Kalina ~ Book Four

“I can’t just leave somewhere with you, Kora. This is my home. I have my pack, my students, my mates-”

“Kalina, enough. Go get a bag and get your ass in the car.”

Kora left no room for discussion, and an uncomfortable sensation rippled over Sylvie. She turned and walked back into the house, numbly, scowling at her traitorous mates before heading into their old room and filling a bag with three days worth of clothes. She had no clue how long they’d be gone, but if it were any longer than that, heads would roll.

“Just for your information, I had no idea she was coming.”

“Go away, Kian.”

When he clicked his tongue at her, she scowled at him, the look sending him fleeing from the room. Elias tried next, leaning against the door jam like he was some suave, sexy, innocent Vampire.

“I’m not forgiving you.”

“Kitten.”

“Nope.”

She closed her bag and hoisted it over her shoulder, barging past Elias and to the front door. He didn’t make a move to grab her, but she could sense his ire.

“This is a stupid idea,” she grumbled, clenching her fists at her sides in front of the doorjam. “Why didn't you tell her no?”

“You should know your mother doesn’t take no for an answer.”

“With vampires and now demons to worry about, a road trip is the last thing I should be doing.”

“Agreed,” Kian said from the lounge.

“Take this,” Elias held a small bag out to her, and she snatched it, groaning from its weight. Weapons.

“Great,” she muttered, taking the final steps onto the front porch.

“Move it!” Kora called from the grass. Sylvie clenched her teeth and stormed down the steps towards her, shaking her head at Rowan, who appeared at the tree line. Wisely, he slunk away. No one wanted her wrath, it seemed.

“I’m not kidnapping you, Kalina. You look like you're packing for a month.”

“Look like you're packing for a month,” she mimicked, but Kora had already climbed in the driver's seat and turned on the engine. Sylvie threw her stuff in the back but kept Elias’ weapons back and slumped into the passenger seat.

Without another word, Kora pulled off from the curb and spun out the tires, leaving black skid marks all over the front driveway. Sylvie tensed and gripped the door with a white-knuckled fist as Kora laughed breathily.

They sat silently for a while as Sylvie mapped out the direction they were headed to tell her mates. Once they emerged from the forested trail, the highway Kora stuck them on headed northeast. She pulled out her phone to text Kian when Kora snatched the device from her hand and flung it from her open window.

“What the fuck? Kora!”

“It’s a girl's trip, Kalina. No distractions.”

She kept her gaze on the road while Sylvie fumed. A thousand different ways to kill her mother flitted through her mind as she reigned in her emotions. Without Kian, it was spectacularly difficult.

Hours passed in silence; the soft lull of nineties pop music droned over the radio, and Sylvie stared out the side window. The terrain had shifted from forest to desert, just like around Fraser's pack. Did she know where she was taking them? But eventually, they veered further eastward towards the canyons, and Sylvie couldn’t bite her tongue any more.

“Where are we going?”

“Took you long enough. And I thought I was stubborn.”

Sylvie just scoffed and bit her tongue. Hours in close proximity with the woman who birthed her was far out of the realm of possibility for that day, and her building frustration was the only comfort. She didn't even have her phone to play games on.

“Camping. Night under the stars and all that. I know a place.” Kora hummed. “Knew a place.”

“It’s probably gone by now,” Sylvie replied lowly.

“Negative Nancy.”

“Ugh.”

An hour of tortured silence later, Kora pulled up in an empty parking space, nothing but dirt and mountains and red canyons all around them. Sylvie sat in the car, stewing while Kora changed into hiking gear and hoisted a large backpack over her shoulders.

“C’mon, lazy bones. Time to go.”

“Fuck sake,” she whispered, following suit and arming herself with Elias’ weapons. Two handguns with real bullets and a dozen throwing knives. She strapped the guns to her hips and the blades to her thighs before putting on her bag.

“Quite the weapons you have,” Kora quipped, eyeing her over the car's roof. “Might I ask why?”

“You can ask. Doesn’t mean I’ll tell you.”

Kora pressed her lips as if hiding a smile and closed the door. “Well, let's go. We’ve got an hour's walk ahead of us.”

With a groan that must've had smoke pouring from her ears, Sylvie slammed her door and trudged behind her dryad mother.

They reached the site in forty-five minutes. A record, Kora informed her, and she set up the bedrolls on a plateau cut into the side of a canyon. It didn't look the safest, but it was protected from the elements, and the drop was only twenty feet into a lazy river.

“We need a fire,” Sylvie grumbled. “Once the sun sets, it’ll be freezing.”

“I didn’t see much wood on the way, did you?”

Kora and Sylvie shared a look of mutual irritation. Sylvie just stood and checked her weapons, holding a gun out to her mother.

“I’ll be back.”

“I don’t need that.”

“Just take it.”

“No.”

Sylvie gritted her teeth so hard they creaked, and she huffed, “Fine.”

She spun on her heel and stormed back down the winding path to the top of the canyon, grabbing any sticks, logs or dead branches she could find. After what felt like hours, she returned and threw the wood on the ground, building the fire with a permanent scowl.

The sun stooped along the horizon, so she lit her kindling, watching as the fire slowly licked at the larger branches.

Kora let out a low chuckle, and Sylvie almost screamed. “What’s so funny?”

She shrugged. “Nothing. It’s just amusing how similar we are despite having nothing to do with each other.”

Sylvie bristled. “So your absence in my life is amusing to you. Cool. Good to know.”

“You’re being obtuse.”

“No, I’m not.”

“You’re being argumentative.”

“No, I’m-” Sylvie stood and stomped to the plateau's edge. She was just so infuriating. So snooty. So similar to her. Sylvie screamed. Into the canyon, into the river below, she screamed and screamed until her voice cracked.

As her breath came out in a wheeze and her anger subsided enough to give her a clear head, she turned back to her mother.

The woman hardly looked old enough to be a big sister, not a mother.

They could’ve been twins.

“Better?” she asked, a smile curling her mouth.

Despite herself, Sylvie smiled back. Briefly.

They cooked a meal from Kora’s pack and sat by the fire until sunset. As the crisp night air licked at her skin, her disdain ebbed to resignation. Maybe it wasn’t so bad.

Kora cleared her throat, and Sylvie turned to look at her mother's serious face. Her back straightened. She didn't like that look.

“I only let you go to save you, Kalina. You have to know that.”

Sylvie clenched her teeth. She knew that. She had seen it in a vision. Kora had wanted her.

She didn't reply until a wave of courage hit her. It couldn't hurt to have this conversation now. It might be the only time they got.

“Can you call me Sylvie then?”

Kora blinked. “But Kalina is what I named you.”

“Yes, but Sylvie is what I know and what people who love me call me. I’m more comfortable with that name.”

Kora nodded, the double meaning there. “I don’t know how that happened. My note was very clear.”

“Probably the snot and tears that dripped all over it,” Sylvie said softly. She didn't intend for Kora to hear it, but she did.

“How do you know that?”

Time for the truth. “I saw it.”

Kora shuffled closer and searched her face. “You have visions too?”

That stumped Sylvie. “Too?”

“The Fates visited me in my dreams all the time. When I was pregnant, they grew so much worse. The only reason I left you was because they told me to.”

Kora’s bomb flooded Sylvie with shock. “What?”

“They said I needed to protect you from the other realms. You had a purpose, and if you were harmed before adulthood, all would be lost for our kind.”

“They said that?”

Kora offered a half smile. A knowing smile. “In fewer words.”

Sylvie laughed softly despite herself. She knew exactly what she meant—cryptic assholes.

“Have you had any since?”

“No.”

“I guess you passed on the torch to me then.”

“I’m sorry.”

Sylvie shook her head. It looked like her mother hadn’t learned the rules of the Fae yet.

“Don’t be. They were useful sometimes.”

Kora scuffed the dirt with her boot. “Gift and a curse.”

“Yep.”

Sylvie leaned back and spied a bush behind Kora, growing in the cracks of the canyon. The tiny berries glinting in the moonlight looked a lot like currants. Sylvie sniffed and stood, stretching out her aching muscles and walked past her mother to the bush. Kora followed her with her eyes as Sylvie crouched down and sent her energy over the plant. In an instant, the currants grew to the size of grapes, and she plucked some, offering a palmful to Kora.

“Currants.”

Kora tilted her head to the side at the sight of the bush, now doubled in size. “We can do that?”

“I can. No clue about you, though.” Sylvie plucked some more and returned to her spot by the fire. “You’re full-Dryad, so you probably have way better abilities than me.”

She palmed the berries into her mouth and chewed as Kora stood, wiping her hands on her pants. She walked over to the bush next but turned and pressed her back against it.

“I can do this.” While she was still speaking, her entire body seemed to disappear into the bush, only the whites of her eyes visible in the dark. Camouflage.

“Woah, that's fucking crazy.”

Kora returned to normal and sat down, a flush on her cheeks. “Language, K- Sylvie.”

“It's really hard to take you seriously when you say that.”

“Why”

Sylvie rubbed the back of her neck against the chill. “Because you look like you could be my sister.”

“You ripped me a new asshole, Kalina Sylvie. You are most certainly my daughter. A pain in the ass for life.” Sylvie’s mouth dropped open in disgust, but a cackle burst out.

“You are so gross.”

They ate a few more berries before Sylvie spoke again. It was getting too easy to start hard conversations.

“Why did you never tell me any of this before?”

“It wasn’t the right time. You had too much hate, and I needed to fix things.”

Sylvie cleaned her teeth with her tongue as she processed the words. The faces of her foster parents filled her mind.

“And killing everyone that ever wronged me was fixing things? Because there's a hell of a lot of people on that list.”

“Myself included, I imagine.” Kora didn't meet her eyes, and Sylvie swallowed. She wasn’t quite ready for that conversation.

“I need to tell you some things.”

“I’m all ears.”

So Sylvie told her. About the Vampires, most of which she already knew, and the Demons. The more she shared about them, the paler Kora became. She left a few thoughts unsaid, particularly the ideas that were only half-baked and entirely dependent on whosoever was fucking with her making another move.

“Demons are the reason I left you. I would take any Fate messages about demons very seriously.”

“But they expect me to kill one.”

“What? No. You must stay away.”

Sylvie scoffed and threw her hands up. “You just told me to listen to them.”

“Yeah, well, I changed my mind.”

Sylvie turned and buried a smile behind her hand. It bugged her to admit it, but she liked Kora. It was easy to like her, and a sense of longing for a mother tugged at her heart. Maybe she didn't have to be so closed off anymore. Perhaps she could heal.

“By the way,” Kora started. “Tell your husband he can join us.”

“What?” But Sylvie swivelled her head toward Elias, his location only relighting in her brain as she did. He’d been there the whole time, and she hadn't even known. She frowned. Her mates were getting too good at hiding from her.

“Elias.”