by Denise Lynn
“I’ll be back later tonight.” Braeden hesitated, then added, “Don’t wait up.”
He was gone before she could respond.
Alexia blew out the breath she didn’t realize she’d been holding and headed for the shower. It didn’t take much to figure out Braeden was ticked off.
She never would have intentionally teased him that way, especially when he was in a meeting. He couldn’t seriously think she’d done it on purpose.
And he couldn’t be upset because she suddenly had these magical powers. It wasn’t as if she’d asked for them. In fact, he’d been the one who suggested using them.
Could they have come from the book?
Quickly finishing her shower and dressing, she sat down in front of the table and flipped the computer on, then pulled the last page she’d translated closer.
Once again more words crowded the page. She was getting used to that happening. She stared harder at the new sections, sighing in frustration. Wonderful, now Aelthed was imparting a recipe. Not for a spell, but for a tart.
Two things were at the forefront of her mind. One—medieval cooks didn’t usually put measurements into their recipes. Two—even if they had, why would anyone put a cup of salt into a fruit tart?
Alexia rechecked her translation. Now it called for two cups. It made no sense whatsoever.
She pulled the next page closer. More recipes filled the space. The first one was for cassia soup. She shuddered at the thought of a cinnamon soup made with chicken. It called for a pound each of finely ground cinnamon, clove and ginger.
Frowning, she wondered at the measurements. She wasn’t a chef by any means, but it didn’t take a lot of thinking to realize that a pound of any finely ground spice would be far too much.
She pushed the page away and leaned back in her chair. While finding recipes in the book was new, this wasn’t the first time Aelthed had mentioned spices or cooking.
Alexia’s heart did a quick tap. She shoved away from the table, raced out of the room, down the stairs and into the kitchen.
She came to a groaning stop. It was possible that in Aelthed’s time the kitchen wasn’t even attached to the main living quarters.
She picked up the phone and dialed the caretaker’s cottage. “Mr. Brightworthe? Hello, this is Alexia and I was wondering if you knew where the castle’s original kitchen was located?”
“Yes, ma’am. It was destroyed in a fire years ago. The only section of it that still exists is what we use as the storage shed.”
She looked out the side window. “The one attached to the pantry?”
“That’d be it.”
Before she could thank him, he asked, “You aren’t thinking of going in there, are you?”
“I’d planned to, why?”
“It’s isn’t safe.”
Then it fit in perfectly with her life of late. “Could you expand on that a little? Do you mean structurally?”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll be right over.”
She didn’t get the chance to tell him not to bother. He’d hung up and she saw him stomp across the yard toward the castle.
He opened the side door. “I’ll go with you.”
Anxious to discover what she could, Alexis didn’t argue. She followed him to the storage shed.
At first glance the wooden structure looked sound, but when Mr. Brightworthe opened the door, she realized what concerned him. On closer inspection the building had been maintained on an irregular basis. The entire thing appeared to be in dire need of demolition. It wasn’t just the peeling paint. The rotted and uneven boards couldn’t possibly last much longer.
He stood aside, then handed her a flashlight. “Watch your step. I won’t be having Mr. Drake breathing fire at me because you got hurt.”
Alexia opened the creaking door slowly and stepped through the wood-framed doorway onto the hard-packed dirt floor. Yard tools—rakes, shovels, hoes—lined the walls on both sides. The shelves on the far wall held cans and jars, some with nails or screws, others with garden chemicals.
Gingerly walking further into the shed, she directed the flashlight at the walls. The two sides were nothing more than what they appeared—old, crumbling, wooden walls. The back wall was stone.
“What’s behind that wall?”
The caretaker scratched his head. “The pantry.”
She moved closer. Reaching past a stack of paint cans, she poked at the wall. “How thick do you think this is?”
“What are you looking for, Mrs. Drake?”
“A secret room.”
Mr. Brightworthe snorted and stepped outside. He returned in a few minutes. “From best guess, I’d say that wall is a good six feet thick. If there’s a room back there, it’s mighty small.”
Alexia touched one ancient fieldstone, then another. None of them moved, but she hadn’t expected them to. She grabbed a paint can and set it behind her. “Help me clear these shelves.”
Once the shelves were emptied, she took a small garden trowel and poked between the stones. After what seemed hours, one stone finally gave way beneath her poking. She stuck a finger into the hole and felt air. While there might be six feet between here and the main building, this wasn’t a solid six-foot-thick wall.
“Here, ma’am, let me.” The caretaker managed to remove a few more of the stones, giving them a large-enough hole to shine the flashlight into. He whistled before muttering, “Well, I’ll be.”
“What?” Alexia reached for the flashlight. “Let me see.”
Heart racing, she looked inside. Against the far wall a long narrow table held an assortment of old jars covered by cobwebs and a thick layer of dust.
Between the two of them, they were able to remove enough of the stones to permit them entry. “Just a minute, Mrs. Drake.” The caretaker grabbed the shovel and pulled a second flashlight from his jacket pocket before entering the room first.
The beam from Alexia’s flashlight shook as her hands trembled. She directed the light over the jars on the table, trying not to shiver at the sudden brush of an icy breeze across the back of her neck.
She’d been safe at Mirabilus so far. There was no reason to think otherwise. The trepidation she felt now was from the excitement of their find.
The room they’d discovered was just a hallway of sorts that slanted down to open out into a larger circular room. She stood in the center of the room and slowly spun. “Where are we?”
Mr. Brightworthe shook his head. “I’m not certain. I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Rough-hewn wood bookcases were still intact. They housed jars, small pots, and an odd assortment of items unidentifiable beneath the dust.
Off to one side of the room on the floor was a circle of stones. Atop the circle rested a large metal cauldron. Near the other side of the room was a table with a rickety-looking chair before it.
Alexia circled the room and studied the items on the table. Gemstones and bits of metal were scattered here and there as if someone had been in the process of making a piece of jewelry or a charm.
She fingered the one around her neck and took comfort from the protection it offered.
Mr. Brightworthe shone his flashlight across the table. Beneath the dust something sparkled. Drawn to the object, Alexia reached out and brushed the layers of grime away with a fingertip.
Beneath her touch the sparkle grew to a shimmering glow of emerald.
Mr. Brightworthe backed away. “Ma’am?”
Hearing the uncertainty in his voice, she paused and studied the object. Nothing real or imagined warned her of danger. “It’s all right.”
But when she turned around, it was obvious that her words held little meaning to the man. He visibly shook. The last thing she wanted was for Mirabilus’s older caretaker to have a stroke.
With a sigh, she scooped up the object, dropped it in her pocket, then headed toward the door. She’d come back here with Braeden. “That’s enough for now, Mr. Brightworthe.”
When they got back
up to the shed, he asked, “What should I do with this hole in the wall?”
Alexia frowned. She didn’t want to risk someone getting inside and disturbing the items. Some of them had to be artifacts of value. She needed to get Braeden to put one of his spells on the shed. “For now, just lock the door. I’ll have Mr. Drake take care of it later tonight.”
The caretaker appeared more than happy to leave it in Braeden’s hands. He locked the shed, then headed back to his cottage.
Alexia grabbed a sandwich in the kitchen and headed up to the bedroom with it. After finishing the sandwich, she pulled her find out of her pocket and laid it on the table.
While the strange glow was now gone, it still had a shimmer. She retrieved a toothbrush from the bathroom and lightly drew it across the object, trying to remove the layers of grime.
Her eyes widened as first one wing and then another, and finally a body and a tail, were uncovered. She worked quickly on the head, freeing the emerald dragon pendant from the dust and grime that had hidden the beast for who knew how many years.
She flipped through her notes. Aelthed had mentioned an amethyst and a sapphire pendant, but had written nothing about an emerald one. If the twins had owned the other two, who owned this one?
Alexia held the pendant up to the light and cursed when the beast blinked at her. Instead of freaking out, she ordered, “No. Stay a pendant.”
To her relief it worked. Or the blinking had been nothing more than her imagination. But she wasn’t counting on that any longer.
A chill breeze blasted her back. She jumped from the chair. A swirl of mist spun by the door. The pendant in her hand hissed.
Nathan. Alexia swallowed and fervently wished she could be at Braeden’s side.
“The head of housekeeping will be here in a couple of minutes. You plan on attending this meeting?”
Braeden hit the intercom button on his desk phone. “Yes, Cam, I’ll be there in a minute.”
He signed the last two invoices on his desk, then headed for the conference room. Thankfully this would be the last meeting today. Since everything else had been taken care of, he could return to Mirabilus shortly.
Although he still hadn’t had a chance to figure out what to do with Alexia. If these new powers of hers were going to be a permanent part of her life, she needed to learn how to control them.
And he wasn’t certain he was the one to teach her. If this afternoon was any indication, the lessons could get a little dicey.
He met Cam in the hallway. Before his brother could ask anything about the earlier meeting, Braeden gave him a glare that stopped any questions. The pair paused in front of the conference-room door and Braeden asked, “Are they here?”
“Yes. Dani gave them the grand tour, then brought them here.”
Braeden opened the door and caught Alexia as she stumbled into his arms.
“Damn it, Alexia.”
Cam edged around the two of them and waved a hand toward the horrified employees. Their gasps of shock froze as they all turned to mute statues.
“What the hell is going on?” Danielle bolted from the table.
Alexia held up her hand. A green dragon shimmered on her palm. “I found Aelthed’s workroom.”
Braeden released his hold. “No cranes?”
“No. Just a trowel.”
“So how did you get here?”
Alexia leaned against him. “Nathan was in our room and I wished I was at your side, instead of there.”
Dani clutched her chest. “You wished yourself here?” She looked at Braeden. “When did this happen?”
He wasn’t sure whom to attend first—the frozen employees, Alexia or his aunt. He looked at his brother.
Cam raised an eyebrow. “I’ll take care of the employees. You get the family members.”
Braeden muttered, “Thanks,” then led both women back to his office.
Once there, Dani leaned against the closed door and slowly ran her hard gaze from the top of Alexia’s head to the tip of her toes. Alexia clenched her fists at her sides, visibly bristling at the inspection.
Aunt Danielle grumbled something under her breath that Braeden couldn’t quite hear, but it sounded as if she called one of them an idiot.
He didn’t have time for this, so he asked outright, “What are you doing?”
Danielle tapped her chin with one long, red fingernail. “Trying to decide how many babies she’s carrying.”
Braeden thumped down onto the chair behind his desk. This couldn’t be happening. Not now. Not yet. What had they been thinking? He shuddered inwardly. They hadn’t been thinking at all.
Alexia jerked to attention. “I beg your pardon?” The flush that had covered her cheeks disappeared, leaving behind a ghostly-pale mask of shock. “What are you talking about?”
“You’d think I was talking about a couple of kids who didn’t know any better than to have unprotected sex, wouldn’t you?”
“Danielle…” The warning tone in Braeden’s voice was enough to make his aunt mutter an apology.
Then she stepped forward, shrugging. “Obviously this marriage is back on, regardless of the harm it may cause.”
“We’re working on it,” Alexia answered. Braeden’s eyes widened at the defensiveness in her voice and stance. She looked as if she was ready to do battle.
“You may have worked a little too hard and fast,” Danielle said, her tone dripping with sarcasm. “Don’t you think it might have been wiser to wait until Nathan was gone before bringing more Drakes into the world?”
Alexia frantically reached behind her. Braeden waved a finger toward the chair, moving it until it nudged her hand. She spun it around, then sank onto it, digging her fingernails into the leather covering the arm.
Instead of answering his aunt, she turned to him and shot him a look filled with so much fear and worry that he broke his oath and reached inside her mind. “Be easy. Tell me what you fear, Alexia.”
“What if Nathan finds out?”
“I don’t plan on calling him with the news, do you?”
“No, but eventually he’ll figure it out.”
“Then we need to defeat him quickly, don’t we?”
“But—”
Braeden shook his head. “No. We will defeat him. Trust me.”
When she nodded and relaxed her grip on the chair, he turned his attention back to Danielle. “Let’s table this discussion. Alexia and I will talk later. Right now there are other things that need your attention.”
Danielle took him at his word and let loose with a barrage of questions that he had no answers to just yet. So he raised a hand and waited until she got the hint to stop.
“We don’t know how Alexia got the powers. They were given to her.” He hated to resort to guessing, but in this instance had no other answer. “Probably through the manual somehow. My best guess is that Aelthed wove his spells into the pages in such a manner that whoever translated it would absorb the magic.”
“Are you certain it’s not because she’s carrying your offspring?”
Alexia had turned the water to tea before they’d made love the first time. “No, her powers started before that possibility arose.”
In a near whisper, Danielle asked, “What about your powers?”
She worried about the old prophecy. He really hated to point out an error in her interpretation but…“My powers are all still intact. So either the prophecy was wrong or…” He let the insinuation hang.
Quick to pick up on his unspoken thought, his aunt said, “Or I was wrong.”
Alexia jumped to her feet. “Braeden, Nathan is at Mirabilus. We need to—”
“We need to do nothing.” He pointed at the chair. “You need to sit down.”
He rubbed the back of his neck. “The two of you aren’t going to like this much, but I need you to get along with each other.”
“Why?” His aunt crossed her arms.
“Because Alexia is my wife. And because someone needs to teach her how to use
these powers. I can’t do it. We’d only end up harming each other.”
“I would never—”
He frowned at Alexia, bringing her declaration to a fast halt. “No. I mean physically harm each other. You have no control over your abilities, Alexia. Our emotions around each other run a little high, don’t you agree?”
She nodded. He continued, “The higher the emotion, the more uncontrollable the power.”
“Oh.”
“So you want me to train her?” Danielle sounded incredulous, as if he’d just suggested she set off a nuclear explosion.
“Who better? You trained three boys without too much grief. And you won’t much care if she gets upset. So there won’t be double the emotional energy.”
Who knew what would happen if he tried training her? His wife was as headstrong in her own way as he was in his. He couldn’t even imagine the firestorm that might occur the first time they had a disagreement about methods or application.
Finally Danielle sighed in what Braeden knew was resignation. That taken care of, he turned back to Alexia. “Now, tell us about the workshop.”
She told him about the hints Aelthed had put in the manual and how she and the caretaker had found the round room.
Braeden whistled. “It was there all this time.”
“You should see the items in there.” She looked at Dani. “You would be impressed. There are jars of stuff all over the place. And it looks like he made charms at the table. There were gems and bits of metal—and this.”
Alexia opened her hand. She glanced up at Braeden as he rose and came around the desk. “It’s like the one in the book. Watch.” She stroked a finger gently down its back.
Braeden quickly stepped closer in case she couldn’t put it back to pendant form. There was more to protect now than just his wife—there was a baby to safeguard. To his amazement, the thought fed his ego. He resisted the sudden urge to puff out his chest and strut. He turned his attention back to the pendant.
The emerald glittered, then shimmered to life. The wings spread and fluttered as if stretching from a long sleep.
Dani’s eyebrows rose. “Do you have any idea what you’re doing?”