Ki Book One Read Online Free

center her
attention.
    “ Okay,” Laura nodded, her soft brown locks
falling over her shoulder.
    As Ki watched, she couldn’t help but
sympathize with Laura. She could feel the woman’s fear and
confusion.
    She was right to be afraid, but not of
Ki.
    “ Take your children,” Ki
interrupted.
    “ What?” Laura’s skin paled
further.
    Jackson snapped around, pushing against
the chair with his foot. “Shut up.”
    “ Take your children. They aren’t safe here.
Others will come to take me. They will kill anyone who gets in
their way.” Ki stared at Laura, never letting her gaze waver.
Despite her pain-addled body, her bruised arm, and her throbbing
feet, she could appreciate how innocent this woman was. She and her
children did not deserve to be caught up in this simply because her
brother could not listen.
    “ I said shut up,” Jackson took a step,
placing himself between his sister and Ki.
    “ Jackson, what is she talking about?”
Laura’s voice shook, her pupils shifting wildly, her eyes watery
and wide.
    “ Just go to the Guard post,” Jackson
returned his hands to his sister’s shoulders.
    “ Take your children,” Ki tried to shift
forward on the chair, but her arms were too weak to fight against
the ropes.
    Laura took several steps back, gaze darting
from Jackson to Ki. With her hand still latched on her pendant, she
nodded. Then she called out two names.
    Her children. As they ran to her side from
various rooms in the house, Ki gave a sigh. Though the kids glanced
at Ki curiously, their mother quickly hurried them out of the room
and out of the house. Seconds later Ki saw them pile into the old
truck.
    Tipping her head back, indulging in closing
her eyes, Ki sighed again. The move travelled deep into her chest.
It would likely be her last moment of relief in months.
    “ You shouldn’t have scared her like
that.”
    She blinked open one eye to see Jackson
looming over her, arms crossed. His sleeves were pulled up, his
muscles tight against the fabric.
    She was no match for him physically. He’d
made that point clear. The only hope she had was now firmly tucked
in his pocket.
    Unable to stop herself, she glanced down
towards the device. As she did, he followed her gaze and plucked it
out seconds later. Turning it around in his palm, he held it up to
the light, a frown tugging at his mouth. “What is it?”
    She looked up at him, tearing her eyes off
the latticed crystal .
“It’s a levitation device.”
    He shook his head, giving a sharp,
scornful laugh . “Of
course it is.”
    “ It’s the truth. It’s a levitation device,”
she could feel her expression deaden as that cold feeling of dread
weighed her down further. With no hope of escape, her fight dried
up.
    “ And it belongs to the Zeneethians, does
it? The same Zeneethians that are coming to take you back? Why did
they give it to you?” he continued to turn the device around in his
grip. Though his words were dismissive, his voice wavered. His
shoulders also rounded, dropping in. If he had been anyone else,
she would have assumed he was having second thoughts. That guilt or
reason, or some mix of the two, were finally catching up with
him.
    “ They didn’t give it to me. I stole it so I
could get away,” she looked down at her hands. They were locked in
her lap, the rope tight around her middle. Though her feet were
covered in toe rings and anklets, her fingers and wrists were bare
save for the two prominent tattoos on the backs of her hands. They
were sacred symbols from the ancient Tarkan language, and they were
meant to afford one protection and peace.
    They obviously weren’t working.
    “ Of course you did. And now they’re coming
to take you back, and this too, presumably,” he threw the device up
and caught it easily.
    If her expression had been a deadened one
before, it sharpened in an instant. “They will pull this house
apart looking for that. If you take it to your village, they will
turn it to rubble to get it back.