Gifted Magic - White Dragon Tower - Book 1: (Young Adult Paranormal Romance Knights, Dragons, and Magic Series)

by Kya Lind

  Barn raced on through the night, they had a slight lead, but Traven knew it was not enough. They traveled east back through the area they had already traveled, an area that Traven now knew. They rode until far into the next morning when Traven found the barn he was looking for and hustled them inside. The kid slumped into a heap in the corner while Traven rubbed Barn down and gave him food and water. Traven removed the worn scraps of the booties. He hoped they had lasted long enough to make tracking them difficult. He was never so glad for this wonder horse as he was this morning. They left Barn asleep in a stall and climbed the ladder into the loft. The kid sank down in the hay, pulled his head into his dirty coat and fell instantly asleep. Traven frowned; where had he gotten his coat from? Hadn’t they left it upstairs at the inn? If he had it on, that meant he must have been wearing it when he miraged Benette.

  Traven slid into sleep with thoughts of the boy dancing in his big coat before all of those men, and then the boy changed into Benette, but Benette had Lady Beth’s eyes. Then Benette turned into Lady Beth and she smiled and danced around him exactly as she had two nights ago in the forest, no Benette had, no it had been the boy.

  He was so confused. He didn’t understand any of this. He marched to Lady Beth’s door and pounded on it. Reya immediately opened the door and stepped through.

  “You tell me what is going on. This minute,” Traven demanded.

  “I don’t know what you are talking about. What do you mean what is going on?” she looked at him bewildered.

  “What is with Benette?” Traven raked his hand through his hair. She still stared at him in puzzlement. “I guess I am going crazy.”

  “Well, you certainly acted crazy!”

  “Because he tried to touch you, I mean Benette, I mean the kid.” Traven trailed off.

  A guarded look came over Reya’s face. “You punched that poor guy because he was looking at something that was your idea in the first place. We did exactly what you told us to do. And you went all crazy on some poor farmer.” She railed at him.

  “He shouldn’t have touched Benette” Traven growled, rage rolled off of him in waves.

  “You sound like a jealous fool,” Reya yelled back.

  “I am a jealous fool,” he snapped.

  Reya stopped and looked at him, her eyes filled with hurt, “But you know Benette is not real,” she accused.

  Traven had had enough. He knew Benette was not real, but the way he felt when the man touched his Lady, he had wanted to tear the guy’s head off. And Lady Beth standing here looking down her nose at him really kicked him in his wounded pride. “She is not the only one who is not real, Your Ladyship,” he smirked.

  “I am too real,” Reya stomped her foot in frustration.

  Traven grabbed her around the waist and roughly yanked her into his arms and pointedly looked at the floor. “I don’t see any shadows,” he growled back.

  Traven jerked her forward and kissed her angrily. After a moment, he came to his senses and abruptly released her. Lady Beth looked at him with so much hurt and betrayal, and then she slapped him hard. “You are impossible.” She declared and stomped through the door slamming it behind her.

  Traven slumped down in despair. He was crazy that was the only answer.

  Before dawn the next morning, Traven roused the kid and they set out again. They were headed to TwinPeaks as fast as possible. That was where Traven had learned they could hire a guide into the mountains.

  When they stopped at lunch, Traven ordered the kid to fill the canteens. The boy ignored him. Traven ignored the kid. The brat had been pouting all day. Traven was in no mood to put up with the youngster’s bad mood. It didn’t help at all that the kid still smelled like roses.

  Traven growled. He had risked his life and his horse repeatedly for this boy and his Lady. This was why smart people stayed away from Magics. They were nothing but trouble. His father had always said avoid trouble. Well, they were trouble in high order. He should just ride away from this whole mess. Just wash his hands of the kid, and that DreamLady, and their whole secret quest to get to some empty tower in the middle of winter through forests full of guards trying to kill them. He should just ride away. He kicked a limb sitting next to him in frustration.

  The limb flew across the space between him and the boy. It hit the boy lightly on the arm. The kid jerked his head up and glared a Traven. The boy stumbled to his feet and picked up the limb and started toward Traven.

  Seeing the boy’s intent, Traven warned him, “You better not, I’ll tan our hide. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hit. . . .” before the kid brought the stick down hard on Traven’s good shoulder.

  Traven saw red. That was the second time in two days, someone had hit him. He reached up with lighting fast reflexes and grabbed the boy around the wrist. Traven hauled the startled boy across his lap, almost landing the kid face first into the dirt. Traven held the teenager still with his left arm and applied two stiff hard swats to the seat of his pants with his right hand. The sound echoed in the forest surrounding them.

  Traven released the kid who rolled away from him and came up fighting. “How Dare You Lay A Hand On Me!” The kid bellowed in Lady Beth’s voice. Traven jerked his head up and caught his DreamLady as she plowed into him. He grabbed her wrists one in each of his big hands and held her still. She was furious. Traven gazed at her in confusion. Their gazes locked together. Her startled face quickly reverted to the face of the boy, but Traven still held her wrists and she could not get away. “Lady Beth,” Traven gasped softly.

  “NO,” she yelled. “No . . . I hate you!” She declared and then twisted from his stunned grasp and ran into the forest.

  Traven sat on the ground where she had left him; too shocked to move. Lady Beth was real. He smiled. Although a bit more bedraggled than she appeared in dreams, but still real. She was the boy, and she was Benette. The pieces clicked into place. What his mind had been trying to tell him for days now.

  Traven’s head jerked up and he quickly packed the few items they had used and mounted up. He had to find Lady Beth before she got too far.

  Chapter 19

  Traven tracked her through the forest for over an hour before he caught up with her. She had run herself out and sat huddled under a tree crying. He approached her slowly. The boy’s face looked back at him. Traven smiled and gathered her into his arms. She stiffened and then sobbed into the front of his shirt. Traven watched as the boy’s face slid away and was replaced by his beautiful Lady Beth. She was dirty and her face was streaked with tears. He gently smoothed a hand down her hair. He found her braid that was tucked into the collar of her big dirty coat. He gently pulled it out and was amazed by its length. Traven beamed. Expect for the dark circles under her eyes, his DreamLady looked as good to him in real life. She even had cute little freckles across her nose. He wrapped his arms around her and rocked her like a baby. He held her until she stopped crying and relaxed.

  Traven shook her gently. As she looked up, the boy’s face reappeared. “We have to keep going, we can’t stop now.” He stood her up beside the horse and lifted her into the saddle. He mounted the horse so that she sat in the front. Traven set Barn to moving and wrapped his arms around his Lady.

  Over the next two hours, Traven re-visited everything he could remember about his time with Lady Beth, from the first time he saw the kid to the second his hand connected with her backside. Traven groaned as he remembered all the barked orders, his telling the kid to grow up and quit acting like a baby. He groaned when he remembered that he had stripped naked and took a bath not three days after they had met. Heat flooded his face. He remembered his reaction to the snake incident. Her reaction to Benette the first time they saw her. The nightly visits. The kisses. The spanking he had just delivered. Her loudly declared hatred of him. Traven’s heart plummeted. He had handled this whole situation wrong. He would have done it entirely different if he had known. He should have known. He should have guessed sooner. He grimaced. He didn’t know now becau
se he had guessed, he only knew now because she had slipped. She was good at this mirage stuff.

  Traven’s mind stumbled over the memory beside the campfire when he had been trying to teach the kid to flirt. Lady Beth -Benette had looked at him that way. He chuckled. No wonder he thought he was going crazy. His brain crashed into the next thought. He had asked his Lady to dance in front of all those men, even though it had been unintentional. And she had done what he asked. She had always done what he asked, from fetching firewood to dancing for a room of random strangers. Traven glanced down into the face of the person who meant more to him than anyone else in his life. He hugged her gently against his chest. He made her a silent promise. He would do whatever it took to keep her safe. He smiled up into the night sky as thick snowflakes fell from the heavens covering Barn’s big Kingdom tracks in a thick white blanket. Traven took them back through the forests and the rock glens until he found the hunting hut they had stayed in before. He rode Barn right up on the porch and through the door into the hut, before nudging his sleeping beauty awake. “We’ve home, honey,.”

  Reya blinked at the darkness around them. She was sitting side saddle leaning back against Captain Traven’s right arm. She sat up and tried to peer into the darkness surrounding them.

  “We are at the hunting hut we visited before,” he explained, sliding her down to land with her feet on the dirt floor. “It’s snowing outside pretty heavily, we should be safe here for a while.”

  Reya nodded in the darkness.

  Traven slid off the horse on the other side and moved to the small stove he had repaired the last time they had been here. He quickly found the dry wood he had left for the next visitors.

  “Bring me the flint.” He barked and then immediately felt like a heel.

  Before he could think of an apology, she stumbled into him with the flint box in her hand.

  He steadied her. “Thanks,” he said lamely. Traven started the fire. Soon the room glowed from the warm light. He watched her pull the items needed for dinner out of the bags and start mixing biscuits.

  Traven grinned. “You can turn the boy off now.” He said quietly.

  Lady Beth jerked her head up and met his eyes. The boy’s face faded into her own. She ducked her head bashfully, and ignoring Traven, started dumping biscuit dough into the Dutch oven.

  Traven chuckled, “You are amazing. I bet before you met me you had never made biscuits before.”

  “Before I met you, I didn’t even know where biscuits came from.” She laughed softly. She divided the hot water, some to soak the salt meat and some to make coffee. When the meal was ready, they ate in silence.

  Traven suggested she take the bed. She looked ready to refuse, but he insisted and gave her the only bedroll also. She crawled into the bedroll on the cot and frowned. Their relationship had changed now and it would never be the same. A tear slid down her cheek as she slid into sleep.

  Traven knocked softly on the door. He waited a few minutes and then knocked again a little louder. The silence stretched out around him in all directions. What was he going to say to her when she opened the door? He swallowed hard. He didn’t know. He just needed to see her and talk to her. He knew he had just sent her to bed, and he should have talked to her face to face, but it seemed so awkward now. Maybe he could talk to her in a more familiar setting.

  Reya cracked the door open in bit, and asked “Yes?”

  Traven leaned toward the opening and asked, “Can you come and talk to me for just a minute?” He looked pleadingly at her. She sighed in indecision and then opened the door and stepped through into his mothers’ parlor.

  “We cannot keep meeting like this,” she said her back leaning against the door. She didn’t come farther into the room. They both stood awkwardly in silence.

  “I’m sorry,” they both said at the same time.

  “I’m sorry,” Traven started over, “I should have done so many things different. I would never have asked you to dance. . .”

  “I apologize for confusing you so badly over Benette. . . I didn’t mean to.”

  Traven laughed softly and leaned his arm above his head on the doorframe. His face just inches from hers. She smiled up at him.

  You can’t keep treating me like . . . .” she paused searching for the right words.

  “a Lady . . “ he finished for her.

  “a glass doll. . . we will never get to the tower if you keep treating me like this.”

  “This?” he stroked his finger down her cheek.

  “the cot . . .the only blanket . . . the un-burnt biscuits,” Reya listed.

  He frowned down at her, but his eyes twinkled. “All right, you can have the burnt biscuits from now on,” he promised.

  Reya pushed him lightly on the chest with her hand, and left it lying against his heartbeat.

  She changed the subject. “Captain Traven, we have to get to the tower. . . . and we cannot use this door again. It is too dangerous.”

  They stared into each other’s eyes. Reya bit her lip between her teeth, “I need to go back . . .,” she trailed off.

  “What about my tribute?” Traven softly asked; he breathed softly against her cheek.

  Reya leaned forward and kissed him. He pulled her closer. She wrapped her arms around his neck. The kiss held a hint of desperation. They clung to each other and kissed until they were both breathless.

  “Do you accept my tribute?” Reya asked between breaths.

  “I am your champion now and forever.” Traven’s eyes promised more than either of them knew they should ever say aloud. He placed one more lingering kiss on her lips, and opened the door for her chivalrously. She slipped through the doorway and was gone. Traven laid his forehead on the cool wood of the door. It was still solid.

  Chapter 20

  Even with the night conversation, the atmosphere between the two was stilted and awkward the next morning. Traven had Reya count out the coins. After a total was reached, Traven estimated that they would barely have enough. But the search for a guide would have to wait.

  The snow was deep. A clean blanket covered the entire world leaving them alone in the heart of the forest. They slept off and on, most of the day. The weather had afforded them a rest day they badly needed, but the delay worried them both.

  “Tell me more about Magics.” Traven asked at one point in the afternoon when they were both awake and the silence stretched between them. What had seemed so easy last night in the dream world now seemed insurmountable in the daylight.

  “Well,” Reya started, “what do you want to know?” she shrugged her shoulders, unclear where to begin.

  Traven searched his mind for a question. “If Mirages just make you think they have changed shape, how do Allures make things appear and disappear?”

  Reya frowned at his question. He wondered if he had asked a stupid question.

  She looked up at him and folded into a puppy, and then a cat, and then a tiger, and then a butterfly. The butterfly floated across the room and landed on Traven’s outstretched finger. Then she reappeared with her finger pressed against Traven’s. Mirages are connected to the images they make. I cannot detach myself from my images. Allures can. So if I someday find the way to detach from my image, I will be able to cause my mirage to appear and disappear.

  Traven smiled in delight with what she had just showed him.

  “Minders hear thoughts, and Dreamweavers can visit people in their dreams.”

  “Like you do,” Traven added.

  Reya shook her head. “Dreamweaving is not my talent. I only tried it because I needed to talk to you and you were surrounded by all those royal guards. You are the only one I have ever visited, and I must have done something wrong because the door stayed.”

  Traven could see she was still upset about the door. He quickly changed the subject. “So it’s Mirages, then Allures, . . . and then Minders, Dreamweavers, and then. . . Persuaders.

  He saw Reya visibly shiver at the word.

  “Yes, Persu
aders are hard to be around. If you don’t watch against Persuaders, you will sell them your soul.”

  Traven remembered his own run-in with a Persuader. “The Allure that impersonates my father has a very strong Persuader, one that can persuade through a room of silver. . . .if I had stayed I am sure I would be persuaded to be married by now,” Reya added softly.

  “So how do you know all this about Magics?”

  “My tutors, Sir and Lady Talone are Magics.”

  “And the boy, who is he? Someone you just saw like the tiger, or Benette.”

  “No,” Reya sighed, “Boy is my closest friend.” She laughed when she noticed Traven stiffen at her comment. “He is really twelve years old,” she added, “He will absolutely adore you.”

  The light outside the hut dimmed with the setting sun, and Traven decided they should get to bed early. They compromised. Traven got the bedroll on the floor and Reya slept on the cot. The cold night hours seemed to crawl by.

  The next morning, Traven was up and had made breakfast before he gently shook Reya’s shoulder. He waited for her to sit up before handing her a plate and a cup of coffee. She glared at him, but he decided to ignore that. They packed up and Traven walked Barn outside off the slick porch and into the melting snow. He returned and went to pick Reya up to take her through the snow, but she dodged his reach and swatted his arm. “This is the type of behavior I was talking about. You cannot keep treating me like this. I can walk.”