Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (16 page)

“Hayden!”

I had already jumped off of
Dodge and was running to where Karryn lay writhing on the ground.
Steven was trying to hold her still.

“Stop moving! The less you move,
the slower the poison spreads!” Her eyes widened at his words and I
could see the effort she made to lay as still as possible. Kearan
kneeled by her head, tears running down her face.

“Jasper, I need my bag!” He
knelt by my side.

“What do you need, Shlova?”

“The thorba weed. The leaves.” I
closed my eyes and ran through the list of things I had in my
medicine bag. “Oh! And two of the hoaquem flowers. The red
ones.”

I took the thorba weed from him
and chewed it quickly, the bitter taste making the bile rise in my
stomach. I spit the mush into my hand and spread it over Karryn’s
already swollen leg. She sucked in a breath and whimpered at the
sting. I gave her the hoaquem flowers.

“Eat these.”

She did as she was told, though
I could tell she had trouble swallowing the terrible tasting
flowers. I had yet to figure out why anything that could heal you
was guaranteed to taste horrible. Mark brought her a canteen and
she took a few grateful gulps.

I watched the paste on her leg
start to turn black as the poison was drawn out through the skin. I
ran a green wave over her to make sure she was alright.

“She’ll be ok. I think I’ll have
to paste her leg once more, but we got it in time.”

“What were the flowers for?”
asked Kearan.

“They slow her heart. The slower
the blood flows through her, the more likely we can get the poison
completely out of her system. She’ll sleep now.” I got up and put
my things under a tree. Jasper was already getting the wood for the
fire. I threw a light red wave at it and started the fire. I half
grinned at him and sighed.

“Who needs blizzards when you
have love struck teenagers in your pack?”

He laughed before shifting.
Matthew followed suit and the two of them left to hunt. I went to
check on Karryn where her sister and Emelly had made her
comfortable. Emelly looked up at me as I approached.

“Do you think you could teach
me? I mean, I know I can’t do the magic healing, but the stuff with
the herbs could come in handy.”

“Definitely. We can do a bit
after camp is ready every night.” I gave Kearan a reassuring pat on
the back and went to grab the canteens.

“Here, I’ll give you a hand.”
William took two of them from me and we made our way down to the
creek. I waited for him, knowing he had finally made his
decision.

He filled one of the canteens,
looked up at me and brushed the hair out of his eyes.

“I want to go back.”

I nodded.

“It goes against almost
everything I’m feeling. I keep thinking I need to stay to protect
you. That must be the bond thing. But really, I mean, what am I
really able to do? I can fight a bit, but you have some of the best
captains from both shifters’ armies in your pack. You don’t really
need me, right?”

“William.” I smiled. “I
understand. This isn’t your war. It isn’t your world.”

“I just…” He stood and I gave
him a hug.

“You’ve already done plenty to
help me.” I picked up the canteens. “Now, all we have to do is find
a crossing. Do you remember where you crossed?”

“Not exactly, but it was in the
Northern Regions.”

“Hmmm. Well, we can’t wait that
long. We’ll get you to cross at the nearest one. Once you get
across, you’ll have to find your way home.”

He nodded.

“We have money in our bags. I’ll
give you some so you can grab a few things when you get there.”

“Hayden, you don’t have to do
that.”

“We can’t use it here, now can
we? We brought it to show Luke and Mel’s boys. There’s not much
there, but it should help you get home.”

He stopped walking and hugged me
tightly. “Thank you.”

I swallowed to get the lump out
of my throat. “You’re welcome.”

We got back to camp and I
couldn’t help but smile. Damian was sitting on a stump, throwing a
small ball of fire into the air. The ball split into three and he
juggled them, tossed them behind his back, and caught them all in
one hand. Emelly and Kearan were sitting in front of him, their
mouths open in wonder, like six year olds at a magic show. He
clapped his hands together and the fire balls disappeared. His grey
eyes focused on me as I walked toward them.

“Here,” he said. “Catch!” He
flicked his wrist and tossed the little ball of fire at me.

I dropped the canteens and
cushioned the ball as it fell toward me. My heart jumped into my
throat.

“Holy shit!”

Damian smiled. “How did you
catch it?”

“I…I don’t know! I didn’t know I
could!”

“Think.”

I gawked down at the little ball
of heat in my hands. “Umm, let’s see. I dropped the canteens and
then I…” I looked at him and frowned.

He nodded.

“I caught it with my own
wave?”

“That’s right. I wasn’t sure if
you were a fire handler, but from what I had heard of your feats
with the red waves, I assumed you must be. Fire handling is a rare
skill. There are only a handful of sorcerers able to do it. Throw
it back.”

I threw the ball, pushing it
away from me with my own wave. It doubled in size before reaching
Damian. He caught it and put it out.

“Sorry.”

“Don’t be. Now, take your wave
and roll it. Just cup it in your hand and flick your wrist around.
Use your lightest red; the darker the red, the bigger the
ball.”

I pulled my lightest wave,
cupped it in my hand and flicked my wrist like I had seen him do. A
little ball formed in my hand then flickered out.

“What did you just do, Shlova?”
Jasper was holding a small deer by a hind leg. Matthew dropped the
front end. I grinned.

“I made a fire ball!” I pulled
the wave again and formed another one. I cupped both of my hands
under it and concentrated on keeping it lit. I tossed it to Damian
who caught it with one hand and lobbed it back. I held it out for
Jasper to see.

“I didn’t even know that was
possible.” He peered at it closely.

“Damian says there aren’t too
many sorcerers able to do it.” I smothered the fire and smiled.
Jasper shook his head in amazement.

“I wonder what else you can
do.”

William smiled. “What can’t she
do?”

“Well, I can’t shift, or
displace things, or use the darkest green to transfer energy from
one being to another…”

“Rainen said she tried working
with the displacement issues. She couldn’t understand why that
seems to be the only spell you can’t get to work.” Damian was
frowning.

“Marilynn tried working with me
too and nothing seems to work.”

“But when I displaced you last
year, you were the one who finished it off.”

I shook my head. “Not really. I
waited until you had started and then I just projected it so that
you wouldn’t use any more energy than you already had. I can
displace if someone else does the spell because then I take their
magic to do it, but I can’t for the life of me get it to work if I
say the words.”

Damian scratched his jaw, his
strange grey eyes staring at me, but not seeing me as he thought.
He refocused and shrugged.

“It will give us something to
work on.” He smiled.

Matthew and Steven had the deer
on the fire by this time and we all sat around chatting while we
waited for it to cook.

“Hun, do you know where the
closest crossing is?” I was leaning back against his chest and had
to look up and back to talk to him. He thought for a moment then
nodded.

“About two days north east of
here. Why?”

“When William helped me escape
Paradin I promised him I would help get him home. His bond is
getting stronger and I don’t want to take the chance that he won’t
be able to cross if we wait too long.”

I felt him nod behind me.

“It won’t affect the length of
our trip by too much. I don’t see why we couldn’t make a bit of a
detour if that’s what he wants.” He looked to William who was
sitting to our left.

“It is,” my friend replied.

“What about you, Steven? Will
you cross back over?”

Steven shook his head to answer
Jasper, his white blond hair falling into his eyes. “No. I might be
from there, but this is home now. Once this affair with Braw is
done and over with I plan on building myself a cabin, finding
myself a mate, and living in peace like Dad always wanted.”

I turned to Mark and Kearan.
“What about you guys?”

Both of them shook their heads
like I thought they would. Both of them had been born here. I
didn’t bother asking Emelly. I knew that even if she hadn’t been
born here, she would have choosen to stay with Matthew.

Once the deer was cooked, we all
ate and got ready for bed. I checked on Karryn one last time and
was glad to see her leg was back to its normal size. Though she
would be sore and stiff in the leg for a few days, she would be
ready to move out in the morning.

I joined Jasper under our
blankets and fell asleep looking forward to the next couple of
weeks as they brought us closer to home.

*****

“Karryn, wake up.” I knelt
beside her, put a hand on her arm and jerked back.

“Sholva, what’s wrong?”

I frowned and ran a green wave
over her. I swore under my breath and looked at him. “She’s dead.
It doesn’t make sense. She was better before I went to bed. I
checked her myself. She was fine. The flowers had worn off and she
was just sleeping!”

Jasper pulled the blankets off
of her and frowned.

“What the hell?” I moved down to
her leg and took a closer look. I had put a new layer of paste on
her leg as a preventative measure just to be sure. I had expected
it to still be green when we woke up. It was just as black as the
first paste I had applied. Her leg was so swollen that the skin was
splitting. I heard a gasp behind me and turned.

“What…what’s wrong?” Kearan’s
eyes were brimming with tears.

I stood and pulled her into a
hug. “I’m sorry, Kearan. I’m not sure what happened. She was fine
last night.”

Mark came to stand by us. “Is
she…”

I nodded. He took Kearan from me
and hugged her close.

“Shush.” He ran his hands over
her hair and rubbed her back.

“Hayden.”

I knelt back down beside Jasper.
He turned the infected leg carefully to reveal a spine lodged in
the back of the knee. Neither of us said anything. Jasper
stood.

“Kearan? What do you want us to
do with her?”

She shook her head against
Mark’s chest.

“Kearan.” I put a hand on her
shoulder. “We can’t just leave her here. If we do that the animals
will get her.”

“Can you burn her?” I had to
strain to hear her.

“I can. Is that what you
want?”

She nodded.

Everyone stood respectfully as I
pushed a red wave at Karryn’s body. Mark held Kearan and whispered
in her ear.

Once our makeshift funeral was
over, everyone packed up and got ready to go. The next two days
were uneventful. The longer we travelled, the more nervous William
seemed.

The sky was clear and the mid
afternoon sun was shining. Dodge trotted up a hill and stopped to
wait for the others. I squinted and blinked to make sure what I was
seeing was really there.

“Is that what I think it
is?”

If you think it’s the Blue
Woods, then yes.

I laughed and smiled at Jasper
as he trotted up to us. He shifted and smiled back. The lake in the
Blue Woods was where we had shared our first kiss, the one that had
bonded us together.

“We’ll make camp by the lake,”
he said. “The crossing is not too far from the beach.” He shifted
back and we made our way down the steep hill.

“Watch your step, guys!” I
called back over my shoulder. Dodge picked that moment to step on a
loose stone. I hung on to the handles on the harness that Ben had
made for him.

Sorry.

I patted his neck. “Nothing to
be sorry about.”

How do you
feel about cheating?
He spread his wings
and lifted off of the ground. I laughed. We flew in lazy circles
over the others until they had gotten closer to the bottom. He
landed by Jasper who was looking across the big field that stood
between us and the Blue Woods.

“You know, besides people
turning into cats and dogs, this was my first clue that I wasn’t
home anymore.” I looked at the blue forest and smiled. Jasper put a
hand on my knee.

“What does it make you think of
now?”

I gazed down at him, leaned down
and kissed him. “Now, it makes me think I’m close to home.”

“Eight or nine days and we
should be there.”

Mark helped Kearan down the last
bit of the hill and we started off across the field. Once we had
reached the blue trees, Jasper hopped on behind me.

“We’ll make camp right on the
beach, Dodge.”

My horse nodded and headed
deeper into the woods. I leaned back against Jasper.

“You saw the spine?” he
whispered in my ear.

I nodded.

“Is there any way you missed it
when you cleaned her leg?”

“No. I don’t think so.” I shook
my head. “No.”

“I didn’t think so either.” He
took a deep breath. “Now, is it one of our pack, or is it someone
following us?”

“I have no clue.”

“We’ll make sure to have
Matthew, Damian or myself on lookout tonight.”

I looked back at him and smiled.
“You trust Damian?”

He smirked. “I guess I do.”

I leaned forward. “Did you catch
all of that, Buddy?”

Dodge nodded.

A few minutes later we were
heading down the short slope that led to the beach.

“It’s just as beautiful during
the day as it is at night,” I said. At night, the lake was black
with the moons reflecting white in it and the blue trees that lined
the lake turned a dark purple. Right now, the sun was shining in
the lake, the trees mirrored in the calm water.