Crossover 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book One'

by Chester, Mireille

  Jasper had a fire going. “Here. I found some soap and cloths. I filled the big pot with snow. I’m going to go hunt.”

  I looked at him. He looked exhausted. “Why don’t you have a rest and then go hunt?”

  He shook his head. “No. The sooner we eat, the sooner we can get going again.” He gave me a quick kiss and headed back outside.

  I heated the snow in the big pot and washed up, then turned my attention to getting most of our clothes cleaned. I hung them up around the house. When that was done I stood at the window that faced the hay shed and smiled.

  Dodge had spent the last week and a half living off of the little bit of grass he managed to dig up and a type of energy bar I had made for him composed of grain, nuts and fruit. This was all held together with honey and molasses. Though they were sufficient enough to keep his energy levels up, they didn’t do much to fill the gap.

  I caught some movement on top of the hill behind the barn and watched until I was sure it was Jasper coming back. He pulled something all the way to the top, knelt, then stripped out of both his tunics. He glanced down at his pants, shrugged, then pulled his dagger out to butcher whatever he had caught.

  I turned back to the kitchen and looked through the cupboards. From the looks of things, Kantong hadn’t come back to get any of his things once he had recovered.

  I turned at the sound of the door opening and burst out laughing.

  “What?”

  “Did your nose get itchy?”

  I was used to seeing him after he butchered and the fact that his arms were bloody to the elbows and his pants were soaked with blood weren’t a big shock. It was the streak of red that ran from his nose to his left ear that had me laughing. “You look like you’re going to war!”

  He grinned. “Well, I hope not. Though if that’s what it takes to keep you safe, that’s what I’ll do.” He kissed my forehead, careful not to get any blood on me. “Did you happen to come across any cloth, or strips of material?”

  “How about a shirt? Kantong left everything here.”

  “That will work. Could you grab a couple of them for me?”

  I found him a couple of shirts and he trudged back up the hill.

  I threw on a few more logs on the fire and refilled the pot with fresh snow so it would be ready when he came in.

  “We should have enough meat to last until we get there now.” Jasper had cut the meat into strips, wrapped it in the shirts so they wouldn’t freeze together, then put those in one of our bags outside.

  “Here, come stand by the fire. And don’t tell me you’re not cold. You might be able to tolerate winter better than me, but after taking a snow bath, you’re all pink.” His skin looked raw where he had attempted to clean off as much of the blood off with snow.

  He grinned and did as he was told. “I’ll admit it does get a bit chilly when the wind picks up and you don’t have a shirt on.”

  I brought him the pot of hot water and the soap.

  He winced when the hot water touched the skin he had just scrubbed with snow.

  I handed him some clean pants and took the blood soaked ones from him. I gave them a long glance and sighed. “I guess these aren’t your good pants anymore.”

  “Sorry.”

  “Not really your fault, hun. We didn’t exactly plan on taking a road trip when we packed back at the cabin.” I washed them the best I could and hung them up with the rest of the clothes I had strung up around the room. I set off a small breeze to help dry them then went to check on the meat I had put on the stove. “What’s wrong?”

  He was sitting right by the fire, his arms wrapped around his knees. “Nothing. I just can’t seem to get warm.”

  I pulled the meat off of the fire and went to kneel behind him. He leaned back into me.

  “You’re shivering.”

  He grinned back at me. “I believe that’s what people do when they are cold, Shlova.”

  “Jasper, I don’t think I have ever seen you shiver. Not because of the cold, anyway.” I put my hand on his forehead. “You’re hot.”

  He chuckled.

  “That’s not what I meant.”

  “I’m always warmer than you.”

  “It’s probably because you’re tired. I’ll get you a blanket.”

  I got the blanket, put a couple more logs on the fire, and brought him something to eat. I sat beside him with my meal. “We’ll stay until tomorrow.”

  “We will, will we?” His blue eyes didn’t hide any of his amusement at being told what to do.

  “You’re exhausted, Jasper. You need to rest. You don’t sleep because you insist on keeping watch, you don’t eat because this is taking longer than we thought and you don’t want to run out of food. Even when we’re moving, you insist on scouting ahead and do twice as much travelling as me and Dodge.”

  “I’m fine.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re as white as a ghost and you have dark circles around your eyes.”

  The amusement was leaving those eyes and the seriousness was setting back in. “We have to keep moving. Scott is a better than average tracker. It won’t take him long to find our trail and catch up to us. They can run much faster shifted than we can move.”

  I put the plates on the counter and went to sit behind him. “We haven’t stopped. We can afford to rest for a night.”

  He leaned back against me and I wrapped my arms around him. I used another approach. “If you’re too bullheaded to take care of yourself, then at least do it for Dodge. He hasn’t eaten anything either.”

  He nodded. “Alright. I’ll go see if he wants to stay.”

  I caught his hand before he could get up. “Hun, lay back.”

  He glanced back, knowing I had figured out his plan.

  I gave him my best authoritative stare. “Cauch dernaugh, Jasper,” I repeated.

  He sighed in resignation and lay his head in my lap. “You’re getting pretty good at that.” I massaged his temples and he closed his eyes. “The talking, I mean, not the bossing me around.” The corners of his mouth curled up.

  “Well, thank you. I have a good teacher.” I leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “And you can’t go see what Dodge wants to do because you know damn well he’ll say he wants to get moving again.”

  His grinned widened and he tilted his head back so he could look at me. “You don’t know that for sure. He might decide he wants to sleep, too.” He closed his eyes and settled back down again. A small frown appeared on his face. “We really should get moving again, Hayden.”

  I ran my thumb over his forehead and smoothed the frown away. It only took a few minutes for his breathing to slow and become deeper. His head got heavier in my lap.

  After carefully placing a blanket under his head, I put another log on the fire, grabbed another blanket then lay down beside him.

  *****

  It wasn’t very often that Jasper would outsleep me. But then again, he’d had about three hours of sleep every night since we had left Sageden. Four at the most.

  It was completely dark outside when I woke up. I pulled out of Jasper’s arms as slowly as possible and headed outside to check on Dodge. I shut the door quietly and barely had time to let out a small scream before a hand clamped over my mouth and an arm wrapped itself around my throat.

  “If you have an inkling of feeling for that horse of yours, you’ll be quiet,” a deep voice growled in my ear.

  I nodded and the hand over my mouth let go.

  “It would be a shame to kill a Winged One. Tell him to stop struggling. As long as you behave, you’ll be fine.” The voice sounded familiar.

  The moons were full and lit up the yard. I looked toward the burnt barn. “Dodge. Stop.”

  They had managed to get three ropes around his neck and had tied him to a tree. With each pull back he gave trying to free himself, the ropes were getting tighter. His eyes rolled toward the sound of my voice and he did as he was told.

  “Now. Where’s bodyguard number two?” Th
e owner of this second voice walked in front of me. I didn’t know him.

  “Who?” I decided to play dumb. “It’s just me and my horse. I’m not sure who you’re looking for, but I live here.”

  The arm around my throat tightened. “We know who you are. Now where’s Jasper?”

  My heart jumped in my chest. “Scott?”

  The arm loosened a bit. “Look, Hayden. We’re doing what we’re ordered. We don’t want to hurt any of you. We just need to get you to Pinsaber like Jasper should have done months ago.”

  “I don’t want to go to Pinsaber.”

  “It’s not your choice.” Brian emerged from behind the barn. “Now, where’s Jasper?”

  “He went out hunting. That’s why I came out here. I thought I had heard him come back.”

  He shook his head. “There’s a fresh kill on the hill.”

  “He’s stocking up. We were thinking of staying here for a while.”

  The third man, a short, green eyed, black haired fellow looked around nervously.

  Scott moved sideways to accommodate the door opening. Brian tensed, ready to take on Jasper, then smiled and stepped back.

  My stomach dropped then lurched and I had to fight the urge to throw up.

  Jasper’s eyes filled with anger at the sight of Scott’s choke hold around my neck. He seemed totally oblivious to the dagger being held to his throat.

  Brice’s face was unreadable. He jerked Jasper out of the house.

  “Verton, theer tue.” The words were spoken so softly I wasn’t sure I had heard them properly. I mouthed what I thought I had heard.

  Jasper’s eyelashes lowered in affirmation.

  ‘Faint, then kill.’ But if I did that, surely Brice would have time to kill him. All he had to do was move the blade against his throat.

  I took a deep breath and let myself go limp, hoping Jasper had thought this out.

  Scott struggled to keep me from falling to the ground. He let go of my neck and grabbed me under the arms to lay me in the snow. Brian and the other man started toward us. I pulled my dagger out of my belt and thrust up, aiming under Scott’s breast bone. The blade entered his body and his eyes widened. I felt the blood run warm over my hands. His body collapsed on me at the same time I heard a thump as something big fell in the snow behind me.

  I pushed and squirmed to get back on my feet.

  Strong hands grabbed me from behind and a quick glance at the left one confirmed that they weren’t Jasper’s. I grabbed Scott’s dagger out of his belt as the hands pulled me up. I turned quickly, slashing up in an arc at my captor.

  Brice cried out, the edge of Scott’s blade cutting a line along his chest through his shirts. He stumbled backwards in shock, tripped, and fell.

  I screamed and launched myself at him. The anger I felt at his betrayal was calling the red waves to me. I pushed them aside and tightened my grip on the dagger. This was personal.

  Brice had recovered from the surprise of my attack and was ready for me. He grabbed my wrist, stopping my momentum before I could stab him. Barely.

  The only thing I could hear was the sound of the blood roaring in my ears.

  Brice’s grip on my wrist tightened and my hand went numb.

  I watched the dagger fall into the snow and dropped my knee on his chest as hard as I could.

  Another pair of arms wrapped around my chest and pinned my arms to my sides.

  I threw my head back as hard as I could and was rewarded with the sickening crunch of my keeper’s nose breaking with the impact.

  Brice’s eyes widened. He sat up, a dazed look on his face, his shoulders hunched over while he tried to catch his breath.

  I pushed back as hard as I could, hoping to knock my assailant off balance.

  He grunted, the sound wet with the blood running down his throat, but kept his hold on me.

  I heard Dodge whinny and glanced in his direction. He was still tied to the tree, but didn’t seem nervous or agitated.

  Brice was standing up, his shirts soaking up the blood from the cut I had inflicted.

  Confusion made me pause.

  “Take a deep breath, Shlova,” said the voice beside me ear.

  I tensed, my body not understand what my head was hearing.

  “Prand rua crux resand, Shlova,” the voice repeated softly.

  I did as I was told and felt all of the energy leave me.

  Jasper felt me relax and loosened his grip on me, but didn’t let go.

  I looked around in a daze. Scott lay face down in the snow, his two friends a small distance away from him with their throats slit. Brice was cleaning his dagger in the snow. He glanced up at me, gave me a half grin, then walked over to free Dodge.

  I reached a shaky hand back over my shoulder and ran my fingers through short curly hair. My voice shook. “Are you ok?” I whispered.

  Jasper chuckled. “Other than the fact that I’m pretty sure you broke my nose, I’m fine.” He slipped his arms under mine and hugged me close. “Are you alright?”

  I took another deep breath and nodded. “What the hell happened?”

  Brice and Dodge looked at each other and Brice burst out laughing. “We should be asking you! By the moons, we should have just stayed in the cabin and let you deal with them by yourself!”

  I felt Jasper shake with silent laughter behind me and I glanced back at him. His nose was crooked and swollen, his eyes were starting to swell shut, and he was covered in blood.

  “You said faint, then kill.” I was getting defensive.

  “Tun, I did, Shlova. But I didn’t mean kill all of us!”

  “I…I couldn’t tell…Everyone was grabbing me from behind! I heard a thump…I thought Brice had killed you!” I turned my fury on Brice. “And you!”

  His eyes widened and he took a step behind Dodge. “I what? I came to help and you almost stabbed me in the heart!”

  “Well, you could have said something! I thought you had decided to join them!”

  “Had I said anything, they would have known, no?”

  I opened my mouth to yell something else and stopped. Of course, he was right. I took a couple of deep breaths and closed my eyes. I rubbed the wrist Brice had squeezed.

  “Hayden.” I heard Brice take a few steps toward us. “Scott is a great tracker. They got to your cabin sooner than I thought. I guess Cholta wasn’t home. They picked up the trail from there. I knew it wouldn’t take long for him to catch up to you. I knew I could never find you in time to warn you, so I pretended to join them. I snuck into the cabin hoping to warn you both, but you had already gone out the door by then.”

  I could hear him shift awkwardly from one foot to another. I rubbed one of the bruises forming on my wrist and winced.

  Brice sounded worried. “Did I break it? I tried not too.”

  I stopped rubbing my wrist and moved it in circles. “No. You didn’t.”

  “I’m sorry, Hayden.”

  I opened my eyes and looked at him. He looked miserable. It occurred to me that he had just killed his two best friends to protect me. Tears started to run down my face and I wiped my arm over my eyes to stop them.

  “Oh, Brice.” Jasper let me go and I wrapped my arms around our friend. “Don’t be sorry. I’m the one who’s sorry. I’m sorry it even occurred to me you would do something like that. Oh, god. I’m sorry I tried to stab you!”

  He chuckled. “No worries, Hayden.” He looked down at me. “If you had been a dog, I wouldn’t even have gotten the gash on my chest. You completely took me by surprise.”

  I turned red. “Is it deep? Let’s have a look at it.”

  Brice pulled both his tunics over his head to show me.

  Jasper smiled at the gash. “Good job, Shlova.” He laughed at the look on my face. “I think you’re lucky you were wearing both those shirts, Brice.”

  Brice laughed. “I’ll take whatever luck I can get. Though it is nice to see that all our sparring is paying off. Next time, though, try to judge the distance a bit be
tter. And your grip, too. I noticed when you sliced up you were holding it like you were going to stab forward. If you’re going to slice up to cut like this, hold it like you’re going to stab down.” He picked up my dagger and showed me.

  I shook my head in disbelief. “I can’t believe you’re turning this into a sparring lesson.”

  “We can only teach you so much by faking attacks. Come to think of it, that might be why you didn’t cut me as deeply as you could have. You’re used to holding back.” He handed me the dagger and got me to go through the motions a few times.

  It took a few tries before he was satisfied and he would let me heal him.

  I turned to Jasper and tried not to start crying at the sight of him. He looked horrible and I was the one responsible. “I am so sorry, hun.”

  He smiled at me. “No worries, Shlova. I would rather you hit first and ask questions later.”

  “So any tips on how to improve that move?”

  He laughed. “No. I think that was quite effective the way you pulled it off.”

  I made him kneel in the snow before I healed him. He cringed and I held my breath. “Sorry.”

  Jasper hugged me close and kissed my forehead. “Stop saying you’re sorry.”

  Dodge snorted.

  I turned my attention to my horse. “How about you, buddy?”

  “He said he’s fine,” translated Jasper.

  There were a few rope burns where the ropes had chafed him, but nothing else.

  Brice was looking at Scott and I saw him swallow hard. I put a hand on his back. “What do you want to do with them?”

  “Well, we can’t bury them. The ground is frozen solid.”

  I offered to burn them to keep them from being food for the scavengers.

  “May your energy find its way into good hands,” whispered Jasper.

  I gave his hand a squeeze. “I’m sorry, Jasper. Brice.”

  They both looked at me in surprise.

  “What about now, Shlova?”

  “About this. All of it. I didn’t think too much about it at first. All the bond breaking. It seemed innocent enough.” I took a deep breath. “But it isn’t. Not at all. Because of me, you have to kill friends. People who are willing to kill you because of me. I mean, it was bad enough when we had to kill dogs because of this. Now, we have to kill cats, too.” I closed my eyes. “Will it get better, do you think? Will they eventually leave us alone? Or will we be banished to remote parts of the land for the rest of our lives?”