Unbound (11 page)

* * *

“So, you like to cook?” he questioned after a long moment, to break the silence.

“Yeah, I haven’t done it in a long time, though. I’m surprised I still can.”

“Why’d you quit?”

The air chilled and he saw her shoulders tense.

“Sorry. Wrong question.”

“No, it’s ok. I stopped years ago. I don’t really remember why. I guess it’s been since my run-in with the Mage Hunters. That was about three years ago, I guess.” Her face blanked as something brushed the edge of her mind. She shook it off.

“So where do we start?” Kayla asked, impatient to get it over with.

“Have you ever meditated? Calmed and stilled your mind?” he asked around the piece of toast in his mouth.

She thought about it for a minute. “Once, a long time ago, I would have. At times, I wish I could find that calm center again, but these days I just muddle through.”

“Then I think we should start there, giving you a place of calm in the storm of thought. I want you to visualize a place where you felt safe, where you were content.”

“What kind of place?” she asked, irritated that she couldn’t think of one right away. She couldn’t understand why she needed to in the first place.

“It could be anything
—
a boat on the water, a rock you used to sit on, your bed when you were a child. All I want is someplace you felt safe. When you’ve found it, I want you to describe it to me, where you sit, what you smell, the sounds you hear, so it’s firmly in your mind.”

She took their dishes to the sink while she listened to him talk. He got up and leaned against the counter.

“Let’s go to the gym,” he suggested.

“Okay.”

They walked, elbows brushing, down the hall to his gym; she loved the hard sleekness of the floors and the gleam of mirrors, though they showed her an image she didn’t want to see.

She turned her back on them and focused on him while they sat down
opposite
each other.

“Why do I have to do this?” she whined.

“Because when you’re working magic, you need to remain calm and stable, even in a turbulent environment. This teaches you to find your safe place, to still your mind, so you can focus on what’s in front of you. So begin.”

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes. Letting the images flow, shifting through them, she came upon a waterfall where she’d often snuck off to, when she became tired or worried as a kid. She could hear the roar of the water on a hot summer day. The mist sprayed her as the wind blew. She tried to still her mind, grateful to be a part of it all.

The nature, the smell of the moss on the ground, the tree that gave her shade flowed through her mind. She took a deep breath and stretched out on the deck someone had built. The roughness of the unfinished wood scraped her skin when she moved. The birds singing and the light, the glorious light filled her, the light her world now lacked.

She opened her eyes and realized they no longer sat in his gym, but in the very spot she’d pictured. “How could this be?” she asked him as joy filled her.

“It isn’t important how we got here, but now that we are, I want you to close your eyes and clear your mind. Think of what you want to know from the bag you hold.” He placed the pouch in her hand. She closed her fingers around it, held her breath, and just let herself feel.

She began to describe it to him. “Overwhelming darkness, my lungs feel as if they will implode the pressure is so intense.”

Her eyes filled with fear. “This is bigger than me. It’s bigger than both of us and I don’t know how to stop it, or even identify what’s causing this unrelenting anxiety.” She shoved the pouch back at him.

Walking to the edge of the deck, she tried to let the sound of water calm her beating heart. She felt his presence behind her and he put his arm around her shoulder.

“It alright. The first time is the hardest, but it’s a lesson I thought you should learn. There’s always something bigger than you, badder than you. All you can do is try your best to stand in the way of evil. If you drop the sword, hopefully there’s someone standing behind you to pick it right back up again.”

It wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but she knew he was right.
Maybe it’s time to take up the sword again
, she thought.

“Can you take us back now?” she asked, hating that this had intruded on her peaceful spot. The light didn’t seem as bright, somehow. Realizing that this too would pass, she moved on.

“I guess we should complete the run and find out who held the other string,” she suggested.

He’d taken them to a combat circle.

“What’s this then?” she asked.

“I agree with you, but first I think it’s time to get some practice in before we go. You need to be able to defend yourself until I can fully train you,” he said, twirling a band of darkness around and around in his hands.

An unidentified terror hit her in the pit of her stomach. “What’s that?”

“This is what a slave collar looks like before it fits the Mage’s neck. Once it attaches to the Mage, it binds their powers, only letting the person in control of the ring use them. It makes them into weapons.”

The nudge in the back of her mind hit her harder. A fine sweat broke out across her body. She needed to figure out what happened to her every time she, or someone else, mentioned the Mage Hunters.

“So, what you’re saying is that they took people who could manage their power responsibly and enslaved them, then gave that formidable power to people who would use it without respect for the power they wielded?”

He nodded.

“So why didn’t the Mages just stand up and kick a little ass?”

Not answering the question, he held up a box. “This contains the collar. If you see one, run.” He set the collar back into its protected box. “The box shields it from stray magic.”

Sighing, he walked across the room. “There’s a man by the name of Connor, a brilliant man, born a half blooded Mage on his mother’s side. The full bloods treated him with scorn. The academies wouldn’t let him attend; no one knows for sure what happened next. Unable to take the ridicule, he vanished. People thought they’d seen the last of him, so what he did between then and inventing the collar is still a mystery.

“He caused an uprising. People fled into the Drifts, some to the world beyond the Gates, bringing pain and destruction in their wake. People who hadn’t believed in magic had it forced on them and made the whole mess worse, as far as I’m concerned.

“There was widespread panic until eventually Connor came out with his invention. People decided that they would cage what they didn’t understand and Connor ‘flew under the radar,’ as they say, having so little Mage-blood that he was considered a human with gifts. Much like you probably grew up believing about yourself. My suspicion is that the people Connor made the deal with are out for blood.”

Lost in thought, Kayla decided that grappling with Gannon was preferable to spending the day chatting. She threw a left hook, catching him off guard. They sparred until they were both out of breath.

“You’re pretty good with hand-to-hand. Where’d you study?” he asked when they stopped.

“Oh, here and there,” she said coyly, not wanting to give away the masters who had taught her forbidden arts.

He set his staff aside and wiped the sweat from his brow with one of the towels hanging from a rack. “Now that we’ve warmed up, why don’t we get serious and practice some magic?”Standing next to her, he pointed towards a distant practice post held firmly in the ground. “Close your eyes and visualize the post. I want you to see it engulfed in flames.”

“Ok,” she said doubtfully. Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes and focused on the post, seeing it in all its detail. Her brow furling in concentration, she saw smoke begin to swirl around the post. Then she imagined it engulfed in a true blue flame, heat rippling in waves. She whispered, “Fire.” At Gannon’s gasp, she opened her eyes.

“Put it out before you burn the place down!” he shouted and ran to get a bucket of water.

“How do I put it out?”

“The same way you started it. All magic starts and ends the same.”

Faster this time, she saw the flames extinguish as she imagined water flowing over the fire. When she opened her eyes a second time, she saw that the fire was out. She looked at Gannon in shock.

“How? What was that? How did I do that? Did you douse it?”

“No, I hadn’t filled the pail before it went out. I think we’ve had enough for the moment. I need a shower and some time to think about your training. After we’ve gotten cleaned up, we need to do some recon on the building that you were supposed to deliver the package to. Maybe we should locate Keaton and have a few words with him.”

“Sounds good,” she said with relief, glad that the training was over for now, still uncomfortable with her new powers. Happy to find them already back at the apartment, she remarked, “You're going to have to tell me how you do that sometime. That’s one magic trick I wouldn’t mind learning.”

He frowned at her. “No one but me is supposed to be able to shift the world to suit my needs, but you’re right. It is something that we’ll need to go over. I’m going to go take a shower. Why don’t you relax or take a bath, whatever? I’ll see you in half an hour to go over some things.”

14

Yes. Why don’t I go take a bath,
Kayla thought. The events of the last few hours had disturbed her and she wanted something familiar around her. She called Roo, inviting him into the bathroom so she could pet him and talk to him as she bathed. He made a good listener. She set off humming, glad that Gannon’s tub was so large she could submerse all the way under the water.

Relaxed, she dozed off and began thinking of Gannon, and how nice he’d looked that afternoon, trading blows with her on the practice field.

She smiled, recalling what he looked like without his shirt on, thinking how nice it would be to have him here with her in the bath. Imagination and reality blurred and she felt him caress her breasts, tweaking her nipples.

She gasped, arching her back as a warm feeling spread down her limbs. His lips on her mouth seemed to drown her. He ran his hands down her sides, the tips of his fingers kneading the kinks out of her lower back. Cupping her ass, he brought her against him. She could feel him hard with wanting as he slid her up and down without penetrating.

This
isn’t right,
she thought. She could hear Roo barking frantically. Trying to shake off the trance, she realized she was underwater, held there by something unseen.

* * *

Gannon was just stepping out of the shower, drying his face when he heard Roo’s frantic barks. He didn’t even pause to grab his clothes before he raced to the other side of the apartment.

Kayla screamed his name just as he threw open the bathroom door. A water construct’s translucent form shifted and whirled in shades of blue within the shape of a man, hunched over, arms stiff, holding Kayla underwater. The evil thing grinned at him and pressed her further under.

Frightened for her life, Gannon ran through a list of ways to get rid of constructs. The only way to get rid of water was to evaporate it and that would kill the woman it held.

“Roo!” he called as he focused his power. “Distract it so I can get to her.”