I patted him again.
“Brinnan and Fillian sent this note for you.” Tara handed it to me. In it, they explained that Fillian was nursing another Wedelve back to health (healing didn’t work on illnesses) and would meet us at the keep when she was done. Brinnan would come with her.
We kept a steady pace until nightfall. As the sun started to disappear into the trees, we found a place to make camp.
“So, it’s nice to see you’re alive, Luke,” Nate grinned at him. “When we found Ryland we assumed both of you had been killed.”
“Actually, I killed Ryland,” explained Luke.
Kacey’s eyes widened.
“Why?” Nate asked the obvious question and even the Queen’s cats listened for the answer.
“Because it was the right thing to do. If you plan on coming with us until the end, you had better decide who you are fighting for.” He paused and let his words sink in. “You may have to kill another dog.”
“So you fight for the cats now?” asked Kacey. There was no malice in the question, just curiosity.
Luke shook his head. “No, I don’t fight for the cats. I fight for Hayden. I fight for the one who, after being abducted, beaten, threatened, and attacked countless times, can still look at a dying creature and save it with no thought as to whose side it might be on. Hayden doesn’t want to fight. She wants to live her life in peace. Wants to enjoy her home, her family and the one she is fated to. I like that lifestyle. I have seen my pups grow more in the past two years than I had the previous nine.”
He looked at me and smiled. “Hayden fights for life with no thought to herself. Did you know, Kacey, when she healed you, she gave you some of her energy, her life, so that you could live?”
Kacey looked at me, amazed. “Why?”
“Because it doesn’t make sense; all this killing because of me. Whether I choose it or not, this is my fault and it’s the least I can do to make it better.”
Everyone was listening intently.
“I won’t be used to destroy anyone, but I will fight to protect innocent beings. Following orders isn’t a good enough reason for a death sentence, not to me, anyway.” I sounded as tired as I felt. I was having trouble keeping my eyes open.
Dodge swished his tail. You need to rest.
“He’s right, Hayden.” Zane walked over with a blanket. “Where Kacey looks a hundred percent, you don’t. You should get some sleep. You only have a few more days to make up the energy you gave him.” He draped the blanket around my shoulders.
“Thanks, Zane.”
He smiled down at me. “Get some sleep. We’ll keep watch.”
The night was starting to cool and I shivered. Luke shifted and lay beside me to keep me warm.
“Thanks, everyone,” I mumbled as I fell asleep.
*****
“Here, I’ll get on Dodge, pass her up to me.” I felt myself being lifted. I tried to open my eyes but couldn’t.
“Is she alright?” That sounded like Kacey.
“Yeah. This is nothing. You should have seen her after she healed Jasper on the ridge. If he hadn’t told me to stop her I’m pretty sure she would have died. The more sleep she gets the better.” Zane was passing me up.
“So she is like this because of me?” Kacey sounded so guilty. A small smile managed to make its way to my lips.
“She’s fine, see? She can hear you.” Luke was holding me.
I heard someone pat someone else on the back.
“Well, if you can hear me, Hayden, I fight for you now.” I felt a hand on my arm.
Luke tightened his hold on me as we started moving again. “Sleep, sweet sister,” he whispered and I let myself drift back into the darkness.
*****
It was dark when I finally managed to open my eyes. The lids still felt as if they were full of lead, but at least I could see. We had stopped and Luke passed me down to Zane.
Zane smiled, his black eyes lighting up when he saw me looking at him. “How are you feeling?” He set me down on a blanket.
“Still tired, but a bit hungry.” Luke brought me some bread and squeezed my shoulder as he sat beside me.
“Thanks.” I took a bite of bread. “How much farther?” I asked.
“We made good time today. Maybe four more.”
I nodded.
“Will you be better by then?” He looked at me.
“I’m not the one we should be worried about.” I looked down at my bread to keep him from seeing how anxious I was.
He wasn’t fooled. “We’ll get him back, Hayden.”
Zane put an arm around me from the other side. “They won’t know what hit them.” He smiled.
“I know.” I tried to smile back. “It’s just...I know they’re hurting him.”
Everyone was quiet. Tara handed me some cheese. “And that is why you need to eat and get some more sleep,” she said.
I shivered with cold and worry as I finished my cheese and I pulled the blanket around me.
Zane shifted and lay behind me. I leaned back and fell asleep against him.
When morning came, I was able to open my eyes completely without them feeling heavy. I sat up and laughed at Zane’s snoring.
“How does Dawn get any sleep with you,” I murmured to myself. Alex chuckled as he shifted back into a human. He had been sleeping between me and Leslie.
“No wonder I was warm!”
He smiled. I’d had a panther as a pillow and a lion and a wolf on either side of me. Everyone else was still sleeping.
“Why are you awake?” I whispered to him. It was still fairly dark.
He shrugged. “Just couldn’t sleep. Too many things running through my head,” he whispered back.
“Like what?”
He was quiet for a moment as he arranged his thoughts. “I was thinking about what Jasper had said the day he made me kiss you. About how maybe we were fated because he wasn’t going to be around much longer.”
My heart dropped and the feeling must have shown on my face.
“No! No. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not hoping for that, not at all. I will die to save him if I have to. It’s so strange that’s all. I’m just confused. I’m glad we’re not fated. I just would like to know why I see you.”
“You still do?” I was trying to keep my whisper as quiet as possible. I wasn’t sure if he had told Leslie about the dreams.
“Yes.”
“What are the dreams about?”
“Nothing, really. Usually you are just busy doing something, like cooking or picking herbs. You know, just everyday things and then you look up and smile at me. That’s it. Always just a variation of that.”
“Well, definitely not a fated dream.” I grinned at him.
“Why? What are they like?”
I blushed. “Let’s just say they are a bit more intimate.”
He turned red to match me. “Oh.”
We were quiet for a moment. “Maybe the dreams are just to keep me close to you. Maybe I’m like Dodge.” He looked over at me. “Maybe I’m just meant to watch over you.”
“I guess that could be it. Does Dodge dream of me too?”
Alex nodded. “I asked him about it once.”
“So you’re like my own personal body guard.”
He grinned. “It makes sense.”
I frowned. “Do you think you will become fated?”
He shrugged. “Not everyone is. Most lions become fated early on. I’d rather it didn’t happen, really. If I became fated, I would have to leave Leslie. I don’t want to do that. I thought it was odd before meeting your crew, you know, the fact that I love her and we are different. Now, I just hope it lasts.”
“You guys are great together.”
We were quiet again. He looked down at Leslie and smiled to himself.
“Should we start waking people up?”
He nodded.
I leaned back and poked Zane in the ribs. “Zane!” I whispered loudly. “It’s time to wake up!”
&
nbsp; Zane twitched awake, his hind leg catching Luke in the back.
Luke grunted and shifted. “Ugh! What in the world was that for?”
Zane shifted back. “Sorry.” He turned to me. “That wasn’t very nice.”
I chuckled. “Sorry.”
Everyone else was getting up as well.
“Well, that was a boring few hours,” complained Nate. He had taken the last watch.
“Boring is good, Nate. Boring is good.” Alex gave him a pat on the back.
We all quickly ate and set off again, anxious to get where we were going.
Nate came to jog by Dodge and shifted so he could talk to me.
“Could I ask you a few questions about the healing?”
“Sure. What do you want to know?”
Dodge slowed to match the shorter man’s stride.
“How do you know what to heal?”
“When I touch a being it’s almost like I can see the damage no matter where it is. And it’s not really me that heals the person. They heal themselves. I just concentrate the energy where it needs to be.”
“And that is why there are different ways to do it?”
I nodded. “There are three ways actually. The first I used on you. You use your own energy. The second one I had to use on Kacey. If the being is too hurt and doesn’t have enough energy to heal itself, I give it some of mine. The third is the hardest. I haven’t been able to get it, and I’m not sure I would want to. It requires me to take energy from another being and transferring it to the one being healed.”
“Why don’t you want to use that one?”
“Well, it seems to me that killing one being to save another defeats the purpose of healing. Maybe that’s why I can’t do it. I can’t justify it.”
He nodded and looked around.
I looked up as well and noticed we had fallen back quite a way. I glanced down as Nate put a hand on my leg.
“I’m sorry, Hayden. It seems it’s not just will power that breaks bonds, otherwise I would have done it.” He yanked me off of Dodge.
I was surprised at how strong he was. He clamped a hand over my mouth so I couldn’t scream and kept me between Dodge and himself so my horse wouldn’t kick him.
He started to drag me away and I tried to plead with Dodge to leave me and run to the others. I bit Nate’s hand and tasted blood, but he kept his grip on me.
Panic started to set in and the colors moved in front of my face. I got an idea.
I let go of Nate’s arm and picked a red wave. I threw it at a tree that stood between us and the rest of the group.
Everyone but Zane, Alex, and Luke ducked. Those three ran back toward us.
I felt Nate’s composure slip and he let go. I tripped and fell. Dodge saw his opening and turned, firing with both hind legs. Nate’s breath left his body in a sickly wheezing sound as his chest imploded and he collapsed to the ground.
Alex shifted and pulled me up. “Are you alright?”
I nodded then shook my head as Zane checked Nate for signs of life. “Don’t bother, Zane. He’s gone.”
“So much for the bodyguard idea,” mumbled Alex.
“You can’t protect me from my own stupidity, Alex.”
I caught sight of Kacey as the rest of the group reached us. “Did you know about his plans?”
His grey eyes widened. “No! I swear!”
We all stared at him. “God, I wish there was a way to test this bond breaking thing.” I looked at him closely. “I don’t like fighting. I don’t like people hurting each other. I don’t like killing. But I promise you this, Kacey. If you are lying and I find out about it, I will burn you to a crisp myself! Is that understood?”
He nodded eagerly.
Instead of lessening, my anger escalated with my outburst. I turned and threw a red wave at Nate’s body and watched it burn down to ashes.
Everyone stood in shocked silence, my friends included. I stomped over to Dodge, giving the ashes a final farewell kick, sending them scattering everywhere.
I swung onto my horse and urged him into a canter.
Everyone else followed wordlessly.
Later that evening we stopped for the final night of our journey. I got off of Dodge and gave him a hug. “Sorry about that, buddy. I should have been paying more attention.”
He shook his head. Don’t worry about it. Everything worked out fine.
Zane came to stand beside me. He was grinning from ear to ear.
I turned red. “What?
He lost control and started to laugh.
Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at us.
“It’s just...” He tried to catch his breath. “The look on your face when you threatened Kacey… It’s been a long time since you lost your temper like that! I was just remembering how when that used to happen you would just randomly set things on fire!” He laughed again. “But nothing... nothing was as funny as the look on everyone’s faces when you torched that stupid fox and kicked his ashes around!”
Luke was sitting on the ground trying to keep his laughter in.
I turned a deeper shade of red. “I was just making sure no one could see we had been there,” I muttered lamely.
Luke lost the battle and lay on the ground, tears running down his face.
I smiled. “Ok, fine. I lost my temper. I’m sorry if I scared anyone.” I looked around. “Kacey?”
He came walking up to us, unsure of what was coming.
“Kacey, I’m sorry. Jumping to conclusions about your involvement was wrong.”
“It’s alright, Hayden. Quite honestly, I’m surprised I’m still allowed to live after that. Most people wouldn’t take the chance.”
“Yes, well, my friends and I aren’t most people.” I smiled at him. “Now, I have a tiger I would like to get home. Let’s figure out how to do that.”
Since Luke only knew of the cave, Kacey took over.
“If we keep anyone there, it is usually on the right side because those two rooms have the shackles.” Kacey looked at me. “Sorry.”
“Stop apologizing.”
Kacey was about to go on when I thought of something. “Will there be any other prisoners there?”
He shrugged. “It’s possible. I’ve been leading patrols the past month, so I haven’t been there. Most prisoners go to the keep. This is just where we put them if we aren’t ready to head back yet. I mean, honestly, it’s usually empty. The only time we’ll take prisoners is if we catch anyone over our border.” He looked up at me quickly then back to the ground. “Well, except for now. Sorry.”
“Stop saying sorry.” I looked around. “If we find anyone else, we’re releasing them.”
The blond Namael captain seemed about to say something then stopped.
“Can I ask what your name is?” I looked at him, realizing that I didn’t know.
“Matthew.”
“You looked like you were about to say something.”
“I was just wondering how many rooms there were.”
Kacey answered him. “Four. Why?”
Matthew seemed to hesitate before speaking. “I was just thinking that since Hayden is so opposed to killing and since we will outnumber them, maybe we could just lock them all up.”
It took everything I had to keep my jaw from dropping. Some of his men weren’t as successful.
“That’s a great idea!” I blurted out.
Alex looked at Kacey. “You’re sure you’re with us on this?”
Kacey nodded.
Alex looked at me. “We won’t even have to kill one of them. What if we got Kacey to go in there and tell the others he is supposed to transport Jasper to Howel. They make it out of the cave then we sneak in there from all directions and trap them in the middle.” He smiled. “It seems like a nice day for a wind storm, don’t you think?”
I grinned. “Perfect. Kacey, you’ll have to open all the doors. Pretend to look for him.”
Kacey nodded.
Matthew looked confused. �
��I don’t understand the wind storm.”
“I’ll just blow them into the cells.” I laughed and pushed a small breeze at him in demonstration. “This is great. Let’s hope it works!”
“Kacey, I know my brother, he won’t come quietly.” Luke was frowning.
“I don’t think he’ll be in any shape to fight,” he mumbled, his eyes on the ground.
Zane laughed. “You don’t know Jasper, do you?”
Kacey shook his head. “I just know what I’ve heard from stories. Though I must say that from what I’ve heard, I’m glad my pack has never come face to face with one of his.”
Luke smiled. “Jasper and I have always had an agreement. Because we’re brothers and were made to fight each other, we had turned it into a game. The first one to get hurt lay down and stayed out of danger’s way. We had to make it convincing, mind you, so that no one wondered about it. When I abducted Hayden last year, he almost got the best of me and that was with four broken ribs. If it had been a regular battle he would have had to lie down because I got the first hit in.” He shook his head as he remembered. “I had to break four more ribs and knock him on the head to stop him. When it comes to Hayden, I don’t think there is much out there that will stop him and right now, the only thing he is thinking of is getting back to her.”
Kacey’s eyes widened.
“Tell him that I love him more.” It was almost a whisper, my voice barely making it past the lump in my throat. “Say, ‘Hayden says don’t be stubborn and that she loves you more’.”
Tara put a hand on my arm.
Kacey nodded.
“Ok, everyone. Let’s get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.” I pulled my blankets out and settled in for the night. Luke shifted and lay beside me.
The next morning we traveled as far as we could without having to be scared of being discovered. Ten of Matthew’s cats went ahead with Luke and Kacey to capture any lookouts they could find before the others could be alerted to our whereabouts.
I glanced at Matthew who was standing and looking in the direction of the cave. He ran a hand through his dark blond hair and took a deep breath. I went to his side and put a hand on his arm.
Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' Page 14