Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (18 page)

*****

Jasper felt shock and then
nothing. He stopped short and shifted, trying to feel something
else from Hayden. Everyone looked at him. He fought the panic that
was welling in his chest.

“They’ve got her.”

He shifted and bolted down the
hill as fast as he could. He stepped on a loose stone and rolled
the last twenty feet to the bottom. He stood, shook his head to
clear it then started running to the river. He looked back to make
sure everyone was following. Matthew and Steven were a half a leap
behind him. There was no doubt in any of their minds; this was
Hayden’s dream.

They made their way over the
rocks that lined the riverbank. The three of them shifted and
waited for the wolves to catch up.

Matthew took a quick look at
Kearan’s body and shook his head.

Damian and Mark shifted and they
all proceeded to look around for a clue as to where Hayden might
have gone while they tried to catch their breaths.

“Do you have something of
hers?”

Jasper looked at Damian. “Can it
be something she gave me?”

“I’m not sure. I can try.”

Jasper took the gold band off of
his ring finger and handed it to the sorcerer. Damian closed his
eyes, murmured the spell and looked around.

“It’s very weak, but she crossed
the river to those woods.” He handed the ring back and the four of
them crossed.

The first thing Jasper noticed
as they entered the woods was the small limp form lying on the
ground. Matthew ran to Emelly and pulled her to his chest.

“Em, love, wake up.” He brushed
the dark red bangs out of her eyes and kissed her forehead. A large
bump was already forming on her temple where she had been hit. He
looked her over quickly to assess her condition. Her arms were
scraped and bleeding, there was a bruise in the shape of fingers on
her forearm, and her left eye was swelling shut. He checked again,
trying to see where the blood soaking into her tunic might be
coming from.

Jasper bent and picked up the
dagger he had found on the ground. It was the one Matthew had
gotten Emelly when they had reached Howel. It was covered in
blood.

“Matthew. It’s not hers. I think
she got one of them.” He cleaned off the dagger and passed it to
his friend.

“Jasper, they have horses.”
Steven was looking at the ground where a group of horses had left
deep hoof prints in the ground as they made a quick escape.

Jasper swore under his breath.
“Matthew, stay with Emelly. Damian, Mark, Steven, you’re with me.”
He shifted and followed the hoof prints. He almost tripped as he
was overwhelmed with the feeling of fear. It receded quickly and he
was able to focus again.

They stopped when the moons were
high in the sky. Jasper took the canteen from Mark and took a long
drink. When his breathing had slowed enough for him to talk he
turned to Damian.

“Two days. They’ll stop for a
bit in two days. That’s when we catch up to them.”

“Which means we don’t stop at
all.”

Jasper nodded. “When we get
close, Steven and Mark, you stay behind. Damian, you’ll come with
me. Hayden said Damian shields me from the blast and we live, but
I’m not sure if she saw the two of you or not.”

Everyone nodded.

“Let’s see that ring again.”
Damian repeated the spell and pointed in the direction the trail
led. The four of them shifted and resumed their chase.

*****

The man’s hand connected with my
face and my head exploded with pain. I fell backwards and landed on
my hands which were tied behind my back.

Good job, Hayden, I thought to
myself. Why don’t you piss off a few more of them while you’re at
it?

The blond man, who had taken
offense when I told him I would rather let a slimy marsh frog feel
me up than to have him touch me, stalked toward me and I tried my
damnedest not to flinch. I saw him wind up to kick me. I rolled and
hooked one of my legs behind the one he was standing on. He fell to
the ground with a thump and I was rewarded by the laughter of his
friends, which I knew would simply make the beating I was about to
receive that much worse.

“Geez, Donny. The woman is tied
and she can still kick your ass!”

“Shut up, Tom.”

“Yeah, Tom,” another man joined
in. “Is that a black eye I see on your face? Oh, no, wait! That’s
two black eyes. That would be because she broke your nose!”

Tom’s nose had had the pleasure
of meeting the back of my head after he’d tried to cop a feel while
sitting behind me on the horse. The chorus of laughter resumed at
Tom’s expense. Thankfully, this turned the attention away from me
for the time being.

“Alright, everyone saddle up.
We’ll stop for the night after dark. We should be far enough away
by then.”

Relief flooded through me. Just
a few more hours of this and Jasper and Damian would be here.

“Here, put your foot up.”

I looked up at the dark haired
man with hazel eyes. He looked to be in his late thirties. I wasn’t
sure what his name was, but he was the only one here who didn’t
seem to like watching his friends beat the crap out of me. I
noticed his bruised cheek which was not courtesy of me.

He put a hand on my shoulder to
steady me and held the stirrup for me. I put a foot into it and
swung on as gracefully as I could with no arms. He swung on behind
me.

“It’s my turn to ride with
you.”

“What did you do to piss them
off?”

“I’m not from here.”

“Ah. I see.” I bumped against
him as the horses started off at a gallop. He tightened his one arm
around me and steered the horse with the other.

“Sorry.”

“About what?”

“I’m usually the one they beat
on for fun.”

“Oh.” I frowned. “So you’re
letting them take shots at me because it’s giving your face a
break?”

“If it makes you feel better,
they said you put up a better fight than I do.”

My cheek was still throbbing
from the slap to the face. “Oh, yeah. That makes me feel great,
thanks.” I concentrated on moving with the horse. “So, what do you
think of this place?”

“It’s cracked. Everything here
is wrong. God, I miss home.”

“Do you believe in what Braw is
trying to do?”

“Oh, definitely. Being able to
turn into different things, that’s not right.”

I grunted and made a mental note
to make sure and break his nose before the night was over. Cowardly
and ignorant were not two of my favourite qualities in a man.

I tried to remember every minute
detail of my dream as we travelled. When I got tired of reliving
the dream, I sent my love to Jasper so he wouldn’t worry too much
about my well being.

The leader of the group, the man
who had reminded me of Brice, finally decided we had gone far
enough. We came to a halt, my horse’s sides heaving against my
legs. The man behind me jumped off and stood by while he waited for
me to get off. I swung my leg around so that I was sitting sideways
in the saddle. I quickly kicked out and connected with his face as
hard as I could with my heel. He cried out and fell to his knees,
blood spurting through his fingers.

“What the hell was that
for!”

“For being an idiot when I’m
having a bad day.” I slid to the ground and went to sit by the tree
I knew I needed to be by. I glared at him then felt a bit of regret
for my deed. It didn’t last long. I leaned back against the tree
and pretended to fall asleep. Someone tied my legs together; I
guess they were tired of me putting up a fight. I listened to the
conversation I remembered from my dream and heard the men come
towards me. The sneering man pushed me over and I felt the first
rise of energy start to build deep inside of me. My hands scraped
against a rock and the pain caused another flare of energy.

I held it in as long as I could
and waited for the rustle of leaves that announced Jasper and
Damian’s arrival. My muscles were cramping with the excess energy
and my whole body felt on fire. I pushed out as hard as I could and
watched as the men in front of me were thrown to the ground then
looked to the side to where Jasper and Damian were standing.

Damian fell to his knees, his
hands clutching his head. Jasper’s eyes widened and he spun around,
a large stab wound in his back.

I fought back the urge to
scream, not wanting to distract him. I saw a large branch being
swung and Jasper’s head snapped back as it connected. He collapsed
to the ground.

Mark stood over him for an
instant to make sure he was out then stepped around him and walked
toward me. My heart jumped into my throat. I saw Damian try to
stand then fall again. Mark cut the ropes from my legs and pulled
me up.

“Let’s go, Hayden.”

I kneed him in the groin and ran
toward Jasper. I didn’t make it far before I was tackled to the
ground. The air rushed out of my lungs and I gasped, trying to
breathe. A small flash of pink caught my attention on the ground
and I rolled so that I could grab the stone that had fallen out of
my pocket. Mark straddled me just as I closed my fist around
it.

“Parker!” I didn’t know if I
needed to yell his name or not, but I wasn’t taking any chances
that the calling stone wouldn’t work. I felt the small rock warm in
my hand and Mark’s eyes widened as a cheetah materialized beside
us.

Parker didn’t hesitate before
knocking him off of me, his jaws locking on Mark’s throat. The
human never got the chance to scream.

Parker shifted and stayed
crouched over Mark, ready. His dark brown eyes quickly glanced at
me before scanning the woods.

“Miss Hayden.”

“Parker.” I smiled.

“Are there more?”

“There was one look out. I’m not
sure if Jasper and Damian took him out or not. I would think that
they did.”

Parker nodded and brushed some
black bangs out of his face. He knelt beside me and helped me sit
up. He cut the ropes from my wrists and I handed him his stone. He
shook his head.

“Keep it. You might need it
again. I’ll go scout around and make sure there aren’t any
more.”

I stood and ran to Jasper and
Damian. Damian lay on his back, his arm over his eyes. Jasper was
still in a heap, blood soaking into his tunic.

“Damian?” I asked as I knelt
beside Jasper.

He groaned. “I’m fine. By the
moons, what in the world was that?”

“We’re not sure.” I ran a green
wave over Jasper and sighed with relief. “It’s only happened once
before when we were crossed over.” I concentrated his energy on the
wound and felt it heal.

“It happened in the other
world?”

“Hmm hmm. There’s not supposed
to be any kind of magic there, but whatever this is, it can happen
there.” I moved to Jasper’s head.

“It’s not anything I’ve ever
felt before. I would remember that.”

“We think it might be the
leftover power from Braw’s staff. The Gysps told Marilynn I’m
cursed until the staff is destroyed.”

I pushed the green wave where it
was needed then brushed the hair out of Jasper’s face. I bent down
and kissed him softly. He slowly opened his eyes, frowned and put a
hand up to my cheek.

“You could have warned me,
Shlova.”

I leaned my face into his palm.
“You can’t honestly believe I knew you were going to get stabbed
and knocked out and that I didn’t tell you.”

He smiled, pulled me down and
wrapped his arms around me. I listened to his heart beat. Parker
walked back into sight.

“I found this one trying to get
up. He claims he’s with you.”

“Steven!” I got up and jogged
over to him. His head was bleeding from a gash on his temple. I
pulled him down so he was kneeling and focused the green wave on
his head. He jerked and groaned.

“By the moons, Steven, I’d say
you were just as surprised as I was.” Jasper grinned at him from
his position on the ground.

Steven ran a hand through his
white blond hair which had turned pink with the blood. “Bastard.”
He looked from one dead human to the other. “Did they fight?”

“Hmmm?” I glanced around. “Oh.
No. I did that.”

“One black eye, two broken
noses, and the broken finger too?” Parker was taking inventory of
all the injuries. I nodded and Jasper sat up to see what Parker was
looking at.

“That explains why you look the
way you do, then.” He sighed. “Anything broken?”

I shook my head. “I might have a
couple of bruised ribs, but nothing else. My face is a little
sore.” I turned to the man who had taught Jasper almost everything
he knew.

“I hope you weren’t in the
middle of anything important, Parker. I can’t thank you
enough.”

“I was just stuck in another
boring meeting. We were actually just planning the last of the
preparations and getting ready to march out. Your blue bird got
there two days ago.” He looked at Jasper. “Hitting them from the
north is one hell of an idea.”

“So you need to get back? I
can’t do displacement spells and I’m not sure if Damian is up to it
yet.”

Damian lifted his head off of
the ground, groaned and laid back down. Parker shook his head.

“Derrick has his orders. He
knows what to do.”

We all looked up to the sound of
wing beats overhead.

Hayden?

“Down here, Dodge!”

My horse angled back toward us
and landed. Matthew hopped off and helped Emelly off, carrying her
over to us.

“I didn’t know what to do. She
wakes up, but then she falls asleep again.” He sat on the ground
and cradled her against his chest.

I ran the green wave over her
and put a hand on his shoulder.

“She’ll be fine. She just has a
really bad concussion.” I pushed the wave into her then switched
waves and pushed a bit of my own energy into her for good measure.
She jerked under my hands and Matthew pulled her close. Emelly
hugged him tightly.