Magic Awakened: A Paranormal Romance Boxed Set

by K.N. Lee

  “If I’d known all I had to do to win your favor was give you a weapon, Saira,” he murmured against her ear, “I would have showered you with bows and arrows when you reached eighteen summers.” Then he rained kisses all down her neck and under her chin. Gilly lost her train of thought.

  Talus called out again, this time followed by him stomping through the underbrush toward them, “Tom! If we don’t leave soon, it’ll be sunset.”

  Unwilling to let go, Gilly snuggled close, wrapping her arms around him. “Don’t listen to him. It’s barely sunrise.”

  “It’s almost noon,” Tom said and kissed her.

  “Promise to come back?” she asked coming up for air.

  “After this send off, try and keep me way.” He retrieved the crossbow and pressed it into her arms. “Keep this close, always.”

  She nodded and hugged the wooden weapon to her chest, her throat aching. With a wave, he ran to meet Talus. Gilly returned to camp slowly, her thoughts a confused whirl of happiness and sorrow. The riders were already out of sight by the time she arrived. Anna was seated with her children and husband.

  Her sister’s gaze skirted away from hers, appearing guilty. Had she sent Talus after Tom? Which meant Anna had been following Gilly’s movements. Because she didn’t approve of Tom or because she was worried about Gilly? If something was bothering her, why didn’t she speak up? Unusual for Anna to be so reticent.

  As she’d reached out to claim Tom, perhaps it was time to connect with Anna too. “I’m going to catch up on washing,” she said and set the crossbow down to gather her clothes. “Want to come with me, Anna?”

  “Yes!” Her sister jumped up and began to sort through her family’s clothing.

  “I can come, if you wish,” Marton said tentatively, as if washing clothes wasn’t his favorite activity. “It may not be safe to go to the river alone.”

  With an understanding smile, Gilly picked up her crossbow. “I’m taking this with me.” She then nodded to where her ever-present guards were watching their friends practice. “And we won’t be on our own.”

  Marton nodded, satisfied, and returned to playing a game with Bevan that involved tossing rocks into a circle to hit the opponent’s pieces. Anna conscripted Skye to help her carry her pile of clothes.

  By the water’s edge, Gilly took off her shoes and sloshed in. She chose a large flat rock to pound her clothes against, dropped her bundle beside it and fished out soap from her satchel. Anna settled nearby with the same purpose. Skye dropped the clothes and ran back to watch the fighting practice.

  Her sister didn’t speak and Gilly, trying to think of something to say, was flummoxed. Then she remembered her sister’s interest spiking when she mentioned their father’s temper. Now some of her memories had returned, she could share a little about him and maybe draw Anna out

  “Mam didn’t talk much about our papa,” she began, looking up to see Anna’s reaction. Her sister stiffened, but her gaze remained fixed on the clothes she beat against her stone. The action had more force than earlier though.

  Good sign.

  Gilly rubbed soap onto a stained bit of dress hem. “Mam said papa liked to play the Light game with me, where I’d chant a spell to move an object and he’d block me.”

  Anna’s glance was filled with curiosity. “How could he do that?”

  “When High Magic works, specks of light dance around. Anyway, Mam said Papa would knock the specks around and make me drop what I was trying to move. She said it would make me mad and happy all at the same time. That I would stubbornly move a spoon or pot no matter how hard he made it. I vaguely remember laughing so hard the Lights flew about the room shaking everything.”

  “I wish I could have known him,” Anna said in a wistful tone. “Do you think Papa was training you to become a strong sorceress? Pushing your limits?”

  The idea surprised Gilly. “I don’t know. After Mam first told me that story, I spent hours at Lookout Point trying to shift branches and stones. It never worked.”

  “But you’re good at casting spells now,” Anna said.

  Gilly nodded. “Mostly hearth magic. I can influence the weather. Set wards. Coerce animals to behave in a certain way. Even do a seeking. But not move inanimate objects. Except once, when Skye was in danger.”

  They continued washing in silence, then Anna asked, “What was she like?”

  “Mam?” At her sister’s nod, Gilly shook her head. “I don’t truly know. She loved us, I’m sure of that. She tried to make a normal life for us, though we were always on the watch for horsemen. I think she missed papa. Sometimes, late at night, I’d cry out and she’d come to cuddle me and tell me I shouldn’t be scared. That Papa was with us all and he’d never let anything bad happen to us.”

  “I wish he were here now,” Anna said. “I’m scared all the time, for Skye and Bevan and Marton. To think I wanted to go to Tibor to offer my services to King Ywen. That would have meant my death and that of my children. Instead of turning back, we’re still headed toward him.”

  “You don’t have to come.” Was this what was worrying her sister? “I said so in Perm. Better if you, Marton and the kids find someplace safe to hide.”

  “While you go to the castle to rescue our family?”

  “I intend to be careful,” Gilly said.

  “You always think this is your fight.” Anna’s face was flushed now and her eyes wide and sparkling with temper. “It’s our fight! Yours and mine. I may have been a baby when we lost our mother but I’m now grown up. And she’s as much a part of who I am as you. Do you think I care any less for her because she never cuddled me at night?” A catch in her sister’s voice spoke of Anna’s hurt at missing that treasured experience. “How could I desert her after she risked her life to save mine?”

  “She wouldn’t want you to put your life or your family’s in danger.”

  Anna flicked that concern away with a wave of her hand. “But she’d want you to risk yours? Would she be proud of me if I let you do this alone?”

  “Better if only one of us jeopardizes her life.”

  “Then you’ve done more than your share. You stay behind and I’ll find her on my own.”

  “Anna,” Gilly began gently.

  “Don’t Anna me,” her sister snapped. “I’ve had as much as I can handle from you and everyone else taking care of me. Whether you like it or not, Gilly, I’m sorry I treated you badly in the past. I intend to make up for it now.”

  When Gilly would have spoken, Anna held up an imperious hand. “There’s nothing you can say to change my mind. We’re sisters and we’re in this together. Resign yourself to that. Now, I’ve been thinking about Tamarisk. He’s likely draining our mother’s powers to use against us, as he is these sorcerers. That means two people who meld their powers, can become stronger. I felt that when I touched your hand during your searching spell. Didn’t you?”

  Gilly nodded reluctantly. In fact, after touching Anna her powers had soared. That might have been what triggered Tamarisk to come looking for them.

  “Well, if we both have the ability to use magic,” Anna continued, “why shouldn’t we try to join them?”

  “Because Tamarisk has been doing this for twenty years. And he has imprisoned magical guild members to draw from. Also he is better at it than us.”

  “We’re younger.”

  “Inexperienced.”

  “We have surprise on our side.” Anna shook Marton’s soggy shirt with such force, he was in danger of losing his one spare shirt. Dark clouds gathered overhead.

  A smile tugged at Gilly’s lips at her sister’s show of temper. She liked the person Anna had become. “Your children need you, Anna. Mam would say the children are more important than our wish to save her.”

  “And she’d be wrong,” Anna replied with grim purpose. “The time for running is over.”

  Odd, but the exact thought had crossed Gilly’s mind in Perm.

  “If Tamarisk had you in that dungeon, what would our moth
er do?” Anna asked, driving home her point. “Wouldn’t she do everything she could to come for you? Or me?”

  Gilly didn’t know how to answer. She knew Mam through the eyes of a child. Her mother told ten-year-old Saira that hiding was the answer to their problems. Gilly didn’t know the reasoning behind that conclusion. As an adult, she couldn’t guess what drove Mam to abandon her former life instead of fighting Tamarisk.

  Hagan had said that Tamarisk was too powerful for her mother. She’d run to her husband when she felt in danger. And when Keegan died, she no longer had anyone to turn to for help. If he’d taken one of her children captive, would she have risked her life to face him, knowing he could overwhelm her? What manner of woman was Mam? The child in Gilly believed she was wonderful. The adult knew her not at all. Perhaps it was time to build a cornerstone of belief all her own.

  She pushed her wet laundry away and turned to face to her sister. Anna was right. Time she opened herself to change. No longer was she Gimpy Gilly, the lonely goat-woman of Nadym. Nor Saira, a wounded child, staring out Lookout Point day after endless day. She was now part of a family who rode together, loved each other and fought side by side.

  A long forgotten mischievous streak rose in Gilly. She held out her wet soapy hands. “All right, let’s give it a try.”

  “Try what?” her sister asked, hesitant, suspicious.

  “To join our powers.

  Chapter 15

  Anna splashed closer and reached for Gilly’s hands.

  “Nothing too elaborate,” Gilly warned glancing around. The wind seemed to have died and not a bird chirped. The sound of trickling water from upstream faded away. The silence felt expectant.

  Heat emanated from Anna’s fingertips. It built up, came in contact with Gilly’s power and flecks of light rose to dance around their clasped hands. Gilly chuckled in delight. All of a sudden, a powerful wave of energy swooped into her body and surged up to tingle her scalp, and then swept down to curl her toes. Laughter lit up Anna’s eyes. The sweep of power had touched her too.

  “Something small, you said.” Anna turned toward Marton’s wet shirt on the rock behind her. It slithered across the stone’s surface.

  Gilly smiled as she added her focus to her sister’s and the shirt flew high into the air. Her grin widened with glee. She hadn’t expected such a swift response. She often wondered if her mother had made up that story of her father testing his daughter’s ability to move things. Apparently she hadn’t.

  Her gaze met Anna’s and with mutual silent agreement, they drove the shirt into the water and pulled it out dripping, and repeated, as they would have if they were actually washing it. Gilly laughed out loud as they twisted the shirt mid-air until all the water was wrung out. When it untwisted, the wrinkled shirt no longer dripped.

  Anna pulled away but Gilly tightened her grip on her sister’s fingers. Anna raised an eyebrow in question.

  Gilly glanced up toward the cloudy sky. Dark clouds were still there from Anna’s earlier temper tantrum. She dispersed those clouds and the sun shone bright and hot over both of them and the shirt. In moments, the material was steaming dry. Anna’s focus shifted to the shirt and she began to fold the material neatly before lowering it over by the riverbank. They simultaneously released their grip.

  “Well, look at that,” Gilly said with satisfaction, placing her hands on her hips. “If we can’t overthrow Tamarisk, we can at least do his laundry.”

  A movement caught her attention. The guards assigned to watch her had observed this magical practice, more interested in that than in their comrades’ swordplay. Word would soon spread that both sisters could work magic. Yet more proof they were Keegan’s kin.

  “Enough for now,” she said, then her gaze narrowed on the changes around them. She pointed to the shoreline where it was no longer dry and grassy, but filled with green saplings “Look at what we’ve done.”

  Anna swung around. “But we weren’t trying to do anything with plants.” She went over and swiped across the new growth. The branches sprang back. They were so tall even Marton’s shirt was hard to find buried among them. “What does this mean?”

  “It means combining our powers must have been High Magic.” Worry swamped over Gilly’s good humor. How could she have been so foolish as to work High Magic so unnecessarily? Doing laundry no less. “The horsemen are likely to follow that spark straight to us.”

  “Oh no!” Anna said and then shook her head. “Maybe they won’t come here. We decided they can’t pinpoint locations so easily, right? They could have been transported far away. We might have time to leave, except we can’t go until Tom and the others return. But Gilly, we did this. I have to say I’m impressed.”

  Gilly looked at the changed shoreline through her sister’s perspective. “The land looks healthier,” she said softly. “How can magic be evil when it recreates nature so wonderfully?”

  Anna’s gaze caught and held hers with grim determination. “This suggests we can stop Uncle Ywen and Tamarisk.”

  Gilly shook her head. “Moving a shirt and stopping those two monstrous men are two entirely different things. But I will write in Jarrod’s book to tell him about our combining our powers and the effect it seems to have had on the land. Maybe he can suggest a way this discovery can help us with our rescue mission.”

  “In Erov, he called you the Defender of the Light.” Anna said as she collected her things. “Did he mean magic?”

  “Yes, but I can’t imagine why he thinks I can be that. I don’t know how to defend Light. And from what?”

  “Not what, whom. Tamarisk. If he’s abusing those sorcerers in his dungeon, he’s also misusing their powers.”

  Arms full, they started back to camp, both of them deep in thought.

  “Even with our magic combined, we’re not up to defeating Tamarisk,” Gilly said, inserting a note of caution into their thinking. “Most of what I know of magic I learned by trial and error. Mam spoke little of how Light works. She did say it was like a trade, each individual good at one kind or another. For instance, your special ability is to heal.”

  “But I’ve seen you do many different types of magic.” Anna stopped and dropped her bundle of clothes. She held her hands over them. Gilly sensed she checked if she could do more than just heal. Her sister’s effort vibrated in the air. The clothes stayed put.

  Anna lowered her hands in disappointment. “You try.”

  Gilly dropped her bundle and held out her arms, calling the clothes back. Her laundry jumped into the air and landed in her arms. The crossbow she’d forgotten by the riverbed then flew over to rest on top. Had she called to that? “How odd.”

  “You said you could do this as a child. Maybe you needed my help to remember how. Also, if Jarrod is correct, and you are the Defender of the Light, this explains why your talent is not so specialized and limited like mine.”

  “I suppose.”

  “Let’s go back. I need to warn Marton the horsemen will be coming.”

  “Yes, sentries will need to be posted further away.” But before her sister could retrieve her fallen laundry, with a twitch of her finger, Gilly raised Anna’s clothes to rest gently across her arms.

  “Thanks,” Anna said with a grateful smile. Then, she asked, “Do you feel different?”

  “How so?”

  “We’ve been travelling for days with little rest. Yet, I feel thoroughly energized. As young and vibrant as those plants.”

  Gilly nodded, smiling. “Me too.”

  They hurried back. While Anna went to speak with Marton, Gilly doused the fire to prevent anyone locating them that way, then picked up her quill and opened her book. She wrote Jarrod’s name prominently at the top of the page. She spent an hour detailing all her questions. Satisfied she’d asked the right ones she shut the book and went to help Anna. If they must leave once Tom returned, they had better start packing everything they’d unpacked.

  By late-afternoon, when no horsemen thundered into camp, Gilly breathed
a sigh of relief. Maybe this once, their magic hadn’t been noticed. Or what she and Anna did together was a different type of hearth magic the horsemen couldn’t track. Like when Anna healed Tom. No horsemen had come then.

  Her sister was playing a sticks game with the children. A few warriors were polishing their weapons nearby while others patrolled the perimeter. Diligently carrying the crossbow Tom had given her, Gilly wandered in the direction Tom had gone this morning. Why wasn’t he back?

  Just as she was ready to give up, a call sounded in the distance. The men were returning. She was racing toward Tom without thought to how her impulsive dash might look to those around her, or to Tom himself.

  Talus was the first to reach her. He jumped off his horse and bowed over her hand. “Well met, Missus Gilly. We’ve much news to share. Our trip was both frustrating and fruitful.”

  “I’d expected it to be as much.” Gilly had to smile at his formal address. “Where’s Tom?”

  “Coming,” Talus said. “He stopped to ask one of the sentries how all of you fared while we were away. Would you like a ride to camp?”

  Gilly absently shook her head, her thoughts circling around seeing Tom ride toward her. Perhaps she could steal another kiss. She walked across the clearing toward the woods, stretching her neck to spot Tom. “I’m happy to walk, thank you.”

  Talus mounted behind her in a clatter of chainmaille. Suddenly he wrapped an arm around her waist and swung her up high. She let out an involuntary squeal and then regretted it when Tom came galloping out of the woods.

  Talus settled her in front, with his arm firmly holding her in place. “Ladies do not normally refuse when I offer a ride on Padion.”

  Perhaps the ladies he accosted didn’t mind their hips being twisted to sit on top of a saddle. Gilly found the experience not worth the time saved. Her temper flared. As if picking up on her mood, the horse shied and bucked.

  Talus tightened his grip on her waist.

  Tom had slowed to a stop, an angry frown overriding his concerned expression. Then, to her shock, once he had made sure she was safe, he rode past without uttering a word.