Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (34 page)

“There is no solution! I’m going to kill Braw
and destroy the staff and you’re bound to protect them. One of us
will die, Ternach. Why don’t we just do it now and get it over
with?” I pushed my nudge as hard as I could and he was knocked to
the ground.

“I won’t fight you, my love.” He stood and
held his hands behind his back.

I threw another nudge and this time he cried
out with the impact. He took a moment to compose himself before
standing again.

“Fight!”

He shook his head and flew backwards into one
of the boulders. He pulled himself into a sitting position while he
tried to catch his breath. He wiped a hand across his face and I
noticed the blood coming from his nose. He wasn’t even trying to
shield himself from the blows. Regret flooded through me and I
pulled back on the nudge I had been about to slam into him.

“Why won’t you fight me?”

“I don’t want to fight you. We have just over
three weeks before we reach Paradin. Sometime between now and then
I will think of a way to avoid our final confrontation.” He gave me
a small smile.

I took a deep breath. “Ternach, please. I
need to be there.”

“Not yet. It’s not done yet. Soon.”

“But…”

“My love, you can hardly start healing while
the battle is still ongoing.”

I tried to think of something to say, but he
was right. “Fine.” I sent Jasper a comforting feeling so he’d know
not to worry about me then made my way to Ternach’s side. “Are you
ok?”

“I feel like my insides have been turned to
mush.” He coughed. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back
against the boulder.

“Why didn’t you at least shield?”

“Even if I’m protecting myself it is in a way
fighting, isn’t it? I was fairly positive you wouldn’t kill me.” He
cracked open one white green eye. “After that last one I wasn’t
sure, mind you.”

“I’m sorry.” I ran a green wave over him and
watched in amazement as everything I had managed to hurt healed
itself without my help. “How did you do that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. If I get hurt, it
heals.” He ran a hand through his black hair. “Alright. If Jasper
feels they’ve won, I’m assuming this is done. I’ll send you back.”
He stood. “Be careful, my love. I’ll find a solution to our problem
yet. And don’t be too hard on your mate for trying to get you away
from here. I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes with everything he’s
feeling right now.” He waved in my direction and I landed on my
back in the midst of our pack.

“You seriously have to work on setting me
down more gently,” I mumbled.

Sorry.

I sat up and looked around.

“Hayden!” Luke was running toward me. Trent
lay limp in his arms. I sprinted toward him.

“Put him down! What happened?” I knelt beside
my nephew and wanted to cry. His chest had been sliced open. I
swallowed hard at the sight of the dagger impaled on the left side
of his chest. I pulled it out, ran a green wave over him to assess
the damage and closed my eyes. The tears were running down my face
as I looked up to tell Luke there was nothing I could do. I stopped
at the desperate look in my brother-in-law’s deep brown eyes. I
frowned and pulled another wave over Trent and pushed. I felt my
energy start to flow out of me and into him. I growled in
frustration when the flow stopped.

“No, no, no, damn it! Just get in there!” I
pushed again and started to sob as I got the same results as the
first time. Mel’s anguished wail tore through me. I pushed again,
desperate for a different reaction.

Jasper knelt behind me and tried to pull me
away.

“No! I can do this!” I ripped my way out of
his arms and tried again. I looked up as Luke put a hand on my
shoulder. He gave me a sad smile then turned to pull Mel to his
chest. I heard Jasper take a long shuddering breath behind me. My
chest tightened at the sound. I stood and turned so I could pull
his head to my chest. His arms wrapped around me like vices, his
tears soaking into the front of my tunic. I heard Luke crying,
could hear Tara’s sobs and Ben’s comforting shushing. I looked
around in a daze. I knew I should go help Fillian and Danny, but
couldn’t seem to get my legs to work. Danny seemed to read my mind
and caught my eye. I saw him whisper, “we’re good,” and I turned my
attention back to my mate. He shook against me. The thought of my
nephew lying on the ground behind me, of the pain my mate and his
family were going through, of everything that was happening because
of Braw and his staff made my anger and sadness flare. Jasper
jerked as my energy ran over him.

“Sorry.” I knelt and wrapped my arms around
him. “Oh, god, Jasper, I’m so sorry.”

He shook his head.

Mel’s voice was just a whisper behind us. “I
have to go get Tyler.”

“Mel, you can’t.” Luke’s voice was
hoarse.

“I… I have to see him.”

“If you go get him now, he’ll decide to come
along. Mel, please. He’s heading home. He’ll be safe there.” Luke
took a deep breath. “We can’t lose both of them.”

“What…” Jasper cleared his throat. “What
happened to Tyler?”

“We came across a smaller pack of humans.
Jenna was too hurt to keep going and Marie was killed. We didn’t
have a healer. Tyler decided to stay with Jenna and get her
home.”

“Good.” Jasper’s voice was just a whisper. We
all looked up at the commotion at the far end of the field. Phlann
was dragging a human by the hair. His yellow eyes were rimmed with
red and his face was streaked with dirt and blood where he’d wiped
his tears away.

“This is the one…” His voice cracked at the
sight of his friend lying on the ground. He flung the man toward
Luke and Mel. “He’s the one who killed Trent.”

My sister-in-law launched herself at him with
a scream. Luke pulled her off of him.

“Mel! Mel!”

She collapsed back against him, sobbing.
Jasper stood, wiped his face, and grabbed the man by the hair.

“Where were you taking them?” His voice
seemed calm, but the way the human paled I knew his face indicated
otherwise.

The blond man shook his head. “You’ll have to
kill me. I won’t say a word.”

Luke gently handed Mel to Prense and Fillian
passed her a drink I knew would calm her down.

“You heard my brother. Where were you
heading?” Luke’s question was answered with silence. “Phlann? Do
you have any rope in your pack?”

The Scannove nodded and handed it to the Maj.
Luke cut it in half and handed the second piece to Jasper. The
humans eyes widened as they each tied a wrist.

“You have until we reach those trees over
there and then we will make you talk.” Jasper hauled him to his
feet and they proceeded to drag him toward the woods. The man
clenched his jaw and refused to make a sound. Tara came to stand
beside me as Ben followed behind them.

“You may not want to watch, Hayden.”

I looked at my best friend, shocked by the
strange tone in her voice. She sounded angry, sad, and somehow,
pleased. The human started to struggle as Luke and Jasper stretched
him out between two trees. Phlann’s carefully placed broad sword
between his legs stopped any further commotion. The blond man
stared at the Maj, Namael, Wedelve and Scannove standing in front
of him.

“Talk.” Luke barked the order. He gave the
man a fraction of a second to answer before his fist connected with
his stomach. He doubled over as much as he could considering his
restraints. I looked around at all my friends. All of them had the
same uncaring, hard look on their faces.

“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear. We want to
know where you’re keeping the prisoners.” Jasper didn’t wait much
longer than his brother before the human’s head snapped back with
the impact of his fist.

Tara put a hand on my arm. “I know you’re ok
with this so far, but they will hurt him if they don’t get the
information we need. You’ll need to make sure you shield Jasper
from what you’re feeling. We can’t risk not finding out where those
prisoners are, Hayden.”

My heart beat a bit faster in my chest. There
had to be a better way to get information. I opened my mouth to
object then stopped. I glanced back to Trent’s body on the ground,
saw the dazed, half drugged look in Mel’s eyes then looked at all
the bodies on the field, some of them theirs, some of them ours,
and I pushed the objection down. My attention snapped back to the
scene before me as the human screamed in pain. Phlann had used his
broad sword to cut the man’s tunic off of him and hadn’t been
careful about not getting too close to the skin. A long cut ran
from his left shoulder to his right hip. From the amount of blood
oozing from it I knew it wasn’t very deep.

Phlann twirled the sword in his hand. “I
believe you may want to start answering.”

The man looked up, his nose dripping blood,
his eyes as hard as anybody’s I’d even seen. He spit a mouthful of
blood at them and shook his head. Ben shrugged, pulled an arrow
from his quiver and let it fly. It dug deep into the man’s thigh.
This time the scream sent a shiver down my back.

“Now, what’s great about that shot is that my
friend Roben, here, was actually aiming for your leg.” Luke walked
over and put some pressure on the arrow’s shaft. “Start thinking
about where you want the next one.” The man’s eye rolled back into
his head. My brother-in-law pulled his dagger and placed the tip of
it in the cut on the human’s chest. He pressed down and followed
the already existing red line down to the hip.

Tell them to keep going. The pain and
emotions he’s feeling are so intense he’s projecting his thoughts
as images.
I jumped at the sound of Ternach’s voice in my
head.

The man screamed again but refused to say
anything. Jasper slipped his dagger across both of the man’s
biceps. The skin seemed to split open under the blade to reveal the
muscles underneath. The thought of the pain he must be going
through made my own arm throb and I glanced at it, surprised I had
forgot the bite mark on it. I’d get Fillian or Danny to have a look
later.

“We can keep this up for hours,” threatened
my mate. “How long do you think you’ll last?”

Ben let another arrow fly. It dug into the
opposite thigh.

Tell them to ask the question again. He’s
fading. His thoughts are all over the place.

I stalked up to them, a little surprised at
how little remorse I was feeling about letting this go on. Jasper
looked at me as I neared.

“Hayden…”

I ignored him, knowing he thought I was
coming to stop them. I walked up to the man and kicked him between
the legs as hard as I could. “Where the hell are you keeping
them?”

Got it. They’re about a days’ travel to the
northwest once you get across the river. There’s a camp where they
are holding all the prisoners.

I smiled. “Let’s go, Hun. I know where they
are.”

“You don’t know shit, bitch.” He obviously
wasn’t from here. “You and your freaks will all be dead soon and it
will be me doing the smiling.”

“What if I told you your prisoners’ camp is a
day’s travel to the northwest once you get across the river?”

The man’s smile slipped and he glared at me.
“You’re going to die.”

I turned and faced him head on. “Probably.” I
flicked my wrist around a dark red wave and glared at him over the
fireball. “But not before you.” I threw it at him and watched as he
disintegrated in the extreme heat. Absolutely no one moved. Even
Jasper was looking at me like he might be afraid.

“Hayden?” He was frowning.

I took a deep breath, but couldn’t bring
myself to meet his eyes. Good lord, what had I just done? My chest
tightened. I heard Mel sob behind me and the regret that was
starting to engulf me retreated. It occurred to me that maybe Mel
would have wanted to get a hit in and that I was maybe going into
shock. I went to kneel beside her. “I’m sorry. I should have asked
if you wanted to do anything to him before I burnt him.”

She burst out laughing and pulled me into a
hug. “By the moons, Hayden, you have no idea how funny that sounds
coming out of your mouth.” She snorted and shook her head. “No, you
pretty much covered it when you kicked him in the balls and burnt
him to a crisp.” Her laughter died and her sobs resumed. “They took
my baby from me.” Her voice was just a whisper against my
shoulder.

I hugged her tightly and my own sadness
spilled from my eyes. “We’ll make them pay, Mel. I promise
you.”

Luke took her from me and Jasper pulled me
into his arms. “Are you alright?”

I shrugged. “Is anybody alright?”

He swallowed hard and shook his head. “I’m
sorry. I know you don’t like things like that.”

I buried my face in his chest. “It’s alright.
It had to be done.”

He took a deep breath. “Can you tell Ternach
I won’t be trying to kill him?”

I appreciate it.

“Oh, you can still hear me. Thank you for
saving Hayden. I saw it happening and was never going to get there
in time.”

Mel and Luke’s eyes were bugging out of their
heads.

I couldn’t just let her die. I’m still trying
to find a solution to our issue once we reach Paradin.

“Well, here’s hoping you do. I hate to admit
it, but I think I’m actually starting to like having you
around.”

I started to laugh. “Now that sounds
hilarious coming out of your mouth!”

Brinnan came to stand by us. “We, umm…” He
looked down at Trent and swallowed hard. “We have the graves dug
and the humans are in a pile.”

I looked up and saw the shifters that had
been killed being placed in graves. I moved to where the pile of
dead humans lay and I bowed my head. “If you weren’t from here, I’m
sorry they found you first. If you were from here, I’m sorry you
were never given the chance to know better.” I pushed a red wave at
the bodies and stayed to watch for a moment as they burned.