Page 8

Kit

I t was morning. Surprisingly, I’d actually slept a couple of hours. Now, clear-eyed and rested, I readied for the day ahead. I’d layered a thin thermal undershirt and a t-shirt beneath the sweater and jacket. It should have been more than comfortable, but I was freezing.

It wasn’t winter—this area was a miserable place to be in the winter, something I knew all too well. Even though the island where my people had sequestered themselves was warded against the weather so the temperature around the Hall remained stable and moderate year around, going past the barriers was part of our training.

Several of the aunts had enjoyed sending me slogging through the cold and wet on twenty-kilometer runs when I wasn’t performing up to their satisfaction.

Since I never did as well as my cousins or any of the other students, I never performed to their satisfaction. The only comfort had been that while I was out there running, I wasn’t being tormented by my grandmother, aunts or one of the crueler cousins.

I’d come to hate the cold early on and my aversion to it hadn’t faded.

Damon slid his arm around me and nudged me into walking. Our gear was already in the rental vehicle. It was a midsize SUV, the largest available option and Damon would still be crammed in like a sardine in a can.

“We’re not going to be on the island long,” I told him. “We could have just paid for a ride to where we are going.”

“I prefer having a vehicle at my disposal.”

“Yes, heaven forbid the Alpha have to wait for somebody,” I said dryly.

He tugged on my hair and let me go, reaching out to open the SUV’s door. The muscles in his right forearm had healed overnight and I watched the way he moved closely, but saw no sign of impairment. “Arm feeling okay?”

“About time you asked.” He crowded me in up against the vehicle, caging me in place, one arm on the door frame, the other on the door. “Tried to cut me to pieces and you weren’t even worried about it.”

The teasing light in his eyes told me he was messing with me, but I saw the tension he was trying to hide, wondered at it. He’d had another dream last night, but so had I.

I’d woken up holding my sword, standing in front of the door, swearing at Fanis—Madae.

Damon had stood a couple of feet away, a bloody streak down his chest and his hands in front of him as he patiently said my name over and over.

“Well, you’re trying to bully me again, so I assume it’s fine.” With a sniff, I climbed into the SUV. “Come on. You wanted to get out on the water today, so let’s do it.”

“So damn mean,” he said on a sigh. “Why do I put up with you?”

The door shut and I stifled a smile.

Damon went to the back of the SUV and opened the tailgate. Lowering the visor, I used the mirror to watch him. “What are you doing?”

“Chang had people out here, taking care of the rental, loading it up with supplies—I’m just checking on everything,” he told me, dark head bent. The door shut a minute later and then he was climbing into the driver’s seat. “Here.”

He pushed a coat at me.

“I…thank you.” Gently, I stroked the silky soft exterior lining.

He just grunted and started the vehicle. The onboard computer came to life and he used voice commands to access the GPS, requesting directions to the harbor.

“We should get some food before we leave,” he said.

“I can’t eat.” My gut was in knots. It had been over ten years since I’d left that place. I’d sworn they never take me back. And yet, here I was.

They aren’t taking you back. You’re going back on your own. Damon’s with you .

I wanted to take comfort in that.

His hand closed over mine and squeezed.

Looking up, I found him leaning toward me.

“I’m right here,” he told me. “You’re not alone and that bitch will not get her hands on you. Those aunts who used to torture you? Most of them are dead. If any of them are still alive, you can kill them…or I’ll be happy to do it for you. It would make my fucking day. You’ve got this, baby girl.”

Reaching up, I cupped his cheek. Words failed me so I just nodded.

Damon piloted the fast, sleek boat as if he’d been born doing so.

I sat in the cabin, out of the wind, hands wrapped around a thermal coffee container I sipped at every so often.

Memories assaulted me.

Rathi’s face as he pulled me up out of the pit.

The guards as they found me hiding.

Fanis’s icy expression when she realized why I planned to run the Dominari.

The cold of the water as I dove in from a cliff, the shock of it so intense, I thought it might stop my heart—and I wouldn’t have minded if it did.

It hadn’t, and so I swam.

That woman’s eyes as she realized where I must have come from.

“Well, well, well…”

I jumped up at the sound of that voice, sword all but leaping into my hand.

The engine motor cut off and seconds later, Damon roared as he exploded into the cabin, eyes burning gold and muscles bulging in places they shouldn’t as the cat inside him started trying to claw its way out.

Frankie—or whoever she really was—stood in front of me.

Damon’s body tensed and I flung myself between them.

“Don’t, Damon,” I said, slapping a hand against his chest.

A growl rumbled beneath my hand, so deep and guttural, it made his entire body vibrate.

“Who the fuck—”

“It’s Frankie,” I told him, cutting him off before he even finished speaking. “She’s the one who helped with my blade.”

Months before, hell, close to a year ago, I’d been working a case with Justin—it had involved a faith healer. I’d been convinced she’d turn out to be a fraud. Colleen had sent me to check her out, everything in her rejecting the idea of some fake taking desperate people for everything they were worth.

Justin had been with me. He’d realized right away that the mysterious Black woman was not a fake.

She might not be a faith healer, but she did heal.

Somehow, she’d sensed the damaged bond I shared with my blade. She’d fixed that magical wound. It just took me a couple of months to figure out what she had done.

A dull warning alarm flared in the back of my mind as I recalled what she’d said to me—that I’d owe her a favor. Still keeping my hand on Damon’s chest, I faced Frankie.

“If you’re here to collect on that favor I owe you, it’s not happening,” I told her.

Frankie’s brows arched up over dark eyes. “Oh, really?”

“Favor,” Damon growled. His hand closed over my wrist and he demanded, “What favor?”

“Later,” I told him, not looking away from the woman before me. Everything about her put me on edge. I couldn’t describe it. There was too much power in her, too much raw magic and to say it unsettled me would be akin to saying Chang unsettled me—

The bottom of my stomach dropped out.

No …

“Kit?” Damon’s tone had taken on that hard, rough edge that told me I had him worried. I twisted my hand around until I could twine my fingers with his, still not looking away from Frankie.

“My cousin is missing,” I told her and it took every bit of will I had to keep my voice steady. “His life is in danger. Whatever it is you want, it will have to wait.”

“Hmm, yeah. About that.” Frankie sauntered around the small cabin and selected a chair at the table. Damon was glaring at her—it wasn’t daggers, either. No, he was glaring Scottish claymores in her direction and if looks truly could kill, she’d be a bloody, broken mess on the polished teak floors of the yacht’s small galley.

She flicked a look at him and rolled her eyes. “Simmer down, Alpha Lee. I’m no threat to her. Or you, unless you decide to be a pain in my ass—and she likes you, so I’d rather not have to mess up that pretty face of yours.”

“You think you can?”

“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” I shouted, spinning to face him. “Stow the dick-wagging and either let her speak or go the fuck back upstairs…or whatever it’s called on this little boat.” I waved to the narrow set of stairs before poking him in the chest. “She’s not here to harm me—if she was, I’d know . After all this time, I’d think you’d get that by now.” Then, as my temper flared even hotter, I snagged the neck of his shirt and jerked. The movement caught him off guard and I managed to haul him down until his face was on level with mine. “This mess we’re in right now? Some of it is because you went all caveman and decided you had to protect me at all costs , not talking to me, not trusting me—we’re done with that, here and now, or it’s over. Do you hear me? Over .”

He flinched.

Releasing his shirt, I backed up a step. “Now, are you going to shut up and let her talk?”

A snarl trembled the corners of his lips. “Or?”

Frankie laughed softly behind us.

We both ignored her.

“Or what ?” I poked him again, so hard, it hurt my finger, the bone feeling like I’d jammed it against a stone wall.

“We’re kind of in the middle of the ocean right now. You threatening to throw me overboard?” His brows came together over his eyes and his jawline was a hard, brutal line.

I wanted to punch him.

“Damon…” I sucked in a breath.

“Kit, if you think he needs some quiet time, I can always accommodate you. I wouldn’t mind a nice warm cup of coffee—”

Remembering the first time we’d met and the ignoble way I’d ended up puking on her shoes after she somehow swept the two of us away to someplace…else…I turned and held up my hands.

“No. Not necessary.” I shot Damon a withering look. “If he won’t shut the hell up, maybe you can drop his ass somewhere, but I’d just as soon not do that again.”

“I guess you didn’t like flying the friendly skies with Air Frankie.” Her eyes danced with silent laughter. “I’m so sorry…that first time is kinda rough.”

Next to me, the chair scraped loudly against the floor and I grimaced, well aware that Damon had chosen to make a loud statement without saying a damn word— I’m here and I’m not going anywhere.

At least he’d shut up.

Not wanting to sit by him just yet, I hopped onto the narrow strip of counter space and folded my legs into a lotus position. The spot put me dead center between them and allowed me to watch Damon while still meeting Frankie’s gaze. “So, how’s life?”

Frankie huffed out a breath and rose. “Is there anything to drink on this boat?”

“I couldn’t say. Look around if you want,” I told her. Tension pulsed over Damon—I wouldn’t have been surprised if it started shimmering in the air around him like a heat mirage. As Frankie circled the galley, he tracked her every movement. I watched him , not trusting him to stay where he was.

I’d always thought Chang was the most dangerous person I’d ever met, followed by closely by Damon.

The past year or so had changed that list around somewhat.

Chang was still the headliner, but Lemeraties jockeyed for position with Damon and she wasn’t the only contender. Madae and Frankie were right there with her—and Colleen, my once-mild-mannered, pacifist best friend was just a step or two below thanks to the experimentation and mind-fuck that had been done on her when she’d been taken prisoner.

I really didn’t want to be trapped on a boat with a couple of nuclear warheads if one of the warheads was under pressure.

“Ah, now…what do we have here…” Frankie opened a glass-fronted cabinet and pulled a bottle out of one of the specially-designed compartments. “This is a nice little yacht you have here, Kit. Couldn’t you have found a nicer climate, though?”

As she turned, a bottle of scotch in hand, her gaze bounced off Damon with studied disinterest before moving to me. For all that she looked close to my age, the power I sensed in her was…old. Not ancient old, like Chang, but I sensed the weight of years to her. And the way she watched me…weighing, gauging, considering.

“We’re not exactly on a pleasure cruise,” I told her.

“Hmm.” She opened the cabinets, one after the other until she found glasses and returned with three. Neither Damon nor I commented as she opened the bottle and poured us each a healthy splash of the peaty, amber liquor. “I do love a good scotch.”

She took a sip and focused on me.

Since she seemed to be waiting, I took a drink myself.

Damon tossed back half the booze in his glass and reached for the bottle, poured more.

Frankie was still ignoring him. Putting her elbows on the table, she leaned forward and stared at me, gaze penetrating so deep, it felt like she could see clear through to my soul.

“You’re going back home,” she said softly.

“That place was never home ,” I retorted without thinking. On the heels of those words, her comment sunk in. I stiffened. “What the fuck…how do you know where I came from?”

She bobbed her head back and forth like she was weighing her words. “I’ve been…watching.” Pausing to take another sip of scotch, she stared at the amber-gold liquid in the glass. It gently sloshed back and forth, echoing the movements of the waves slapping against the boat. “You and me…I felt a kinship to you the moment I laid eyes on you, Kit. It threw me for a loop, too, because I’d been waiting for someone like you to cross my path for…well…” She looked up and her dark eyes flashed to a color that now sent a shiver of foreboding down my spine—pure gold. “A long time.”

“Someone like me.”

“The aneira . Your kin don’t leave your homeland much these days, do they?” Her eyes had gone back to their nice, normal brown color.

But I could still see that flash of gold.

“They aren’t much for the outside world.”

Frankie nodded. “Strange, considering how they used to make their mark. It seems like over the past couple of hundred years, though, they’ve been content to cloister up on that frozen rock over there, hardly ever leaving, just a few people a year going out for odd jobs—or, of course, to go forth and procreate. Gotta keep that bloodline strong, right?”

The weird light in her eyes had my pulse kicking up. I took another sip of scotch. “There a point to this?”

“I got onto that island twice,” she told me. “ Twice . It took a damn miracle both times. And both times, I barely made it off alive.”

The hair on the back of my neck rose. “Maybe you should stay away,” I suggested. “You have to be of the blood to find the way in. And the island itself is deadly.”

“Noted.” She leaned in. “But you see…there’s somebody I’ve been tracking for a long, long time and the one person who is likely to be able to find him is on that island. So, I need to get on to that island. And find a way in past the perimeter and the surrounding forest.”

The saliva in my mouth had dried up.

My hands were cold and damp.

Clearing my throat, I asked, “Is this the favor?”

“Oh, you could say it’s…part one of the favor. You’re on your way in. I’ll just tag along.” Her lips curved in a cheerful, pleasant smile. “I can handle myself, no worries there. Since all I need somebody of the blood to…find the way, it’s not like it will take any effort from you. Should I encounter any difficulties, I’ll deal with them on my own, rest assured.”

The hell with it. I tossed back the rest of the scotch and reached for the bottle, pouring more. “I get the feeling you’re following me whether I like it or not—after all, you magicked yourself onto this boat without much fuss. I imagine you can do the same once we land.”

“You’re a smart girl, Kit. I like that about you.” Taking her scotch, she went over to the couch and stretched out her legs. “I’ll just rest here until we dock. The water is getting rougher. You might want to actually try piloting the boat sometime soon instead of just letting it bob around here in the deep blue sea.”