Qaletaqa (40 page)

His lips pressed thin, but we didn’t have
time for arguing and he knew it. “What do we do then?”

I turned away from him to his surprise and
looked at Harvey. “When I say so, start running to the right.
Circle around so you can get close to Melody. I know you’re going
to want to try and grab her, but don’t. You can’t do it, Harvey.
Just get what you need and get back here as fast as you can. The
rest of us will do everything we can to keep the Matwau from
killing you.”

Harvey blanched just a little at my
frankness, but he nodded.

“Claire…” Uriah began.

“Just keep the Matwau off Harvey,” I said. I
was leaving out the reason behind this tactic, the plan I had come
up with what felt like ages ago. I could see in his eyes that he
knew all of this. “Please, Uriah, just trust me.”

One quick nod from him, and Uriah leapt away
from us.

He ran straight for the Matwau. Still tangled
up with Talon, the Matwau transformed into a gigantic panther and
crashed down on the raging cougar. Talon’s howl swept across the
valley. Blood ran down his shoulder and across his chest, but Uriah
did not slow to help his friend. None of us could, or more of us
would fall. I hoped Talon would survive as I raced through the
sand. Backhanding Melody hard enough that she collapsed to the
ground, the Matwau stood over her body and stood to meet Uriah.

As hard as it was to watch Uriah rush toward
such a terrifying creature, I prayed to the gods that Uriah would
be all he saw. I ran in the opposite direction as Harvey. If the
Matwau’s focus wavered, I wanted it to fall on me next. Harvey had
to get to Melody. He was almost there, so close to getting what we
needed, when the Matwau’s gaze snapped to his scrambling form.
Melody’s limp body was suddenly surrounded by the remaining
creatures, the ones Uriah hadn’t killed. They hadn’t run to her,
they were pulled by the Matwau’s power to her side, a not so subtle
indication of his newfound power.

Uriah saw the creatures and the Matwau’s
altered interest as well and sprang forward even faster. He wasn’t
fast enough. The Matwau's twisted power propelled him at Harvey
just short of a sonic boom. My whole body tensed as I waited for
them to collide. But it never happened.

35: Futile Fight

I knew I could never catch him. My eyes
tracked the Matwau as he rocketed toward Harvey, keeping Melody’s
guarded body in my periphery. A second before the Matwau
obliterated Harvey everything seemed to stop. In that moment of
suspension, I drew in a terrible breath and almost blinked. If I
had, I would have missed it.

Some force I couldn’t explain threw Harvey
and the Matwau apart. Sand exploded between them, arcing with them
as they flew back. I stumbled to a stop as Harvey bounced along the
sand. The heavier, more massive Matwau dug a furrow through the
desert floor as he skidded to a stop. I feared Harvey was dead
despite the bizarre experience, but his weakened body twitched and
he forced himself to sit up. That was all I needed to see. My gaze
and direction turned back to the Matwau. My dad taught me to fight
fair, but I had no intention of following that advice today. I sped
back toward the disoriented mound of evil fully intent on pounding
my fists into his flesh until he colored the sand scarlet.

“No! No, no, no!” the Matwau raged. “This
cannot be!” He was standing now. His fiery gaze bored into me.
“Whose protection is he under? Who did this?”

Protection? What was he talking about?
Suddenly my eyes widened in amazement. I remembered this. When the
Matwau tried to attack Daniel in Quaile’s presence she had repulsed
him, claiming Daniel was under her protection. Is that what Claire
had done to Harvey? Could she do it to me? That hope burst after
only a brief life. If she could have put her protection on me she
would have. No doubt the gods thought that would have tipped the
balance a little too much in my favor.

When I do die, whether it be today or years
from now, I’m going to have a few things to say to them about their
ideas of what is and isn’t fair.

“Where is the shaman?” the Matwau screamed.
“It’s one of you here. It has to be! A shaman can only reach so
far. Who is it?”

I had to strain to keep myself from turning
to look at Claire. I didn’t want anything in my expression or body
language to give her away and turn the Matwau's anger on her.
Refusing to look at where I thought Claire was, I was startled when
she came into view, sprinting in a wide arc around us to get behind
the Matwau. To get to Melody.

The Matwau was oblivious to Claire, still
raging. “I made sure! Neither of the Tewa shaman were chosen. There
was no one else!”

Claire was almost to Melody. Panic that the
Matwau would spot her nearly erupted out of me. My brain scrambled
to keep him distracted. “You don’t know everything, Matwau,” I
yelled at him. “You think because you’ve been alive so long you
know all the answers, the future. Well, you don’t! You can’t kill
Harvey, and you aren’t going to kill me either.”

“I will kill every single one of you!” he
screamed.

I wondered about that claim, but my thoughts
were too focused on Claire to spend much power on it. Her hand
reached out as she neared Melody, and my heart clenched. Don’t do
it! I begged. There was no way she’d be able to yank Melody’s dead
weight away from those creatures without getting herself killed.
Two more steps, and she swerved, dipping down briefly and darting
away before the beleaguered wolf could do more than snap at her. He
obviously didn’t consider her much of a threat. I couldn’t imagine
what the point of Claire’s feint had been, but movement from the
Matwau refused to let me ponder it.

Furious, he tore back to Melody’s side. His
creatures scattered at his appearance. Melody stirred just in time
to see the Matwau lunging for her. A wall of absolute terror hit me
as Melody’s emotions laid hold of my heart. The Matwau turned to
look down at her. His gaze was fixed.

“Killing you isn’t the worst thing I could do
to you, Uriah. I can make you suffer in so many other ways,” the
Matwau said. Laughter floated out of his twisted mouth as he pulled
Melody to her feet. “I can make it so you will beg me to kill you,
just to end the pain.”

His hand raised above her, inhuman claws
flashing in the sunlight. Melody’s eyes closed against the
inevitable as his hand began to fall.

I knew I was screaming. I could hear everyone
else screaming, but my body kept moving, hurtling me to the
Matwau’s side. My legs felt nothing. They pumped beneath me.
Independent of any thought, they carried me toward her. I felt her
heart beating in time with mine. Our eyes locked as she tried to
run, but a great clawed hand swept in between us. Pain exploded
across my chest and arm, but it was not mine. My legs wobbled as I
saw her fall.

The physical shock of her pain hitting me was
nothing compared to the terror of seeing her blood pool in the
sand. Without knowing how I got there, I found myself doubled over
on the ground. I could feel every drop of blood leaving her body,
burning a trail of bitter anguish as it slid away.

Uncontrollable fury took hold of me. I pushed
up from the sand and took the first step of a blind rush. I might
have run to my death just as he wanted if Claire hadn’t grabbed my
arm.

“Uriah, stop! You can’t fight him like
this.”

“I have to stop him. I won’t let him kill
her,” I said, venom dripping from every word. I glared back at the
Matwau still holding his gruesome pose. His eyes mocked me as he
waited for me to decide, because he knew I would come. Destiny,
vengeance, Melody, I would come.

Claire took a deep breath next to me. The
sound drew my gaze back to her. I saw her hands shaking at her
sides, a sight I found strange, though I couldn’t pinpoint why.
“You can’t save her by dashing into the Matwau’s hands. Uriah,
she’s dying! You have to help her.”

The agony of Melody’s pain when it hit me,
when I saw her fall, it had consumed me. I hadn’t even felt the
pull of the bond then. Now, it was all I could feel. Every cell of
my body cried out for her. My breathing became labored as I tried
to crawl over to her. Claire’s death grip on my arm held me back. I
was shaking so hard I could barely form the word. “How?”

“You have to form the bond,” Claire said.
“You have to touch her. The bond can heal anything. You know it
can. You saw it happen with Daniel.”

“I…I can’t touch her without getting to her
first. I have to kill the Matwau. Let go of me, Claire. I have to
kill him so I can save her.”

“No. All you have to do is touch this,”
Claire said, her hand extending toward me.

The strands of hair lying on her palm sent me
back a step. That was why she had run by Melody without trying to
pull her away. She knew all she needed was a piece of her to
complete the bond. She knew I would need this. She knew, and she
made it possible in spite of the agony it was obviously causing
her. Tears slid down her cheeks.

“No, not that. Please. I can’t,” I cried. I
had come so far. I had saved Claire’s life by finding her Twin
Soul. I had given my own blood in an attempt to save her again, and
save myself from a life of despair. I had given so much already. It
was just too much to ask me to do this, too. I wanted to go home.
With Claire. Go home to my mom and my ranch and live my life. I
didn’t want to touch Melody and seal my fate. There had to be
another way.

“Uriah, please,” Claire begged. “This isn’t
just about Melody. It will get you the extra power you need,
too.”

The power, only if we could walk away from
the bond. I wanted to be at her side more than anything right now.
Even with Claire holding onto me, touching me, talking to me, I
wanted to hold Melody and soothe her wounds. My hands started
shaking at the thought. “I can’t do it.”

“Please,” Harvey whispered. “You have to save
her. The bond…it will protect her, won’t it? He can’t hurt her if
the bond is made.”

Claire and I look at each other. The Matwau
said he would kill everyone. With the dark gods’ power fueling him,
all bets were off.

“Make your choice, Uriah!” the Matwau
screamed. “Watch her die, or face me and end this futile
fight!”

Looking up at Claire, I begged her to rescue
me from this.

“You have to save her, Uriah.” Her chin
quivered, but she refused to back down. “You can’t let her die.
Whatever happens after, you have to save her and get the power you
need to destroy the Matwau. If you don’t, we may all die.”

I knew I had to. I couldn’t let her die.
Claire was right, but the pull to Melody was so strong. My belief
in myself was fading fast. I would never survive against the bond
as long as Claire did. I had to break the bond right here.

I just wished I knew how.

“Claire, I don’t know how to break the bond.
Quaile said it was circular, giving up and getting power at the
same time, but I don’t know what that means.”

Frowning, Claire didn’t say anything for a
moment. She took in my words and held them for a moment before
looking back up at me. “You will, Uriah. You’ll understand when the
time comes.”

Her hand shook as she uncurled her fingers
and held them out to me. The auburn strands laid in perfect
stillness, waiting. My eyes met Claire’s. The steely determination
in them gave me strength. She wasn’t giving up on me yet.

“I won’t leave you,” I promised.

And then I took Melody’s hair.

36: One Thing

The blood didn’t disappear, but the gaping
holes in Melody’s chest and arm knitted themselves back together in
the most fascinating way. The color that had drained out of her
body along with her blood responded to the bond. Her cheeks flushed
pink and her lips parted as a gasp was ripped from her body. I
watched the phenomenon from the corner of my eye. As amazing as it
was, I was more concerned with Uriah.

For five blissful seconds he made no move
toward his Twin Soul. In that brief space of time I deluded myself
into thinking he had done it. He had resisted the pull of the bond.
The fantasy ended when the bond sped from Melody’s healed body and
washed over the entire valley. Everyone, the Matwau included,
collapsed to their knees. It was literally breathtaking. I couldn’t
force air into my lungs no matter how hard I tried. Their love was
physically stifling.

I was still trying to get a hold on myself
when I saw Uriah push to his feet. He stood facing her. The
expression on his face was pure adoration, but I could see the
trembling in his hand. The tremor gave me strength. He was
fighting. I knew he was.

But he was losing.

Uriah took a step forward. His feet drug in
the sand, but he kept going. One achingly slow step at a time, his
soul pulled him toward its partner, right into the Matwau’s
hands.

“Harvey,” I gasped, my fear finally springing
my voice free of the cloying effect of the bond. He didn’t turn to
look at me. His eyes were glued to Melody. He was crying. I yanked
myself up off the ground and shoved him hard. He nearly fell over,
but it was enough to steal his focus from her. “Harvey, we have to
do it now.”

His eyes widened. “Are you sure?”

“Yes, we don’t have much time.”

“But…but Melody’s safe now. The bond…it’s
going to protect her. Can’t we just run?”

“Even if we run, he’ll keep killing.” I
glanced at Uriah. He was a good ten feet away from us now.
“Besides, I don’t think the bond is going to protect Melody, not
here.”

As if he heard me, the Matwau snapped Melody
in front of him. One powerful arm wrapped around her chest and
pinned her in place. With his free arm he placed a clawed finger
nail against her cheek, drawing it down slowly. Even as far away as
Harvey and I were, we saw the trail of blood his touch left
behind.