Forged: The World of Nightwalkers (32 page)

“Well … when I tried it was like … I couldn’t make
myself do it. When Ahnvil tried it threw me across the room to get me away from him.”

“Ah. And yet you were not hurt?”

“No. Just got the wind knocked out of me.”

“It protected you from injury and protected you from being divested of it. It would seem it has your best interests at heart. Don’t try and remove it. It’s too valuable to you while on you.”

“I told you, I
can’t
remove it.”

“You can’t remove it
now
. There will come a time when you will learn how. And that is when others will seek to take it from you. There are always others who will seek to take your niks from you. Especially other Djynns. You see, as soon as a Djynn touches a nik, it becomes theirs … until another Djynn touches it. However they can touch all they like while you wear it and nothing will come of it. It may not even allow them to come close enough to touch.”

“You know, is it possible for something to be so cool and so terrifying all at once?”

“Clearly so. But you are not as afraid as you profess.”

“No, I’m not,” she said, realizing his insight was correct. “I think it’s because all my life the human world felt a little bit
off
to me. I didn’t know what it was then, but in hindsight I guess I do now. I wasn’t meant to be in the human world.” She laughed. “You know, there isn’t a kid alive who doesn’t wish they had superpowers at some point. I’m not yet sure if it’ll be all it’s cracked up to be. But all my life I’ve just dealt with being a square peg in a round hole. Maybe as I grow more powerful … more able to control what I can do … maybe then I’ll start to feel normal.”

“But you are a half-breed,” he seemed to feel it was necessary to point out. “Even Grey knows it won’t be as easy as it sounds. Mixing gene pools is a frightening variable when it comes to Nightwalkers and humans. It’s
why we don’t do it very often. Usually our worlds don’t even coincide enough for us to be attracted to humans, but there is always an exception. You realize you cannot share this with your mother?”

“I-I hadn’t thought about it.” She bit her lip.

“The less people who know about our world the better. It is a rare human being who can cope.”

She thought about her mother, the woman who couldn’t tolerate a new cell tower being built a half a mountain away from her, and realized he was correct. She would never understand. Hell, she probably wouldn’t believe her and would try to have her committed. Mom, bless her heart, was strong. She had to be to raise a child of darkness, as children with her disease were called. She had gone to bat and fought more times for Kat than even Kat had probably realized. To add one more thing to the mix just might be one thing too many.

Or maybe she would feel the same sense of relief that Kat felt. The same sense of finally understanding where she fit in the world.

She shook her head at her own thoughts. No. Kamen was right. It was better left unsaid.

“I wanted to hate you, you know,” she told him. “Because Ahnvil does. Because he has good reason to.”

“And yet you don’t?”

“No. I pity you. You’ve made terrible mistakes and yet aren’t even sure if you know the right way to atone for them. You want to. I can tell you want to. But you don’t know how. That’s why you keep pushing for this research. You think that this is the way to absolution.”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps I realize there is no absolution. That nothing I do or say will ever make up for lifetimes worth of sins. Ask your Gargoyle friend. There is nothing I can do that will ever make what I did to him right in his eyes.”

“No. I don’t suppose there is. So …” She looked
around, checking to see if Ahnvil was in earshot before leaning in closer to him. “Teach me one little thing I can do. I just want one little thing that proves to me I can do what everybody says I can do. I just … I mean I’m sure it’s true … but …”

“But you want to see it for yourself. To make it real.”

“Yeah. To make it real.”

“Very well. Pick up the Amulet and hold it in your hand.”

She did so readily, gripping her hand around it tightly.

“Ease up,” he said, resting a hand over hers and coaxing her to relax. “Now, inside the very heart of this Amulet is power. It’s like when I do spellwork. I have to seek inside of myself and then seek inside of the spell and somehow bridge the two together. The more experience you develop, the faster you will be able to build the bridge. Each item will require a new bridge, each bridge unique and constructed in its own way. For now, focus on this item. Imagine yourself stringing lines from the heart inside of your chest to the heart inside the Amulet.”

She nodded as she did so, afraid to speak. There was something about the intonation of his voice, the reverence of it that both excited and soothed her. She felt herself stringing those lines, but it took a great deal of focus to do it so she closed her eyes.

“Once you feel those lines are true, lay planking across them. Like that of a bridge. And with every plank you will take a step closer and closer to the heart of the Amulet’s power.”

She nodded as she slowly struggled to do what he asked. Sometimes it was easy to lay the plank. Other times she would take a step, feel unsteady, and have to step back again or … or it felt like she would fall away and have to start all over again. And yet, before too much time had passed she envisioned herself growing closer and closer to her goal.

“Almost there,” she whispered.

“Once you reach your goal, I want you to open your eyes.”

“I can’t. I’ll lose it,” she said, her voice still soft, as if speaking too loudly would ruin everything she’d achieved. It very probably would. She didn’t want to have to start all over again.

“No. You won’t. You have a strong will. I can sense it on you. The way you have lived your life in spite of the light has forced you to be strong. You will learn this control with ease because of it. Slowly open your eyes, all the while holding your bridge together.”

Kat could almost feel the difference when she touched the heart of the Amulet. It was like receiving a rush of energy, like a sudden breath of fresh air blowing back her hair. She didn’t realize that was exactly what happened, her hair stirring wildly for that brief instant.

“Very good. Come now,” he urged.

She slowly opened her eyes and he reached across the counter for a ceramic coffee mug. Placing it in the center of the counter he said, “Try and levitate the mug from the counter. Levitation, like turning to smoke, is one of the easiest tricks a Djynn can master. This should be simple for you. Slowly push the energy from the heart toward the mug, wrap it around as if you were grasping hold of it with a lasso and then use it to lift it up. Don’t worry about grace or keeping it upright, just lift it.”

By the time she felt she had come into contact with the mug she was actually growing a little tired. She was tensed from head to toe, trying to hold on to her focus.

“Breathe and relax,” he coaxed her.

And slowly, if only by a few millimeters at a time, the mug began to lift off the countertop.

“What the bloody hell is going on here?!”

The sharp command in Ahnvil’s voice was punctuated by the sudden explosion of the coffee mug. It shattered
into pieces, each one a sudden projectile. Kamen flinched, throwing up a hand that was immediately peppered with sharp debris. As for Kat, it looked at though the pieces fell just shy of hitting her.

“I have told you tae stay away from her!” Ahnvil reached for Kamen, grabbing him by the front of his shirt. “She does not need your black, manipulative lessons!”

“Stop it!” she cried, shoving her body in between the two men.

Kamen hit Ahnvil hard in the chest, pushing him off himself just as she was doing so. She could see bright red streaks of blood smearing over Ahnvil’s shirt.

“I am tired of you whipping me like a bad puppy!” Kamen growled. “If you want to throw down with me I am happy to oblige! But you are not this woman’s keeper and she is free to do what she wants. And what she wants is to learn how to control her power!”

“Why you fucking weasel!” Ahnvil seethed, launching himself forward once more to go for Kamen’s throat. “I’ll kill you where you stand for even looking at her!”

“Enough!” she shouted at him, as up in his face as she could possibly manage from her height and in the storm of his rage.

“You doona understand the man you’re dealing wi’, Kat! Doona make the mistake of thinking anything abou’ him is worth trusting. He is evil, pure and simple and I’m going tae—”

“What? Kill him?” she demanded. “You couldn’t do it before and for the same reasons you can’t do so now! Whatever you think of him, you
need
him. You need him to fight Apep and to figure out this curse thing! And it should count for something,” she said, her voice coming down as he stopped pushing his body against hers as though he were going to lunge for Kamen’s throat at any second, “that he’s even here at all. He could have just as easily walked away, never to be heard from again, letting
you all get spanked by Apep without any warning whatsoever.” She pushed him back even more. “And Kamen’s right. You don’t own me and you can’t tell me what to do or who to pick to teach me how to do this stuff.” She pointed to the cup. “That was the very first thing I’ve ever done as a Djynn! And it was going great until you came in here and went ballistic!”

Kat turned her back on him and reached for Kamen’s arm, realizing it and his face had been peppered by shards of ceramic and were now bleeding freely.

“It will be fine,” Kamen assured her. “I will remove the debris and it will heal in short order.” His hand covered hers to reassure her there was no reason for her to worry.

“Doona touch her,” Ahnvil hissed, “if you are wanting tae keep that hand. You doona need both of them tae help us fix your fuckup.”

“That’s it!” Kat whirled around and faced him angrily, “I’ve had it! You won’t let people help me, you won’t even let them touch me, and you don’t even have any right! Especially not after you just left me to my own devices for reasons I’m not all that sure were all that important!” Unable to help herself, she threw all her weight behind a punch into his shoulder. Then another. She knew she was as ineffectual as a fly, but she couldn’t seem to help herself. She began crying by the fourth time she hit him and she didn’t even know why. Finally she shoved at him, shoved him out of the way as much as she could with her tiny stature and suddenly he moved, as though she were his size and had shoved into him like a linebacker. With much surprise, he was pushed back hard into a near wall. Far enough out of her way to allow her to pass, running out of the house.

Ahnvil looked at Kamen with shock apparent in his amber eyes. He had felt that push from head to toe, not just in his midsection like she had physically done. What she had done was more. It was power. Pure power.

“What have you done tae her?” he asked Kamen, his voice low and terrible.

“It was done the day she was born. It has been there all along. Only now she has a tool to access it. And I would be careful,” Kamen warned. “She shattered that cup because she is raw and inexperienced and
powerful
. Half-breed or no, she will be a powerful Djynn once she starts to acquire more niks.”

“Your lessons will stop. She will learn from Grey or from—”

“SingSing? Let me know how that works out for you,” Kamen said dryly. “If she asks me to tutor her then I will. Threaten me all you like, it is her choice, not yours. Your issues with me are outside of this subject. Are you interested in fighting it out? I’m happy to oblige.”

Ahnvil clenched his hands into fists twice, his jaw working. Clearly he wanted to take Kamen up on the offer with every fiber of his being, but as reckless as he was, Ahnvil was a Gargoyle. He had been bred with the instinct to protect the man who held his touchstone in his care. That man was Jackson. Their ruler. And if Jackson needed Kamen to protect their little enclave, then he must be protected as well. It burned him, burned him badly to know that once again he was in the position of having to protect Kamenwati, just as he had when he had been Kamen’s slave.

Kamen stepped a step closer to him, leaning in to say softly, “I am no longer your enemy. Leave the past where it belongs. Only then can you move forward and find what you need.”

With that Kamen moved past him, leaving Ahnvil to stew in his words.

Kat hated crying. She almost never did it. She had learned long ago that tears did nothing to change things and were a waste of some perfectly good energy. But for
some reason this had all crept under her skin. As she walked angrily down the long drive, blowing off steam through her pace, she tried to make sense of her emotions. She was so angry with Ahnvil for his antagonistic behaviors! He had ruined her very first attempt at being what she was born to be. Instead of lifting the cup she had blown it to bits and it had been his fault. Where did he get off, trying to tell her what she could and could not do? Yes, she understood he had bad history with Kamen, but that was exactly what it was. History. And it wasn’t
her
history.

And maybe he was right and she should be cautious around Kamen, and she would be, but having him teach her a few basic activities couldn’t really hurt anything. Could it? Then there was the issue of his disappearance. Where had he gone. Why? He’d made like he was needed for something but there had not been anything going on since the new Nightwalkers had left.

New. Old. Hell, they were all new to her. But she had brought them all together and that was something to be proud of. If not for her they would never have come this far. Would never have come to understand there was a curse at all. Whatever happened afterward she had done that much at least.

None of that had anything to do with her and Ahnvil.

What about me and Ahnvil?
she wondered after a moment, her pace slowing considerably from stomping to a mild march. Just what was it she was expecting here? He had never made any declarations of any kind of feelings for her, and she had never asked him for any. She didn’t even want any. Why
would
she want any? He was so possessive of her as it was, she could just imagine what it would be like if he had actual feelings for her. It was understood, wasn’t it, that theirs was just a physical relationship? If that were the case, it had felt just a little one-sided a little while ago.