From this vantage point, she could see that the city was no longer crumpled. Far below the cliff, the bridge, no longer oddly skewed, once again spanned the strait and connected the north shore to the Great City. The city still looked a little crooked, but it was whole, and that was good.
Beth sat bundled in a blanket, on the very spot Theo often chose to stand when she led them here on hikes. The wind lifted her hair and the waves crashed into rock hundreds of feet below her. She wondered what the Spirit Binder felt when she stood here, what Theo thought about in those moments. She wondered if Theo had ever been scared by her own powers —
A sizzling noise drew her attention back over her shoulder toward the forest clearing. Ari, Tyson, and Rose were actually dueling — earth versus water versus fire — which seemed crazy unsafe. She was surprised the guards hadn’t intervened. She could see them looking to her nervously. She’d never thought about how terrifying all their powers must seem to others.
“What are you doing?” Beth shouted. “You’re going to kill each other!” She struggled to untangle herself from the blanket. “And Mom is going to kill me for not stopping you!”
“Nah, Beth,” Tyson shouted back. “Mom doesn’t need to know.” He launched two small fireballs, one from each palm, toward Rose and Ari. Beth had never seen him do two hands at once before. A wall of earth sprung up before Rose to block and smother one fireball, while the other simply fizzed out a few feet from Ari.
“Calla can heal us, Beth,” Rose chirped.
“She’s not at your beck and call, Rose!”
“Sure, she is. She’s one of us, isn’t she?” Tyson countered.
Ari and Tyson seemed to be waiting for something to happen while they stared at Rose. Their younger sister, Beth gathered, was new to this dueling game.
Rose was concentrating intently, and then Tyson stumbled, off balance but not down. It looked as if his right foot had been absorbed into the ground. He bent down to peer at it, and then grinned approvingly up at Rose.
Ari stepped back warily when Rose turned to look at her. They were trading off hits and attacks, and one of them was going to get hurt … probably Rose.
“Calla can’t bring you back from the dead!” Beth snapped.
They all turned to look at her in unison, their gaze almost like a physical force.
“But you can, Beth,” Ari said softly, with a hint of a question at the end.
So they knew … or suspected. Beth glanced over at the guards, but Ari had lowered her voice. Even warriors shouldn’t be able to hear whispers over the crashing waves. Beth hadn’t been surprised that Bryan had known. She imagined Theo had gone over everything with him, dissected the entire situation as she had with Beth herself. But the Spirit Binder wouldn’t have outright told the three younger siblings. She wouldn’t have wanted to unnecessarily scare them with the idea of Bryan’s death.
“Been eavesdropping, have you?” Beth said, evading the question.
“Rose can do this thing with the stone in the castle —”
“Tyson!” Rose cried, and then she turned her attention back to Beth with a mumbled, “I’m still working on it.”
“Yeah, today she disintegrated one entire stone, right into the library!” Tyson crowed, full of admiration.
“Grandma Rhea and Uncle Dougal were not amused,” Ari added. “Even less so when Rose tried to force-feed them those awful cakes.”
“Hey!” Rose pouted.
“I liked them,” Tyson said.
“Beth is trying to distract us.” Ari tried to focus her brother and sister as they all looked to Beth again. She didn’t know where to start.
“You can do what she did, can’t you?” Tyson prompted. “The other you, I mean.”
“Some of it.”
“And Bryan died,” Rose stated solemnly.
Beth couldn’t answer without crying, so she just nodded.
“See?” Tyson shouted. “No worries!” He wrenched his foot out of the ground — if possible, Rose sulked even more at this — and launched a larger fireball at Ari.
“It’s not your turn,” Ari yelled. She dissipated the fireball with a wave of her hand, though this seemed to take more concentration than before —
Finn stood at the edge of the woods. Beth wondered how long he’d been there, and whether he’d overheard the entire conversation, not that it really mattered …
He smiled at her and her stomach did a little flip. Ah, she liked that feeling …
He crossed to her, straight through the battlefield between Ari, Tyson, and Rose. They managed not to kill him as he passed, which was good, but Rose got singed by Tyson before being doused by Ari. This triggered a fevered discussion about whether or not Rose should even be on the field at all …
She tuned them out.
Finn held his hand out to her and she happily twined her fingers through his. They didn’t need to speak. The two of them wandered off toward the forest, but kept within eyesight of the other three. Beth noticed that her assigned guard stayed with her siblings, guessing that he deemed Finn’s protection more than enough. She blushed at the thought but wasn’t completely sure why.
After a short while filled with much brushing of shoulders and shy smiles, he spoke. “Shall I tell you how beautiful you are?”
“No. I only want the truth from you,” she answered.
He smiled and turned to brush her too-short hair away from the side of her face.
“I can’t look anywhere but at you.”
She believed him.
For Michael
without you all the time in the world would be meaningless
With thanks to:
My story & line editor
Scott Fitzgerald Gray
My Proof Reader
Leiah Cooper
My Betas
Shvaugn Craig, Clare Hodge, Ita Margalit, and Carly from LisLesLivres.
My 2nd Edition Beta Readers
Terry Daigle, Angela Flannery, Gael Fleming, Desi Hartzel, Heather Lewis, Karen Turkal
For their continual encouragement, feedback, & general advice
Gertie from Goodreads, Suzie Ivy, and Kelly Sarmiento.
For her Art
Irene Langholm
And, of course, my friends and family … I know I like everything planned, organized, and the napkins folded just so, but it makes me happy that you don’t seem to care one way or the other … that you’d have me even without the baking.
Meghan Ciana Doidge is an award-winning writer based out of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She has a penchant for bloody love stories, superheroes, and the supernatural. She also has a thing for chocolate, potatoes, and sock yarn.
Novels
After The Virus
Spirit Binder
Time Walker
Cupcakes, Trinkets, and Other Deadly Magic (Dowser 1)
Trinkets, Treasures, and Other Bloody Magic (Dowser 2)
Treasures, Demons, and Other Black Magic (Dowser 3)
I See Me (Oracle 1)
Shadows, Maps, and Other Ancient Magic (Dowser 4)
Novellas/Shorts
Love Lies Bleeding
The Graveyard Kiss
For giveaways, news, and glimpses of upcoming stories, please connect with Meghan on her:
NEW RELEASE MAILING LIST
Personal blog, www.madebymeghan.ca
Twitter, @mcdoidge
And/or Facebook, Meghan Ciana Doidge
Please also consider leaving an honest review at your point of sale outlet
Before the Spirit Bound came to be, there was a prophecy …
Theodora Rudan woke severely injured, covered in blood, and missing ten years of her life. Just to complicate matters further, she was born under a prophecy; one that has rabid followers with three different interpretations, all of whom are willing to sacrifice her in order to fulfill it.
Not knowing if she can trust the stranger she’s betrothed to, the warrior visiting her dreams, or even her own
mother, Theo tries to piece together her past only to find that her present is far more dangerous.
It’s the power of her own blood that scares her most of all. This is a responsibility Theo never wanted, and a destiny she cannot deny.
Time Walker Page 18