Guardians of the Akasha (16 page)

“Earth, fire, water, air.

The Akasha condemns those who dare.

Deep within, the wisdom concealed.

To the One, it be revealed.”

With that, Savelli’s eyes refocused on Daemon. He breathed a shuddering breath and in a tired voice he said, “You will keep me no longer, spawn of the devil. I curse you and your horde to everlasting banishment to the deepest reaches of the Void.” Then, his head lolled to the side and his eyes saw no more.

“Bloody useless sack of shit!” Daemon swore in frustrated rage. Soft mutters from his two handlers made him turn on them in fury. “What are you whispering about?” he snarled.

“Sir…” one spoke up hesitantly. “The old man’s curse, he is—was a member of Council. They could do those things, I mean, banish us—“

A shape, unseen till now, detached itself from a shadowy corner and slinked closer.

“Curses made with dying breaths are matters of concern, Sir,” Julius said.

“Don’t you start acting like a coward as well, Julius,” Daemon snapped. “Get rid of that,” he pointed to the body on the floor and dismissed the two handlers.

Julius watched Daemon from under heavy, hooded eyes. “Sir, if word of this gets out it could affect morale around here. Most of the Families only pledged allegiance because you promised them everlasting glory, etcetera, etcetera. You’ve just killed the last Council member and we are no closer to the Book.”

Daemon lost his last remaining shred of patience, pounced on Julius and grabbed his throat in a claw-like grip.

“I am getting slightly annoyed with your attitude, Julius,” he spat in his subordinate’s face. “Please remember: no one is irreplaceable.”

He pushed Julius away and pulled at his sleeves. His lieutenant was bent over and gasping for breath.

“The morale of our troops is your problem, Julius. That is why I put you in charge. Leave the Book to me. Savelli might not have told me where exactly it is, but he pointed me in the right direction. It is now clear that we need to find this Keira, at any cost. How we do that, I will leave to your twisted mind to figure out. And Julius, I did mean
any
cost!”

“Yes, Sir!” Julius rasped through his burning throat.

“Now, you go and take care of the rabble. I will be in the library. That old man’s riddle might have given us an extra clue. And I don’t want to be disturbed,” Daemon commanded and stalked off.

“Yes, Sir,” Julius whispered, an uncharacteristic, thoughtful expression on his face. “You go sit with your dusty manuscripts. There is more than one way to skin a cat, and once that book is found, there is more than one person who can use it.”

Chapter 18

Keira watched as Marco took out a small, camouflaged tent from his bag. Nightfall was approaching and, when they came upon a slight dip in the terrain, he suggested they stop for the night. Keira was grateful to put her backpack down and flex her shoulders. She suppressed a grimace as her back spasmed. There was no way she was letting Marco see her discomfort.

He set a fast pace during the day and she vowed silently to herself to keep up, ignoring her exhaustion and aching feet. “Are you sure we can stop?” she asked. “What about Daemon’s people?”

“They have to stop and rest as well. Besides, they expect us to go to the border,” he answered.

“Oh,” she mumbled, wishing for the umpteenth time they really were headed in that direction.

“We won’t be able to make a fire, but at least we have the tent and sleeping bags. Check your backpack, there’s some dried fruit and energy bars in there. That will have to be dinner,” Marco said as he set about clearing the gully of twigs.

Keira opened her pack and found a few waterproof bags filled with trail food. She brushed off a flat rock nearby and arranged their dinner on it. It didn’t look very appetizing, but she knew she needed the energy. While nibbling on a handful of nuts, Keira took in their surroundings. The forest was dark, hushed and foreign, different from the one at home that was filled with small animal sounds and happy twitters from the birds. She was glad she was not alone in this place.

“Can I help?” she asked, unnerved by the silence. She felt like she should be doing something to keep busy.

“No, it’s okay.” He had taken his jacket off. A black t-shirt did nothing to hide the subtle flex of his muscles as he worked. His strong hands deftly assembled flexible rods to erect the small heap of fabric at his feet.

As she watched him work, the photographer in her couldn’t help but admire the lines and angular planes of his body. The way his wide shoulders tapered off to slim hips and into muscled legs.

I wish I had my
camera, she thought; then looked down in shy confusion when he turned and walked back to her.

He sat down on the leaf-covered ground and stretched his long legs out with a sigh of satisfaction.

“Energy bar?” she asked and held one out to him.

“Thanks.”

They ate in a silence that stretched on and on. Keira thought desperately of something to talk about. During the hike there was no time for conversation; now, she felt a sudden unease in the company of this brooding man reclining next to her in apparent comfort. She wanted to ask him about his life, about his magick, and about his family. There were a million things she wanted to know. What was it like to go to school at the castle, to be a Draaken? She felt that she had only scratched the surface with Chloe and Justin. There was so much more, a whole world she had never known existed.

She sneaked a glance at him and saw him frown. “What’s the matter?”

“The matter?”

“Oh…yes. Except the obvious, of course.”

He gave a short laugh. “Yes, except for the obvious,” he agreed. “Well, there is also the fact that I’m looking for a place I’m not sure exists, and even if I find it, I’m not sure we’ll be welcome.”

“What do you mean? Don’t you know where we’re going?”

“I don’t want to concern you with this.”

“Stop it right there,” she said. “I thought I asked you to trust me—that we agreed there would be no more secrets.”

“Yes,” he said. “I know where we are and I know where we are going. What I don’t know is whether the person we’re supposed to meet will make him or herself known to us.” His voice was tight with frustration.

“I think you have to start at the beginning, please,” Keira said.

He took a while to answer her.

“Victoria gave me instructions,” he began.

“I know that already. She expected people to protect my life with their own.” Anger and frustration at the thought crept into her voice yet again.

“Yes, there is that. But she also said that I have to take you to the person who would train you, if she couldn’t. She said to keep walking east from the castle, until we were found.”

“That’s it?”

“Yes.”

“So, who is supposed to meet us? Do you know?”

“No, but there are legends,” Marco hesitated.

“Come on! Legends?” Keira was incredulous. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised, after all that’s happened. The next thing you’re going to tell me is that we’ll be transported on the back of unicorns off to Oz!”

“You can’t ride unicorns, they don’t allow it,” he answered with a poker face.

“You can’t be serious,” she whispered.

Marco burst out laughing. “No, I’m not,” he admitted, still chuckling. “But there are stories. The old books say there is a place in these woods where the magick currents of the Earth meet. Also that it can’t be found. It finds you.”

“And you think that this is the place Victoria was speaking of?” Keira asked.

“I don’t know,” he said and threw a twig away from him in frustration. “Victoria was like a mother to us all, yet she had so many secrets.”

“I wish I had more time with her,” Keira said, her voice soft with emotion. “I didn’t know what she was. I didn’t know what I was.” She shook her shoulders as if to get rid of unwanted memories and asked, “Did you always know you were—you know—magickal?”

“Yes,” he said. “Rafael, Adriana, and I always knew. Our parents were very active in the Guardians’ community. My father was Leader of the Santana Family.”

“Adriana was your sister?” Keira asked.

He was silent for a long time.

“I’m sorry,” Keira said. “I didn’t mean to pry. Justin told me.”

“It’s okay,” he said. “Yes, she was our sister and Justin’s mother. Adriana and her husband were travelling home after a mission in Spain. They were killed in a car crash.”

Keira cursed herself for even mentioning the subject. “I’m so sorry,” she said.

“My mother wasn’t well and the shock…she died soon after,” Marco continued as if he hadn’t heard her. “A few months later, my father was found in one of our horse paddocks, trampled to death.”

Keira sat in shocked silence. She didn’t know what to say. She wanted to reach out and touch him, put her arms around him, but she was scared, uncertain how to reach through the isolation surrounding him.

“The police wrote it all off as a series of accidents. But Rafael and I did our own investigations. Adriana’s car had been tampered with. And my father—there is no way in hell those horses would have trampled him. He raised them by hand from birth.”

“Please, we don’t have to talk about it,” Keira tried to stop him.

His eyes were bleak when he looked at her. “I wish we knew about you then,” he said. “We could have asked you talk to the horses; find out what really happened. We would have had proof that Daemon killed my family.”

“Daemon? You think that he…?”

“I know he did,” Marco growled. “He was in love with Adriana; followed her around like a love-sick puppy all through Initiation School. She never wanted anything to do with him. After graduation, we all got accepted into the Draaken. He made it his mission to become the next Commander, as if that would prove to her that he was good enough,” Marco made a disparaging noise.

“Well, he wasn’t. I was chosen and he vowed revenge. He disappeared and we carried on with our lives. Adriana married Guido; they had Justin. We heard rumours of what he was up to, dabbling in black magick, trying covertly to convince Council members to change the Guardians’ mission; to change its focus from guarding the Akasha to exploring and manipulating it. Then, Daemon’s family Council member went missing, and Daemon took his place. Well, he revelled in his new position and openly declared his intentions. My father, Victoria, and a couple of older Council members fought him at each meeting, but Daemon managed to convert a few Families with his promises of glory. Those who continued to resist suffered inexplicable ‘accidents.’ He pushed for having the Draaken disbanded and formed the Watchers…. And here we are.”

“I am so sorry,” was all that Keira could say again.

“Yeah, me too,” he said. “But this war is not over. It has only just started.”

“I am beginning to understand that. I know it is useless to wish things were different, but if only Victoria had told me sooner.”

“She regretted her decision, Keira. But at the time, it was the only option.” Marco reached out and took her hand in his. His strong brown fingers entwined with hers and she could feel hard calluses at the base of his fingers.

A heat was growing between their palms. A tingling sensation travelled up her wrist and arm. It moved into her chest and she was glad she was sitting down; her body felt as if it had liquefied.

Keira came back to reality with a startled gasp as Marco wrenched his hand out of hers. He was suddenly six feet away from her, shoulders hunched, hands clenched in fists at his sides. Even from the distance she could hear his ragged breathing as he struggled for control.

“What happened?”

“Nothing happened,” he answered. He shook his shoulders and walked closer, but still stopped a couple of feet away from her.

Nothing? That was not ‘nothing,’
Keira thought. Even that first time he held her in his arms in front of Harrods, she felt something. She had managed to dismiss it, though. After all, what did she know about men? Apparently, not enough. The boys from St. Vincent’s, her own school’s neighbour, didn’t hold much appeal, even though her friends found them entertaining. There was a summer holiday at Sammy’s parents’ house in the Caribbean, when she’d fallen madly in love with a hunky lifeguard. But even that fizzled out as soon as she got home. Besides, her lukewarm response to his fumbling kisses was nothing compared to her body’s reaction when Marco touched her.

She was about to insist on an answer when a cawing sound erupted above their heads. A black raven sat on a branch, looking at them curiously.

“It can’t be,” Keira whispered and the raven answered her with another loud caw. “Nagwa!” she cried and ran to stand underneath the tree. She stretched out her arms and the raven glided down to perch on her shoulder. He sat and preened his feathers, as if he had all the right in the world to be there.

“I assume you know each other?” Marco asked and strolled closer, hands in his pockets.

“Yes, he is my oldest friend,” Keira answered and crooned soft words of endearment to the bird. “He was my
only
friend for a very long time. I don’t understand, how could this be possible? The last time I saw him was at my home, back in England, many years ago. He taught me about the wind and the trees, the animals that lived in the forests surrounding our estate,” Keira smiled. “He also told me never to show anyone what I could do, but I had to learn that the hard way. He came with me to school for a while, but I had to ask him to leave,” her voice caught at those unhappy memories.

“I was so angry at Aunt Vic when she told me there were other people like me. When she told me there was a school…I lost it. Doesn’t make sense, does it? I should have been happy. She must have thought I was acting like a complete brat.”

“She’d never have thought that,” Marco reassured her. “She told me how she regretted not being able to bring you to the school. She admired your guts and determination.”

Keira gave a small laugh. “What guts? Here I am, running away from the man who killed her.”