*****
“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.
It had been over five years of almost nonstop action and near death situations. I was looking forward to doing absolutely nothing for the next five. Jasper pushed his shoulder into me playfully and I blinked at him, letting him feel how happy I was. He blinked back, purring. I dug in and both of us leapt ahead, anxious to get home.
Epilogue
I closed my eyes, enjoying the sunshine on my face and the feel of Jasper’s arms around me. I leaned back into him and felt him sigh. On this beautiful afternoon nearly a year after our attack on Paradin, the birds sang and I was sure that life would never get better. A small grunt made me look to the left.
“Nina, honey, get off of your brother!” I laughed as she looked up and brushed the light brown hair out of her midnight blue eyes then took her time getting off of the wolf pup lying under her. Japer chuckled behind me.
“Daniel, are you alright?”
The pup stood and shifted into a nine year old boy with jet black hair and deep brown eyes. “I’m fine, Mom! I thought if I bugged her enough I could get her to shift.” He noticed his adoptive sister had gone to sit by herself by the creek.
I smiled as he went to sit beside her and wrapped an arm around her.
“Do you think she’ll ever shift?” I asked Jasper.
“I’m not sure, Shlova. The first time she did it, she broke both her arms; I imagine it will take a while for her to forget that.” He looked up at the sky. “Is Dodge coming today?”
I nodded. “He’s going to fly up to the Northern Regions for me.” I went into the house, found the note I had written for Ternach, and proofread it one last time.
Hello Ternach!
I thought I’d write and invite you to visit us; you know I’ll keep pestering you until you do. Not much has happened here since the last time I wrote. Nina still won’t talk or shift and I’m worried she never will. Other than that, she seems to be adjusting very well to having lost her family. Daniel has also made tremendous steps since we found him trying to survive on his own a few weeks after the Battle of Paradin. He’s started calling us Mom and Dad and is very protective of Nina. The cabin is finally finished and life is back to normal.
Rainen and William came for a visit a few weeks ago. Everything seems to be going well for
the Majs. Though they still mourn the loss of Damian, Rainen is a great replacement for him. Melana sent us a letter a few months back saying that everything is back to normal around Pinsaber. The truce between the Namaels and the Majs seems to be holding even if it is an uneasy one. The borders remain the same but people aren’t killed on sight anymore.
There have been a lot of rogue packs of humans found wandering near the Wedelven border. Maj and Namael packs have been patrolling there to try and get rid of as many as they can. As usual, we give them a warning, let them know there’s a different way to live, and give them the choice. Unfortunately, they all seem to pick the fight and die option.
Tyler still hasn’t returned home though he does send news at least once a month to let us know he’s alright. Of all of us, Trent’s death has affected him the most and his choice to leave Sageden didn’t come as a surprise to any of us. Mel and Luke, as well as the rest of us, keep hoping he’ll come home, though we know he needs to decide this on his own time.
Emelly still hasn’t come home and I fear the worst. Matthew still leaves for weeks at a time to search for her. It’s heart breaking.
Marilynn and I have been talking and we’ve come up with a few ideas on how to get your magic back. If you’re interested, be sure to come visit. You don’t need to go through this alone.
Love,
Hayden
I glanced out of the window as Daniel whooped in excitement. Dodge took to the air, my adopted son and daughter on his back. I smiled and made my way outside to give my horse a hug as he landed.
“Hey, Buddy.”
Hey, Hayden.
“Thanks for doing this.”
He shook out his mane. Not a problem. One of the herd’s young ones left on his stone quest a few months back hasn’t made it back yet. I’m going to try and track down what happened to him while I’m up there. He stood still as I tied the note to his mane. He bent his head down to hug me back. I’ll stop in when I get back.
Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) Page 33