Morning Rising (19 page)

Lockler’s dark eyes took in the group quickly
before a small smile spread across his lips. He strode forward to
shake hands with Baron, while Fay went to Ivy. Fay’s pale face
flushed with happiness as she hugged Ivy close. The little fairy
girl was almost enveloped in her embrace, but she smiled with
delight.

“Guardian.” Glint loped over to Kara’s side
and nuzzled his head against her shoulder. Kara smiled.

“You did well,” Kara praised, patting Glint’s
head.

“I did well,” Glint repeated with a quick
smile of sharp teeth. He hunkered down beside Kara, wrapping his
thin arms around himself and flattening his wings against his
back.

“Your uncle has been captured,” Lockler told
Baron as he crouched beside him. “We were hiding just outside the
city and watched the Strikers lead him away. There were too many
for us to attempt a rescue. I’m sorry.” Lockler’s dark face filled
with remorse.

“Don’t worry yourself,” Baron said. He
clapped Lockler on the shoulder before turning to look into the
fire. “I had figured as much.” Baron’s jaw was tight and he kept
his eyes on the fire as he spoke.

“We were afraid you were lost to us when we
saw you transfer,” Fay said. She sank down beside Kara. Her green
dress billowed before settling around her.

Fay squeezed Kara’s hand briefly and warmness
flowed through Kara. As the tension in her shoulders eased, Kara
welcomed Fay’s influence.

“I’m glad Glint was able to find you,” Kara
said to Fay. The woman smiled.

“I was nervous when he first approached us,”
Fay admitted.

“Excuse me, but now that we are all here I
think I will find us some dinner,” Ivy announced. She spread her
wings and leaped from the ledge. They watched as Ivy soared off
into the darkness and disappeared from sight.

Baron turned his attention to Fay. “I knew
you would worry, but you understand keeping Dylan safe was our top
priority. I hope Glint didn’t scare you too much with his
appearance.”

“Not at all,” Lockler assured Baron. He eyed
Dylan across the fire. “I was able to tell his intentions were
good. We went with him willingly.”

“You go by Dylan now?” Fay asked, extending a
hand over Kara to Dylan. Dylan took her hand, smiling.

“Yeah. I know everyone wants to call me
Morning, but it just seems weird to me.” Dylan blushed as she let
go of Fay’s hand, but Fay was nodding.

“It isn’t strange at all,” Fay assured her.
“If someone were to tell me I should live by another name I
wouldn’t be able to.”

“Whatever our princess wishes,” Lockler
added. He bowed his head to Dylan from across the fire. He wore tan
pants and a soft looking white shirt with long sleeves that didn’t
look like enough to keep him warm.

“Please, you don’t have to act like I’m
royalty or anything either,” Dylan said. She shook her head,
looking down at her hands. “It’s way too weird.” Lockler smiled and
nodded.

“How close are we to the gate?” Kara asked.
The question had been haunting her ever since they stopped walking.
The deadline seemed to loom far too close for comfort.

“We’ll be able to see it from here in the
morning,” Baron assured her. “It’s no more than a mile walk.”

“I fear Demitar’s Strikers will be waiting by
the time morning comes,” Lockler spoke darkly. “His anger at your
escape was harsher than I have yet seen from him.”

“I thought that might be the case,” Baron
said. “We should be safe here. Demitar will be expecting us to
spend the night at the gate, in order to be there as soon as it
opens.”

“Shouldn’t we be doing that?” Kara asked,
raising her eyebrow. Getting to the Daylands sooner rather than
later sounded like a plan to her.

“Demitar would fall on us in the night,”
Baron explained with a small shake of his head. “Our best bet is to
hope that the Day King’s forces arrive as the gate opens.”

“Dylan, forgive me for asking, but have your
powers returned?” Lockler waited politely for an answer. Dylan
glanced nervously at Kara and pulled her hands into her sweatshirt.
She hugged herself tightly, waiting for Kara’s response. Kara
nodded for her to tell the truth.

“Three. I’ve controlled water, air, and
fire,” Dylan admitted with a small smile.

“Only metal left then,” Lockler said. He
pulled a knife from his pocket and set it at his feet. He kicked it
over to her. It spun across the stone to rest against her boots.
“Practice with that. You will need your full powers to defeat
Demitar.”

Dylan nodded and focused on the knife. Kara
and the others watched silently, waiting for any sign that her
power was working. Even Glint seemed to be watching, his empty
white eyes staring at the knife. With almost painful slowness the
knife spun a half rotation on the stone. Dylan opened her eyes,
letting out her breath in a rush.

“I can’t.” Dylan shook her head. “It’s too
hard. I’m too tired.” Kara put an arm around Dylan’s shoulders.

“It moved a bit,” Kara said. She squeezed
Dylan’s shoulder. “It will come back to you.”

“Soon you will be able to transform metal at
your will,” Baron said. “As a child you would pull the metal ore
from the ground and form it into small toys.” Baron smiled at the
memory. Dylan and Kara shared a smile.

“I wish I could remember more from that
time,” Kara said. “Shouldn’t more of those memories come back?”

“Not necessarily,” Baron said with a shake of
his head. “You were very small and those memories would have faded
naturally over time. Trust me when I say you were a handful.”
Lockler chuckled and Baron grinned at him. “These two ran me
ragged.”

“I am sure they were angels,” Fay said
softly.

There was a flutter of wings above. They all
jerked to attention as Ivy dropped onto the ledge. She held two
strange looking rabbits by their ears. Each rabbit was the size of
a large house cat, each with three white stripes running down their
backs. Ivy tossed them to Lockler. He caught them easily and pushed
himself to his feet. Lockler walked around the fire and scooped up
his knife from Dylan’s feet. Ivy noticed Dylan and Kara looking at
the rabbits curiously.

“Striped hares,” Ivy said. Her voice was
light and happy. “They taste better than normal rabbits. There’s
also much more meat to them. I was lucky to find them. They are
very rare.”

“I’ve never eaten rabbit,” Dylan admitted.
She looked sick at the idea of eating one.

“Me either,” Kara said. “So I guess we’ll
have to take your word for it.” She was no more eager than Dylan to
eat rabbit, but she was too hungry to be picky about it.

Kara’s stomach began to turn as Lockler used
his knife to prepare the hares. He expertly skinned and gutted the
small animals. Kara watched, feeling less hungry with each stroke
of his blade. Lockler sent Ivy down to find two sturdy sticks to
roast the hares on. He shaved each stick to a point and forced an
animal on each. Soon they were roasting over the fire.

With their fur removed, the striped hares
looked like any other rabbit as Lockler slowly turned them over the
fire. Kara and Dylan watched warily until the smell began. It was
like nothing Kara ever smelled before, better than steak, even
better than bacon. By the time the meat was done, both Kara and
Dylan were almost drooling and had to be warned to let the meat
cool before stuffing it in their hungry mouths.

It was delicious, both spicy and salty. It
was the most satisfying meal Kara had ever eaten. If Glint didn’t
look so happy picking the bones clean, she might have tried to do
the same. Instead, she tossed down her bones with the others,
letting Glint feast.

Kara and Dylan slipped away from the fire and
into the cave. They crawled onto the thick pile of grass Ivy put
out for everyone to sleep on. While the others were still busy
planning and worrying, Kara let herself take a moment to relax with
Dylan.

They lay in the half darkness, watching the
flickering shadows the fire painted across the ceiling. Their
bodies weren’t touching, but Kara was almost painfully aware of the
heat coming off Dylan beside her. An inch of movement from either
of them and they would be touching. Kara twitched as Dylan sat up
to rest on her elbow, lying on her side to face Kara.

“So, you never answered my question,” Dylan
said softly. Kara could see her nervous smile in the firelight.

“What question was that again?” Kara teased,
pretending to try to remember.

“Don’t be an ass.” Dylan shoved Kara’s hand.
Kara captured Dylan’s hand in her own, her pulse doubling as their
fingers curled together. There was a moment of heavy silence as
they got used to the feeling.

“No, it’s not going to change things,” Kara
finally said quietly, afraid that if she spoke loudly Dylan might
pull away. “I mean, I guess it sort of will, but for the better. I
won’t have to spend all my time worrying that you’re going to ditch
me at a party just because some guy has some acid or E.”

“I’m sorry about all that,” Dylan said. She
shook her head, looking down at Kara in a way that was new and
thrilling. Her eyes were clear and never wandered from Kara’s. “I
treated you like shit.”

“Yeah, kinda,” Kara said. Dylan bit her lip
and started to pull her hand away, but Kara held tight. “But I let
you. It didn’t matter what you did to me. I always came back to
you.”

“I know. That never really made sense. A
couple times, I remember being an asshole just to see if I could
get you mad enough to leave me.” Dylan smiled, flipping her hair
out of her face so she could see Kara clearer. “There were lots of
times I was surprised that you were still speaking to me.”

“I get it now, I guess.” Kara shrugged,
looking up at Dylan. They were close enough to kiss. The thought of
kissing Dylan made it hard for Kara to concentrate. She felt
lightheaded and far too warm in the cold cave. “It’s the whole
Guardian thing. But back in Chicago-” Kara gave a short laugh. “I
really hated myself for always letting you hurt me. I just couldn’t
give you up.”

“I paid for it in the end,” Dylan said. She
stared off toward the mouth of the cave as she spoke. “After the
awakening, I remembered Kade was the guy with the E. From the
party. The one you didn’t want me to go see.”

“I know. I shouldn’t have let you go to his
place alone,” Kara said. She glanced toward the mouth of the cave.
No one was paying any attention to them; even Glint was still busy
with his bones. She gave Dylan’s hand a shake, forcing Dylan to
look down at her. “Us being here is all my fault.”

“Hardly.” Dylan laughed softly. “I’m the dumb
ass who was too focused on partying to listen to any bit of reason.
Besides, I think coming here was the best thing that could have
happened to us.”

“Really?” Kara asked. She searched Dylan’s
eyes, hoping to find truth there.

“Really,” Dylan said. Dylan was so close Kara
could feel the breath behind her words. It tickled Kara’s lips,
making the urge to kiss her irresistible.

Kara reached up and tucked a loose hair
behind Dylan’s ear. She rested her hand on the other girl’s neck.
Dylan bit her lip, leaning closer to Kara and sending Kara’s heart
beating wildly. Kara’s eyes darted to Dylan’s lips expectantly.
Before Kara could look at Dylan’s eyes again, they were kissing. It
was quick, and it was all Kara could do to keep from whimpering as
Dylan pulled away. Dylan flopped on her back beside Kara, their
hands still clenched together.

“Do you still love me?” Dylan asked. Her
voice was small and full of an insecurity that was foreign to Kara.
Dylan had always been so sure about herself in the human world.
This new, vulnerable Dylan was reassuring to Kara in a way. It made
Dylan seem more human, even as she was becoming less.

“I always will,” Kara said and squeezed
Dylan’s hand. She ran her tongue across her lips, savoring the
taste of Dylan on her.

Kara wanted nothing more than to feel Dylan’s
lips pressed against hers over and over. With everyone sitting
around the fire only a dozen feet away, Kara knew it wasn’t the
time. She heard Dylan move and turned to face her.

“I do love you, Kara,” Dylan said. She was
smiling. For the first time, Kara believed her. Everything Kara
ever thought she felt between them was really there.

“I love you too,” Kara said. She frowned. “Is
it funny that being here sort of feels right to me?”

“Being here with me, or being in this world?”
Dylan asked. Her fingers trailed over Kara’s hand softly.

“Well both,” Kara said, swallowing back the
rush of feelings Dylan was stirring in her. “But I meant being in
this world.”

“No,” Dylan replied, after a moment’s
thought. Her hand rested on Kara’s again. “I get what you mean. I
feel right here. It’s like I belong. I never felt that at home. I
always felt so alien.”

“Yeah,” Kara said. She squeezed Dylan’s hand,
knowing just what Dylan meant.

There was a rustling at the mouth of the
cave. Kara turned to see Glint moving carefully toward the back of
the cave. He turned circles like a dog before curling up at her
side and shutting his wide eyes. When Kara turned back to Dylan,
her eyes were shut as well.

Kara lay there, listening to the murmur of
voices from just outside the cave and savoring Dylan’s warmth
beside her. In minutes, Dylan’s breathing became deep and regular.
When Kara glanced at Dylan again, she was sure Dylan was asleep.
With her free hand, Kara reached out to scratch Glint’s rough skin
between his ears. He cracked his eyes at her.

“Glint, do you know who will betray me?” Kara
whispered in the darkness.

“I knows not.” Glint shook his head.

When Kara didn’t speak again, Glint closed
his eyes, enjoying the attention of his new master as she scratched
his head. Kara found the motion soothing, even as her head spun
with fears. As she began to doze off, she heard the others crawl
into the grass around her. Before their snores could fill the cave,
she was fast asleep.