Surrender (THE DRAGONFLY CHRONICLES) Read Online Free Page B

eventually her fingers relaxed around the unpolished rail. Tuto flapped upward from a nearby tree as if he’d been checking on her.
    “All’s well,” she whispered to the night, even though she felt weakness throughout her muscles like she’d physically climbed Benn Druim in western Scotland. How long had it been since she’d lost such control? Years. Her forehead ached and she rubbed cool fingertips along stretched skin there. The cabin, the corridor, they’d just been too much. Even as she justified, blamed her reaction on the confining space, she knew it was not the complete reason she’d lost control. The skin tingled along her lower back where the man’s hand had rested.
    “He follows you.” Jackson’s voice shot through Kailin like cold lightning. He leaned forward against the rail she still clutched.
    Kailin caught at the lightning, forcing it down into her core, swallowing it with the bile trying to crawl up her throat. She turned to Jackson with an iced-over stare. “We look out for each other, keep each other company so that I do not have need for any other.”
    Jackson’s glance slid away from her, ignoring her obvious request for solitude. Since the man wasn’t ignorant, he blatantly chose to refuse her polite requests. He stared out over the Nile and the banks into the moon-drenched desert.
    “So your one friend is an owl. Interesting.” His tone was nearly mocking.
    “I have other friends,” Kailin defended and rifled through the small group of acquaintances and archeologists she knew. There was that man in Scotland who tried to talk to her several times on her last expedition, the one with the castle and sheep. Her brows furrowed. What was his name? There were the Macleans at Kylkern Castle in the Highlands. They considered her a friend, didn’t they?
    Jackson stared down at her. “Ah yes, the lady Samantha McGivens. I’m sure she will be looking forward to reacquainting herself with you when we reach Luxor.”
    “Samantha McGivens?” Kailin hadn’t seen the woman for half a decade, not since finishing her degree. “She still resides in Luxor?” Kailin’s eyes narrowed. “How do you know Miss McGivens? Know that we were…are friends?”
    “Your father mentioned it,” Jackson glanced back out at the swirling black water.
    Kailin watched Jackson’s ruggedly attractive profile. Strong jaw, perfectly sloped nose, good cheekbones. Striking, strong, and utterly dangerous. Not just physically dangerous to her since he was immune to her magic, but also dangerous because he loosened her control on it. Plus, she couldn’t trust anything he said. No close friend of Anthony’s would call her Kailin. His circle only knew her as Anthony’s beloved Cleo.
    Kailin paralleled his stare out over the water. Samantha…hmmm… “I look forward to seeing her again. Does she know I journey to Luxor?” Jackson seemed to know everything, perhaps he’d contacted Samantha.
    “I wouldn’t know.” Jackson’s voice slid over the words with his drawl which sounded almost scandalous there in the dark loneliness. She blinked and glanced his way disapprovingly.
    “You sir,” she said, “have just such a way of saying things to make a woman frown.”
    A small chuckle cracked from his lips. “They either love me or despise me.”
    “Are those my choices?”
    One of his eyebrows rose at her quip. “If they are, I fear you’ve already passed judgment,” he replied.
    Kailin grinned and stared back out into the darkness. “Firstly, I doubt you fear much, Mr. Black. Secondly, judgment is something I do not have the authority nor the desire to pass on anyone.” Her smile faded, dulled as past, childish pain tried to push upward. “I find those who judge to be…unworthy.”
    “Ah, but that is a judgment in itself, is it not?” Jackson’s words didn’t sound derisive, just inquisitive.
    Kailin looked sideways at him. “More of a method of self-preservation.”
    “Self-preservation? Why would a