In Rapture (Destined) (18 page)

The
black wolf, with red streaks of fur around his ears, stepped closer to the
wagon and his fur was singed the moment it touched the shield. A loud yelp
sounded around them. While the shield remained intact Malinda sought whatever
help she could from around them. Her eyes lit upon a large nest of bees that
hung menacingly low in a tree to the left. She sent her request for help,
informing the bees that while these wolves preyed upon the world around them
their hive would never be safe. She could hear a low hum in her ear that let
her know that the bees had heard her request. Malinda saw the small line start
to swirl its way in the air, a hypnotic dance that carried across the space
between them so quickly that the wolves did not know what hit them. Wave after
wave of bees flew at the wolves surrounding the cart. The wolves bit at the air
as sharp stings from the bees made their legs jump around in reflex. Had the
situation not been dire Malinda would have burst out laughing at the comical
dance in front of her.

Malinda
could see that the bees were not going to be enough to keep the wolves from
their attacks so she sent out a plea to any creatures that could help chase
away these brutal enemies. Malinda had never asked for help from the animals
around her before, not like this. She had only used her gifts to help all
creatures great and small, so when she saw the ravens from the forest take
flight into the air she was amazed at how easily they had accepted her request
for help. There were hundreds of birds flying overhead, so high that they
looked much like the ashes of a fire floating high in the skies above them.
Malinda saw them group up and watched as they dove like an arrow together.
Darts of black feathered nightmares pitched toward the ground below them. Soon,
the birds were taking turns pecking at the werewolves. In groups of ten to
twenty, the birds attacked each of the culprits, making it difficult for the
werewolves to dispatch them.

Malinda
looked on in awe as the birds and bees worked together to assault the wolves
around them. Malinda heard a cry from ahead of her and looked up to see Grant
with a small contingency of men. Their horses were headed toward Malinda and
Sophia. The werewolves must have seen them too, for their ears had perked up
and their tails had lifted cautiously behind them. They looked to the wolf in
front of the cart and, when he nodded his head into the air and took off, they
followed him.

Malinda
sat still in the cart, a small frisson of fear finally making its way up her
back. She sent her gratitude to her helpers, thanking them for risking their
lives to aid them, and sent a blessing for their continued health and safety
into the air. She focused the rest of her energy into keeping the protective
shield up around her. When Grant made it to the cart she let the shield
collapse. She hugged Sophia tightly to her and gathered courage to face her
husband. She knew that he was not going to be happy with her.

“Grant,
I—”

“What
were you thinking? You can’t just leave the manor like that! The Lair could be
anywhere. Not only did you put yourself at risk, you put my child at risk.”
Grant felt his heart still hammering dangerously in his chest. He did not know
what he would have done if Malinda or Sophia had been harmed before he had a
chance to rescue them.

Tears
welled up in her eyes and a slight wobble entered her voice as she worked up
enough courage to respond to him. “You’re right. I didn’t think.” She had
nothing more to say.

“Papa,
did you scare the birds away?” Sophia’s eyes looked up at Grant with
disappointment. “I like the birds, Papa.”

“Birds?”
Grant’s perplexed face looked over at Sophia. “What birds, Sophia?”

“The
ones Mama called down from the heavens. And the bees too, Papa. You scared away
the bees too.”

“Malinda?”
He wondered what his child was carrying on about.

His
voice cut across the silence, but Malinda refused to answer it. She looked away
from him and stared at the ground below them. It was bad enough for him to
treat her as if she had deliberately put
his
child in danger. In that
moment in time he had made it clear where she truly stood in his life. She was
just a wife, just a woman he had paid good money to marry so that she could
help raise
his
child. The anger rose in her along with her hair that now
crackled with electricity around her. Malinda did the best she could to calm
herself before anyone else could notice, but the merry twinkle in Grant’s eyes
made it clear that he had seen the energy race through her. Before her emotions
could do any damage she dropped the reins, jumped down from the cart, and made
a mad dash into the forest. Grant called after her, but Malinda did not care.
She ran until her surroundings no longer looked familiar, and while the Lair
could still be lurking around any corner, she did not care.

Her
heart beat an angry rhythm against the wall of her chest and she found it hard
to control her breathing. Every burst of air that entered her lungs expunged
into dry sobs that stung the silence around her. The tears that ran down her
face crippled her, for she knew the pain she was feeling was dangerous, more
dangerous than a sharp serpent’s poisonous fangs. If Malinda was not careful,
she would find a realization that would break every inch of her into
nothingness. She pushed back her thoughts, pushed back past the wall that
separated dreams from reality. In her dreams, she could easily see Grant before
her. His devilishly handsome face, his golden eyes, the long blonde curls that
he tried to keep tamed behind his ears. Malinda could feel the touch of his
lips on hers and the strong hands that carved pathways down her aching body.
She felt the glow of a peaceful light surround her, but only in her dreams. For
in reality these feelings were anything but calm. They had destroyed everything
her mother could ever have hoped to be. She put her hands to her head and
squeezed her eyes shut against the madness, a madness that could cost her
everything, but a madness that, if she was truthful, she desired more than
anything. It was in that moment that she realized she could no longer fight it.

She
fell to her knees and looked desperately to the heavens above. She loved him.
What was she going to do? It was the curse of Lena to love so hard, so fully,
that the world around you tilted on its axis. She sat there on her knees and
did not hear the snap of the twigs behind her.

When
Malinda looked up she saw something entirely unexpected. “Mother?”

The
spirit that stood before her was almost a mirror of herself, except for the
blue eyes that looked at her daughter sorrowfully. Her black hair was wound
around her head in tiny little braids and decorated with small white flowers.
She raised her hand out to touch to Malinda’s face, but dropped it before she
could make contact.

“What
are you doing here?” Malinda climbed to her feet swiftly and moved several
steps away from the ghost.

The
translation of Andraya’s sadness was easy to comprehend, for tears ran down her
face like rain drops trailing down a window pane. “To give you the chance I
never had.”

Malinda’s
eyes narrowed at the woman before her. “Please. You had a chance.”

“I
did, but I was too afraid to fight. Too afraid to live. You are none of those
things. You have a choice.”

“Choice?
There is no choice, Mother.”

“Fight
for it, Malinda. That’s all I had to do. If I had known then, if I could change
the past…so many ifs, my sweet beautiful child. The only thing I can do is
carry the message you should have been given.” Her sadness invaded the empty
space in between them.

“What
message?” Malinda could not help the scowl that marred her face.

“Do
not fear love. Fight for it. It is worth fighting for. You have so much more
courage, so much more fight in you than I ever did. I cannot ask for
forgiveness, Malinda. I do not deserve it. I was a coward. Love can break you,
it can make you turn yourself inside and out, and with the blood of Lena
running through your veins, love can be an awesome burden to carry. Your magic
is founded on it. Love for the world around you, the people in your lives, love
for yourself. If you fear the power of love forever you will never know the
true power of Lena.” Andraya waved her hand in the air and small darting lights
chased the darkness in the clearing around them. They zipped and zoomed in
every direction, creating a dazzling display of light that was blinding. They
soon swarmed around Malinda and a hum of energy blanketed the time and space
around her.

Malinda
felt the world spin out from underneath her. Everything turned upside down and
inside out. A cloud of darkness covered her as she crashed to the ground. She
felt transported through time and space, moving so quickly her body could not
keep up with her mind as she traveled back to where it all started.

She
saw her mother standing before Marshal Madigan. His eyes were red as he begged
her not to leave, telling her that he no longer cared about his title, money,
any of the material things that his former life had offered. Malinda watched as
her mother turned away from him with tears clouding her eyes as she told him
that he was nothing without all those things and that she did not want a simple
life. Malinda saw her mother as she walked away from Marshal, saw her leave the
small church and make her way into the deep undergrowth of the forest before
she collapsed on the ground. Then she had finally given way to the sorrowful
sobs that ricocheted around the air like an echoing thunder that shattered the
stillness of an abysmally quiet night.

Malinda
suddenly understood a lot about why her mother did not recover from her love
for Marshal. She did not suffer a broken heart as many women of Lena did; the
actual act of loving another person had not destroyed her. She had been
punished for carelessly throwing away the love that had been destined for her.
Destiny was a fickle mistress, for sometimes, if you departed from the path
that had been carved into the stepping stones of your life, everything could be
lost in a heartbeat. There was only one reason that destiny had not destroyed
her instantaneously: Malinda’s life had already started to glimmer inside
Andraya like a star peeping out of the dark night sky, and even though Andraya
had not known at the time, it was no secret to the universe. It all made sense
to Malinda now that she had all the pieces. Malinda had set out to destroy any
chances at love by holding herself far away from any opportunity for love, but
somewhere along the line, she had found out that sometimes loving people was
entirely safe and worthwhile. She had loved her grandparents deeply and that
love had never destroyed her. She had loved Sophia the instant she saw the
troubled child walk through her bedroom door. If loving them was easy, perhaps
loving Grant might not be as troublesome as she thought. The only pitfall to
loving someone else was that you could not guarantee the other person could
love you back.

Did
it matter, though? They were married. Their lives were interwoven the moment
their vows had been exchanged, even if by proxy. She knew that Grant struggled
with his ideals of love and marriage, but if Malinda could get over her fear of
loving another person there was hope for him too. Until she felt safe enough to
reveal her love to him she would keep it under wraps. She would do the only
thing she could. She would learn to love without fear, to hope for a life that
brought peace to her heart, and to move forward with enough courage and
strength to move mountains.

Chapter 23

After
sending one of his men back to the manor with Sophia, Grant followed Malinda
into the woods. “Malinda?”

He
had not meant to yell at her, especially in front of Sophia, but seeing the
cart surrounded by Lair werewolves had sent him into a panic. While he had not
seen the birds and bees attacking the werewolves around her, he had seen them
fly away. He had also seen the large shield of light that had surrounded the
cart. Though he should have been able to trust her with Sophia’s protection he
had been transported back to another place in time, to when Maria had been
attacked by Seamus Finnigan, and he had been unable to save her. A rush of
emotions had raged through his body, pumped through his veins like a fiery
adrenaline. He lashed out at her unfairly. He had seen the display of emotions
run across her face, the sadness mixed with confusion, and then an anger mixed
with despair before her lasting image, a stricken face that had jolted him to
the core. He had not meant to hurt her, only to get her to understand the
dangers that surrounded them. His best intentions had sent her careening into the
forest, where the Lair had retreated to only moments before.

Grant
led his horse behind him as he tracked the crumbled leaves and broken twigs
that her feet had stumbled over, his heart racing as the light of day started
to evaporate from the sky. When he found Malinda she was curled up on the
ground between a small grove of trees. He quickly tethered the black horse to
the nearest tree before moving to retrieve her from where she lay. His fear
stuck in his throat like a spoonful of hardened oats that scratched his throat
painfully as he tried to swallow it down. His feet traveled much too slowly for
his racing mind, and when he finally reached her body a lifetime had already
seemed to pass. Grant put his hand at her temple, and his eyes took in the rise
and fall of her chest. He ran his hands over her body, checking for any outward
sign of damage. When he picked her up she never stirred. Her body curved
naturally into his as he walked across the forest floor to where his horse
stood nickering lightly to him. She was lighter than he had remembered as he placed
her across the saddle so that he could climb atop the horse. Once his legs
safely straddled the horse he pulled her body back into his arms.