Fated, A Timeless Series Novella (A Timeless Series Companion Novel) (18 page)

We’re on our way home.
S
he’s
with us,
alive.

“Callon…” Koda hesitated. “Thank you.”

I simply nodded
, wiping my sweaty brow
.
A sickness had settled in the pit of my stomach.
This could’ve been Cheyenne.
No way
a human
would
have tolerated the dose Bailee had taken.
Cheyenne’s
heart would’ve stopped immediately and without more advanced medical equipment I’d have never brought her back.
I gripped Bailee’s hand,
which
was
still so cold.

Bailee, thank you.
I’m sorry you had to suffer like this.
I promise I won’t forget
what you’ve done
.

I shook my head
, watching the scenery roll by
.
M
y mind was made up
.
I couldn’t wait any longer.
I was going to take Cheyenne to Ireland immediately
.

And nobody was going to stop me.

Chapter 5

“
Sometimes we just need to forget the past
.
”
~Daniel

I
tapp
ed
my foot against the
chipped
floorboards
. The cabin was falling to pieces, and snow
drifted
through the broken roof. It must’ve been abandoned for years. I rubbed my hands together, sheltering under a cracked rafter
and wishing I’d remembered my gloves
.
Callon
stood
on the porch
, unmoving
. He didn’t notice the cold at
all.
H
is eagle-eyes
roamed the horizon,
searching, waiting for the Wilson
s’ arrival
.

A chilly breeze swept through
,
and
I
pull
ed
my fedora closer
.
After the near disaster
of
Cheyenne’s shopping trip, everything had be
come
a blur.
The incident with
Bailee
had been the final straw
,
and
Callon had lost his patience. He
was
determined
to get Cheyenne out of the country, and he was not going to bow to Gene’s wishes any longer.
He’d been totally stressed out, and
Colt and I
had barely managed
to stop him doing anything drastic.
Eventually he’d calmed
and
let us
arrange this emergency meeting out in the wilderness
, though I knew I’d have to watch his temper
.

We’d chosen a remote forest about twenty miles outside of Sagle
,
to
minimize the risk of eavesdroppers
. Colt had found
this
place recently
,
and it turned out to be an idea
l
hiding
place
.
T
he recent snowstorms
would put anyone off the long drive, and
it would be easy to pick up tracks
. There’d been
some prints
littered around
when we first arrived
, howev
er, they belonged to the local
wildlife
.
The Tresez wouldn’t think to look in such a dilapidated area.

I paced the remains of the front room,
the
tension tight in my chest. I wasn’t sure how this was going to turn out. I’d been horrified at what happened to Bailee, and agreed it wasn’t safe for Cheyenne to stick around,
but
I couldn’t ignore Gene and Alexis’ concerns, either
.
We were treading a
fine line, and it would only take a little slip for everything to fall apart
.

There was also the issue of preparation.
Even without the hassle of
arranging flights and packing
what we needed, we couldn’t just bring Cheyenne to the O’Shea manor as it was. It would
need
some ‘adjustments’ before
hand
, and that would take time
.
If we
could wait
till
her
graduation, we’d
be able
to sort things out
properly
.
Anything shorter and we’d be really pushed
.
And there
’d be
no point taking Cheyenne away if we’d leave a trail for Marcus to follow…

The snow kept falling silently, and I gritted my teeth.
Impatient,
I jumped into the forest to survey the surroundings
once more
.
I’d done this so many times already, but the wait was killing me.
What was taking the Wilsons so long?
They said they’d be here on time.
As I
glanced at my watch, I could see they were almost an hour late.

I looked back to
Callon
. He was
staring into the trees
, his eyes narrowed
. A few minutes later, f
ootsteps crackled in the snow
, and two figures appeared
.
Ah;
Gene and Alexis were here
at last
.
They must’ve parked further up the road to draw less attention.

“Gene, Alexis!
” Callo
n called out. His irritability was already showing.

E
asy, Callon,
I warned
.

I
can handle
it
,
Callon snapped back
.

“Callon,” Gene replied
, just as curtly
.
“Sorry we’re late.”

The two exchanged dark glares.
I gulped.
T
his wasn’t going
to go
well at all.
Hoping to stop the sparks flying,
I jumped
to
Callon
’s side
.
Alexis
startled
, and Gene held her arm
.

“Hello Daniel,” she said. “You scared me.”

“Sorry.” I shoved my hands in my pocket
s, quietly thankful
for the distraction
.
Still, I c
ouldn’t get use
d
to the habit. I wouldn’t be able to jump freely once we
met up with Cheyenne. Callon had warned us
not
to
reveal
our powers
or overload her with
too much
information. Just finding out she was Timeless
would be a big enough shock, let alone everything else that came with it
.

“Oh,
I should be used to
it
by now,
” Alexis
replied
, smiling.
“
It’s still very frightening when you pop up out of no-where
.”

I chuckled.
Callon’s jaw tightened. He didn’t see the funny side.

“Let’s get down to business, shall we?”
His voice was
cool and distant.
He wasn’t going to mince his words.

“
Yes,” Gene said.

Callon led them inside the ruined cabin, and we stood in what used to be the front room.
A cold breeze b
lew past, matching the current atmosphere
.

“Listen Callon,” Gene began, “
I’ve been searching for
another
location
for Cheyenne
, but
…”

Callon’s brow rose.

“
You’re still wasting time with that?
W
e’ve
already decided
Cheyenne is coming to
Ireland
to stay with us
.”

“
But it’s too big of a move!
” Gene
protested.
“How can she be expected to uproot and live in a foreign country when she’s still in the middle of her studies? You can’t break apart her future like this.”

Callon’s lip curled.

Callon
,
hold on,
I said quickly
.
H
e’s
only
trying to do what’s best for Cheyenne.

Callon’s eyes darkened.

If he was trying to do what was best for Cheyenne
,
he’d have listened to me ages ago.

Gene began to rub his hands
together.
He was on edge.

“
Gene
and I want
Cheyenne
to stay in this country
for other reasons, too,” Alexis piped up
.
“
We feel it would be safer.”

“No,” Callon replied. “You’re thinking about this all wrong. The Sarac forces are growing stronger and you k
now his stronghold is in Canada.
He’s only a border away.
”

“That’s why it would be
better
for Cheyenne
,” Gene countered
.
“
She’d be right under his nose and he wouldn’t know.”

“He
knows
something already,”
Callon interjected.
“
Especially since
we’ve been killing off his spies. He
’s b
een trying to find out what we’v
e
been
hiding
for the last couple of
months
.
And once he gets impatient, he’ll start looking around himself
.
”
He briefly closed his eyes. “Even we can’t protect Cheyenne from that.”

Gene fell quiet, and m
y heart reached out to him. He’d been put in such a difficult position.
When he didn’t reply for a while,
Callon frowned.

“What aren’t you telling me, Gene?”

Gene hesitated. Alexis moved closer, wrapping her arm around his shoulders.

Something’s scaring him, Callon,
I said.
Y
ou pushing him won’t make him
spill it any quicker
.

Stay out of
t
his
, Daniel.

I
clenched my fist.
Callon was going too far this time.
I wanted Gene to tell us
the
secret, but not at the cost of bringing more danger upon us
, or Cheyenne
.
Callon
didn’t need to be like this.
He’d been more brusque with the Wilsons ever since we’d snuck into Cheyenne’s room that night.
I wish I knew wh
y
.
It must have
had
something to do with her ring.

“
Please, Gene, try to think this through,” I said, trying a less abrasive approach. “
If the
re was no other choice but to
move Cheyenne out of the country, wh
ere would you want her to go?
”

Callon glared.

Who asked you to butt in, Daniel?!

I ignored him.
There were other ways to settle this; we didn’t need to argue.

Gene
sighed
.

“
I don’t want to
move her…”

“
But i
f there was no other choice,
” I
insisted
.
“Where would you go?”

Gene chewed his lip
, thinking through his response
.

“I suppose
somewhere in the Caribbean
,
”
he
replied.
“
Most wouldn’t think to look for us there
, and it’s pretty suited for American tourists. But if we were followed, it’d
be
much harder to hide on an island than on a large continent
.”

“I didn’t ask you to come here to debate about this,” Callon growled. I gripped his wrist.

Callon
,
don’t
antagonize them further
. Let me try talking before you lose
it
.

Callon
grunted
.
I’d never seen him so worked up.

“
Alright Callon, if you must blame someone, blame me
.” Alexis lowered her head. “
I’m
reluctant with
your plan
because
Cheyenne
won’t
take this news easily. It’s
going to be a big blow to her
when she discovers the truth
,
and throwing in a move to a foreign country
will
just push her over the e
dge. She’s going to be
so upset and angry, she could well fall into a depression
.
She’s going to think we’ve all betrayed her, especially Colt. And then there’s the fact we’
ll have to keep her locked away…
”