Destiny (1)
Chapter 19

If I believed in a deity, I would be pleading to it right now.

Three days (or at least they would have been days if I were on Earth) or gruelling work, drained me of all energy.

The activities consisted of:

Trying to make a vine faster than Dean could run (totally unfair. That guy is the sixteen-year-old version of Usain Bolt.)

Decorating a flower bed with, well, flowers

Creating a weapon that I could fight with (mainly vine whips

Disarming traps (which, I have to say, had nothing to do with plants)

And other tortures…

They caused the mark on my forearm to burn, I’d noticed. Every time I tried to hard, it flared up. Dean had built me up, and I had grown powerful. I now had to concentrate to stop myself from letting out a burst of plants 24/7.

Ash and I took alternating sessions, separately. Ash had changed. Ever since that first night, he hadn’t been the same.

“Kill me now,” I groaned, sweating with the exertion.

“I would, but then all of my hard work would have been for nothing,” grinned Dean, swinging another branch at me.

I jumped over it, but my foot caught on it. I stumbled, and landed flat on my face.

“Are we done now?” I said, my voice muffled by the cold, marble floor of the training hall. That building we’d walked in before? That was where we’d been training the past few days.

And most of our sessions ended with me on the floor.

Ash stumbled in the room.

“Is it time for my turn, now?”

Dean smiled.

“Actually, it’s time to go. I’ve trained you enough.”

“Really?” I blinked. I scrambled up, and brushed myself down.

“Yep. Goodbye.”

Dean waved his hand, before anyone could stop him, and the world spun. When it came back into focus, we were standing on a cliff side. I exhaled sharply. My breath puffed out in a cloud of white, reminding me of the cold.

“This is really it,” I whispered.

“Fay, come quick,” Ash’s voice called to me, and I turned and ran.

“What is it?” I said as I caught up to him.

He didn’t reply. I glanced to where he was looking.

Three posts were poking out of the hill. Tied to them were Mya, Sasha, and…

Dean.

But wasn’t he just with us?

Ash gasped. Dean had just made the slightest movement. Small, but noticeable.

He opened his eyes and winked.

“Hm. They decided to show up.” We swung round, and saw a late teen boy. It was the same one. The same one who had tried to stop me and Josie getting home, all that time ago. The same one who I despised, who Josie kneed in the shin.

“Who are you?”

He took another step towards us.

“Hayden Mydes, a pleasure to meet my mother’s murderer.” He eyed me carefully.

“What? I didn’t murder your mother.”

“No, your parents did,”

“That’s not my fault,”

“So you say,”

He circled us suspiciously.

“I know more about you than you know about yourself, Fay. My mistress has informed me well.”

I glanced at Ash. He was paralysed, still, in the same position as he was before.

Before, I’d thought that he’d been too scared to move, but as I studied his face more carefully, I noticed small icicles hanging from his pale skin. He was frozen.

I gasped and stumbled backwards.

“What have you done to him?!” I screamed, terrified.

Hayden laughed loosely. “Relax, he’s not dead. He’s just… a little stuck.”

I widened my eyes.

“Come with me, Fay, and I’ll introduce you to my pets.”

I stumbled back again. “I’m not going anywhere with you,”

Hayden sighed. “Very well, they can come to you.”

He put both his little fingers in his mouth, and blew. It let out an shrieking whistle, and I clapped my hands over my ears in horror.

A cloud of mist wafted towards us.

I blinked. “Your weapon is a cloud?” I mocked.

“Wait for it…” sneered Hayden.

That was when it sped up, and enveloped me.

I fumbled blindly, staring around. I was stuck in the mist, and droplets of water were beginning to gather on my hoodie. Hayden’s wicked laugh echoed from all around.

A sinister growl was shot at me from all directions.

I could have sworn there were multiple.

Something sharp scratched my ankles, and I fell down. Four paws clambered on top of me.

I turned my head, and saw two beady eyes staring back at me. They were they eyes of a wolf. It reared, opening its mouth, ready to bite.

I scrambled up, quickly shutting my eyes, focusing on my training. A sharp squeal rang out, and as I opened my eyes, the wolf was tied down under a net.

All around me, the mist flickered with lightning. It struck the ground with a loud rumble, just two feet away. If I had been standing there, it would have been bye-bye birdie.

So, now blinded by the lightning, I stumbled around, unable to see.

Hundreds more growls ricocheted around.

Uh oh.

I shut my eyes again, and the mark on my arm burned again. A cocoon of leaves swallowed me, leaving only a small gap around my eyes.

I probably looked like a green snowman right now.

The wolves hurled themselves at me, but I couldn’t feel it.

The mist cleared as I reached the edge of it. I screamed.

My toes were hanging off the edge of the cliff.

I scrabbled away from it, and around the mist. Hayden smiled as I saw him gripping Ash’s frozen shoulders, adjacent to the cliff.

And he pushed.