Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (30 page)

Rainen grunted. “Now there’s
something you don’t see every day.” She didn’t look sure whether
she should smile or frown as the Namael pulled the Fairend to his
chest and hugged her tightly.

I burst out laughing. “I really
don’t think there’s such a thing as normal anymore.”

“I have to agree with you.” She
settled on a smile.

Alex and Leslie made their way
up to us and I gave her a hug. “Welcome back.”

Leslie grinned, her violet eyes
sparkling. “It’s a long story.” She snuggled into Alex as he
wrapped an arm around her. “When I got home I stopped in Sageden
before heading to our cabin. I ran into Shondai and she told me
you’d already left. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to catch
up. I’m supposed to tell you that Tiny and Kip are doing well.”

I smiled.

“Are you sure you should come?”
He frowned. “I mean, if something happens to you or you get hit…I
mean, with the baby…”

Leslie shook her head. “I’m not
pregnant.” She seemed sad then the moment passed and she smiled.
“That’s part of the story.”

Jasper gave her a hug. “It’s
nice to know you’re alright. We were starting to worry.”

I leaned back against Jasper and
smiled across the fire at Leslie who was leaning back against
Alex.

“Alright. Let’s hear it, then.”
Alex tightened his hold on her. “What in the world happened to you?
I was worried sick.”

She turned her head and kissed
him softly. “I’m sorry. I knew you would be and I would have been
back sooner, but as it turned out, my plan worked a bit too well.”
She shook her head. “So, it wasn’t long after you left to go help
Hayden when she crossed back over that I started to feel strange. I
was edgy and twitchy and I felt, well, I felt hungry, but I knew I
wasn’t. The feeling kept getting stronger and soon it was pulling
at me and I knew I had to follow it, that I was being called to
meet. I knew you’d worry if you came back and I was gone so I wrote
you a note. Did you get it?”

Alex nodded and kissed the back
of her neck. “I did.”

“I was moving west. I had no
idea where I was going, but the longer I traveled in the right
direction, the stronger the feeling got. I traveled for almost
three weeks and I knew I was getting close, but the closer I got,
the more I thought of you.” She reached a hand back and brought his
head against hers. “The thought of another man…well…even if he was
a Fairend…I just couldn’t.”

I could see the tension leave
Alex’s body as he exhaled.

“I came across a cabin that was
inhabited by an old Wedelven couple. I asked for their help.” She
shrugged. “The only thing I could think of was for them to tie me
up so I couldn’t keep moving toward the meeting.”

I started to laugh. “Did they do
it?”

She grinned. “They did. They
tied me to one of the walls in their spare bedrooms. My hands were
tied behind me so I couldn’t try to escape. Halda would feed me my
meals. She was great.”

“The feeling lasted this long?”
Alex’s eyes were wide with surprise.

Leslie shook her head. The
amusement in her violet eyes changed to sadness. “A pack of humans
came by the cabin. They killed Halda and Grual. By the way they
reacted to me, I don’t think they’d had the pleasure of meeting a
Fairend before. They decided to bring me back to Paradin to see if
Braw knew what I was and if I was evil.”

Alex growled. “Did they hurt
you? Did they…are you alright?”

“Other than a few bruises, I’m
fine, Love. I told them I was definitely an evil being and that to
touch me would be certain death; that my skin was poisonous to the
touch. You should have seen them trying to get me on the horse
without touching me.”

Jasper chuckled. “So how did you
escape?”

“We stopped to eat and on one of
these occasions I was able to grab a sharp rock and work it against
the rope around my hands to get free. We’d stopped for the night
and so I waited until they were sleeping and made my great escape.”
She smiled. “I got a little turned around, but managed to find my
way back.”

“Thank the moons.” Alex hugged
her tightly. “And thankfully, we don’t need to worry about this for
another seven years.”

“Yes, well, next time, I’ll just
get you to tie me up at home.” She grinned back at him.

“Which I will gladly do. By the
moons, I missed you.” He turned her slightly in his arms so he
could kiss her thoroughly. She moaned and kissed him back. He
pulled back, smiled then kissed her again. “I love you, Leslie. And
don’t tell me I can’t tell you. I have never regretted anything
more in my entire life than not telling you that I did. I know you
knew, but that doesn’t matter. We’ve been together for eight years
now and I think it’s safe to assume I won’t be fating.” He was
placing kisses all over her face in between sentences. “I love
you.”

Leslie was laughing. She reached
with both hands and held his face still. “I love you, too.” She
snuggled into his chest and sighed.

Jasper kissed the back of my
neck and I reached back to run a hand through his hair.

“How do you think your brother
is doing?” The thought of Trent in the hands of the humans called
the waves to me and I waved them away.

Jasper took a deep breath.
“You’ve seen Luke when he’s fighting. He’s not one to make
mistakes. What you haven’t seen is how he is when he’s been
attacked personally. He’s deadly. When we hunted down the men who
killed our family… well, he’s told me it was almost like I lost the
human half of myself even when I wasn’t shifted.”

I nodded. I’d seen that side of
Jasper more than once.

“When we found the first man,
Luke was in the lead when we walked into his camp. The man looked
up and I saw the blood drain from his face. All he had to do was
see the look on Luke’s face and he knew he was about to die. When
he finds the pack that took Trent… well… they just pissed off the
wrong wolf.” He growled low in his throat and I looked back. The
look he’d just been talking about was making its way into his eyes.
I reached up and ran my thumb over his cheek. Jasper closed his
eyes at the touch.

“We’ll get him back. We’ll get
them back.”

He took a deep breath, nodded,
and opened his eyes. The wild look was gone.

I changed the subject. “I was
thinking, the Burries’ magic is great for telling the shifters
apart from the humans, but how are we going to tell our humans
apart from Braw’s.”

“Could we maybe mark them
somehow… a tattoo?” Matthew was leaning forward. He’d obviously
been thinking of the same problem.

“It’s an option. It would have
to be on the face and big enough to see right away.” I glanced to
Emelly whose eyes were wide. “You don’t seem to like that
idea.”

She shook her head. “I’ll do
what needs to be done. I just hadn’t thought about the fact that
I’m not really one of you and might get mistaken as one of Braw’s
people.”

I frowned. “What do you mean,
not one of us?”

“Well, I mean human. I know I
am, it’s just that I was starting to think of myself as one of
you.”

Matthew put an arm around her.
“You are one of us. I just have to find a way to make sure everyone
else knows it.” He kissed her forehead and she relaxed against
him.

“What about something like a
bandana or a headband?” Steven ripped a strip of cloth from his
blanket and tied it around his head.

I started to laugh. “You look
like Rambo.”

He grinned. “Then Braw
should see the symbolism behind it and shit his pants when he sees
us. Rambo never loses.”

“I don’t know if he’s seen the
Rambo movies or not. He’s pretty old. He might have crossed over
before they came out.”

“There’s also the fact that the
Burries’ magic only lasts a few hours. What happens if they can’t
restart the glowing process? I imagine they have a limit as to how
much dust they can give away. Between our packs and Melana’s,
that’s a lot of dust.” Rainen took a bite of her bread.

“We need to find a way to mark
everyone.” Damian agreed with her.

“Do you know any spells that
would work?” I watched as he made a fire ball and tossed it back
and forth while he thought.

“No. Nothing that would last,
anyway.” He tossed me the small ball of fire. I smiled and lobbed
it back.

“What if we all painted our
faces? We could look like Wedelves.” Emelly gestured to Tara and
Ben.

Damian put out his fire ball and
gestured for me to make my own. I picked my lightest red wave,
flicked my wrist around it, and tossed him the little fire
ball.

“That would work for when
everyone is human, but when we shift anything we have on
disappears.” Matthew shook his head.

I caught the little ball of fire
and thought about my friends dying for the simple reason we might
not be able to identify who was a part of our packs or Braw’s. My
fire ball flared. Jasper scrambled away from me and I dropped it on
the ground, slapping at it with my hands to put it out.

“Damn it.” I barely managed to
choke out the curse past the lump that was blocking my throat. I
swallowed hard and felt the tears wanting to break free.

“Come, Shlova. Let’s take a
walk.” Jasper took my hand and helped me up. We walked past
everyone until we had reached an area empty of other beings. I
managed to stay composed until Jasper pulled me to his chest.

“Oh, god, Jasper. Too many
things can go wrong.”

“That’s the thing about war,
Hayden. You can never say exactly what’s going to happen or who’s
going to win. You just have to go in and hope you’ve thought of
everything that might go wrong. We’re still three weeks away from
Paradin. That gives us lots of time to change plans.”

“I should never have crossed
back. I should never have followed you here. All of this is because
of me.” I tried to get my sobs under control.

Jasper chuckled and I frowned at
him. “Now you’re the one who’s cracked, Shlova. Do you honestly
think that Braw wouldn’t have decided to take drastic measures
eventually? With or without you, the man wants us gone.” His arms
tightened around me. “Did you mean that? Do you really wish you
hadn’t come?”

I shook my head. “No. Of course
not. I can’t imagine life without you, or everyone else. I
just…”

“I know. If you did want to go
back, though, there’s a crossing about two days east of here.”

“Would you come?”

Jasper took a deep breath and I
felt him look back in the direction of our pack. “No. Not until
this was done. I’d join you later.”

“Why do I get a feeling you want
me to go?”

“What makes you say that?”

“Because you wouldn’t have
mentioned it otherwise.”

He kissed me softly. “I do. Just
to make sure you’d stay safe.”

“You know I can’t go any more
than you can.”

“I know. That’s another reason I
brought it up. I really didn’t think you’d take me up on the offer.
The mate part of me wants to stash you away to keep you safe.” He
took a deep breath. “But the other part of me, the captain part,
knows we can’t do this without you here.” He growled. “Damn it,
Hayden, sometimes I’m the one who wishes you hadn’t followed me
here.” He cupped my face in his hands and ran his thumbs over my
cheeks to wipe my tears away. “But not really. Even with everything
we’ve been though, the past five years have been the happiest ones
of my life and I’ll never regret convincing you to stay.” His lips
brushed against mine. “I love you, Hayden. We’ll get through
this.”

I nodded and buried my face in
his chest. “I love you more.” I breathed in his smell. “It’s just
that I keep thinking about what you said; about how when we get
there, it will be me against Braw and I know you’re lying. I know
you’ll be right there along with me. I remember what you said when
I first crossed over, after Luke took me. Do you remember?”

He nodded. “I gave you my life.
I told you that I would fight for you, die for you if I must. I
said that anyone who was going to try to harm you was going to have
to go through me first.” He kissed me again. “I meant it then and I
mean it now. You’re mine, Shlova, and no one is going to get to you
if I can help it.” His sky blue eyes bore into mine and my heart
jumped in my chest.

“That’s what I’m worried
about.”

“Well, quit worrying about it.”
He smiled. “Do you want me to kiss you?”

“Please.” I stood on my tip toes
and parted my lips as his tongue brushed over them. He groaned and
pulled me to his chest. My head started to reel and all my worries
were forgotten. All that mattered was the fact that he was holding
me. He pulled back and kissed the end of my nose.

“Did it work?”

I smiled. “Doesn’t it always?” I
hugged him tightly. “A shlova yan.”

“A shlova yan jer.” He took my
hand and we made our way back to our fire.

“Well, Hayden, since you’ve
almost mastered the art of fire handling, why don’t we work on your
displacement issues.” Damian stood and I gave Jasper a kiss before
going to stand in front of him. “Now, I want you to concentrate
very hard. Think of nothing else but where you want to go.” He
paused. “Jasper, why don’t you go stand by the fire over there? Her
bond to you should make it easier for her to find where you
are.”

Jasper made his way to the fire
next to ours. Everyone who was sitting by it turned to see what I
was doing.

“Alright. Now, think of Jasper,
say the spell, and pull the nudge into yourself.”

I nodded and took a deep breath.
I thought of Jasper, of his kiss and how everything else
disappeared when I was in his arms. “Monave tean.” I muttered the
words, closed my eyes and pulled my nudge into myself. I opened my
eyes and found myself looking at Damian’s chest. I felt my
irritation rise. “I don’t understand why it doesn’t work.” I blew
out of my nose.