Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (40 page)

She frowned. “If I told you things had
changed, would you leave again?”

“No. This is home now, but if you didn’t want
me around I would go elsewhere. Well, once this fight was over.” He
took a deep breath. “Do you want me to leave?”

“I think it would be alright if you stayed.”
She nodded and bit the corner of her mouth to keep from smiling.
This time, William caught it. He looked relieved and grinned.

“God, you’re a bitch.”

Rainen burst out laughing. “It’s one of my
finest qualities. It’s the least you deserve after leaving me like
that!”

He pulled her to his chest and hugged her
tightly. “I’m so sorry, Rainen.” He cupped her face in his hands
and kissed her softly. She sighed.

“Yes, well, you’re lucky I love you,
too.”

We all sat down to listen to William’s story
of his time away then filled him in on everything he had missed in
his absence.

Chapter Ten

It was strange that today of all days I was
feeling calm. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I was still nervous, but
not to the extent I had been feeling. We stood on the crest of the
long hill that stood before Paradin. This was it. Today was the day
I’d been born for… I hoped. I didn’t know how many more of these
experiences I could live through if this was just a prelude to my
destiny. I looked to the north with impatience. At least this would
be the day if Melana and her packs would arrive.

I looked straight ahead at the human keep in
front of me. I shivered, partly with excitement, partially with
fear. I took a deep breath and was comforted by the presence of my
own pack standing behind me.

I heard a low growl and glanced at Jasper.
His fur was standing on end, his tail twitching. He shifted and
looked back to Matthew and Luke who were standing just behind us.
The blue bird landed on his shoulder and chirped. He turned back to
me.

“Ready?” Jasper’s face was grim. He put his
hand on my knee.

I nodded. “Are they here?” I couldn’t tear my
gaze away from the walls that surrounded the keep of Paradin.

“They are.”

Dodge stretched his wings.
It’s about
time.

I took a deep breath and patted his neck.
We’d been waiting a good six hours for Melana to make her way to
the north end of the keep. I pulled my swords out of the scabbards
on my back. I gazed down into Jasper’s sky blue eyes.

“Let’s do this.” I turned back toward the
human fortress. “It ends here.”

He shifted and roared. Rainen followed suit
and howled. Kacey, Kendall, William and Steven all gave a quick nod
before disappearing. They were on Brice duty. The rest of us
started down the hill toward the gates of Paradin.

The staff knows you are here and is calling
to me, my love. I’m afraid this is as far as I go.

I frowned. “Where are you?” I jumped as he
appeared beside me. He looked up at me with a frown. “Until we see
each other on the inside, try to stay out of harm’s way.”

I swallowed hard, the butterflies in my
stomach quickening their pace. “Ok, but be careful in there.”

He grunted.

“I’m serious. If they find out you’ve been
helping me they won’t be happy and you’re not up to full power
yet.”

“And what could they do to me, my love?”

“Well, Braw could touch you with his staff,
for one.”

“Hmmm. Well, I’ll admit I hadn’t thought of
that. There’s no need to worry yourself on my account. I’ll be
careful to stay far enough away just in case.” He nodded to Jasper.
“Keep her away from me.”

My mate nodded back.

“Ternach…” A thousand emotions were running
through me and I couldn’t seem to settle on one. “Just… thank you.
For everything.”

He looked up at me and smiled, his clear
green eyes widening as I leaned down and kissed him.

“Stay safe.”

He nodded and disappeared. I blushed and
looked at Jasper.

“Sorry.”

He smiled. “I don’t know about you sometimes,
Shlova. It’s a good thing I can feel how you do when you kiss all
of these other men.”

“What do you mean, ‘all of these other
men’?”

Ben and his archers pulled ahead of us, all
of them riding the Winged Ones who hadn’t yet been on their stone
quest.

“Stay safe, Tara!” I called to her as she
loped by. She waved and got her bow and arrows ready. I called out
a similar farewell to my Uncle Brinnan and Aunt Fillian. Anyone who
hadn’t been assigned to take out the humans’ wall defenses stopped
halfway down the hill. Dodge flexed his wings nervously as we
watched the archers place themselves behind the last row of trees
at the bottom of the hill.

“Well, there was Luke.” Jasper glanced up at
me then turned back to the archers.

“He was trying to get me back to you by
pretending I was his mate, remember?”

He nodded. “Brice.”

I blushed. “He’s like a little brother. Isn’t
this a bit of a bad time for this conversation?”

He smiled. “I’d rather think of this than of
what is coming up. Besides, I’m not starting a fight. I’m just
stating a fact. Damian.”

“He kissed me and I had no clue who he was at
the time. Not to mention he was just a projection, so I’m not sure
that even counts.”

He chuckled. “Then there was Alex.”

“Hey, you made me kiss him!”

“I object to being brought into this
conversation.” Alex glanced back and smiled. “Like Hayden said, you
made us kiss. That was your own damn fault.”

Jasper chuckled. “William and now
Ternach.”

“Ugh. God, when you name them all, I sound
horrible.”

He pulled me down so he could kiss me.
“That’s alright. You can make it up to me when this is all done.”
My head started to reel. Jasper groaned and pulled back. We both
looked to where the Wedelves were getting ready. Dodge stomped a
foot.

“You’re a little tense, Bud.” I gave his neck
a rub.

Could you promise me you’ll stay on me?

I frowned. “Well, how about I’ll stay on
unless someone knocks me off. I promise to try my damnedest to stay
on you. How’s that?”

He nodded.
It will have to do.

Jasper put a hand on my leg. I covered his
with mine and gave it a squeeze. His sky blue eyes met mine.

“Hayden…” He frowned.

I leaned down and kissed him softly. “I
promise I’ll be careful.”

He took a deep breath. Even with everything
we’d been through together, I couldn’t ever remember him looking
this tense.

“You’re thinking about your dream?” The dream
had been reoccurring every night since he’d told me about it and
he’d admitted to having had it before then.

He nodded. “Maybe you could stay behind until
we have the city cleared. You could come in when all the fighting
is done.”

We both looked up at the sound of arrows
being released. There were cries of surprise and pain from the
humans lining the top of the wall. Their return volley did minimal
damage as our packs hid behind the trees once again. I watched as
three of our healers ran to attend to the injured.

“That’s going to be our advantage, you know.”
I nodded to Danny as he ran back out of the line of fire.

“Healers and magic,” agreed Jasper.

“And we’ll need all of our healers and all of
our magic to win this. I can’t just sit back and let everyone else
do the work. I need to be in there helping.”

The Wedelves let fly more arrows and
retreated behind the trees. I gave Jasper’s hand another
squeeze.

“Even if I thought it would be best for me to
stay behind, I can’t let you go in there without me. It would be a
disaster. I’d be out here worried as hell about you and you would
feel it and wouldn’t be able to concentrate…” I watched as more
arrows took to the sky.

Jasper took a deep breath. “I know, I know…”
He growled. “Just stay away from Ternach.”

Do as he says, my love.

“Do you know about his dream?”

I do. I’ve had it too.

We’ve all had it, Hayden.
Dodge blew
out of his nose.

“Everyone?”

“Everyone who makes up the main part of our
pack.” Luke’s eyes never left the scene before us as he spoke.
Matthew nodded.

I took a deep breath. “Why in the world did
no one tell me this?”

“Would it have made a difference?” Jasper’s
voice was quiet. We all watched as Danny ran forward again.

I thought about it. “No. We knew going into
this it was a good possibility I wouldn’t make it out alive.” I
shook my head. “I was born to destroy the staff and that’s what I
mean to do. Dreams can be changed. If anybody knows that it’s us,
right?”

There were screams of terror and the air
warmed as Faren flew over the wall and let loose a devastating
flame. The humans that jumped off of the wall to escape it were
picked off by the archers. She turned and made a second pass.

I looked to the west of Paradin, waiting to
see the first of the Winged Ones and Faelies to appear over the
ridge. That was our cue to rush the gates.

“Not yet, Shlova.”

“I know… Not until the wall is clear.”

It was a tense day and you had to hand it to
the humans; they were persistent. Supper rations were sent up to
the Wedelves and I bit into a bit of cheese.

“How’s it looking from the inside, Ternach?”
Jasper looked to the keep.

They’ll hold out until dark.

I made myself relax. It was going to be a
tense night waiting for the second day to start.

*****

My love, you need to relax.

“Relax. Yeah, right.” I took a deep breath
and rolled my shoulders, trying to ease the tension in my back. It
was getting close to supper time of the second day and the humans
were showing no signs of giving up their wall. They had managed to
find a way to launch flaming balls of something at Faren and she
had been forced to watch herself as she made passes over them.

“I’m worried about William and those guys.
What if they got caught? Why aren’t they back? Did you remember to
send Brice’s stone in with them?”

Jasper swore and stuck his hand in his
pocket. “No. I have it here. Shlova, I’m sure they’re fine. Steven
and William would have known where to hide. They’re probably just
waiting for us on the inside.” He ran a hand through his dark curls
and watched as the Wedelves sent another volley of arrows at the
wall. “Ternach? What do you think?”

I heard his grunt as he assessed the
situation.

You’d better get settled down for the
night.

Jasper nodded. “If this keeps up we’ll have
to storm to gates tomorrow whether the wall is clear or not.” I saw
him glancing at the diminishing number of arrows our archers had at
their disposal. The darkening sky lit up with Faren’s flame.
Something slammed into her and I saw her falter in the air.

My head was filled with a grunt and I
clutched my head. “Faren!”

We all looked up and watched as the dark form
plummeted from the sky and crashed a short distance from the wall.
There was a roar of victory from the humans and they swarmed to the
top of the wall.

“No!” I watched as arrow after arrow was able
to penetrate the dragon’s tough skin from such a short distance.
The Wedelves left the cover of the woods and their arrows whistled
through the air. The red waves overtook my vision and I waved them
away.

“Faren!” I closed my eyes and waited to hear
her answer. “Damian!” I hollered to where he was standing. “Can you
displace her?”

“Can she think of where she needs to go?”

“I don’t know! Faren!” The tightness in my
chest was increasing as I waited to hear her in my head.

Tell the Wedelves to fall back, Chosen
One.
Bryenk’s voice was soft.
She’s gone.

I opened my mouth to tell him he had to be
wrong, but all that came out was a choked sob. I closed my eyes and
felt the tears run down my face. I vaguely heard Jasper yelling at
Ben to get back into the woods. I wiped the tears from my eyes and
looked to where my friend lay. Her dark form seemed to glow in the
dimming light. I frowned.

“Bryenk, what’s happening to her?” The light
radiating from her seemed to get brighter.

When a dragon dies its body returns to the
element from which it came.

Faren’s body started to smolder and finally
caught on fire. Jasper put a hand on my leg as we watched her burn
away. Bryenk landed on my shoulder.

“I’m so sorry, Bryenk.”

What for?
He tilted his head to look
at me.

“This whole mess is my fault.”

His chuckled made me frown.
You did not
cause this, Chosen One. You were born to stop this. Faren died
doing what she had been born to do. We all have a destiny we need
to fulfill.
I felt him smile.
I always knew she would burn
bright.

I looked up again and was shocked at the
flame that was now Faren.

My love, Melana just broke through the
defenses at the north end.

I realized suddenly that the wall was devoid
of life. Faren’s flame was throwing off too much heat for their
archers to handle. I looked at Jasper. “I thought we didn’t want to
go in at night.”

He shook his head. “We didn’t want to, but I
don’t think we’ll get another opportunity like this. Dodge, send
the signal to the Winged Ones.”

My horse nodded. Whatever he did was
something I couldn’t hear or feel. Rainen shifted and howled.
Jasper followed suit, growled then shifted back.

“Be careful, Hayden.”

I nodded and tried to shove down the
adrenaline that was trying to take over. “I will. A shlova yan.” I
leaned down and kissed him tenderly.

He kissed me again. “A shlova yan jer.” He
shifted and I felt Dodge gather himself under me before galloping
toward the gate. Everyone split apart to let us through. I saw
Teean, Marianne, and Rainen shielding against the heat of Faren’s
flame. I turned my attention back to the two huge wooden gates
ahead of us and pulled the red waves in front of me.