Blaze of Secrets (Asylums for Magical Threats) (4 page)

Jaxton’s words prickled. People had assumed things about Kiarra for far too long. True, given the

choice, she would like nothing more than to be alone in her room for a few hours and sort out her

thoughts. But for no explicable reason, she wanted to prove the man who had kidnapped her wrong.

Besides, the woman’s presence had lessened her fear and uneasiness. Kiarra didn’t want that strange

calmness to disappear just yet.

She gripped the blanket tight in her hands one more time before letting it drop to the bed. She reached

out and took the woman’s hand, feeling even more relaxed at the contact, almost as if she didn’t have

anything to fear from her. “Let’s go.”

Neena winked. “I knew you’d have a change of heart.”

Neena pulled her off the bed and the pounding inside Kiarra’s head, one of the aftereffects of the

tranquilizer, intensified. She managed to stay upright despite the pain and allowed the woman to pull her out of the room and down the stairs.

Chapter Four

Neena didn’t release Kiarra’s hand until they reached the downstairs living room, where there was a

couch, a bookshelf, some end tables, and a large painting of some mountains, which was hanging over a

cold fireplace. Kiarra eyed the fireplace and rubbed her arms against the chill in the room, wishing she’d brought the blanket down with her, something she never would’ve been allowed to do inside the AMT.

As Neena walked over to a large black bag on the far side of the room and rifled inside it, Kiarra

wondered if Neena had been the one to discover her secret and send Jaxton and his men to break her out of the AMT. Neena looked innocent enough in her tight-fitting jeans, gold flats, and silky green top, but Kiarra knew appearances could be deceiving.

No matter how much the woman’s presence calmed her, or how well they treated her, Kiarra needed to

be careful. These people were nicer to her than the AMT staff—which, frankly, wasn’t hard to do—but she

was a long way from trusting them.

Neena extracted a beat-up book from her bag, held it up, and said, “Catch!”

Kiarra managed to catch the abused book and read the title:
DEFEND Rules and Regulations
.

Neena walked over and tapped the title with one of her perfectly shaped fingernails. “This darling has

saved me many times, so take good care of her. She comes in handy when you want to skirt round the rules without breaking them.”

She didn’t want to waste any of her three—or was it now two?—questions, but right now, Kiarra had

no idea what the woman was talking about. “What’s DEFEND and why do I need to know about its rules?”

“That’s two questions wrapped into one, but brilliant as you are, I’ll humor you.” Neena tapped the

word “DEFEND.”

“DEFEND,” Neena continued, “stands for Defending Every
Feiru
’s Equality, No Discrimination. I know the name is a bit rubbish, but I had more pressing things to worry about at the time.”

“At the time?”

Neena got a far-off look in her eyes. “Ah, the days of cajoling my first recruits.” Neena shook her head and continued. “You and I are both part of the first-born club, my dear. Shortly after the Chatterjee clan rescued me from the AMT, I decided to turn my anger into something more productive. Hence, DEFEND.”

Kiarra’s heart skipped a beat. “You’re a first-born?”

Neena gave a sympathetic smile. “Yes, and while I wasn’t imprisoned as long as you, it took me a while

to feel comfortable with myself again. I didn’t become a leader overnight, but you will get there.” She

tapped a finger against her chin. “Actually, some claim I’m still not leader material. But they change their tune before long.” Neena’s eyes took on an evil glint. “I can be quite persuasive.”

Kiarra hoped she never needed to be “persuaded” by Neena.

She didn’t know the circumstances surrounding Neena’s imprisonment and escape, but at least now she

knew that others had come out of the AMT alive and stayed that way.

Maybe Kiarra could do it too.

Neena turned away from her to look out the window and Kiarra realized that Neena still hadn’t

answered the second part of her question. “Why do I need to find a way around the rules?”

Neena faced her again and winked. “That is for you to find out.” Neena’s face grew serious. “But make

sure to memorize the basics of the book. We all make mistakes, but I won’t tolerate deliberate harm to my organization.”

Kiarra glanced down at the battered book in her hands. “But why would I need this book?”

Neena smiled. “Because, my dear, you are my latest recruit.”

“What?”

“It’s not going to make sense to you now, but it will in time.” Neena tilted her head. “And you can’t

refuse, because I know not only the secret of your fire, but also the one about your blood. I’ll expose them both to the world if I have to.”

Kiarra stopped breathing. “How do you know about that?”

Neena waved a hand. “It doesn’t matter. Besides, if you agree to work and train with DEFEND for three

months, I’ll make sure my people protect you. No doubt the AMT enforcers are already coming after you

by now.”

Kiarra was worried about the AMT enforcers, but Neena’s offer was little more than blackmail. If Kiarra

refused, or tried to escape, and word got out about her lack of elemental magic, Kiarra would spend the rest of her life inside a research facility.

A breeze brushed against Kiarra’s cheek and the sense of calm from earlier returned. She looked up at

Neena. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”

“You always have a choice, my dear. But whether you decide to take the correct path or not is up to

you.” Neena scooped up her bag, pulled out a phone, and looked at it. She clicked her tongue. “I’ll give you fifteen minutes to make a decision. Come upstairs when you’re ready.”

Before Kiarra could muster up another word, Neena was gone.

Without Neena’s presence, the strange calmness that had come over Kiarra disappeared, and the reality

of her situation sank in. She was exposed, in a strange house full of strange people, one of whom was

threatening her with blackmail.

Part of her wanted to take the easy way out and finish what she’d started back in her cell in the AMT,

and kill herself. But as she looked out the window across the room, taking in the trees and bushes in the yard, she realized how much she wanted to live now that she’d had a taste of the outside world again.

Neena’s offer might be the only chance she had to do that.

Besides, who knew—maybe after her training Kiarra would even find a way to help the other first-

borns from the outside.

She didn’t trust Neena, but if things went bad, she could always end her life later. As long as she acted like she wanted to live, and put in a little effort toward her training, they’d never suspect her Plan B, if it came to that.

Decision made, Kiarra took a deep breath and stood up. As she made her way up the stairs, she tried not

to focus on the fact that she was merely trading one prison for another.

Once the two women left the room, Jaxton started wondering how much Neena was going to disclose to

Kiarra. The rules of DEFEND were very clear: only Neena or Aislinn—the other co-founder and co-leader

of DEFEND—were allowed to talk about the organization with outsiders. Occasionally they gave

permission if neither of them could logistically meet with someone, but those exceptions were rare.

Neena and Aislinn were very protective of their creation.

Not that he could blame them. DEFEND had started with just the two of them, but after years of

sacrifice and hard work, it was now a worldwide operation with growing clout. DEFEND was the only

grassroots
Feiru
organization that had a chance of taking on the powerful AMT Oversight Committee and changing the status quo.

Neena, for the most part, did the recruiting. And judging by Neena’s unexpected visit and interest in

Kiarra, he reckoned that the recently rescued first-born was as good as inducted into their fold. Not that Neena would listen to him in this instance, but Jaxton wasn’t sure if Kiarra was the type of recruit they were looking for. At least not until after she’d had time to heal.

Whatever Neena decided, he just hoped she would hurry the hell up so he could get on with questioning

Kiarra. The sooner he had answers, the sooner he could hand her over to a DEFEND trainer. Jaxton not only needed to catch up on his own DEFEND workload, but he also needed to focus on his brother’s

recovery.

He refused to believe Garrett was a lost cause.

For now, since his brother was still drugged unconscious, Jaxton decided to check in with Taka about

their research on a prominent
Feiru
politician named James Sinclair.

He headed up the stairs and into the room at the end of the hall, where he’d set up an ad-hoc

workspace. Taka sat in front of a monitor split into four boxes, each displaying a view of a room or the house’s perimeter. Off to the side of the room was a giant whiteboard with the words “Adams” and

“doctoral research” scribbled in blue pen. Stacks of paper and newspapers covered the table in the corner, while black ashes of what used to be paper curled in the cold fireplace.

Kiarra and Neena were in one of the boxes displayed on the monitor. They were standing in the middle

of the front room, talking. Satisfied that they hadn’t tried to sneak out the back door, he turned toward Taka and said, “How’re you progressing through the intelligence backlog?”

Taka scribbled a few more words and then looked up. “I’m about a quarter of the way through, but I

found something I wanted to show you.” He shuffled through his stack of papers and handed a set to

Jaxton. “One of DEFEND’s sources learned about a series of meetings between James Sinclair’s deputy

chief of staff and several staff members from the Council of Eastern Australia. My guess is that Eastern Australia is Sinclair’s next target.”

Jaxton nodded while skimming the account. James Sinclair was influential with both the central
Feiru
governing body—called the
Feiru
High Council—and the AMT Oversight Committee. Over the last ten years, Sinclair had worked behind the scenes to influence general worldwide
Feiru
policy. But recently, Sinclair had shifted his focus to the smaller
Feiru
local councils. “Sounds similar to what happened in Wales and Northern Brazil.”

“Exactly. And if it follows the same pattern as those two other local councils, then the Council of

Eastern Australia will soon be announcing their policy shift toward Article I.”

Article I of the
Feiru
Five Laws restricted what the
Feiru
people could and could not do in the human world, especially with regards to human governments and multinational corporations. Many
Feiru
resented the law and what they viewed as second-class citizenship, which was strange considering that first-borns were already being treated as second-class citizens, and nobody seemed to care.

Jaxton said, “That would make it now five
Feiru
local councils who support Sinclair’s recent Repeal Article I and Contain First-born Magic campaign. For years Sinclair pushed solely for stricter AMT

enforcement, so his shift in focus must mean it’s because he knows something that we don’t.”

Taka gestured toward the monitor. “Have you had any success with questioning the woman? Maybe she

knows something about what’s happening inside the AMT that could tell us why Sinclair changed his

focus.”

“I’m working on it. If Neena could just keep her bloody nose out of everything, I could get something

done.” He glanced at the monitor and saw Neena walking up the stairs, alone. Kiarra was still in the front room, sitting on the sofa and looking a bit shell-shocked. “Speaking of which, it looks like Kiarra is

recovering from Hurricane Neena in the front room. I need to go take care of it.” Jaxton stood up. “I’ll check back afterward and we can divide up the remaining backlog. In the meantime, see if you can find out what other councils Sinclair is targeting.”

“No problem.” Taka turned back to his stack of papers. “Let me know if you need help questioning the

woman.”

Jaxton nodded and left the room, but just as he reached the top of the stairs, he heard Neena’s voice

behind him. “Jaxy, darling, we need to chat. Come, I even have scones to share with you.”

Resisting a sigh, Jaxton turned around and followed her to an empty bedroom. Even if he discounted

the debt he owed Neena for helping with Garrett’s rescue, he knew better than to disobey Neena to her face.

Inside the room, Neena sat on one of the windowsills and motioned to a plate of scones. “Care for one?”

Jaxton shook his head. “What did you want, Neena?”

Neena nibbled on a scone before she said, “You’re going to train Kiarra.”

He frowned. “Why? Surely someone else could do it. Not only do I need to focus on my brother, but

my research on James Sinclair is too important to put off.”

Neena took another bite and Jaxton gritted his teeth while he waited for her to finish chewing.

Finally she said, “You owe me for sharing your brother’s location and serial number, and I’m calling in

my favor.”

“Why would you waste your favor on this?”

Neena waved her hand in dismissal. “Oh, it’s definitely worth it. This favor might even put me in your

debt, not that I’ll ever acknowledge it.”

“But wouldn’t it be better for her to go to Amma’s place first and rejoin DEFEND later, when she’s

ready?”

Amma Gyasi ran the most effective rehabilitation center for former AMT prisoners. Jaxton had briefly

considered sending his brother there before deciding to take on the job himself.

Neena jumped up from her perch on the windowsill and strutted to the other side of the room, near the