Page 16 of Destined

“I know Colm told you I’m the spellsinger,” Kayla said. “So don’t annoy me.” She glanced at her sister. “It’s not weirding you out, is it?”

“Not really. I mean, you can talk to horses in your mind. That was weird.” She bumped her shoulder against Kayla’s. “By the way, I saw Tara and Jannon eating together at breakfast. Think she’s going to be all right now?”

“If Dirk doesn’t get at her again, yeah, I hope so.” Kayla glanced up at the clear sky, and watched Fallon fly across it. “What are they waiting for, anyway?”

“More of their skunk kin to poot at us, I imagine.” Christine gestured at some archery targets one of the men had set up. “Let’s go do some shooting. It always makes me feel better to put an arrow in something.”

“I need to work on my control.” Kayla told her sister about what she’d done in the pine thicket. Then a thought occurred to her. “How do you get everything so perfect when you use your ability? Is there something you see in your mind when you’re thinking about it?”

Christine shook her head. “I never think about it. If I do, it just messes me up. Come on, I’ll show you.”

After retrieving some bows and arrows from Wallace’s cottage, Christine took Kayla to the makeshift range and moved two targets into place.

“Taking any shot is always about two things: seeing and feeling.” She notched an arrow and raised the bow. “I look at what I want to hit. Really look at it, and see everything about it: how big it is, the distance between me and it, anything in the way, and the spot where I think I can do the most damage. Then I go into myself, in that place where my little trick comes from, and soak it up. I don’t know what to call it—power, energy, talent, whatever—but it’s like water. I jump in.” She raised the bow. “And I shoot.”

Kayla watched the arrow fly and bury itself in the center of the target.

“And you really don’t think about it at all?”

“I don’t have to. I trust myself. Always have.” She handed the bow to Kayla. “Now your turn. Show me some magick, girlfriend.”

Christine had to show her how to hold and draw the bow before she stepped away. Kayla looked at the target. Not thinking about shooting seemed bizarre to her, but she focused on the target and saw the spot she wanted. Reaching into herself for the power that she had only just discovered was strange, but it was there. Kayla only knew one song about arrows, and as she released the bowstring she sang four words from it. Her arrow whizzed through the air and landed in the exact spot she’d chosen: dead center.

Just as Christine began clapping her hands the target exploded, showering them both with bits of straw, paper and shattered arrow.

“Yeah, I think we need to work on that power part.” Her sister shook out her hair. “And can you heal half-mortals by touch? ‘Cause I’m thinking that might come in handy, too.”

The sunlight dimmed, and Kayla felt something cold splash on her head. She glanced up to see dark clouds billowing over the camp—too quickly to be natural.

“Christine?”

Fallon flew beneath the clouds, and a shaft of lightning struck him, sending him hurtling to the ground.

“Oh, shit, it’s them,” Christine said. As a hard, cold rain suddenly pounded down on them, Christine grabbed her hand. “Run.”

As they fled toward the cottages Kayla squinted through the rain at the sky. It was black with shadow portals. Sickly yellow light glimmered as more of the Blackstones’ nightmarish water creatures fell onto the dragons standing guard. As fire blasted from their roaring mouths, it hit the rain and turned to steam. The tentacled monsters dragged them into the lake, extinguishing their flames.

“Kayla,” Ryan shouted.

She looked over to see Ryan and Colm running toward them, only to be buried beneath a huge creature falling from the sky.

“Colm!” Christine screamed, as she and Kayla ran toward them.

She grabbed some branches from the trees they passed and flung them at the monster.

Colm struggled out from under it as it retreated from Christine’s attack. But it oozed into the lake before Kayla could reach it. She caught a glimpse of Ryan’s bright hair before the monster submerged, taking her lover with it. Jannon, Wallace and the other Fae warriors rushed past Kayla, their swords drawn as they dove into the lake. A moment later all of them came flying out of the water to land on the ground and in the trees.

Kayla’s throat tightened as a shadow spread over the lake, covering the seething water until it became a bottomless abyss.

Titan, she thought, reaching for the mind of the giant stallion. Please, come and help us.

We are trapped.

The herd leader sent back an image of shadow portals enveloping the barn.

Should we try to break through them?

No, Kayla thought back to him. Stay away from the shadows.