold of a band saw.”
“Yeah, that was pretty clever, wasn’t it?” Jade said proudly.
Kaylee’s mom gasped. In an instant they were all up, funneling into the foyer just as Alastair and the others swooped out of the family room.
“Brianna?” Kaylee’s dad said. “What—?”
Randy stood on the front porch, the snow swirling around him. For a moment nobody moved. Randy rocked slightly back and forth on his heels, looking more une
asy than Kaylee had ever seen him. Despite the number of people there his eyes never left Kaylee’s mom, searching for something.
“Randall,” Kaylee’s mom said.
Randy held up a plastic bag. Inside were two boxes of donuts, giant red SALE stickers pasted on them. The kind the store probably gave away before they went stale.
“I brought dessert.”
Still nobody moved.
“Brianna?” Kaylee’s dad said.
Kaylee’s mom stepped aside. “Hurry up, Randall. You’re letting all the heat out.”
A smile. A true, full-blown, unhindered smile broke out on Randy’s face as he stepped inside and dusted the snow off his arms. “Thought you were gonna leave me to freeze, sis.”
“Don’t tempt me.”
It wasn’t until she had a proper look at him in the light that Kaylee could see that Randy wasn’t quite all right. One hand was slightly blackened. A fresh, angry bruise splotched just between his left eye and earlobe. He winced, just barely, as he shrugged off his jacket.
If anyone else noticed, they didn’t mention it.
“I’m starving. Hope you have leftovers,” Randy said.
“Randy?” Kaylee said. “Where have you—?”
“Good to see you too, kid.” He ruffled her hair as he stepped past her, leaving everyone in stunned silence in his wake.
“No offense, Kaylee,” Edwin said an hour later, “but your uncle’s kind of awesome.”
“He sure makes it seem that way, doesn’t he?” Kaylee said. They both glanced at Randy sitting at the kitchen counter. He was digging into his fourth nearly-stale donut. Kaylee briefly wondered why she’d worried about him at all. The man looked a little beat up, but he’d promptly made the rounds with the family after he’d stuffed his face. Alastair had even given him a grudging handshake. “Good to see you’re all right, Randall.”
“Never better,” Randy had said, slapping him on the shoulder so hard Alastair’s knees had buckled.
No less than three times since he’d arrived had Kaylee tried to ask where he’d been, but each time Randy neatly evaded her with a strategic retreat into another room or, incredibly, offering gifts to distract them.
Dragon's Curse (Heir of Dragons: Book 2) Page 8