Page 17 of The Mountain King
Chapter Seven
Kailigh returnedto Cinvarra’s room. The girl was still sleeping so Kai prowled around, finally coming to stand next to a tall potted plant.
“You’re in the wrong spot, aren’t you?” she murmured to it, dragging it closer to a window with light. “There. Better.”
She caressed a leaf, lips curving, a bit of energy flowing from her fingertips into the browning foliage. The leaf plumped, brittle edges turning green again and she turned away, satisfied, to see Cinvarra sitting up. Kai crossed the room quickly and sat next to Cin, placing her hand on her youngest child’s forehead.
“Baby, when did you wake up?”
“Just now. Where are we?”
Kailigh hesitated. But she hadn’t raised her children to avoid the truth. “I had to go to Lord Maddugh to heal you.”
Cinvarra turned her head, lavender eyes sharp. “What did you give him?”
“Three weeks of our time, all four of us for… courting.”
“What?”
Kailigh grimaced, and explained as briefly as she could.
Cinvarra grinned. “Sere must be frothing at the mouth.”
Sometimes she was glad she didn’t have sisters. “Not quite.” Kailigh’s expression firmed. “We have more important things to talk about.”
Cinvarra’s eyes slid sideways.
“Cinvarra. I want to know why you disobeyed orders during the fight.”
She’d ordered Cin and Persia to flee, and Serephone would help Kai cover their retreat. Cin hadn’t budged, grabbing her pistol and calmly joining the fray. Persia had then had no choice but to stay put as well—it would have been more dangerous to try to force an unwilling person to retreat than to stay put and focus on not getting shot.
Cinvarra’s dry lips thinned. Kailigh reached over to pour a glass of water from the jug sitting at Cinvarra’s bedside, waiting until the girl took a few sips. Delaying sips. Kai had time.
“I don’t really remember.”
“Really. You think I buy that?”
Cinvarra sighed. “Ma. I’m tired of being treated like the baby. I’m seventeen and a better shot than Persia. I have a right to defend myself instead of running.”
Of all the nerve. “That’s the silliest thing I’ve ever heard. The middle of a kidnapping attempt isn’t the time for you to assert your independence.” Kai heard her own struggle to keep an even tone. She stood. “We’ll be nipping this problem in the bud, once and for all.”
Cinvarra’s eyes widened. “What are you planning? Shouldn’t we be talking about the bargain you struck?”
“You just focus on getting all healed up. And when you’re at full strength, we will have a long talk.”
Kailigh measured the combination of stubbornness and fatigue on Cinvarra’s face, weighed it against the carrot her youngest child dangled. Cinvarra would be the most cooperative of the three with Maddugh’s price. She’d always been the one to indulge Persia’s talk of babies.
“Fine. Lie back down. We can talk more about this in the morning.”
“A Dwyrkin husband,” Cin murmured, laying back obediently. “Theyarehandsome, aren’t they? And they can hunt.”
She fell back asleep. Kailigh brushed loose strands of her hair away from her forehead. “Yes, baby. I think they can.”
Once Cin was asleep, Kai sought out Serephone and Persia. “He didn’t leave ahead of the regularly scheduled departure to lick his wounds,” she warned.
“Reinforcements,” Serephone said.
Kai nodded, grim. “Yes. Persia—I know you have friends at Stella’s in town. Can you have one of the working girls keep an ear out? I want to know the instant the airbus is sighted again. We’ll have to move quick—and strike as soon as he disembarks.”
