Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (25 page)

“How many healers are in the
second shift?” I changed the subject.

“There should be at least
three.” Jasper looked back to Matthew. “Would you mind heading to
the clearing and getting anyone with healing knowledge to
Sageden?”

Matthew nodded. He shifted and
loped off, Emelly just behind him.

“Alright. Who else? Fillian
should be in town already. We should find Jein’s sister. The oldest
one.” Jasper frowned, trying to think of her name.

“Juins?” I wasn’t sure that was
her name.

“Juina. We’ll go by her place.
She can’t do magic healing, but I remember your uncle saying she’d
been training with herbs.”

Parker looked back at us.
“Should we set up in the courtyard?”

“I think that’s the best place.
The injured can be taken there and the rest of the packs can set up
in the field by the silver tree.”

After sending Parker and Danny
to find more healers, we headed to Juina’s house where she lived
with her mate Garndin. I knocked and waited.

“Haaaayyydeeeennn!” The voice
coming down the path sounded familiar. “Haaaayyydeeeennn? Are you
around here? By the moons, why can’t I ever get exactly where I’m
trying to get? I think of her and I get displaced here… and she’s
nowhere in sight.” A young man with light brown hair and dark blue
eyes came around the bend and I smiled.

“Teean! What are you doing
here?”

He smiled and gave Jasper and me
a hug. “Oh, you know, just trying to find my new pack leader.”

“Really? When did your bond
break?” I looked back to Juina’s house and decided they weren’t
home.

“About a month and a half ago.”
The young sorcerer frowned. “I ran into someone on the way over. He
says he knows you and would like you to follow me to him.”

I frowned. “Why can’t he come to
me?”

“He thinks there is a good
chance that he will be killed on sight by some of the shifters
here.”

“He’s a shifter?” Jasper was
starting to tense.

Teean shook his head. “He’s
human. That’s why he doesn’t want to come any closer. He wouldn’t
tell me his name in case I was to tell anyone else. He’s blond.” He
smirked, knowing that this bit of information by itself was
useless.

I looked at Jasper. “What do you
think?”

“I think this would have been
nice to know before we sent everyone in search of healers.” He
looked to Luke and Mel. Luke shrugged.

I was trying to think of who
this human might be. “How far is he?”

“It took me about ten minutes to
get here, but I was shifted. So, oh, I’d say twenty minutes?”

“You were just grumbling about
displacing here.”

He nodded. “That’s how far out
of the way this stupid spell displaced me to…” He shook his head
and rolled his eyes.

“Alright. Let’s go. He wasn’t
hurt?”

Teean shook his head and led the
way down the trail.

“Tell me exactly what happened
when you saw him.” Jasper was still frowning.

“I was just walking along when I
heard a whistle. I looked around and saw a man sitting on a rock.
He looked nervous. I wished him a good day and asked if I could
help him with anything. He asked if I knew you. At first, I wasn’t
sure what to think so I lied and told him I’d only heard of you. He
went on to explain he was a friend of yours and was trying to find
you but because he was human he didn’t think it was safe for him to
get too close to town. When I asked how he knew you he smiled and
said you were like a sister to him. He described you perfectly but
without the healer’s tattoo or the magic wielder’s amulet. He then
went on to describe Jasper and Luke and Mel and the twins. He knew
about Dodge.”

As Teean talked I tried to think
of who this man might be. With the details he’d been able to
recall, he had obviously been close to us at one time.

“He described your first battle
on the ridge where you managed to kill Ream with the wall of fire.
He said that if I asked you would be able to show me the scar on
your calf where the fox bit you.”

I glanced at Jasper. “Could it
be someone from your pack? Someone we didn’t know was human at the
time?”

“I suppose that might explain
it.”

We walked a bit farther in
silence as we all tried to think of who this blond human might
be.

“Did he happen to mention if he
had a shifting stone?” I still had no clue.

“No. I actually never thought to
ask. But when I told him I would keep an eye out for you and let
you know where he was, he thanked me then shifted into a jaguar and
walked into the woods.” So almost definitely someone from Jasper’s
pack.

“Are we going to kill him?”
asked Teean.

I frowned. “Why would we do
that?”

“Well, he’s human.”

“Not all humans are trying to
get rid of us, Teean. We have a few who run with our pack right now
actually. You’ll meet them later.”

We came around a bend.

“He was right over here, by this
rock.”

I scanned the woods.

“Hello, Hayden.”

We all spun to face the talker.
Jasper and Luke’s growls stopped short and my heart jumped into my
throat.

“Brice!” I threw myself at him
and he wrapped his arms around me. He kissed my forehead and held
me at arms’ length.

“Wow. You look good. When did
you get the tattoo?”

“Oh, about a year and a half
ago. What are you doing here? How did you get out?”

He ran a hand through his dark
blond hair and shrugged. “Piece of cake.”

“Are you ok? Did you get
hurt?”

“Hayden, I’m fine. Really.
There’s not a scratch on me.”

“But William told us about what
they did to you. God, Brice, why didn’t you let us know?” I tried
to swallow the lump in my throat. “We would have got you out.” I
wiped my tears with my arm. “I thought you were dead.”

Brice pulled me to his chest and
smoothed out my hair. I felt him look behind us.

“Jasper.”

“Brice.” Jasper’s voice was
quiet. “Would you like your stone back?”

“My stone?” Brice sounded
confused. I frowned, took a step back toward Jasper and looked up
into Brice’s blue green eyes.

“That’s right. Sonia had your
stone. We found it when I killed her in Pinsaber.” The butterflies
in my stomach were starting to bump into each other.

Brice smiled. “No, that’s fine.
I’ve got another now.” His grin widened though I noticed it didn’t
reach his eyes.

“Teean?” I glanced back at
him.

“Yes?” He looked confused by
this little exchange.

“How many beings can you
displace?”

“Just myself.”

Instead of looking insulted or
worried about this inquiry, Brice actually seemed amused.

“Then no matter what happens, I
need you to shield Jasper, Luke and Mel.” I picked a silver wave
and threw it as hard as I could. Brice flew backwards, shifted in
midair, landed on his feet and came running at me. I felt Teean’s
shield go up.

Brice ducked the flame I threw
at him.

“Shit!” I managed to pull the
ground up in front of me to form a wall. It shattered with the
impact of the jaguar crashing into it.

“Hayden! Look out!” Jasper’s
voice sounded strained and I was sure if I looked back I would see
Luke restraining him.

I picked a grey wave and threw
it at Brice as he got to his feet. A whirl of wind picked him up
and I pushed him as far from us as I could. He fell hard and stood,
shifting back. He picked a silver wave and threw it at me. I pushed
my shield out and blocked it.

“Not bad, Hayden. You’ve gotten
stronger.” Brice smiled.

“And you haven’t changed,
Ternach.” I stood still, my breathing hard, ready to block whatever
he happened to throw at me. “Funny thing… we were just talking
about you.”

Brice/Ternach grinned. “Really.
What about me?”

“Oh, just about the little
surprise you had in store for Rainen and her packs.”

He chuckled. “I had expected a
bit more of a fight from her.”

“It’s hard to put up much of a
fight when your opponent is too chicken shit to tell you he’s about
to attack.”

Ternach dropped the Brice look
and shifted into a blue dragon the size of a pickup truck. I looked
into its eyes, trying to see what type of dragon it was, hoping for
a clue as to what he was about to do.

“You’re cheating,” I mumbled.
Its eyes were changing from red, to blue, to grey and to brown. Its
lips curled back in an evil smile.

All’s fair in war, my love.

“I’m not your love.”

Oh, but you could be. Just think
of all the fun we could have together.

Jasper growled behind us.

Suddenly, Jasper was standing
where the dragon had been. I paused, stunned, before realizing what
had happened.

“I thought you never changed
into the same being twice.”

Jasper/Ternach shrugged. “It
usually gets boring, but I like how you react to this form.” I felt
the whisper of fingers in my head and couldn’t stop the groan that
made its way up my throat.

Jasper smiled and took a few
steps forward. “Don’t you remember how much fun we had the last
time, my love?”

Invisible hands ran over me. I
could feel him everywhere; in my head, on my breasts, between my
legs. The urge to give in was overwhelming. I heard someone sit
hard on the ground behind me with a groan and I looked back.
Jasper, my Jasper, was sitting with his hands to his head, his eyes
closed. I realized that with Ternach in my head I wasn’t able to
shield him from what I was feeling. A spark of anger flared in me
and I pushed the fingers out of my head. I felt a stronger nudge of
magic push back. I dropped to my knees.

“Hayden!” I heard Jasper move
behind me. My heart flipped in my chest and I screamed as the tiger
ran past me toward Ternach. I felt the invisible hands leave and
suddenly there were two tigers in front of me, circling. I looked
from one to the other, trying to see which one was the real Jasper.
The tigers leapt at each other and collided. One of them managed to
knock the other onto his back. I felt a tremor start deep inside of
me as the tiger on the bottom raked his claws along the other’s
side.

“Which one’s which?” Teean must
have been asking Luke. He didn’t get an answer.

The tiger on the bottom rolled
and managed to get away before turning back and jumping at the
other again. This time he was the one unfortunate enough to get
clawed. The tremor shook through me. I felt my muscles tighten and
I struggled to stay on my feet.

“Stop!”

I was fairly amazed when both
tigers listened to my order. They turned to look at me.

“That’s enough!” Another spasm
raked me and both tigers shifted into concerned looking
Jaspers.

“Hayden?” The Jasper on the
right took a step toward me.

“Are you alright?” The Jasper on
the left imitated the first.

“Not a word from either of you.
I won’t keep doing this. I refuse to. Ternach, I’m tired of
worrying when you’re going to pop up and try to take me away to be
your…well, lover I guess. And Jasper, you can’t be putting yourself
between me and everyone who’s trying to take me.” I looked from one
to the other, trying to find my mate. “I need you to stay alive.” I
took a deep breath. “So, here’s what we’re going to do.” Each of
them looked back at me questioningly. “You each get a kiss. That’s
it. One kiss to make me pick you.”

Two pairs of perfect blue eyes
widened in surprise. The one on the left seemed about to say
something and I shook my head. “Not one word; just one kiss.” I
pointed to the one on the right. “You first.”

He frowned and started toward
me. As he reached me, his frown deepened. I looked up at him and
closed my eyes as his hands cupped my face. His lips brushed mine
softly. Another tremor pushed through me and I held the energy in
as it tried to leave me and enter him. Our tongues touched gently
and my head started to spin. He pulled away, his breathing fast. I
could hear his heart pounding in his chest. His forehead touched
mine and he ran his thumb over my lips. After taking a deep breath,
he kissed me again before going to stand by the other Jasper. I
looked into his eyes then called the other over.

This Jasper was also frowning. I
looked up at him and smiled. The frown vanished. He wrapped his
arms around me and pulled me to his chest. His lips melted against
mine. My head started to reel. I pulled away for a fraction of a
second to look at him then threw myself into the kiss. He groaned,
the sound vibrating through both of us. My fingers laced in his
dark curls. The next tremor came and I held it in as long as I
could. Jasper started to pull away, his eyes wide.

I pushed the energy into him,
moving with him as he tried to scramble backwards. I felt the nudge
stop short and pushed harder. He groaned low in his throat. The
sound slowly turned into a cry of panic as he realized that
whatever this magic was, it was stronger than his. He arched
against me as his own muscles started to spasm and just like that I
was holding on to nothing. I fell to the ground.

“Hayden!” Jasper was beside me
in an instant. He hesitated before touching me. “Is it gone?” He
pulled me to his chest at my nod.

“By the moons, how did you
figure out which one was which?” Mel was kneeling beside us.

I smiled and kissed Jasper, my
Jasper, softly. “His eyes. Jasper can’t hide how he feels. It’s
always in his eyes. Ternach’s eyes are dead.”

“Did you kill him?” Teean was
looking around nervously.

“No. Ternach can’t be killed.
Not by one of us anyway. I think maybe with the full power of
Braw’s staff I might be able to, but not with the little bit of its
energy I have in me right now. I imagine he just sent himself back
to the Northern Regions so he can hash out his next plan.” I took a
deep breath and hugged Jasper tightly. “I wouldn’t be surprised if
he waits until we attack Paradin and tries while I’m busy going
after Braw.” I felt drained and closed my eyes. “Of course this
would happen right before Rainen gets here. I wish Dodge was
here.”