Destiny

by Amanda Lynn Petrin

  “Poison?” I asked, wondering what kind of people I was hanging out with.

  “A toxin,” he corrected.

  “The difference would be…”

  “It’s not a poison that kills people, it’s a toxin that should knock them out for maybe an hour. Which is long enough for you to get away.”

  “And you made it for me?” I couldn’t believe how sweet it was of him to offer me an alternative to killing or using magic.

  “It’s your birthday,” he shrugged, but his eyes told me it had everything to do with me, and nothing to do with the date.

  “I love it,” I tried to be serious, but had to suppress a laugh. I never would have imagined myself being this touched by a tranquilizer dart-shooting pen.

  “I’m glad,” he smiled before Charlie motioned me over to the couch.

  “They’re not new…” he warned, taking a big box from beside him. “But these will be a lot better than your hiking shoes.”

  “I can’t take these,” I argued. I had no idea how much riding boots cost, but the ones from the box looked like they hadn’t been used more than once or twice, and they were gorgeous.

  “Of course you can. Some of my granddaughters are less into nature than others.”

  “Thank you,” I told him, sensing ‘no’ wasn’t an option. “Not just for the boots, but for everything you’ve done since I got here. For this.” I looked around the villa, that he and Eric turned into a birthday explosion for me. I had completely missed Deanna’s birthday back in July, and I wasn’t sure if I wanted to be back in time for Clara’s, or let her have one more year before finding out about Sam. I’m sure they had their doubts, but if I hadn’t seen it happen, I would have convinced myself he somehow managed to get away.

  “It’s what you do for family,” he told me like it was nothing.

  “I’m a stranger,” I pointed out.

  “You’re anything but. For as long as I can remember, your family has been mine.”

  “You can never have too much family,” I smiled instead of arguing.

  “I’ve always believed you choose your family. Sometimes you’re lucky enough to be born into it, but sometimes you have to fight for them,” he shrugged at the last part.

  “I’m very glad to have you as mine,” I thanked him again, this time with a hug, before he ushered me to the food table.

  He gave me a description of all my options and filled a plate of things for me to try. “I’ll be right back,” he put his hand on my arm before going to deal with an alarm that went off in the kitchen, announcing more food.

  “I’m sorry we couldn’t bring you to them. Or them to you,” Gabriel apologized when he found me holding the overstuffed plate, playing with my ring and staring into space.

  “I can’t lose anyone else,” I let him know it was okay to keep them as far away from me as possible.

  I could see he wanted to say something, to remind me that none of this was my fault, that Sam knew what he was getting himself into… a million things that wouldn’t make a difference. Instead, he took a tiny pouch from his pocket and handed it to me.

  “Happy birthday,” he said with a shy smile, which was intriguing more than anything. Embry was an expert at presents. He always got me exactly what I never knew I always wanted, from rare books to microscopes to online classes...it was always out of the box and always perfect. Gabriel, on the other hand, usually gave me something Deanna picked out and wrapped for him, a gift card, or nothing.

  The way he watched me open it made me nervous, as I fumbled with the knot tied in the string. “Wrapped it yourself?” I tried to lighten the mood.

  “I think we all went a little homemade this year,” he agreed.

  “What is it?” I asked, finding a thin stone the size of my palm hanging from a delicate silver chain.

  “A necklace,” he smiled, getting me to roll my eyes.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “It’s moonstone,” he admitted, then continued when I failed to react to the name. “It’s supposed to help you channel and control your energy. And it brings protection.”

  “You believe in that stuff?” I wasn’t judging or making fun of him, but I was curious. He was surprising me a lot this summer.

  “I trust people who do, and I figure it can’t hurt. Plus, being the Bearer of the Crescent Moon, if any kind of rock was going to help you, it would have to be moonstone.”

  “That’s a good point,” I gave him a smile, taking a closer look at the stone. It was beautiful, whether it protected me or not. It wasn’t quite blue, but there was a bluish sheen to it. It had a smooth, oval-ish shape, but there were scratches on the back. I didn’t want to point out the flaws of his defective stone, but I was wondering if they would have an effect on the stone’s power, when I realized the scratches were deliberate. “What’s on the back?” I asked, staring at the stone in my hand to try and make it out.

  “I tried something, but I’m not sure it turned out,” he took the stone and held it up to the sunlight coming in from the window, with the scratches facing me.

  “You did this?” I asked, trying not to, but I could feel my eyes water. He somehow carved Sam, Clara, and Deanna into the back of the stone, so I could carry them with me always. I didn’t wait for his answer, I rushed forward and hugged him. I held him tight, waiting until the tears stopped and I wiped away the remnants before pulling back. “Thank you,” I said, looking into his eyes, failing to convey how much I meant it.

  “Of course,” he looked at me in a way that gave me butterflies, like when Eric did, only my heart joined in, beating faster than it was supposed to.

  “Would you mind?” I asked, pulling my hair to one side and giving him my back.

  His hands were warm on the back of my neck as they fumbled with the clasp, but they still sent shivers down my spine. I smiled at Embry when he looked over, hoping I wasn’t as flushed as I felt.

  “I’ll let you enjoy your food and get back to your party,” Gabriel gave me a smile. I wanted to argue that he wasn’t bothering me and could stay, but instead I let him go talk to Charlie, who seemed to have a million stories to tell him and Eric.

  After a while, Embry suggested everyone get fresh air and sunlight, so the party moved outside.

  “I don’t think I can top everyone else,” Embry apologized, taking a seat beside me in the yard.

  “You’ve got ten years on them,” I assured him. “And no one had to get me anything. It completely slipped my mind.”

  “Because you feel like you don’t deserve to celebrate, which is absolutely not the case,” he waited for me to look over and acknowledge it, so I rolled my eyes at him.

  “Remember this when your birthday comes around,” I warned, but also hoped we wouldn’t still be on the run come March.

  “Oh, I expect cake and singing and streamers,” he teased.

  “Your wish is my command,” I smiled.

  He smiled back before handing me a red leather photo album. There was only one picture per page, but as soon as I opened it, I knew the perfect-gift-giver struck again.

  “It’s perfect,” I told him. There was something about pictures of my mother I had never seen before that made me feel like I was getting another piece of her.

  “I put a few pictures of the Boyds near the end, for when you’re homesick, but most of them are of her.”

  “Thank you,” I told him, flipping through the first pages. “Is that….”

  “A much younger Charlie,” he agreed. “And this one is Eric’s father if I’m not mistaken.”

  “Six boys?” I asked, sensing a pattern of large families.

  “Only five of them were Charlie’s. It was where all the kids ended up every weekend. I only gave you the pictures with Marilyn.”

  “I appreciate that,” I told him before spotting Gabriel across the pool, letting Eric use him for some kind of demonstration in his story. It was surprisingly action-intensive for the smiles they were sharing. I definitely hadn’
t seen him smile this much, ever.

  “It’s okay to choose him,” Embry brought me back to the conversation.

  “Choose him for what?” I asked, surprised by how serious he looked.

  “To love Gabriel,” he said bluntly, his unwavering stare forcing me to be the one to look away.

  “I love both of you.” My eyes were focused on a tiny spot in the corner of the photo album.

  “Not the way you love him,” he argued.

  “I’m just trying to survive at the moment.” He looked at me like he didn’t believe a word I was saying. The flushed cheeks from earlier probably weren’t helping my case. “Even if I did, it wouldn’t matter, because he loves Annabelle and no one else. You should have seen how heartbroken Rosalind was when Gabriel turned her down.” I remembered the memory from the train. “Beth was lucky she fell for you and got to have a bit of a happy ending.”

  “Luce…” Embry looked at me with…not pity, but possibly compassion, like he knew what I was going through.

  “There is absolutely nothing that says I have to fall for one of you. I can break the cycle like Cassie and fall madly in love with someone else. Like Eric, or a stranger who has no idea about any of it,” I argued with his empathetic look.

  “You definitely can,” he agreed. “I’ll be happy with whatever you choose, as long as it makes you happy.”

  “He loves Annabelle. Not the way she looks,” I reminded him. I didn’t want to get into it, but I had to shut him down.

  “But he also loves you. Not because you’re a Bearer who looks like her, but because you’re you. And I was there when he said he saw you,” he reminded me.

  “And it broke his heart,” I pointed out.

  “I’m just saying it’s okay if you choose him. You can do what you want with it, but I will love you forever, no matter what,” he assured me before Eric motioned for us to come join them. I gave Embry a hand and we went back to the party, which lasted long after the sun went down.

  Chapter Twenty

  I tried to clear my mind and focus. I held the moonstone in my hand and thought of why I was doing this. Why it mattered if I lived or died. I didn’t want to die, of course, but no one wants to. I thought of Clara and Deanna, who didn’t deserve to lose anyone else. Then I thought of Sam, knowing I was the reason they lost him. It filled me with guilt and made me think everyone would be better off if we destroyed my heart, and me along with it. But Sam would never forgive me. We were raised to be anything but selfish, or weak, which is what sacrificing myself would be. I would be taking the easy way out to let someone else be hunted. More importantly, if I died without defeating the Big Bad, or living a long and happy life, then Sam died for nothing. Even the guilt at causing his death wouldn’t let me make his death be in vain.

  I took a deep breath and nodded to let Ingrid know I was ready, opening my eyes just as her illusions came for me, one after the other. Some were dressed in black with swords and guns in their hands, a few looked like Clara, while most of them were more ambiguous.

  Ingrid was right, that fear was usually the driving force behind any magic I did. This time I buried the fear and used intent, the element I made fun of when this all began. Instead of reacting out of fear, I evaluated what was coming for me, even anticipating them. I blasted the ones looking to hurt me, and froze the ones I wasn’t sure about, time after time, until Ingrid suggested we take a break.

  “I can keep going,” I assured them, sweating as if I just ran a 10K.

  “I can’t,” Ingrid argued. “You’re destroying them faster than I can conjure new ones.”

  “I’m sorry.” I took a seat beside her on the lawn chairs.

  “Don’t be,” she assured me. “You’re doing amazing.”

  “But we still don’t know what his powers are actually like.”

  “We don’t,” Gabriel agreed. “But you can definitely take on his army.”

  “From behind us, preferably in a reinforced steel room that only your magic works in,” Embry amended.

  “I think I need to see them for it to work,” I argued.

  “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” they assured me.

  We tried it a few more times, with bigger, more powerful illusions rather than a constant flow of them. I was still feeling in control of myself and my powers, but the confidence was only slightly stronger than the fear.

  “I would definitely not want to get on your bad side,” Ingrid encouraged.

  “You’re going?” I asked when she grabbed her purse from the lawn chair.

  “I left Mr. Fraser in charge of the shop, but I need to go close up and make sure he hasn’t burned the place down. It’s been busier with yet another disappearance last week.”

  “Someone you knew?” I asked.

  “Only by look.” She gave me a hug before going to see Charlie next door.

  “How are you feeling?” Embry asked me.

  “Okay,” I said after considering it.

  “Don’t hate us too much?” he asked.

  “Only a little bit,” I was mostly joking.

  “Are you both good if I bail on dinner and help Ingrid with something?” he asked.

  “Of course,” I assured him, while Gabriel nodded.

  “It shouldn’t take all night,” Embry assured me before heading off.

  “Have fun,” I called after him, then turned to Gabriel, “I need to remove this magical exertion, but I can make pasta or something when I’m done?”

  “I’ll cook. You’ve done more than enough today,” he gave me a smile before going to the kitchen as I headed for the stairs.

  After my shower, I found a tight white tank top, then wrapped the shawl Ingrid gave me for my birthday around my waist, turning it into a skirt. I wanted to take advantage of our time in New Orleans, before we went back to chicken coops and tiny boats, which had to be coming soon. The shawl was a deep burgundy color that, paired with the moonstone necklace, made me feel like Esmeralda from the Halloween costume I wore when I was six or seven. The Boyds gave up on most of Grams’ traditions, although I did convince Mrs. Boyd to make us all soul cakes before we went trick-or-treating around the block.

  I came downstairs and found Gabriel at the stove, stirring what smelled like a pesto-parmesan sauce. Part of me had been worried he would make up some excuse like ‘securing the perimeter’ to avoid me, while part of me wanted him to. Which might have something to do with Embry telling me it was okay to love him.

  “Johnny Cash?” I asked of what sounded like a record from the scratchiness.

  “Embry was storing the record player with the pots and pans, no idea why, but I haven’t found any other records yet,” he defended the selection.

  “Can I help with anything?” I offered.

  “You just sit, relax and read the Book of Shadows or something,” he assured me.

  “Thank you.” I went over and got Ingrid’s book on magic. It was weird because it looked like the newly published, commercial witch stuff that was the trend of my elementary school days, but I couldn’t see Ingrid giving me a capitalist account on magic, from people who had no idea whether or not it even exists.

  I wasn’t reading every page, definitely not as thoroughly as I should, but I was learning a lot about magical theory. Like how it travels but never dies, how some people can have it in them but be unable to do anything, while others can draw on the magic of people around them...apparently, those people can not only ‘borrow’ powers when they have none of their own, but go so far as to steal it if they do.

  It was in the third chapter, called ‘Other Magical Beings’ that I found a section on ‘The Gifted’ that explained why Ingrid chose to give me this particular book. I almost skipped it, because it listed faeries and goblins and other creatures that had no place in the real world, even if witches apparently did.

  “The Gifted are a subset of humans with supernatural abilities that manifest in their second lives, although there have been rumors of first life manifesta
tions. The Gifted stay alive, even in death, until a specific task, unique to them, has been completed,” I read to myself. The book wasn’t clear on all of the intricacies of coming back to life, but it did mention instances where the body was too far gone for the Gifted to come back, such as in nuclear explosions, being entirely dissolved in acid, and meticulous dismemberment.

  Apparently, some Gifted never figured out what they were meant to do, especially the healers and first responders who rarely know which patient did the trick. Others, like Embry and Gabriel “become Gifted by making a promise the fates decide they deserve to keep.”

  A lot of it I already knew, but the book went into oddly specific details on some aspects. There was a list at the end of it, of ‘Notable Historical Figures Rumored to be Gifted’ which included Nostradamus, Leonardo da Vinci, Queen Victoria, Carl Jung, Adolf Hitler and George Lucas. Each of them was said to have suffered terrible incidents, like car accidents, plagues, and assassination attempts no one thought they would survive before accomplishing incredible feats.

  The most shocking to me was the part on scientific studies; “The Gifted become paranormal beings once they enter their second lives, so biological functions such as aging, menses and reproduction become impossible.” There were tables of scientific evidence to back it up, but I had Embry’s word that disproved it.

  “How’s the book?” Gabriel asked me after covering a wok-style pan and putting something else in the oven.

  “Part of it makes me think it was written as a ploy to make money off suckers who want to believe in magic, but other parts make me wonder if the author wasn’t a Gifted witch who saw it all happen,” I shrugged.

  “I don’t think that’s a good thing.”

  “It mentions that Gifted can’t have kids.” I thought about Terrence’s daughter Angela, Embry’s son…I knew many exceptions. “Is it only Gifted women, or is the book wrong?” I asked.

  “The book is right. It causes a lot of heartbreaks. Etta was devastated when she found out.”