Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (43 page)

He frowned.

“Luke can’t lose you, Jasper. He just lost
his son; he can’t lose his brother too. And what about Nina? You
promised her you’d come back. Tyler will need help adjusting to
losing Trent.”

He shook his head. “How am I supposed to help
them? Who’s going to help me?” He took a deep breath. “I don’t want
to fight. I love you.” He kissed her softly. “I’m tired again.” He
pushed himself out of the dream and deeper into the darkness.

*****

“Maybe someone should hit him?” Danny must
have been tired of taking care of him.

Someone grunted in agreement and he
smiled.

“See? Now there’s the irking part right
there. He’s fine. He can hear us; he just refuses to wake up.”

“Take a deep breath, Danny. Let’s go to the
courtyard. Lunch will be served soon. We’ll come back afterwards
and discuss the possibility of letting you slap him.” Luke’s hand
came to rest on his arm. “We’ll be back in a bit, little brother.
Don’t do anything stupid while we’re gone. I… I really wish you’d
wake up, Jasper.” He sounded so tired.

Jasper could imagine the sadness in his
brother’s deep brown eyes. He almost opened his own to see if he
was right. Luke squeezed his arm, left, and he was alone in the
quiet room.

Was it right what he was doing? Was Hayden
right? Did the others really need him? His chest tightened. By the
moons, why couldn’t he be the one allowed to hurt every once in a
while? He took a deep breath. The sound of Luke’s voice echoed in
his head. Maybe he should wake up. There had been enough loss; he
didn’t need to add to it. Luke would help him, he was sure of it.
So would Mel. He took another deep breath and pushed his way out of
the darkness before he could change his mind. The light blinded him
as his eyes opened. He sat up slowly and swung his legs over the
edge of the bed. He noticed he had his pants on. His throat
tightened. Of course he had his pants on…it had been a dream. He
ran his hands over his face. By the feel of his beard he’d been out
a good two weeks. He opened his eyes a bit more. Ugh… he should
have waited until it was dark to do this. He found a tunic by the
bed and pulled it over his head. It must have been his, though
someone had washed it since the battle. He found the slice in it
where the human’s dagger had stabbed him in the side. It was his.
Next, he found his boots. Every muscle in his body complained as he
bent over to put them on. He straightened and took a deep breath.
Well, he was awake and dressed…what now? His stomach growled.

“Alright, then, let’s go find some food.” He
stood carefully. The doorway loomed before him and he hesitated. He
growled to himself. “I doubt you’ll be able to get back to sleep.
Get going.” His voice scratched in his throat. He stepped outside
and looked around.

Except for a few burnt buildings, everything
in Paradin looked normal. He’d have never guessed there had been a
battle here. A man and a woman walked by and nodded to him. He
nodded back. Were they humans or shifters? He realized he didn’t
have his dagger. Would he need it? He grunted. “That’s what you get
for sleeping for two weeks.” He got his bearings and headed in the
direction of the courtyard.

The first of his friends to see him was
Danny. Jasper smiled and gave a wave. His friend dropped his plate,
his green eyes wide.

“I didn’t like the idea of you beating on me
while I was sleeping.” His throat hurt and he forced the words out.
It was almost as if he’d muttered a silencing spell. Everyone
stopped talking and turned toward him. He could see the tension
leave Luke’s body and he smiled at his sister-in-law whose hand
flew to her mouth. Matthew stepped away from William to let someone
through. Jasper’s heart stopped. All of that for nothing, he
thought to himself.

Hayden ran toward him, her hair flying behind
her. He caught her in his arms and the two of them fell to the
ground. She kissed him deeply and he pulled her close, trying not
to show the disappointment he was feeling.

“What’s wrong?” she whispered. He pulled her
into his lap, very aware that everyone was still staring at
him.

“Nothing. It’s just, here I thought I’d
decided to wake up and I find that I’m still dreaming. It’s
alright, Shlova. I’d rather be asleep with you anyway.”

She shook her head. “Good god, Jasper. I’m
real.” She grabbed his hand and kissed his palm. “See? Can’t you
feel me?”

He nodded. “But I felt you in my other dreams
as well.”

She looked frustrated and her green eyes
flashed. “That’s because I was real! What in the world do I need to
do to make you see that?”

He shrugged. “Danny was going to try slapping
me.” He didn’t have a chance to react as Hayden’s hand connected
with his cheek. His face exploded with pain and he stood, leaving
her on the ground.

“Ow!”

She was shaking her hand and holding it to
her chest. “There! Now do you believe I’m here?”

He looked past her to everyone else. Luke was
grinning and Mel had her arm around him. Danny was rolling on the
ground laughing. He touched his cheek. Hayden was still glaring at
him from on the ground. He fell to his knees and pulled her to his
chest, dazed.

“By the moons, you really are here! I thought
you were a dream. I thought you were lying.” He was having trouble
talking past the sobs that were taking over.

Hayden’s tears soaked into the front of his
tunic. “I can’t lie to save my life, you know that.” She pulled
back and smoothed his beard. “Sorry about the slap. It was a last
resort.” She blushed. “I really thought that getting you to make
love to me would snap you out of it.”

He shook his head. “How are you here?”

“Well, you have me to thank for it.” Rainen
was grinning from ear to ear. “The spell worked how I knew it
would. One minute Hayden was dead and the next you were.” She
shrugged. “I had no idea if it would work but I jumped most of my
energy into you.”

William was shaking his head. “The next thing
I know the three of you are laying there and I was sure none of you
were alive.”

“You actually healed faster than the others,
but you refused to wake up.” Luke pulled him up into a hug.

Jasper shook his head and pulled Hayden to
his side. She smiled up at him and he kissed her softly. “I was
positive you were dead. I just didn’t want to wake up and find out
it was true.”

She hugged him tightly. “But I wasn’t dead
and I tried to tell you that. Stubborn ass.”

Jasper gazed down at her, still slightly
disbelieving. Please don’t let this be a dream, he thought to
himself. Hayden seemed to see the fear in his eyes and reached up
to touch his face lightly. She pulled him down to her lips.

“A shlova yan.”

His voice caught in his throat and he had to
clear it. “A shlova yan jer.”

She smiled. “Let’s get something to eat and
then if you feel up to it we’ll go for a walk.”

Suddenly he wanted nothing more than to be
alone with her. “Can we skip lunch?”

She shook her head. “You’ve been living on
magic for two and a half weeks. You need some food.” They got their
plates and sat with their friends. He looked around and bits of the
conversations he’d heard in his sleep came to him.

“What happened with the Faelies?”

Kacey grunted. “You know Faelies. As soon as
the fighting was through they disappeared.”

“What about Ternach? I thought I’d heard
him.”

Hayden smiled. “He left. He stuck around for
a while to see if you would come around then I think he got bored.
He said to tell you you don’t need to worry about him trying to
steal me away anymore. Now that he’s completely human he feels no
love for me…well, not that kind anyway. He thinks it was just our
magics attracted to each other.”

He nodded. “You know, if it weren’t for him
absorbing a lot of the staff’s energy, none of us would be here.”
He turned to Danny. “I heard you say something about Alex…” He let
the statement hang in the air.

The Maj healer shook his. “We couldn’t save
him or Leslie. One of the youngest sorcerers lost control of his
waves. They were in the line of fire.”

Everyone was quiet. Jasper swallowed the bit
of bread he was chewing on. “Who else?” He thought he would choke
on the words.

“Roger and Colton. Rodney.” Hayden put a hand
on his leg. He growled then frowned and looked to Matthew. Emelly
was nowhere to be seen. His friend swallowed hard.

“I don’t know. We got separated during the
fight. We didn’t find her when we cleaned up the bodies. The only
thing I found was her stone.” Matthew looked sick.

Jasper’s heart sank.

Matthew put down his food. “It’s been almost
three weeks. If she were able to, she’d have made her way
back.”

No one seemed able to finish their lunch
after that. Matthew stood, his green eyes full of the despair he
was feeling. “Now that everyone is well enough to travel, are we
heading home?”

Hayden nodded. “We’ll leave tomorrow
morning.”

“I’ll be back before sun up.”

Jasper watched as his friend shifted and
leapt out of the courtyard. “He’s been looking for her?”

Hayden seemed ready to cry. “Every day. He
leaves the keep and looks in the woods.” She wiped her arm over her
eyes. “Let’s go take that walk.”

*****

I leaned back against Jasper’s chest and
loved how I almost disappeared as his arms wrapped around me. We
hadn’t said a word since finding this quiet spot by the creek that
ran through Paradin. I was glad now that the battle was over, we
were no longer needed here. There had been humans aplenty who had
decided that a world with shifters couldn’t possibly be that
horrible. After observing them for the past couple of weeks, it was
obvious that they would do a great job of running the keep. Most of
them seemed genuinely excited to be able to trade with the other
races of Quelondain. Now that Braw was no longer around to seclude
and suppress them, I had a feeling that my father’s people were
going to be ok.

Jasper moved behind me and I thought back to
when I had woken up to find him lying in the bed near mine. I’d
been ecstatic at first that we were still both alive. Then he’d
refused to wake up.

“You know, had I known a slap would do it I
would have tried that first.”

He chuckled. “I liked your first attempt
better.” He reached up and rubbed his cheek. “Much less painful.”
He kissed the back of my neck and I shivered as his beard scratched
against my shoulder.

“Have you ever come across small globes that
look like they’re made of, oh, I don’t know, clear marble?” I
glanced back at him.

He frowned and shook his head. “Not that I
can recall, why?”

“We found one in Braw’s offices. No one can
seem to remember ever seeing one.”

“Was it destroyed?”

I shook my head. “No. It doesn’t give off any
energy whatsoever. It’s very pretty; clear green with darker
veining in it.”

“Hmm. Who has it now?”

“Marilynn.”

“I can have a look at it later, but it
doesn’t sound like anything I’ve ever seen.”

We were quiet again. I listened to the sound
of the water trickling down the creek and thought of the one that
ran through our clearing.

“God, I can’t wait to be home.” I hugged his
arms tightly. “Ooh! I almost forgot! Guess what I can do now?”

He grinned at my excitement. “You can
displace?”

I shook my head and went to stand a few feet
away from him. “Nope. Even better!” I closed my eyes and thought
‘tiger’. Jasper’s mouth dropped and I blinked my cat eyes at him. I
walked up to him and rubbed my head against him. I couldn’t help
but purr as he ran a hand through my fur. I shifted back and leaned
back against him. “Pretty cool, eh?”

“But how?”

I shrugged. “We’re not sure, but the best
explanation we can come up with is that because Rainen used your
energy to bring me back to life, I inherited your shifting
abilities.” I fell forward as he stood abruptly.

“What’s wrong? I thought you’d like the fact
that I can shift now.” I was a little alarmed at the panic in his
eyes.

“I… I do.” He frowned, shifted, looked back
at himself then shifted back. “Thank the moons it didn’t work that
way with me!”

“Oh!” I burst out laughing. “You thought
you’d turn into a wolf!”

He blushed. “Well, Rainen used her energy to
bring me back to life, didn’t she?”

I was still chuckling as he settled behind me
once again. I looked back into his sky blue eyes and melted. “I
love you so much.”

He turned me so he could kiss me thoroughly.
“I love you more.”

Chapter Twelve

“Are you sure you don’t want to stay?” I put
a hand on Matthew’s arm. He jerked and looked away from the gates
to the keep. He shook his head.

“Maybe she went home.” His voice didn’t hold
much hope.

“Alright.” I moved to Jasper’s side and
kissed him softly. “Ready?”

He smiled. “Let’s go home.” Everyone in our
pack was almost vibrating with the excitement of being back in
Sageden.

Dodge snorted.
I’ll meet you at home. I
have a stop I need to make that’s a little out of the way.

I gave him a hug and a pat on the neck. “Ok.
See you in a few weeks.” I watched as he ran and lifted off of the
ground. Cassandra gave me a hug.

“Stay safe, Hayden.”

I smiled. “Stay safe. Make sure to stop by
and visit.”

Peter put his arm around her. “We will.” The
two of them had decided to travel to where each of them had been
raised so the other could see. They shifted and a panther and a
wolf looked back one last time before trotting off to the east.

“Everyone else is with us?” I glanced around
and smiled at the nods. “Let’s go home.” I shifted and rubbed heads
with Jasper then stretched out in an easy lope toward home. Home.
That one word alone was enough to make my heart soar. I thought of
our meadow and the new cabin we would build in the spring. I purred
at the thought of Kip and Tiny; man I’d missed them. I leapt over a
fallen tree and landed gracefully on the other side. The feel of
the dirt between the pads of my feet, the smell of the frost on the
trees, and the wind blowing through my fur was exhilarating.