Kismet's Kiss: A Fantasy Romance (Alaia Chronicles) (49 page)

Jilian opened her eyes and shot up on her cot.

Her father’s house was still and the air bore a sharp tang she couldn’t place. Early dawn touched the tree beyond her window and drew its slender branches from the shadows.

She clamped her eyelids shut again, willing her body and mind to quiet.
Just a weird dream.

Once her pulse decelerated, she scoured her mother’s former study with her gaze. A fine sheet of dust blanketed the room’s contents: a cozy writing desk, a soft armchair of burgundy leather, and an old brass lamp with a fringed shade.

“See? A perfectly normal room,” she muttered. “Nothing here a feather duster can’t fix. You’re being ridiculous.”

She threw off the sheets and walked to the window. As cool air brushed past her legs, she folded her arms across her silk nightgown.

Beyond the glass, several mallards and their mates waddled out into the loch, bathing themselves and pecking beneath the water’s calm surface. The tree’s leaves fluttered in a puff of wind, and the dark bulk of the mountains across Loch Leven towered above the horizontal layer of fog.

Glancing down at the desk beside her, she extended a finger and drew an arc through its years-old coverlet of dust.

Why would a father close off a room and pretend it didn’t exist? What could make him forget his family?

Forget
her?

Shaking her head, she flicked the dust from her hand. Maybe a glass of juice was all she needed, then back to bed for a while.

In the kitchen, she flipped the light switch for the pristine, almost sterile space. Long ago, it had been a bright and cheerful room… The aroma of baking bread had filled the air as her mother sang nonsense songs, accompanied by the clack-clack-clack of her father’s garden shears as he trimmed the hedge outside the window.

Now, with only a wan bulb to illuminate the kitchen’s shadows, it seemed a poor replica of her memories.

She opened the fridge door and stared at its pitiful contents.
Note to self: find grocery store.
She twisted the cap off a full bottle of apple juice and sniffed. Not rancid. Worth a risk.

The cold liquid soothed her throat. Yawning, she rinsed her glass, flicked off the light and crossed back into the murky hall. She touched her fingertips to the walls and moved through the shadows toward her mother’s study.

At the room’s open doorframe, she glanced up at the symbol painted in luminescent silver above it. Two dots, each trailed by a semi-circular line, formed a ring around a smaller orb…like two planets that shared an orbit and chased each other around the sun.

She recalled the symbol from her childhood and had never known what it meant.
I’ll ask Mom
, she thought—then flinched. Not much time left for answers.

And soon she’d be on her own. No father anymore, though she couldn’t call that much of a loss, considering his long-ago disappearance from her life. But her mother… Her throat tightened.

Her father’s will had provided her a little money, his old Citroën car and this house. But what good was a chance to start over in her native country if her mother wouldn’t be alive to share it with her?

Deflated, she straggled into the room, then noticed something peeking out from under the leather chair. She knelt to examine it and a lopsided grin tugged at her mouth.

It was a dusty hardback of
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
by C. S. Lewis—her favorite childhood book. She’d felt so loved and safe, snuggling in as her mother had read aloud the story of children transported by magic into another world.

And she’d sobbed when the novel had been left behind on the night her family ruptured.

Jilian wiped the dust from the cover, then stood the book upright on the desk as a reminder of her mother’s love.

That peculiar smell returned, stronger than before—like the air after a rainstorm, or fresh snow. A strange scent for a dusty study. She swiveled toward the cot and stopped cold.

The man from her dream stood in the center of the room. The outline of his body rippled the way water moves when disturbed, then solidified. A circle of light like the symbol over the door shone from the floor around his feet.

Jilian choked back a scream. He stretched his hand toward her, palm up. In the resonant voice she already knew, he spoke: “I am Alvarr sen Danyd, and I call you in Teganne’s name. I need you. Come!”

Her limbs stiffened like timber and fright iced her spine.
I’m not seeing this!

He stared at her. “Do you hear me? We can’t keep the portal open for long.” Frowning, he turned his palm down. She felt a powerful tug as if an unseen rope wound around her, but her legs resisted his command.

He whirled to his right as if something had startled him—then with one last vivid glance into her eyes, he vanished. The shimmer of his outline was all that remained, and then that too was gone. Her gaze shot to the place he’d seemed to look, but she saw nothing unusual.

Her knees buckled beneath her. She landed on the floor with a solid thwack, hands splayed against the wooden boards, rapid-fire gasps almost choking her.

She concentrated on bringing her breathing and her heart back to a normal tempo. “Just a dream,” she muttered. Because she was either dreaming…or going crazy. And that was not a pleasant thought.
No, nope, can’t happen.
She wanted to laugh, but didn’t have the breath. Instead she took another gulp of air and stared at the floor.

To her horror, the circle of light reappeared there, and then the man. He shimmered as before. As his gaze touched hers, panic seared her nerves.

His breathing grew labored. Again he held his hand out to her, but she didn’t move. The part of her that had the power to answer him did not.
Would
not!

His expressive face hardened in frustration. He drew the sign of a circle in the air, then stretched his hands toward her.

A raw force tugged at the center of her body. This time she felt herself move in spite of her fear. She screamed aloud—or thought she did—but heard nothing except the thunder of her pulse.

The mist reappeared, spinning ever faster like a chaotic whirlpool until her mind lost track. She floated up and toward him. She willed her legs to move, to find the floor—back away, run away!—but they couldn’t.

When he had her body clasped in his arms, he locked his intense gaze on hers. “I do what I must, for Teganne to survive.”

CHAPTER THREE

F
or a moment there was quiet, and peace. Jilian couldn’t hear or move, but she could see Alvarr’s eyes, gray and deep. Then, with a tremendous roar and a jolt through every nerve, the world reappeared.

Cries of struggle buffeted her ears. She twisted toward them and Alvarr set her down, but kept her corralled in his arms, her back to his chest.

They stood in a round room of mortared stone and blazing torches, and they weren’t alone. Two men and a woman in sapphire-blue cloaks battled soldiers in black tunics slashed with red belts. Three soldiers attacked each person in blue. The blues fought awkwardly, as if unused to combat.

Jilian jerked back, knocking her spine against Alvarr’s solid form.
Where am I?

The heat of his broad chest seeped through her nightgown. He leaned down to be heard above the clamor, his lips brushing her ear. “Please, send me your
kyrra
!”

Kyrra?
Her brain scrambled for a meaning.

His left hand gripped her ribcage and he reached for her right hand.

“What are you DOING?”
No, this is only a bad dream. And I’ll end it.
Just as she was preparing to ram her elbow into Alvarr’s ribs and wake up in her mother’s study, a soldier hurtled toward them swinging a wooden quarterstaff.

She recoiled, slamming against Alvarr.

“
Takerran
!” Alvarr shouted. Green fire streaked from his raised palm to his opponent’s chest. The soldier sank in a heap and his staff clattered to the ground.

The world thinned and condensed into the soldier’s murderous sneer, frozen at the moment of the fire’s impact. The glare in his eyes iced her gut.

A dream! Wake up!

But his cruel gaze was too real—as were the frantic shouts, the acrid burn of torch-lit air, and the strong hand on her hip.

A familiar ring of light encircled their feet, and from it Alvarr yanked up a crackling wall of jade fire. It surrounded them and he twisted to his right, hauling her with him. “Rokad, look out!” he yelled to one of the cloaked men.

Jilian shoved against Alvarr’s grip, unable to budge even one powerful finger. She saw the dark-haired Rokad vault to the side, panic flooding his face. A glinting spear whistled through the air but caught only the edge of his cloak. He spun and lobbed a green fireball at his attacker, who crumpled to the ground. But he didn’t escape the second soldier, or the rope in the enemy’s hands that cut off his breath.

“Rokad!” Alvarr started toward him, dragging Jilian with him once more. The wall of fire flickered erratically.

“No, the FireRing—keep her safe!” Rokad gasped, clawing at the rope around his throat.

Jilian flinched as the butt of a sword crashed into Rokad’s temple.

Alvarr grabbed her hands. “The
kyrra
—hurry, send me your power!”

WHAT power? A scream pounded on her tongue, but the consequences it might bring clamped her teeth.

Within seconds, the soldiers knocked out the three figures in cloaks and the sapphire mantles pooled on the stone floor. A brawny man with a red circular badge stepped forward, pulling a clear cylinder from a pouch at his waist.

A scarlet glow flared within the cylinder and the officer aimed it at Rokad. Rokad’s body paled. Even the sapphire of his cloak faded to a dull slate gray. Alvarr’s furious breath rushed across Jilian’s cheek.

Through the wall of fire, she stared in horror at Rokad’s ashen face.

Out the lone door, she saw only more stone walls. Where would they lead? To more soldiers, more death?

The officer pointed the cylinder at the other two in blue, with the same results.

The new paleness of the woman’s face chilled Jilian’s blood.

“Go,” the officer told his men. The soldiers slung the bodies of their fallen comrades over their shoulders and dashed out of the room.

The officer turned to Jilian and Alvarr and grinned, his scruffy beard revealing a gleam of teeth. “Prince Alvarr sen Danyd,” he purred, with the slightest of bows.

“Gurdan.” Alvarr’s voice was cold, nearly bored.

Gurdan nocked an arrow to his bow and unhurriedly aimed it through the fire at Alvarr.

DON’T MOVE, Jil.
Don’t draw attention…

Too late.

Gurdan’s eyes slid from the prince to her. His gaze flicked down to her exposed ankles and slimed its way back up. She tensed, wishing she’d worn baggy flannels to bed instead of a thin silk nightgown.

Alvarr’s grip tightened around her almost imperceptibly, as if reassuring her. “Gurdan,” he growled, “the longer you stay here, the shorter your life.”

Gurdan smirked. “I doubt it. You’re in a FireRing. You’re protected from me—but so am I from you. If you drop the Ring, I’ll shoot you before you can cast.” With a malevolent sneer, he drew his fingers farther back, tightening the bowstring.

Jilian stared at the red tip of the arrow.
Arrows and magic spells! Where the hell is this place?

Gurdan nodded at her. “She must be something special. Your friends paid a high price to shield her. I’m sure Bhruic would like to learn of your…lady, and contemplate her value to you.”

Then he spat. The globule sputtered into nothingness as it hit the jade fire.

Braced against Alvarr’s chest, Jilian felt his muscles tense in fury. When he spoke, his words reverberated through her body: “I have marked you. You’ll die before the sun is down.”

A flicker of hesitation crossed Gurdan’s face. He tightened the bowstring and his eyes narrowed to slits. “Even if you kill me, what difference? Bhruic will prevail.”

With that he pursed his lips, whistled three soaring notes…and disappeared. Jilian gaped at the empty air.

Behind her, Alvarr held still for a moment. Then each muscle tightened further, and he howled in rage. The wall of fire vanished. Abruptly he released her and sprinted to Rokad’s motionless body.

Her gaze darted toward the door.
Run, Jilian! GO!
But Gurdan’s soldiers had left that way. They might still be nearby—and what else was out there?

Please let me wake up, oh PLEASE…
She bit the inside of her cheek and her eyes watered from the pain.

Not a dream.

Alvarr knelt by Rokad and touched his shoulder, then tipped his head back in evident relief. He checked the other two cloaked people, muttering, “Emptied, wounded, but alive,” and then turned to her.

“You,” he said, low and bitter, rising to his feet. “You saw. Why didn’t you send your kyrra?” Scowling, he closed in on her.

She glared back, prepared to lash out. “Send
what
?” she shouted. “And who are you?”

His lips tightened. “You’re a Source, the
power
—”

There was a small whoosh and an explosion of pain above her left breast. She caught only Alvarr’s startled expression before blackness closed around her.

CHAPTER FOUR

W
hen Jilian finally woke, she kept her eyes shut, afraid of where she might be. A woman’s nearby voice sounded muddled, as if Jilian were underwater. The burning pain above her breast returned, though milder now.

The voice became more focused. “Here, this will help.” Gentle arms helped her sit up, then a cup was pressed to her lips. The liquid tasted sweet, until she reached the bitterness at the bottom. With a grimace she leaned back, and the voice gave a kind laugh.

Maybe I’m home, Jilian thought. She opened one eye.

Definitely not
.

A bay window at the foot of her bed framed a landscape of exotic beauty. Tree-covered hills rose so steeply they seemed to defy gravity, and wispy clouds crowned their summits. Flowers in the formal garden below fluttered in vivid display. Gauzy curtains flowed around the open window, and the whitewashed walls and simple wooden table and chairs reflected the sun’s cheer.