Kaylee grabbed the lid and timed her next move. Edwin and Maddox had come up the stairs on the other side. Edwin met her eyes and nodded.
They charged at once.
The combined efforts of all four of them forced the djinn back until Kaylee was able to jam the lid onto the top with a satisfying pop! The djinn gave a final howl of dismay.
The fog slowly dissipated. The mall fell eerily silent. Kaylee panted, looking between each of her friends. The sheer terror of the moment was wearing off, replaced by exhaustion.
Then Maddox burst out laughing. “I can’t believe we did that!”
Jade gave high-fives all around and even Edwin gave Kaylee a celebratory hug.
“You did great,” he said into her ear.
Kaylee didn’t have time to decipher the way her skin tingled where he’d touched her before a voice behind them said, “Edwin?”
They turned to find Alastair with no less than a half dozen black-clad men and women, magic curling at their fingertips, weapons clutched in their hands.
Alastair gaped between them and the urn Kaylee was holding tightly in her hands. “What—what have you done?”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“Edwin’s convincing them we weren’t the ones being attacked,” Jade said.
They stood in the parking lot fifteen minutes later. Red and blue lights from a collection of nearby fire trucks and ambulances washed the concrete in alternating colors. Paramedics rushed every direction, double-checking anyone who came out from the mall.
“Even though we were,” Kaylee said. “The cell phone guy. He must have been a Slayer just waiting for someone to ask about the star-kissed meteorite. Making sure nobody messed with their plans.”
“Looks that way,” Jade agreed grimly.
“Pretty clever move,” Maddox said.
Jade gave him an indignant look. “Or not. Look at this mess.” She thumbed to the rest of the parking lot. About thirty bystanders were crowded behind yellow tape. Nearby, some confused firefighters had just emerged from the back of the mall.
“There’s nothing there,” one called to his chief. “No signs of smoke damage or anything. One man’s shop has been destroyed, though.”
“I’m fine, thank you!” Trevor snapped, brushing off a couple of the firemen’s hands as they helped him towards the nearest ambulance. He was covered in a light coating of plaster and bits of brick rubble. The stuffed gremlin was tucked under one arm. “And my shop’s fine too. I’ve got insurance.”
He saw Kaylee’s group and gave them an extra venomous glare before stomping away.
“For the Slayers, this isn’t clever at all,” Jade said. “If we weren’t sure about being on the right track, we are now.”
Near them, a small crowd of people had clustered behind a strip of yellow tape. The Merlins and Protectors Alastair had arrived with crowded outside the line, and Alastair himself was speaking to one of the EMT’s. Edwin was beside him, arms crossed.
A second later Alastair shook the man’s hand and he and Edwin walked over. Alastair looked tired, as if the short time in the mall had exhausted him more than anything else he’d done that week. And Kaylee noticed something she had never seen on his face before: worry.
“From what my son tells me you four just happened to be in the mall when the djinn was unleashed,” Alastair said. “Is that about it?”
“It’s true, sir,” Maddox said.
“Perfume shopping,” Jade said, holding up the bottle of Coco Mademoiselle she’d somehow managed to hold onto.
Alastair gave a satisfied nod. He began to roll the sleeves of his suit back down. “That being the case, I want to thank you. It’s not many Tamers or Protectors of the Convocation, even fully trained ones, who could manage to beat back a djinn giant. Not to mention have the gall to try.” He awkwardly patted Edwin on the shoulder, as if he didn’t quite know how to do the movement properly. “Good job.”
“Thanks, Dad,” Edwin mumbled.
“The fire chief and I have an understanding,” Alastair went on. “For all intents and purposes this was a freak fire.” He looked towards the mall. “Though I’m dismayed to think the Slayers have stooped low enough to attack civilians in order to bring us out.”
Before Kaylee could stop herself she said, “We think they were looking for something there.”
“Is that so?” Alastair said. “And what would they be looking for?”
“Um…” Kaylee glanced at the others. Telling Alastair about their suspicions had sounded good in her head. Jade gave her a reluctant shrug.
They filled Alastair in on the shortened version of what they’d found before visiting Trevor’s shop. After they were finished Alastair was very quiet.
“This is…unbelievable.”
“I knew it,” Edwin said, brushing Alastair’s hand off his shoulder. “I knew you wouldn’t listen to us.”
“I didn’t say that, Edwin,” Alastair snapped. “You are always quick to judge me in the wrong. Think for a moment and stop letting your emotions get the better of you. I do believe you, but with the star-kissed meteorite safe in the Northern Scarsdale Convocation’s hands I don’t know what we can do, short of alerting them.”
“We could, ah, go after them. The Slayers, I mean, sir,” Maddox said. “Hit them before they hit us.”
“Absolutely not,” Alastair said. “That’s exactly what they want.”
Alastair motioned to one of the black-clad men who had come with him. The man nodded and the group of Protectors and Merlins began filtering into the crowd one by one. “Trust me, kids, I have opposed the Slayers much longer than you. I know how they think.”
“But what if this was Lesuvius?” Kaylee said. “What if he’s the one behind the attack?”
Alastair froze. “Where did you hear that name?”
“We’re not as in the dark as you think,” Kaylee said. “We want to help, not just be told to keep training and sit on the sidelines. They’re after us, too.”
“You can help by staying alive long enough to be useful to the Convocation!” Alastair said. “Until then, forget that name, and forget these grandiose delusions of saving the day!”
He swept his suit jacket around and ducked out of sight into the crowd.
Maddox whistled. “Boy, you pissed him off.”
“Lesuvius?” Jade asked. “Where did you learn that?”
“I’ll tell you later,” Kaylee said. A thought had just occurred to her, one that would make them ‘useful to the Convocation’, as Alastair so elegantly put it.
“Jade, Maddox,” she pulled Edwin to her side, ignoring his awkward protests. “You need to teach us how to fight.”
“I’m still not totally sure why you need to do this,” Maddox said uncertainly. He finished laying out the cones in a little ring in Jade’s backyard. He stepped back to survey his handiwork, then pulled one muscled arm across his chest to stretch. Kaylee followed suit.
“You’ve got Baba for magic, and she teaches you some agility drills, right?”
“She doesn’t teach us what you and Jade know,” Kaylee said.
She didn’t mention that since hers and Edwin’s break-in to the forbidden room, Baba’s lessons had stagnated more than usual. She hadn’t taught them a single new technique in the last two weeks—certainly nothing as advanced as storms—and Kaylee could almost swear when Baba looked at her now it was more with anger and pity than anything else.
“We need to know more than agility,” Kaylee said. “My magic was useless against the djinn giant. If I get caught like that without you or Jade…”
“I understand that,” Maddox conceded. “But Edwin…” He looked around the yard, “…isn’t here. I thought he was going to learn too.”
“He will. I’ll teach him what you show me,” Kaylee said, imagining how much she would enjoy pummeling Edwin for skipping the lesson.
The back door slammed and Jade joined them. She’d tied back her hair in a ponytail and changed into a workout top and pants, exposing her
toned stomach. Kaylee tried to ignore how Maddox’s eyes lingered on her a little longer than normal. He was probably just making sure she didn’t look hurt from the earlier fight. Yeah, that had to be it.
“You all set?” Jade said.
“Good to go,” Maddox said.
Jade pointed her staff to one of the practice dummies. “I’m gonna go hit a few. Maddox, you and Kaylee warm up and start through some basic moves.”
“Yes ma’am,” Maddox said, giving her a small salute.
“Don’t be cheeky, dork.” But Kaylee saw she was smiling a little.
Jade’s backyard had been transformed into a ninja’s dream training yard since the last time Kaylee had been there. Straw practice dummies with goofy faces (courtesy of Maddox, no doubt) were set back against the wooden fence. A climbing rope was affixed to the tallest branch of the lone oak tree they had swung from as kids. Off to one side was a collection of practice weapons and kettlebells, along with a sort of cage that looked like a medieval torture device. Maddox had told her it was for practicing ‘multi-frontal attacks’.
“How long have you had all this stuff?” Kaylee said.
“A few years,” Jade said, looking a little sheepish. “I had to keep it all in the basement until you learned about the Convocation. If you had learned about the Convocation.”
“Ah. Gotcha.” Kaylee said, feeling oddly upset to learn that there had been such a huge part of her friend’s life she hadn’t known about. But she was fine with it, really. So Jade had kept one thing from her, no big deal.
Kaylee thought back to the mall when they’d fought the djinn giant. The precision Jade and Maddox had shown together. The comfortableness with one another’s movements. The total trust in each other.
She and Jade had that too, right? And she and Edwin…
“Kaylee?”
“Sorry, what?” Kaylee said.
Maddox was beckoning her into the circle of cones. “I was just saying we should start warming up, but we can do this another time if you want. I know fighting the djinn probably took a lot out of you.”
The consistent thwack! thwack! as Jade smashed the training dummy with her staff briefly distracted Kaylee. Jade was going at it like fighting a mythical creature had been just another day for her. Kaylee steeled herself. No, she was a dragon-kin. If Jade wasn’t tired, she wouldn’t—couldn’t—be either.
“Let’s do this,” Kaylee said, stepping beside him.
Maddox took her through a series of dynamic warmups that by the end had Kaylee seriously re-thinking this whole extra training thing. It wasn’t that she was out of shape, but already she was feeling a few pulled muscles from the earlier fight and had a nice sweat going on. Meanwhile, Maddox barely looked winded.
“I know you want to jump right in, but let’s just take things easy for today,” Maddox said.
Kaylee waved an unconcerned hand, trying not to let her relief show. “If you insist.”
“We’ll go over a sequence my first instructor taught me. It forms the basis for all the fighting styles I know so far.”
Maddox took a step back to build some space, then performed a series of moves so quick and elegantly flowing that Kaylee had trouble deciding if it had all been one movement or not.
“Did you get all that?”
“I think…you’ll have to do that again,” she said.
Maddox rubbed the back of his head, chuckling. “Right. Sorry. I forget not everyone’s at Jade’s and my level. And I’m a pretty terrible teacher.”
“No! No, you’re not,” Kaylee insisted. She got in a starting pose. “Just go slower.”
Maddox started over, and Kaylee followed the best she could. She managed to make it to the third movement before getting completely lost.
“Close,” Maddox said. “Here, like this.”
He stepped beside her and gently wrapped his hands over her forearms, maneuvering them into the right position. Kaylee was happy to let him. “Start here, then flow here. There you go—no…perfect.”
Kaylee tried to focus on the movement—just the movement—and definitely not how close Maddox was, or how warm his body was against hers, or the tingling his fingers left when he let her go.
“Perfect,” Maddox said again. “Let’s try it one more time.”
By the end of the second round, Kaylee felt she had gotten a better grasp of it. But still something didn’t feel quite right. She had gone through the entire sequence almost perfectly, but the grace from Maddox’s movements eluded her.
Maddox stood outside the ring, watching her. Kaylee felt her cheeks go hot. “Is…there something wrong?”
“You’re not embracing the moves,” Maddox said finally.
Kaylee let her arms drop, trying not to show her disappointment. “I’m trying. This isn’t the easiest thing in the world.”
“You’re doing fine,” Maddow assured her. “You’re actually doing most of the sequence correctly. But,” he stepped close again. “Let me lead.”
Kaylee obliged and Maddox puppeted her arms, using his feet to nudge hers into the right spots. When Kaylee’s eyes flickered to his face it was a mask of determination. As if rather than just seeing the move, he was immersed within it, letting the sequence consume him completely.
“There. Feel the difference?” Maddox said as they finished.
Kaylee rubbed her arms to stop the buzzing. “A little. It felt more…put together. What did you do?”
“The same thing Jade helped me do when we first started,” Maddox said. “You’re performing the moves, but you’re not embracing them. You’re not letting it become an extension of you. You’re scared.”
Kaylee bristled. “I am not scared.”
“I know,” Maddox said, making a placating gesture. “I mean you’re scared to immerse yourself. To give yourself up to the movement completely. To accept it as your own. I wonder…can I…ask you a personal question?”
“I suppose…”
“When you summon a storm, what do you feel?”
That didn’t seem like a very personal question; certainly not as personal as asking for her deepest, darkest thoughts. Her magic was…her magic. Nothing more or less.
“I feel powerful,” Kaylee said. “I mean, it’s a freaking storm, how cool is that?”
“And that’s all you feel? Powerful?”
“Of course. Well, then—” Kaylee paused. There was something else that had welled up within her during those times. How had she not noticed it before?
“Afraid?” Maddox guessed.
“Of course not! Why would I be scared? It’s just my magic, why would I be afraid of that…?”
She began to wilt beneath Maddox’s cool gaze.
“Maybe a little scared,” she admitted.
“Jade says the reason we don’t embrace our true potential is because we’re scared of our true power. We’re scared that we’re actually far stronger than we ever thought possible, and by embracing that power we’re also embracing our limitations. We have nothing left to blame; only our deepest faults and insecurities.”
Maddox nudged one of the cones back into place. “When I started out as a Protector I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted to be, and I didn’t know if I’d ever be good enough to live up to whatever it was. I think your magic’s the same way. You need to accept it before you can control it.”
“But I’m trying.”
“Are you really?”
“What kind of stupid question is that? Why would I not do it? Why would I be—?” She stopped herself.
“Ashamed?”
Kaylee slowly nodded.
Maddox laid a hand on her shoulder. “Kaylee, look at me.”
She did, meeting his dark eyes, his intense expression searing into her. “You are a dragon-kin, heir to a powerful line of magic. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You are who you are and don’t ever let anyone tell you different.”
Kaylee felt tears pinpricking the corners of her eyes and she hurriedly brushed them away
before Maddox could see.
“Thanks,” Kaylee said. “You know, you actually sound like a pretty good teacher to me.”
Maddox laughed. “I can’t take all the credit. I had good teachers myself. And like I said, Jade helped me a lot.”
Kaylee saw his eyes were shining as he watched Jade, who had just finished decimating the latest poor training dummy. Kaylee had never seen a look anywhere close to that in his eyes whenever he looked at her. But she found that this time, the flare of jealously she expected didn’t come.
“She’s amazing,” Kaylee said. “We’ve been friends since we were kids, and she’s helped me through some tough spots.”
“Same,” Maddox murmured. He seemed to struggle with what he was about to say. “I was actually recruited by the Slayers, you know.”
Kaylee choked as she took a swig of water. “Ah, sorry. Nobody mentioned that.”
Maddox grimaced. “It’s not exactly something you go around sharing. This was back when my family lived in Maine. I think I was eight or nine and they came knocking. They’d apparently been scouting me. It wasn’t totally out of the blue. My cousin had been killed when a couple dragon-kin’s turf war collapsed the apartment complex he’d been living in. My dad never bought the official ‘structural’ issues story so the Slayers fed off that, made it sound like my parents could use me to get back at those who had wronged them.”
“I’m so sorry,” Kaylee said, shocked. “But…you obviously said no.”
“Not…exactly. When the Slayers offer you a position among their ranks, it’s not really a choice. Unlike the Convocation, they won’t just wipe your memory if you refuse to join. I was part of their training program for six months before we discovered what they were really like. My parents got me out and moved us here.”
He scuffed the ground again. The sound of Jade hitting the dummies had stopped.
“Anyway,” Maddox said. “It took a couple years after I got here but Jade convinced me to join the Convocation as a Protector. She proved to me they were different. And she was right. I found a family in them, and I guess in that sense she saved me. She’s helped me get better ever since.”
Dragon's Awakening (Heir of Dragons: Book 1) Page 19