Qaletaqa (4 page)

Claire settled back into the seat next to me.
Feeling confident enough to get back on the road, I shifted into
drive and rolled onto the highway again.

“Tell me about what happened in Hano,” Claire
said as she leaned her head against my shoulder.

I spent the next several hours giving Claire
almost every detail of the past four days. It was hard to explain
everything I had learned about myself in Hano. They were things
that had changed me. I was afraid that I would never be able to go
back to the simple rancher I once was. Claire listened quietly,
soaking up every detail of my story, interrupting only when she
needed more explanation.

When I mentioned the word “Qaletaqa”, she
again surprised me by already knowing what I was talking about.

“That means ‘Guardian of the People’ right?”
she asked.

“Yeah, did Quaile tell you that too?”

“No, actually my dad did.”

I look over at her, my expression frozen in
shock. “Your dad?”

She nodded. “Yeah, he told me that you’re the
Qaletaqa and that you’re supposed to kill the Matwau. He said you
have special gifts and that you’ll be able to defeat him,” Claire
said.

I was surprised her dad had so much faith in
me given the fact that he had always looked at me like I was lower
than the dirt under his shoe. The Matwau was the most powerful and
secret creation of the dark gods. Before he met me, he was the most
powerful creature on earth, able to find and destroy any human
seeking their Twin Soul. Until I brought Claire’s Twin Soul,
Daniel, to her in order to save her life, the Matwau had not failed
to kill his target for many years.

What really surprised me, though, was that
her dad actually told her what he knew. Because of his threats and
strange comments about me, I suspected he knew something, but I
never would have guessed he would willingly give that information
up. Certainly not to help me.

“How did you get him to tell you?”

“I threatened to never speak to him again,
which you would think wouldn’t have worked with how awful he’s
always been to me, but apparently there really was a reason behind
him hating you and trying to control me,” she said, taking a slow
breath. “Quaile told him who you were when you were born. He knew
the stories about what you were meant to do and he tried to keep me
from getting pulled into you destiny.”

“He was protecting you.”

Claire’s dad was an egotistical,
self-centered idiot. He put family honor and money above everything
else, treating those around him like pawns on his game board of
self-delusional greatness. Even still, my mouth turned up in the
slightest of smiles. As terrible of a father as he was, at least he
was trying to do something right. He loved his daughter, and now
she finally knew it.

When I looked over at Claire, I saw a
peaceful expression on her face, the first one I had ever seen her
wear when she was talking about her dad. Even in the midst of
everything I was facing, it made me immeasurably happy to know
Claire and her dad had found some kind of balance in their
relationship. But as her dad’s reason for trying to keep us apart
filtered back into my mind, my smile disappeared.

“Your dad was right, Claire. This is going to
be very dangerous. You said Cole told you about the Matwau, but I
don’t know if you can really understand until you’ve seen what he
can do. He is powerful, very powerful. He’ll stop at nothing to
kill me,” I said. Claire stiffened, expecting what I was about to
say. “I know I said I’ll never leave you again, so I’m giving you
the choice. I won’t tell you what to do, but you’ll be much safer
if you stay behind when I face him.”

“Uriah, you can’t protect me from everything.
I will stay by your side no matter what we face,” she said.

I sighed. I knew she would never agree to
stay back, but I had to try. “Okay, we’ll do this together.”

“Promise?”

“I promise.”

There was a moment of silence before Claire
said, “Do you know where we’re going?”

Ever since leaving San Juan I had been
blindly following the incessant pull I felt between me and my Twin
Soul. I made turns in towns I had never been to before and merged
onto highways and interstates I had never previously driven as if I
knew the route by heart. We had left the congested traffic of
Denver, Colorado about an hour earlier. I left I-25 without any
good reason beyond a slight shift in the pulling sensation. The
drive took us through Boulder, Colorado and toward the looming
Rocky Mountains. I was beginning to wonder how far I was going to
have to go for my rescue attempt.

Nearing a town named Lyons, I felt another
shift and glanced up to see a green and white traffic sign.
Junction 66 to Estes Park. The arrow on the sign indicated that I
should turn left, so I did. “Apparently, we’re going to Estes
Park,” I said.

As I prepared to make the turn, the gentle
pull I was following blossomed into a terror-filled noose around my
neck.

4: Harvey

Claire didn’t say a word when the old truck
suddenly lurched onto highway sixty-six and the speedometer read
well over the posted speed limit. She simply took my free hand and
closed her eyes. The panic lasted only three torturous minutes
before simply fading away. With the lightening of the bond, my
speed dropped back down. Claire finally broke her silence.

“Uriah, what’s happening?” she asked.

“I…I don’t know. I was about to turn and
suddenly the bond changed. She was terrified again. I don’t know
why, but she was really scared. I could hardly think. I just
slammed down the gas and ran after her.” I stopped talking and
thought about what I had just said. The feeling had been so
intense. It had taken over my mind completely. I wondered again how
Claire managed to survive the bond to Daniel.

Claire squeezed my hand. “It will be okay,
Uriah. We can do this together.”

I hoped she was right. My hands were shaking.
I clenched the steering wheel to try and hide it.

“I think we’re getting close,” I said. “Estes
Park is only twenty minutes away. I’m sure that’s where she
was.”

“Was?”

“I think he’s moving her right now,” I said.
“I knew he would, but Estes Park might be somewhere we can get some
information, maybe figure out where he’s taking her.”

“How did you know he would move her?” Claire
asked.

The list was long. “My dreams, Quaile’s
dreams, Bhawana’s vision. They all showed me fighting the Matwau in
the desert. He’s leading me somewhere. I just need to find out
where that is before he gets there and sets the trap.”

“Well, hopefully Estes Park will have some
clues for us,” Claire said.

I stared out the front window and watched the
last sliver of sunlight dip behind the mountains. Slowly, stars
began to dot the sky, and I found myself scanning the night in
hopes that just one would fall and let me try to wish my way out of
this.

***

“I think this is it,” I said. The cottage in
front of us was built out of plain grey rocks and mortar. The
landscape around it had been left completely natural, letting the
little house melt into the surrounding forest.

“How can you tell?” Claire asked. “If she’s
gone, how do you know this is where she lives?”

“It’s like she left a trail. I can still feel
where she’s at right now, but I know that this is where everything
started. Did you ever feel anything like that?” I asked Claire.

She shook her head. “All I ever felt was
where Daniel was and that I should find him.”

It hardly surprised me that my experience
with the Twin Soul bond would be unique from anyone else’s. I
glanced back at the cottage. There was a light on. I wondered about
that. It should have been light enough to see when she was taken
earlier that morning. I was positive the Matwau had been holding my
Twin Soul in the house since her capture, only moving her when I
had gotten close enough to find the little house.

It was possible that the Matwau had turned
the light on, not because his superior eyesight would demand it,
but because he was trying to lure me into the house. What the ruse
would accomplish, I wasn’t sure, but I already knew it would work.
The cottage might hold clues that I could use. Bypassing the house
would have me following him blindly once again. I was about to
suggest to Claire that we get out and take our chances when the
front door popped open.

“Who is that?” Claire asked. There was a
tremor in her voice. She was afraid that I had been wrong in
assuming that the Matwau had already left.

A dark silhouette was outlined against the
light coming from the house. The figure in the doorway definitely
belonged to a man, but not the Matwau. I could identify the Matwau,
no matter what disguise he wore, as soon as I came in close
proximity with him. This figure held absolutely nothing for me.

“It’s okay, Claire. It’s not him. It’s not
the Matwau,” I said. I took her hand as I opened the truck’s door.
“Let’s go talk to him. He must know the girl.” Claire’s expression
said she wasn’t sure about my decision, but she followed me
anyway.

Seeing someone emerge from the car, the
figure in the doorway called out. “Hello?”

It was a question. His voice was off. He knew
something was wrong, but not wrong enough to have called the
police, judging by the quiet atmosphere.

“Hello,” I called back. I began walking
toward the front door, wishing I knew the name of my Twin Soul.
What was I supposed to say? I was approaching a house in the middle
of the night with no reasonable explanation for why I was
there.

The man stepped forward a few steps, before
changing his mind and returning to the house. I faltered. Suddenly
an exterior light flipped on and the man was back out on the front
stoop.

“Sorry about that,” he said. “There are a lot
of roots sticking up around here.”

“No problem,” I said. A few more steps and I
was standing right in front of him. Under the porch light I could
see that the man was only a few years older than myself. I offered
my hand to him and he took it, looking somewhat relieved. I
wondered about that.

I still hadn’t worked out my excuse, but I
decided to start simple. “Hi, my name’s Uriah Crowe. This is my
fiancée, Claire Brandt.”

Claire extended her hand politely, and the
young man shook her hand as well. “My name is Harvey,” he said.

He looked like he was about to say something
else to Claire when he froze and turned back to me.

“Did you say your name is Uriah?” he
asked.

“Yes, uh, Uriah Crowe. Does that mean
something to you?”

“Um, I’m not sure. I think it would have
meant something to Melody, though,” he said. “You know Melody,
right? I mean that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”

Melody. The name felt right. It fit with the
face I had seen in the dreams. I looked back at Harvey. He was
waiting expectantly for my answer. “I’ve never actually met Melody
before, but in a way I do know her.”

“Dreams?”

I nodded, too surprised to say anything.

“Maybe we should go inside,” Harvey said.

5: Melody

“Sorry about the mess,” Harvey said. “We just
moved in.”

I looked over at Uriah. The corner of his
mouth twitched slightly when Harvey mentioned that he and Melody
lived together. His hand gripped mine more tightly. This was
something we had talked about on the way up, how Melody possibly
being in love with someone else might affect the situation. At
first I thought it would be a good thing, but the pain in Uriah’s
eyes betrayed his darkest thoughts. If Uriah and Melody couldn’t
hold back the bond it would only be one more person’s life they
ruined. Knowing that the potion he labored to make me wasn’t an
option for him any more than it had been for me had really shaken
his confidence.

But Uriah would hold strong. I knew he
would.

“Actually, Melody was supposed to be
unpacking today, but it doesn’t look like she got much done,”
Harvey said. “When I walked in and saw all the boxes still sitting
here, I knew something was wrong. I called her mom, and her mom
said she dropped Melody off early this morning before she went to
work. I was about to call her friend Anna when I heard your truck
pull up.”

Harvey glanced at the front yard. He had been
checking the bare window every few seconds since stepping back into
the house. I knew the feeling. Even though I had known the man for
only a few minutes, I felt an instant connection with him. I wanted
to reach over and take his hand and tell him everything was going
to be okay whether it was true or not.

Harvey turned his gaze back to Uriah. His
fingers were tapping nervously on his leg. “She’s not going to
drive up, is she?”

“No,” Uriah said. The look on his face held
an even deeper sadness than Harvey’s. Uriah knew the truth. I
wondered how much he would tell Harvey.

“Where is she?” Harvey asked. The glassy
sheen in his eyes pricked my heart.

“Would you mind telling me about the dreams
first? It might help when I try to explain my side of the story,”
Uriah said.

Harvey frowned, but didn’t argue. “Well, for
the past, I don’t know, I guess it’s been about a week now, Melody
has been having these really bad dreams. At first she just passed
it off as stress, but when the dreams came back the next night, and
the next, she started to worry.”

“What were the dreams about?” Uriah
asked.

I think we both knew what the answer would
be.

“Well, you, I guess. She said that she’d
never seen the man in her dreams before, but she knew his name was
Uriah, and he was in trouble. When she first told me about the
dreams, I told her to forget them. It wasn’t until she gave me the
details of the dreams that I started to believe there was something
going on. They were so vivid. She described the man to me, and I
have to admit you certainly match what she described.”