Fated, A Timeless Series Novella (A Timeless Series Companion Novel) (20 page)

The plane lights dimmed, and I wrapped the provided blanket around me.
The memory of that day still lingered, even after all these years.
At the time
I was only twenty-eight years old—
newly Timeless
. Apart from my brothers, Dad, or Kieran as everyone else knew him, was my only family. Mom had disappeared shortly after I was born, and I’d never seen her again.
So I was pretty attached to Dad.
He taught me so many things, and helpe
d me through my transformation.

I shuddered.
That had been
the most
awful
experience of my life
.
At first it had started with shooting pains
in my calves
, but eventually m
y legs became
totally
paralyzed
from the hip down.
I’d been in a wheelchair
for weeks
, and
Callon had thought I’d caught polio as they’d been a recent epidemic.
I wasn’t so sure as I felt different, however,
I
never thought I’d be able to walk again. But Dad encouraged me
, and didn’
t doubt
once
that I’d pull through
.
He helped with my
physical
exercises every day, slowly building back my strength. And then a miracle happened. I’d finally managed to stand for the first time, and had been determined to try walking again. I’d been so focused on reaching the end of the hall, I suddenly ended up there.
And that was when I realized my Timeless power was jumping. Dad had
been prouder than ever
, as that had been
Mom’s power,
and it was one of the happiest moments I could remember
.

It hadn’t always been easy, though.
In the years before I was due to transform, Dad
had been terrified for my safety.
He
had every right to be, as he
and Adalmund, Qaysean’s father, were our le
aders in the war against
the Sarac
.
That made his family
a prime target
for our enemies
.
Already he’d lost Callon’s mother in the fighting, and he was pretty sure my mom had met a similar fate, too.
So,
between
his three sons
, I was the most vulnerable.
Callon was
already
involved in their
strategy
meetings and decisions
, and
Colt was just never around, preferring his travels abroad to shouldering responsibility for the war
.

So I spent years
locked up
in the manor.
I wasn’t allowed out past the grounds or the lake, and someone was always watching me. He even amended the enchantment, making it physically impossible for me to step over my prison boundary.
It had been the toughest time of my life, especially when I lost the ability to walk.
I’d been really miserable
, jealous that Colt could do whatever he wished and never get punished, while I was stuck.

Once I’d transformed, though, I was freed, and had gotten into more than enough trouble to make up for my lost years.
I spent some time abroad, and helped where I could on the front lines.

But t
hen, a month or so after my twenty-eighth birthday,
the worst happened
.
Callon had been due to attend a meeting with Adalmund and Qaysean regarding a
captured spy.
When
Dad
found out, he
insisted that he go instead, as he
was very
friendly with
Adalmund
and knew that Callon and Qaysean didn’t always
get along as easily
.
Callon had no reason to say no, and so
he
stayed behind while Dad
left
with a small escort
.

It turned out to be a trap.
One of
Callon’s
most trusted friends
, the one who
’d
arrange
d
the meeting,
had
actually planned
an ambush.
Dad and the four who went with him fought valiantly, but they were completely outnumbered and not a single one survived.
The attackers then sent
us
a message, the paper splattered with our father’s blood, informing us of what had happened
, and what fate awaited
if we continued to resist
.

We were all devastated, and none more
so
than Callon.
The attack had been meant for him, and he
could never get over his guilt for letting Dad take his place.
On top of that
, our alliance with the Kvech was weaker, as Dad and Adalmund had been very close.
Callon’s friendship with Qaysean just wasn’t
as strong
.

For almost four years after this, Callon spiraled into a depression.
He could just about
help Qaysean with battle plans
, but each day grew harder and harder.
He started to shut himself in his room for long periods, refusing to eat or rest. He stopped reading his journals, and started to let his medical skills slip.
Eventually
Qaysean
grew
impatient
with this
, and started taking
major
decisions by himself.
Callon had less and less involvement, until he’d almost dropped out of the picture completely.
The other clans began to frown on us for failing in our duties, particularly as Colt continued to
spend long periods away from home
, and I was simply too young and inexperienced to know how to lead
.

Callon’s condition only worsened, no matter what we tried.
It got to the point where he
stopped
talk
ing
to us
altogether, and we wouldn’t see him for days on end
.
One night we heard a noise, so
Colt and I
broke in
to his room. We found
him on the floor,
an empty syringe in his hand and
huge quantities of empty morphine vials in his bathroom.
Thankfully Dex had been around at the time, and w
e’d been lucky to bring him back
.

After that,
one of us had to stay with him at all times, and we also hid his medical bag
.
He never tried that again, but s
till, nothing seemed
to snap him out of it
.
We became desperate, fearing for his safety, and whether we’d ever see the old Callon again.

In the end, though, Callon made the decision on his own.
He knew better than anyone how he was acting, and how much harm he was doing to himself and his family.
He was guilty for not taking his responsibilities as Consilador leader, and knew that he couldn’t mope around forever. So he announced he
was going to l
eave the O’Shea manor for good, and co-ordinate things from an outpost in Montana.

The news shocked everyone
, but we knew it had to be this way, otherwise Callon would never make peace with what had happened to Dad.
He’d left for Montana
almost right away
, and Colt had followed shortly after.
I’d ended up staying, as the place was still too much my home for me to abandon it so freely.
It had hurt, though, seeing my family scatter in such a short period.
And Callon made good on his promise; he hadn’t returned home in almost one hundred and fifty years.

Now, for the sake of Cheyenne, he was going to
forsake the past and
break that oath
.

I could only pray the memories wouldn’t come back to haunt us.

“Welcome back, Danny
-boy
!”

I smiled as I caught sight of Ryan, who wav
ed
at me from
the arrivals lounge.
There was no mistaking that thick Irish accent.
He w
as dressed in a
dark
coat and carr
i
ed a large black
umbrella.
His chin was stubbled, and his sandy-blonde hair had been slicked back.

“Good to see you too, Ryan,” I said, tipping my fedora.
Ryan laughed, and
hurried over to take
my suitcase.

“Good flight?”
he asked, leading me through the crowd towards the short-stay parking lot.

“
Not bad
,” I replied,
as we
walk
ed
past
the automatic doors and into the crisp, rainy air. The sky was
gray
, and the roads slick with moisture.
No different to the usual weather, then.
“
How have things been here?
”

“
Wet,”
Ryan grinned, heading towards his car.
He threw
open the trunk
and dumped my cases inside
, then gestured me to sit
.
“You must’ve enjoyed the weather in Idaho.”

“Wasn’t as
damp
, that’s for sure,” I said, taking the passenger seat.

“Got that right,” Ryan answered. “
It’s been chilly, too.
In fact, o
ver winter
I found a
crack in the heating pipes in the manor, so
I’ve just spent a fortune fixing the boiler
.
Should all be working fine, now
.”

I nodded, watching as we reversed out, then w
eaved
through the maze of signs to exit the airport.
The rain pelted the winds
hield
, and Ryan had to turn the wipers to maximum speed.
It was a
long
drive to the manor, and we’d have to go carefully because of the slippery conditions.
I wasn’t in any rush, though.
From the sounds of it, Ryan seemed to have the manor taken care of from a maintenance point of view.
I just needed to make sure
the
areas
we wouldn’t want Cheyenne wandering were locked
, and all the secret passages were out of her reach
.

The scenery
was
a hazy blur
of green and
gray
, and I made some small talk with Ryan to pass the journey.
His father was recovering from a recent chest infection, and
his youngest daughter had just started school. Also,
along with the boiler
repair
,
he’d
had to
replace a couple of the carpets because of a water leak.
Otherwise the place was pretty much as I’d left it.

What weighed on my mind, though, was the state of the enchantment.
Only the Consilador leader could renew it, and thanks to Callon’s vow,
the barrier
was in
very poor shape
, as Dad had been the last one to repair it
.
I didn’t know exactly how
the spell
worked, but none of Marcus’s forces had ever managed to break through.
I’d gone on patrols
before
and see the dead
Tresez that had come too close, which was more than enough proof for me.
Eventually Marcus had stopped trying, and moved his attention elsewhere.