The girl’s friends nodded, jogging in place and shooting nervous glances at the vanishing pack. Kaylee sucked in a big breath and pushed the pain away. “It’s not a concussion. I’m…I’m fine. Keep going, I’ll catch up.”
The other girls looked like they couldn’t trust her to walk three feet, not to mention finish running the rest of the trail. But Kaylee insisted, and eventually they trickled off after the rest of the runners, leaving her alone.
She groaned and checked herself over again. The spots in her vision were gone. A nice scrape ran the length of her right leg. Strangely, her forearms were completely untouched, though she swore she had used them to brace her fall. Maybe they had shifted…
No, she wouldn’t think about that. Especially now that she was out here. Alone.
Kaylee brushed the rest of the dirt off. She made sure her shoelaces were tied properly this time and started walking. There was no point in running anymore. She was sure, unless she spontaneously gained super speed, she’d never catch up to the front of the group, and there was still no guarantee she hadn’t broken anything. But now that she was walking…the pain was better. In fact, everything was better. Her heart thudded loudly in her chest. She sensed the blood flowing powerfully through her veins. The sensation of aliveness rushed over her.
Snap! Snap!
Without thinking about it, she’d rubbed her fingers together. The static charge this time was more powerful than it had ever been before. Kaylee held up her fingers. An arc of electricity shot between them. Kaylee quickly clenched her fists.
Nope. Not this again. If she ignored it, then the whole thing would go away. Just like her dad turning the music up when the car started making funny noises. Problem solved.
It was only after another ten minutes of walking that Kaylee realized she was lost.
The trail had split no less than three times and each time she hadn’t seen any of Coach Maxwell’s ‘obvious’ signs. Every direction looked like the right one. Or the wrong one. After circling around the same fork in the trail twice more Kaylee stopped. She cocked her ear. Maybe she could hear shouts from the field.
At first, nothing. And then…
Her ear seemed to change, just as her arms had. Now she could hear something. Voices, faint and echoey like in a long tunnel, back the way she’d come.
Kaylee lifted one hand to touch her ear. Her fingers met a scaly point. Then another, higher up than where her normal ear should have been. It was cold, like the skin of a boa constrictor at a petting zoo.
“Gah!” Kaylee yanked her hand down. Stay calm. Calm and collected. You hit your head and…pierced your ear with a stick. Yeah!
The silence of the forest was filled only with her terrified breathing. A tingling sensation ran through her again, but this time it wasn’t some unknown electric current.
She was being watched.
Kaylee spun around, looking for any signs that there was someone else out here. Maybe one of the cross-country girls had returned to look for her. Maybe they’d sent a search party.
A branch snapped behind her. Kaylee whirled around just as a blurred shape slammed into her side. Her body hit the ground hard. Cold steel pressed up against her throat before she could move.
“Should have left when you had the chance,” Brendan said, pressing the sword harder against her skin. “Now you’re going to pay.”
Chapter Five
As Brendan raised his arm to drive the sword through her, Kaylee wasn’t scared.
She was pissed.
First off, she was having probably the worst luck with boys in the history of any girl ever; if they weren’t creepily watching her in the cafeteria or taking her on crappy dates they were actively trying to murder her in the woods.
Second, she’d made a fool of herself trying out for a team she didn’t really want to be on, and now her head hurt again thanks to Brendan.
And he was going to regret that.
Kaylee bucked with all her might, creating a pocket of space between her and Brendan, just enough for her to drive her knee into his crotch. Brendan’s face went a painful shade of purple and he wheezed something that might have been, “You’ve got to be kidding me…”
Before he could recover, Kaylee tucked her knees into her chest and kicked out with all her might. Brendan was thrown off. Kaylee’s legs were still jelly from the run so he only went about five feet, but it was enough to buy her space to scramble up.
Weapon. She needed a weapon.
She found a tree branch and grabbed it. She whirled around, branch raised, to find Brendan with murder in his eyes, his sword leveled at her heart.
“You fight well for someone the Convocation hasn’t trained,” he said.
“It isn’t hard to find a boy’s weak points,” Kaylee shot back, circling him. “And no blabbing nonsense this time, please.”
Brendan snarled and lunged, swiping the air where Kaylee had stood just a second before. Kaylee rolled and swung low at his legs. Brendan leapt, seeming to hover off the ground for just a fraction of a second longer than was possible before landing at a crouch.
Pressure was building behind Kaylee’s eyes. Her anger was leaking into the rest of her body. That power inside her growled in response. As it had done yesterday, the sky overhead suddenly began to tint a dark gray. A strong gust rattled the branches above.
“Not this time!” Brendan said. He carved a flurry of complicated symbols into the air in front of him, leaving a trail of orange sparks. They looked like a cross between Greek and the Latin roots Kaylee had been forced to memorize for English. When Brendan finished, the symbols hung suspended in the air before fading away. The pressure fled Kaylee’s body. The sky cleared again.
Brendan looked smug. “Simple enough elemental magic block. No storms for you. Should buy me enough time to finish you off.”
He carved another symbol and a lash of fiery sparks formed in his open palm. He whipped it at Kaylee who brought up her stick just in time to have it sliced in two.
“You’re strong for someone who’s untrained,” Brendan said, bringing the whip back while Kaylee searched frantically for a new weapon. “To already be able to use elemental magic is impressive.”
Kaylee gave up trying to find something and faced him. A thought had begun to form in the back of her mind, but it required accepting something she swore she wouldn’t.
“If I had any idea what you were talking about I’d be offended,” Kaylee said, trying to buy time while her mind zeroed in on the sensation she’d felt earlier. On drawing power from within and forcing her arms to shift as they had before.
Brendan sneered and drew his whip back. “Too bad.”
Kaylee charged him.
In her mind, recklessness bred surprise, and no one was more surprised than Brendan. He cried and tripped backwards. The whip flew out of his hands, missing Kaylee’s head and instead lashing onto her arm as she pummeled into him.
She expected pain. A burning or stinging or something. But all she felt was the warmth of the sparks on her skin.
No, not skin. Scales.
“No,” Brendan breathed, looking at her arms. “You shouldn’t be able—How did you—?”
Kaylee slugged him. With her hardened hand it barely hurt at all.
He careened back into the nearest tree. The whip vanished in a puff of smoke. Kaylee ran at him again. Brendan pulled his sword but by then she was going too fast to stop. She put up her hands and the metal glanced off her left arm, part of the sword chipping off as it met the scales.
Brendan let out a wordless cry of rage as she tackled him again. He landed in the dirt, but was up again in an instant. His hand was a flurry as he drew more symbols. The air crackled with energy. A ball of light formed in his open hand. Kaylee tried to make the sky do whatever it had done before and smite him with lightning, but her strength was spent. Her legs sagged. The scales on her arms had begun receding, leaving her with bare, vulnerable skin.
Brendan drew his arm back to throw. His face was pu
re malice.
“Ky-ya!”
Jade came soaring out of the underbrush. Her flying kick met Brendan’s nose with a sickening crack. The ball of light in his hand whizzed off course and exploded against a tree behind Kaylee.
Kaylee could only watch in awe as Jade, knife in hand, attacked. Some sluggish part of her mind was catching up to what she was seeing; but she still couldn’t believe it: This wasn’t Jade. This wasn’t the friend Kaylee knew. This was…
Jade moved like a hero from an action movie. She dodged Brendan’s swift jabs and returned with kicks of her own, her arms and legs blurring as they exchanged blows. Sparks flashed as their blades connected. Jade leapt, spinning through the air before kicking at Brendan’s exposed middle. He brought his arms up in a block just in time and the attack only sent him skidding away. His hands flicked more symbols in the air.
“Dodge this!”
“Down, Kaylee!” Jade yelled. She leapt towards Kaylee, tackling her to the ground just as another ball of light soared just over them. Jade twisted as they fell and threw her knife. The blade caught the side of Brendan’s leg, leaving a nasty slice. He gritted his teeth, glaring at her, his face bloody and bruised.
“You win this round, dragon lover.”
Kaylee stood and spat dirt out of her mouth. “What did you call her?”
“Tell your Slayers that Kaylee’s under the protection of the Convocation,” Jade said, stepping in front of her. “If any of you try to harm her again you’ll have to answer to me.”
Brendan sneered. Then he shrank his sword and ran off into the trees, leaving only the sound of the crackling embers of the torched bushes and a still-quivering knife in the tree. A few seconds later the pressure on Kaylee’s shoulders lifted, as though a heavy blanket had been pulled off. The sky began to turn a light gray once more.
Kaylee stalked over to the knife and, after a couple tugs, yanked it out. She turned it over, part of her still wanting to believe that this was all some elaborate prank. But the weight and the metal felt real enough.
“Jade…” She turned in time to see Jade wobble. “Jade!” Kaylee caught her in time to lower her to the ground. Jade’s shoulders were shaking a bit.
“I’m fine,” Jade said, holding up a hand and patting Kaylee’s arms. “Just…I’ve been a little lax on my training lately. To be honest I didn’t think I’d need it because you hadn’t shown…well, you hadn’t done anything like this yet.”
She still trembled. Her fingers gripped Kaylee’s arm harder. “I almost thought I was too late.”
Kaylee was staring off into the underbrush. “Too…late? You…you fought him off like some kind of ninja! How did you do that?” Kaylee glanced at the knife in her hand. She thrust it in front of Jade’s face. “And you were carrying this around at school?”
Jade wore a puzzled expression. “Oh, that? However did that get here?”
“Jade. Seriously.”
Jade sighed. She let Kaylee help her up and sheathed the knife in a hidden pocket inside her jacket sleeve. “Don’t look at me like that. If I hadn’t brought that knife we both might be dead.”
“Who was he? What was he? What were those weird symbols he was using—”
“Rune marks. And I don’t know how he was using them. Not all Slayers can do that, and I have no defense against them. That’s something for a Merlin to deal with. But if they’re sending Slayers like him into the field then they must really think they’re onto something here…”
She trailed off when she noticed Kaylee glaring at her. Kaylee prodded her in the arm. “Explanation. Now.”
But before Jade could say anything there came another crash through the trees behind them and the dark-haired guy who’d been stalking Kaylee earlier burst into the clearing.
“Jade?! Oh, there you are. I thought you’d gone this way.”
He whipped around in a circle, eyes narrowed on the trees as though they were his sworn enemy. He wielded a lacrosse stick and shoulder pads, though one side was sticking out from beneath his jersey like he had tripped and snagged it on branches on his way over here.
“Is he gone? Did I miss him?” The guy said.
“You missed everything, Maddox!” Jade bellowed. Maddox finished scanning the trees and nodded like he was sure they were safe now.
“Where were you ten minutes ago?” Jade said. “A Slayer with rune marks nearly toasted Kaylee and skewered me. You were supposed to be keeping an eye on her!”
“I had practice,” Maddox said, brandishing his lacrosse stick as though that explained everything. “And she’s your charge to protect, not mine.”
“That’s because your ward doesn’t go anywhere,” Jade shot back. “And as long as we’re both here we take turns watching over her.”
Maddox shrugged, not looking very sorry. Jade sucked in a big breath, but before she could launch into another tirade Kaylee grabbed her shoulders and nearly shook her in frustration. “What. Are you two. Talking about?”
Jade sighed. “Okay, okay, you want an explanation? You,” she jabbed Kaylee’s chest, “are a dragon-kin, a blood descendant child of a dragon and a human, born with some physical dragon abilities and elemental magic. I’m your guardian, also known as a dragon Tamer. That doofus over there—”
“Not cool, Jade,” Maddox grumbled.
“—Is called a Protector. His job is to protect Merlins, but he really shouldn’t have a cool name like I do since he does such a lousy job of protecting anybody.”
“Seriously, low blow,” Maddox said.
“Now,” Jade stood and put her hands on her hips, “does that clear everything up?”
“Not…not really.”
Jake smirked. “I didn’t think so.”
Another branch cracked. All three of them spun around. It must have been later than Kaylee realized because the sun was already starting to dip in the sky.
“Come on,” Jade said. She took Kaylee’s hand and the three of them backed out the way they’d come. “Let’s go see the Convocation.”
Chapter Six
“Jade—Jade, would you—would you slow down!”
Kaylee tugged her arm away from her friend’s grasp. They were standing on an empty street three blocks from the school, in the quieter part of Scarsdale. Here, the houses grew to monstrous sizes, more mansions and estates than anything a normal family would need to live in. Roman columns were more numerous than mailboxes, iron wrought gates replaced hedges and picket fences. A settled silence hung over everything, as though the earth was holding its breath.
Jade huffed when Kaylee screeched to a halt.
“We can’t stop until I’m sure you’re safe. Usually Slayers don’t travel in groups, but if they think there’s a cluster of dragon-kin here they’ll have more than one of them out prowling around. The faster we get you to a safe place the more I can relax.”
“You can relax! Brendan was just a psychopath, no big deal! I’m alive! Everything’s good!”
“You’re not good, and you have no idea about your not goodness,” Jade said, taking her hand again. “I should have told Alastair earlier, but I didn’t think…then you burned down the barn. A barn, like, really?”
Kaylee rolled her eyes and allowed herself to be dragged along. She tried not to think about leaving school without telling the coach where she was going, or about how she’d left all her stuff. Jade had simply told her that, “Klutz-face will handle it.”
Klutz-face must have been Jade’s pet name for Mr. Tall, Broad, and Brooding. And if Jade said he would handle it, Kaylee had no problem letting him. The last thing she wanted to do was deal with any mess she’d left behind.
Jade finally pulled Kaylee up the slithering walkway of a mansion at the far end of a cul-de-sac. It had a broad front, with large-paned windows and marble carvings of various medieval looking creatures situated around the yard. A gravel drive wound its way to the back, behind which was a separate, smaller house, this one alone as big as Kaylee’s home.
The
second they stepped onto the porch, the front door opened. A sour-faced middle-aged man in a tuxedo print t-shirt and wrinkled slacks stared glumly at them.
“Good evening, Miss Azuma and Miss Richards. Alastair’s been expecting you.”
“I hope so since I told him we were coming,” Jade said, tugging Kaylee inside.
The man gave a little bow as he closed the door behind them. “Indeed you did. Master Edwin’s Alert charms also, er…alerted me of your imminent arrival.”
“He finally finished one?” Jade said.
“Finally, being the operative word,” the man said.
“And this one didn’t explode?”
The man unconsciously rubbed the outside of his hand, where a strip of gauze had been thickly wrapped around. “Blessedly, no, it did not.” He gave another slight bow to Kaylee. “I am Tibbs, caretaker of this estate.”
Kaylee gave a shy wave. “Um, hi, I’m Kaylee Richards—But you already knew that, didn’t you?”
“I did, but I will humor you and pretend like I did not.”
“Great. Thanks.”
Exactly how much did these people know about her? Was she being watched? Kaylee couldn’t even look at Jade, her own best friend, without thinking she still harbored massive secrets. That realization hurt more than anything else had today.
“This way, please,” Tibbs said.
He led them through the largest, fanciest entryway Kaylee had ever seen. It was decked in fine oil paintings. Two gilded pillars upheld archways displaying carved crown moldings of reptilian creatures slinking their way across the room. Their eyes seemed to follow Kaylee as she crossed the floor and entered into another room. Kaylee was glad when they were out of sight.
The new room was quaint and cozy. Two plush couches were situated before an expansive fireplace, a fire crackling in the center. A calming scent of lilacs poured from incense sticks burning in one corner.
“Please take a seat,” Tibbs said, placing a couple glasses of water on the table before them. “The rest of your party will arrive shortly,”
Dragon's Awakening (Heir of Dragons: Book 1) Page 4