Destiny (The Chosen One Trilogy:Book Three) (11 page)

He shook his head. “But how did Traina’s
magic feel like Damian’s? I mean, I know absolutely nothing about
this, but when you guys talk about it, it sounds like everyone’s
magic feels completely different.”

Rainen nodded. “It does. See, the Zerpanay
felt a bit like Damian and exactly like Traina, but Traina didn’t
feel exactly like herself anymore. She felt like Damian.” She let
that sink in and waited for it to make sense to him.

His eyes widened. “His energy was leaving
him…and going into her?”

I nodded. “She was the one killing him.” I
looked to Rainen for her confirmation which she gave with her own
nod.

“But I thought they were fated…”

Jasper picked up this explanation. “If you
are fated to someone, you are paired with the being you are
supposed to be with. That doesn’t mean you end up with the being
you want to be with. Not all fated couples live happily ever after.
Of course, if you truly despise your mate, the only way to feel
anything for anyone else is for one of the two to die…”

“So she wanted a divorce and this is the only
way to get one here.” He looked at me, disbelieving. I couldn’t
help but laugh at the description.

“Sort of. See, I don’t think she wanted to be
with anyone else. I think she wanted to be head sorceress. That was
why when Damian died it couldn’t look like murder. She’s been
taking his energy and making herself stronger in the process. She
helps when people try to heal him, looks devastated when nothing
works; no one thinks she would do anything like this. Of course,
even if she was getting some of Damian’s magic, she couldn’t be
sure that Rainen wasn’t still stronger than her. If Damian died and
Rainen was the stronger of the sisters, she would automatically get
boosted the head sorceress and Traina would only be second in
command.”

“I think that my sister’s plan all along was
to kill me then Damian. She sent the Zerpanay after me and assumed
it had killed me. She wouldn’t have ever thought that Hayden would
be with me to help me out. Thinking I was out of the way, she then
decided enough was enough and tried to choke what little life
Damian had out of him. Unfortunately for her, Grant came into the
room and caught her in the act. She killed Grant, but had to hold
off on killing Damian because of the attention the scuffle
caused.”

“Do you remember what happened?” I asked
her.

“I do. I didn’t realize what was happening
really until you asked me if I was getting tired. Then I heard her
chanting. I don’t know why I had never thought of a chanter’s curse
when it came to Damian. I tried to counteract it, Hayden. I didn’t
know what to use, really. She was sucking the energy out of you at
an unbelievable rate. I just kept multiplying it, trying to stay
ahead of her. I couldn’t keep up. She was pulling from me too, but
not as much. That’s when I heard Emelly start chanting. By then, I
was so weak that everything felt like a dream. Whatever Emelly was
doing she was doing it to Traina. I kept after you. You dropped and
Emelly got louder. The next thing I knew Traina dropped and I fell,
but just as I was blacking out Emelly chanted something totally
different, I saw you jerk in Jasper’s arms, Emelly fell, and that’s
all I remember.” She looked at William while I digested all of this
new information. She closed her eyes and leaned her head back. He
put a hand on her arm. “Will, could you go get Collin for me? I
need him to find someone for me.” William nodded and left.

“I wonder why Emelly isn’t waking up yet.” I
was still shocked to find out that our shy, little Emelly was a
chanter. “She must have known something. That’s why she came into
the room.”

Rainen nodded. “I’ll get Collin to find
Trista for us.” She shook her head, obviously angry with herself.
“I never thought to ask her to look at Damian. Most chants have to
do with death. All I could think of was the healing end of it. If I
had brought her in, she might have recognized what was
happening.”

Collin and William walked back into the
room.

“Rainen.”

“Collin. I need you to find Trista for me and
bring her here. I think she can answer a lot of the questions we
have.”

He nodded and left. She ran her hands over
her face.

“Are you alright, Rainen?” William looked
from her to me. I ran a green wave over her and nodded to him. She
was going to be just fine. Rainen smiled at him.

“I’m fine, William. Just tired.”

There was a knock at the door and Steven
poked his head into the room.

“William? Jasper? I think you need to see
this. I was walking back from the courtyard and I heard a group
being loud behind me. I turned and got a good glimpse of them. I
recognized at least three. They’re from Paradin.”

I looked at Collin as he walked into the room
with Trista. She was a couple of inches taller than me with silver
hair and grey eyes. She looked to be in her sixties. She nodded to
me respectfully and went to Rainen’s side.

Jasper turned to Collin. “We need to start
checking the packs. Steven says he recognized three humans a short
while ago.”

Steven nodded. “They were in the
courtyard.”

“Maybe that’s where we should set up. It has
the three walls around it. We can set our packs up at the entrance
so no one can escape.” Collin chewed on his lip thoughtfully.

“In Pinsaber we had the packs wait where they
couldn’t see what was happening so any humans that were there
wouldn’t try to run before we got to them. We did all of the packs
in the keep then checked the ones that came in from patrols as soon
as they came back.” Jasper waited for Collin to decide what he
wanted to do. This was, after all, his territory. Collin
nodded.

“That sounds good. I’ll send my men out to
find whoever is in from patrols. Hayden? When do you think you will
be ready?”

“I want to hear what Trista has to say. She
might be able to help us get Emelly better. Damian just needs to
sleep now. I give him a few more days and his energy should be back
to normal.”

He nodded.

“I’ll go with Collin if you don’t need me
here.” Jasper gave my hand a squeeze.

“Go. We shouldn’t be too long.”

He left with Collin and was followed by
Steven and William.

Trista smiled at me. “So, you’re Hayden.”

I grinned. “I know. I don’t look like
much.”

She started to laugh and I immediately liked
her.

“Trista, how long have you been chanting?”
Rainen asked her friend.

“Oh, let me see. I’m sixty two now and my
mother started to teach me chants when I turned of age. So, about
forty six years. Why?”

“Did you know Traina was a chanter?”

Trista jerked and the surprise was clear on
her face. Rainen visibly relaxed.

“Can someone explain to me what chanting is
exactly?”

Trista looked at Rainen who nodded.

“Chanting is a form of magic. It is a rare
art. I can think of about twelve beings that are chanters and that
includes me. I’m sure there are more, but they don’t like to
announce what they are. We meet twice a year and that is all the
contact we have with each other. We have rules like healers and
sorcerers. Chants are only to be used in battle and never on an
individual as a personal vendetta. That’s the main one. Also, never
use a chant that you can’t reverse.”

I nodded. “Can I nudge you?”

“Sure.”

I sent my nudge in her direction. The first
thing I checked was to make sure she was a Maj; she was. I then
checked to see how strong she was. I frowned and nudged again.

“You don’t have any magic!”

She smiled. “No chanter does. When we chant
we use the energy that is around us. And really, we don’t chant. We
hum.”

“Cool.” I was impressed. This was some
amazing information. “Why are there so few of you if you don’t need
magic to chant?”

“It is frowned upon. Most chants have to do
with death. It is mostly passed from mother to daughter now, simply
as a tradition.”

“Was your mother a chanter?” I asked
Rainen.

“She was, but I had no idea that she had
taught Traina.”

“I have never seen her at a meeting,” said
Trista. “But then again, I haven’t made it to all of them. If she
wanted to keep it a secret, she could have made sure to only go to
the ones she knew I wasn’t going to. Have you asked her?”

Rainen swallowed hard and shook her head and
I knew that despite everything that had just happened, she had
loved her sister and her loss was a great one. I put a hand on her
arm. She looked at Trista.

“Traina is dead.”

“What? When?”

“A week ago.” Rainen went on to explain the
events from the Zerpanay to our final encounter in Damian’s room.
Trista stood with her mouth open. She blinked and closed it.

“Are you sure? I mean…she’s never really
given any indications of wanting Damian’s position. I always
thought she might go after you to get second in command, but not
Damian!”

Rainen shook her head. “You can’t fake the
feel of your magic, Trista. It was her.”

“Wow. This is so bizarre. And who is
Emelly?”

“She is one of the humans that run with my
pack,” I explained. “I didn’t know she was a chanter either. She’s
still in a coma, but now that I know she had no magic to help her
heal, that will be easy enough to fix.”

“She’s never been to a meeting either.
Unless…well, I supposed she could have lied about her name. Do you
mind if I see her?”

“By all means.”

Rainen swung her legs over the edge of the
bed. “Help me up, will you girls? I’m about to get bed sores.”

I grinned. “William is going to have a
conniption when he sees you got up.”

She smiled. “You don’t mind? About
William?”

“Why would I mind?

“I’m Maj.” She shrugged.

I shook my head. “Haven’t you figured out
that I don’t care about what everybody is? How am I supposed to
judge? I’m the first crossbred kid from here and I mean, humans and
Wedelves don’t have much more in common than humans and
shifters.”

I wasn’t sure if it was the magic in this
world, but beings here were rarely single. “And besides, with
everything that’s happened, I never got the chance to tell you that
the next White One has been born.”

“I’m sure Melana will be pleased. She’s been
ruling for far too long.”

“Yes, well, the thing about this White One is
that her father is a panther.”

“But panthers aren’t bound to Melana.” Trista
was frowning.

“Neither are foxes.” I waited for this to
register and smiled. “Zane is a panther, Dawn is a fox and baby
Kara is the next ruler of the Namaels. We have no way of knowing if
she’ll shift into a cat or a dog because the mark behind her ear is
a circle and her aura is white.”

Rainen was shaking her head. “And then
there’s you and Jasper. I mean, I can’t wait to see what your baby
will look like. Human, Wedelve and Namael….” She stopped. “What
happened?”

I swallowed and tried to breathe through the
tightness in my chest. “It didn’t make it.”

She put a hand on my arm. “I’m sorry, Hayden.
I was concentrating on keeping you alive. It never occurred to me
to check on the baby.”

“It’s not your fault, Rainen.”

“Hayden?” Jasper came running into the room
followed by William. “What’s wrong?”

“Rainen! Lay down! You look like you’re about
to fall over!”

Jasper pulled me to his chest and William
helped Rainen back into bed.

“I’m fine, Hun. Sorry. I was just telling
Rainen about the baby. I thought I was shielding.”

He rested his chin on my head. “You were. I
couldn’t tell you were sad. Just that something was wrong.”

I struggled to keep the tears from
falling.

“Shush, Shlova. I’m here.” I looked up into
his sky blue eyes and let myself get lost in them. He brought his
lips down to mine and kissed me softly. I closed my eyes and had to
remind myself to breathe. He was right; he was here. Everything
would be alright, so long as we were together. I lay my head
against his chest and listened to his heartbeat.

“Better?”

I nodded. It would always amaze me how one
kiss from him could make everything else disappear, and though my
heart still ached with the loss of our child, the pain was now
bearable.

“Alright.” He kissed my forehead. “Did you
manage to resolve the problem with Emelly?”

“We were just heading over there.”

“I want to come,” stated Rainen. She was
having a stare down with William.

“You just woke up.”

“I don’t care.” She swung her feet over the
edge and paled.

“Jesus, Rainen.” He took one long stride to
the bed, picked her up, and cradled her to his chest. “I’ll carry
you over there.”

She smiled and closed her eyes. “Thank
you.”

He let out an exasperated breath. “You’re
welcome.”

As we walked to Rainen’s spare room where
Emelly lay, I couldn’t help but wonder where William’s heart truly
lay. I didn’t doubt his concern and friendliness towards Rainen. I
was even sure he might be falling in love with the woman. There
was, however, the conversation I’d had with him while in his
custody in Paradin. William missed our other world; had talked
about his house, his car, his girlfriend. The last time I had seen
him I had offered to help him cross back over the next time we met.
The look of relief in his eyes had been tremendous. Of course,
there was also the fact that he had never left Paradin, which in my
opinion was a very depressing city. And now, there was Rainen.

I glanced back and saw him kiss her forehead
as we walked. We stopped and Jasper knocked.

“Come in.” Matthew’s voice was muffled.

We walked in. I could see that Emelly hadn’t
moved. She still lay on her back, her arms at her side, her eyes
closed. Matthew sat in a chair with face down in his arms which he
had resting on the bed. He didn’t bother looking up.