Emerge: The Captive: (Book 3)(41)

“Come on, spill it. I won’t tell anyone.”

“Of course you won’t tell anyone, because there is nothing to tell.”

“So you’re trying to tell me that your mother named you Santiago and didn’t bother to give her beautiful daughter a real name?” He pulled her closer, but still she refused to budge. “Fine, I’ll just call you Mark.” He laughed at the look of horror on her face.

“You will call me Santi, like everyone else.”

“I’m not everyone else. Please? Let me know your name?”

“It’s Carmina María Sofía Delgado Santiago,” she said in a rush.

“Wow, that’s a mouthful. But it’s beautiful.”

“It’s ridiculous.”

“I like it. I’m going to call you Mina.”

“I can live with that.” She rested her head against his shoulder. “It’s better than Mark.”

“All those names have to mean something special.” He rested his head against hers. “Tell me about them.”

“My great-grandmother, Carmina, who I never met, was a Tikal queen in fifth-century Guatemala. She died right before I was born. My mother’s name is María Lucia Delgado and her mother’s name is Sofía Rose. I’m the only natural born child in a family of ancients so they named me after all the important women of our line.”

“But you call yourself Santi? Why?”

“It’s my father’s name. I’ve always been so much like him, they used to call me little Santi and it stuck.”

They fell silent in the gentle breeze, enjoying the peaceful moment together. For the first time in ages, Quinn was truly at rest.

There was something eerie about this dream. It called to the power deep within his core—the power he couldn’t touch without Livia’s permission. But his chest burned with the icy stirring of his gift. He needed to wake up, but he was reluctant to let go of this time with Santi.

“We need to leave.” Santi’s eyes grew wide in alarm. “We can’t be here. We need to wake up. Now, Quinnton.”

His eyes flew open in the darkness and his body pulsed with the stirring of his power—a sensation he hadn’t felt this strongly in ages. A new gift? That couldn’t be. Quinn already possessed a multitude of gifts and never anticipated having another. But what is it? What could have emerged, pulling him out of a dead sleep?

He stared down at Santi, her head pillowed on his chest and her arm around his waist. In his sleep, he’d held her close. They always went to sleep in their respective beds, but throughout the night, they would inevitably drift toward each other and woke up in each other’s arms more often than not.

She gasped and her eyes snapped open. “Quinn?” Her head came up as she searched his face. “What is this? You have to get a grip on it. If she senses….” But Livia’s heavy footfall pounded down the hallway from her office.

“She already knows.” Quinn sat up, taking a deep breath to release the power he should not be wielding. Not without Livia’s permission. But if it’s a new gift, will she have the same kind of control?

“Santi, I suggest you get back to sleep,” Livia said as she stepped into the bedroom. “Ryan will be here soon to wake you up.”

Santi scrambled back to her pallet.

Quinn slammed against the floor as Livia’s controlling gift swept through him. She had a piece of him already, but he wasn’t about to give her another. He would cling to his remaining gifts until his last breath.

The white-hot heat of her gift stole the air from his lungs. She wrestled for control, proving her dominance once again as she searched his mind and his body for the source of this new gift.

“Do not think to fight me now.” The look on her face said it all. Out of nowhere, Quinn had developed a new gift and she had no more clue what it was than he did.

“Hide it.” Livia stood to her full height over him, shoving him back against his bed, her face now a calm mask obscuring her emotions.

“What?” Quinn couldn’t quite process what she was saying. It was a warning. Not a threat.

“Keep this to yourself and do not make a spectacle of it.” Her voice was low but her meaning was clear. She didn’t want the knowledge of his new gift to leave this room. “I won’t interfere with this. Whatever it is, it needs to evolve naturally… but make no mistake—I’m watching you.”

Quinn gaped up at her.

“Don’t look so surprised.” She smiled and handed his pillow back to him. “I’m not a monster of my own making, Quinn. Even I rebel in my own way … when it suits me. And it suits me to keep you close and protected from the prying eyes of Soma … and my father. Why do you think I keep Santi locked in this house?” With that cryptic warning, Livia turned and left Quinn in a turmoil of confusion.

He was pretty sure he’d just gotten a glimpse of the good Livia. The Livia who didn’t like what she did. And like the others said, she wasn’t all bad.

“I do not understand that woman.”

“What was that place, Quinn?” Santi asked with a yawn.

“What place?” He crawled back into his bed and curled up next to her, eager for a chance to rest peacefully beside her for a little longer.