Journey 'The Chosen One Trilogy: Book Two' (33 page)

She smiled and started to laugh. “That
would be fine and dandy for you. You don’t get cold. I’d freeze to
death.”

He gave her a lopsided grin and pulled
her close. “Don’t worry. I’d keep you warm.”

She pressed herself against him and
leaned her cheek on his chest. “Why all the questions?”

“No reason, really. I was just
wondering, that’s all.”

“Hmm. Well, stop wondering. I love you.
I love our life here.” She looked back up at him. “And I wouldn’t
care if we were living naked in the woods either, so long as you
were there to keep me warm.” She grinned and he laughed. Maybe he
was worrying for nothing. Maybe she would stay happy here. He
obviously had too much time on his hands.

“I think I need a hobby.”

She started to laugh. “Here.” She
walked to the kitchen and came back with a handful of plohats.
“Peel these and we’ll think of a hobby for you.”

They started to get supper ready while
Hayden suggested different things that he could do. By the time the
stew was on the fire, they had agreed that he should try his hand
at woodworking. Hayden’s winning point was the fact that he was
always making little wooden people for the smaller children in
Sageden to play with.

She smiled at him and he felt warm all
over. He meant to tell her that she was wrong. He wasn’t the one
keeping her warm. It was the other way around. But her lips claimed
his and he forgot everything he had meant to say; forgot everything
he had been worrying about.

Chapter Eight

The snow was finally gone and the
chances of another storm were minimal, but the nights were still
cool and I was lying as close to Jasper as I could.

“How many days have we been going?” I
glanced back over my shoulder at him.

“Twelve.”

I let out a pitiful sigh. “Only about
thirty more to go. Tell me again why Dodge couldn’t come? It would
take us half the time if I were riding.”

Jasper tightened his arms around me.
“You know why. There was no point in putting more beings in danger
than necessary.”

“I know. I’m sorry. You know I don’t
like being cold.” It made me cranky.

He chuckled. “I know. Do you want me to
shift?”

I shook my head. “No. We’re crazy you
know”

“I can’t argue with that.”

We had decided that we would keep
walking toward Howel until we ran into Maj patrols, state that we
wanted to meet with Rainen, and hope to be taken to her. If
everything went according to plan, we would have Rainen convinced
to join forces with Melana, and be heading home for the winter
before marching on Paradin in the spring.

If things went wrong, we wouldn’t have
to worry about making it home again.

I laughed. “Crazy. But you know it has
to work.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, I’m the Chosen One, right? I
doubt I was born just so I could fail at uniting the
shifters.”

“When you put it that way…” Jasper
started to laugh. “You know, when this whole mess is done and over
with, I am locking you in our room and never letting you out again.
I’m going to need years to recover from all the stress of being
fated to you. By the moons, if this keeps up I’ll have a full head
of grey hair by the time I turn thirty-two.”

I smiled. “That’s next year!” I turned
so I was facing him and pulled a curl out so it was straight. He
was starting to get the odd silver hair here and there. He liked to
say it was all my fault.

“So how long until we run into a pack,
do you think?”

“It’s hard to say. I would think it
would be at least another week, but I’m not sure how far out they
are patrolling anymore.”

My heart beat faster at the thought of
running into a pack.

Jasper’s arms tightened around me.
“There’s no point in worrying about it now. We’ll deal with it when
it happens. Besides, it’s what we’re trying to do,
right?”

There a rustle in the bushes to our
right and Jasper jumped to his feet, ready. I grabbed my
swords.

“Jasper, Hayden.”

Jasper stayed tense, but I put my
swords down and smiled. “Hey, Damian.”

He smiled back at me, his strange grey
eyes bright. I was still shocked how they were a dark grey on the
outside and progressively got lighter until they were almost white
by the pupil. He sat on the ground across from us and motioned us
to do the same.

I looked up at Jasper from the ground,
took his hand, and pulled him down.

“What brings you here, Damian?” Jasper
was obviously not pleased to see the leader of the Majs.

“I come to interfere.”

“You don’t want us coming to Howel?” I
wished he would get on with it, but had learned from my first
meeting with him that he was cryptic and full of
riddles.

“Nothing would make me happier than to
meet you in person, my dear. But I’m afraid I won’t get the
chance.” He looked sad. After looking into the fire for a moment,
he looked back to me. “Tell me of your travels since I last saw
you.”

I started with the last day I had seen
him in Sageden and ended with our meeting with Melana. “You were
right,” I said. “Nothing is what it seems. Humans are shifters,
dragons are good, beings of all sorts are breaking bonds and fating
together. It’s insane! And now we’re trying to get all shifters to
unite to fight the humans.”

He was smiling. “I’m glad my advice
helped a bit.”

“At the risk of sounding rude, Damian,
what do you want that couldn’t wait until we got to your keep?”
Jasper was frowning.

“Well, you see, that’s the problem. I
happen to know that three days from now you will run into a pack.
You don’t make it to the keep.” He let that sink in.

I leaned forward. “What’s going to
happen?”

“Unfortunately, you die.”

“So much for my theory on not being
able to fail…”

Jasper growled. “How?”

“It’s a pack of fourteen.” He shrugged.
“They surround you. When one of them grabs Hayden, you jump to her
defense. They get you down and she tries to get to you. You don’t
stand a chance, really. Both of you die trying to save each
other.”

I felt the blood drain from my face and
I swallowed hard. I had known that dying had been a possibility,
but actually hearing that it was going to happen was a shock to the
system.

Jasper pulled me close. “You said you
came to interfere.” I knew that look on his face. All of his
military training was kicking in; he was thinking hard,
recalculating.

Damian nodded. “I don’t, usually, but I
think I need to this time.” His eyes met mine. “You have dream
seer’s eyes. Do you dream often?”

I shook my head. “I’ve had five dreams
in the past three years. The first two I was able to change what
was going to happen. The second two simply happened. With the last
one, everything was wrong. The only reason the events of the dream
happened was because I was trying to avoid it.”

He started to laugh. “My apologies,
dear. I’m afraid that would be my fault. I suppose I interfere more
than I should. I knew that Rainen was coming for you. I also knew
that Melana was on her way. I saw Rainen take you and Melana
getting there an hour too late to help. I also needed you to meet
Melana. It was obvious that she would agree to your plan with
minimal convincing. I sent you the dream so you would meet her, she
helped defeat Rainen and got Rainen to back off for a
while.”

I glared at him. “You almost got Jasper
killed!” I tried to push down my anger. It wouldn’t help to try and
kill Damian. You couldn’t kill a projection.

He shrugged. “That wasn’t my intention.
For as much as your mate despises me, I need him around to protect
you. The only way you will succeed on your quest is if he is at
your side the entire time.” He turned his attention to Jasper. “You
won’t run into the pack so you can stop strategizing. I’m going to
displace you.”

Jasper frowned. “To Howel?”

“No. There are other events that are to
take place before you can speak to Rainen. If you go there before
these things happen, you will be killed. You need to leave these
parts until spring.”

It was my turn to frown. “But we were
going to go to the Northern Regions in the spring.”

Damian smiled at me. “And you will.
Trust me, dear. When you go talk to Rainen once the snow melts it
won’t take long to mobilize your forces.”

I could tell Jasper wasn’t liking the
fact that we were taking Damian’s word on all of this. I gave his
arm a squeeze. “So we go home?”

“No. I thought of that, but it doesn’t
work. Three months from now you will be attacked in your home. From
what I saw it looked like about ten humans. That time, they managed
to get you away and kill Jasper.”

Jasper twitched impatiently. “If you
see all of this, why aren’t you going to Rainen and telling her to
come to us?”

“I can’t wake up. My mind is working,
but my body won’t listen. For some strange reason I can only
project myself to Hayden and yourself. I can’t tell Rainen
anything.” The strange grey eyes turned to me. “I will send you to
the crossing closest to your home in the other world.”

I was speechless.

“You need to leave Quelondain until it
is time to speak with Rainen. Too much can go wrong if you stay
here.”

Jasper shuddered beside me and I knew
he was thinking of the pain he would have to live with over
there.

I put my hand on his arm. “You can stay
here, if you want.”

His eyes widened and he shook his head.
“No. I can’t do that again.”

“You said you weren’t going to get a
chance to meet me.” I looked at Damian across the fire. “Won’t you
be at the keep when we go in the spring?”

He shook his head. “I’ll be using the
last of my strength to displace you and your mate. I’m afraid this
will be my last act of interference.” He smiled. “I’m hoping it
will be enough. Now, I need you to listen carefully. I will
displace you to the crossing. I believe you need to cross at the
lake crossing by Sageden. You need to stay there until the snow has
melted. When you cross back you need to come through the hill
crossing where you first met. Rainen will be there.”

“How will we know when to cross back?”
Jasper looked thoroughly as amazed as I felt.

Damian frowned. “There’s some sort of
occasion that night. There will be a celebration of sorts. I’m not
sure exactly, but there’s a blond girl in a white dress. Cross over
when the moon is highest in the sky.” He stood. “When you do, be
ready to fight.”

There was a chirp from in the trees and
I looked up. The blue bird flew down to sit on my
shoulder.

“Hi, there.” I smiled and pet her
little head. “Did you hear all of that?”

She bobbed her head.

“You’ll let everyone know for
us?”

She bobbed again and pecked my cheek
before flying off.

Damian’s form wavered. “I don’t have
much time. I need to do this now while I have the
strength.”

Jasper stood and pulled me
up.

“I’ll need you both to think of the
crossing.” He closed his eyes.

“Wait!” I let go of Jasper’s hand and
walked over to Damian. “Thank you.” I hugged him
tightly.

Damian hesitantly returned the hug.
“Think nothing of it. Now, go to Jasper.”

I walked back to Jasper and held his
hand.

Not sure if that simple contact would
be enough, he pulled me to his chest. I could hear his heart beat
faster than normal. I closed my eyes and waited for the
nudge.

Damian’s voice was just a whisper.
“Monave tean.”

I felt the magic touch me and I took
the feel of it, wrapped it around us, and felt the ground
disappear.

Chapter Nine

Jasper felt firm ground under his feet
and opened his eyes.

“Jasper, you’re squishing me.” Hayden
sounded a little breathless. He loosened his hold on
her.

“Sorry.”

She started to laugh and smiled up at
him.

His heart jumped. It was beating a mile
a minute from the adrenaline rush of magic and the urge to take her
right there overwhelmed him. He closed his eyes and shook his head
to clear it. Not now. He had to get her to the crossing. He
suddenly realized he had felt the nudge. He had recognized
it.

“That was you. You moved
us.”

Her smile widened. “I let his nudge
touch us long enough for me to get the feel of it then I sort of
amplified it. I thought that maybe it would work like with the
staff of Laif. I’m hoping it was enough to keep Damian
alive.”

He shook his head. “So why could you do
it like that, but you can’t do it on your own?”