by Wendy Knight
The clock said three p.m.
“Holy crap! You let me sleep all day?” she bellowed, fully awake now and swinging her legs out of bed before the pain could stop her.
“Not let you, exactly…” Fate winced and looked away. Her sister, as usual, looked stunning, albeit bruised and tired.
Destiny dropped her head to her chest. “What did I do?”
Quin held his hands out, helping her to her feet. He, too, looked gorgeous. Especially up close.
Until she realized he had a black eye that he had definitely not had the night before.
“Holy crap.”
He smiled and it was adorable and broke her heart. “You didn’t want to wake up.”
She felt her cheeks flame. She had punched him. “I’m so sorry.”
“You’re pretty when you blush,” he said quietly, ducking so he could see into her face. Her battered, bandaged face. With the messy, wild hair. And filthy, probably. And her breath.
She clapped a hand over her mouth. “I need to brush my teeth.”
Fate smiled, handing over a toothbrush. “Get to it. We’ve gotta get moving.”
“How do you know the warlocks are coming?” she asked through her fingers, edging around Quin, who still watched her with amusement.
“The coven has alerted us. They track their movements.” Luca hesitated and refused to meet her eyes. “And their movements have all coagulated on you. Every warlock they can sense is following you, Destiny.”
“Us,” she snapped. “They’re following all of us. We don’t know who they want. When we got attacked yesterday, they followed you and Fate when you tried to leave. I had to sing for them to follow me. For all we know, it’s Fate they’re after. Or you!”
“I hardly think—” Luca started, but Fate cut him off.
“I think it’s less important to figure out who they’re following than it is to just stay ahead of them.”
Luca nodded. “Yes, of course. Destiny, as soon as you’re ready.”
“We have to go get my truck. It’s at Hope’s.”
“You can’t seriously think you’re going to drive all the way to the coven.” Damien raised an eyebrow.
“I am,” she said around a mouthful of toothpaste. She gave him a look in the mirror that defied argument. All three men backed off.
Fate laughed. “All right then. Let’s go get her truck.”
****
QUIN HAD RIDDEN WITH Fate when she’d been searching for her sister, and now he rode with Destiny as she was chased by warlocks.
They drove the exact same. Too fast and yet completely in control.
She checked in the rearview mirror repeatedly.
“They’re not there,” he said quietly when he noticed her doing it for the fifteen thousandth time.
She opened her mouth but hesitated. He knew immediately that he wasn’t going to like what she would say. “Quin, if they are… if they catch us, you have to take Fate and my dad and you have to run. They’ll try to stop. But you can’t let them. You have to save them.”
Quin froze. Her words were like nails to his heart. Just the thought of leaving her behind — the images it dragged into his head — “Destiny, you can’t be—”
“Look at the trees.” Her voice was hollow.
He frowned, glancing out the side window. The trees billowed.
Quin swallowed hard. Fear coiled in his stomach — fear for Destiny. He couldn’t let them hurt her, but what could he do to stop them? He couldn’t even throw a potion at them. A baseball bat was pretty much all he was good for.
“You can throw potions. They’re not as potent when a—a male,” her cheeks pinked, “uses them. But still effective.”
“What if I was a girl but not a witch? Are your potions sexist?”
She giggled.
He felt like he’d just won the Superbowl. Because he’d made her laugh.
Yeah, he had it bad.
“My potions prefer witches. They react the same to non-magical male and female people. I think. I mean, when we did the love spells at our last schools, the girls—”
“Schools? As in more than one school?”
Destiny blushed. “Three. Three schools. Word gets around.”
Quin threw his head back and laughed. “Three? Seriously?”
She grinned sideways over at him.
She hadn’t checked the rearview mirror in at least three minutes.
He was a superhero.
“What, like you’ve never been expelled?” she asked when she’d turned her attention back to the road.
“Expelled? I’ve never even been suspended. Or in detention. The secretary loves me. I don’t even get in trouble for being late.”
“Because you’re a witch’s kid?”
He frowned. “I don’t—what? Why would she care?”
Destiny smirked. “She’s a witch.”
“Ms. Kearsty? No way. I’ve been at this school for three years—”
Destiny shrugged. “I’ve been there for what… a month now? Two months? I figured it out in the first week.”
Suddenly, what Ms. Kearsty had said when Quin had gone there looking for Destiny made sense. She’d been down south… She’d been at the coven when the warlocks had attacked the school. That’s what she meant.
Quin sat back with a whoosh, all the air expelling from his chest in shock. “I can’t believe it. All this time…”
Destiny fought to hide her smile. And failed. “Your mom never told you?”
“I guess—I guess I never asked. I just assumed she was the only one. How did you find out?”
Destiny glanced over quickly, raising an eyebrow. “Her wand is on her desk.”
Quin closed his eyes, trying to remember if he’d ever actually looked at Ms. Kearsty’s desk. Yes… it was brown, standard issue like the rest of the desks in the school. Lots of stacks of papers, a see-through square box with decorative rock that she stuck pencils in—
“That wasn’t a pencil. That was her wand.” Destiny started laughing. “I thought you were supposed to be the witch expert!”
“I’ve failed,” he said in disbelief. “I can’t even.”
Her eyes sparkled when she laughed. He’d heard about eyes sparkling — it was in like every book his mom ever read, and TV shows claimed it happened all the time — but he’d never seen it. Not until now. And now, they definitely sparkled, practically throwing rainbows all over the truck. For the first time in his life, he was struck dumb. Words fled, and his mouth just hung open like a fish.
Abruptly, her laughter died and her face closed off. It was like sunlight in her face one second, and dead of night the next. “Destiny?”
She swung the wheel and they spun around a ninety degree corner going at least eighty miles per hour. The truck squealed, lifting onto its two side wheels, and he thought they were going to roll. Somehow, the big black truck regained its composure and they barreled down the road, straight for Garden City and Bear Lake. “Destiny!”
When she still didn’t respond, Quin dug his phone out of his pocket. It was already ringing. “She’s gone. Whatever it is, it took over again. She’s not responding at all.”
Fate didn’t sound surprised at all. “I was afraid of that. We’re turning around.”
In the background, Luca was yelling. Fate sucked in a breath. “Quin, the warlocks aren’t far behind. They can outrun us when the wind blows, but not the trucks. But if Destiny’s going to take a detour…”
“I’ll do what I can,” Quin said. He hung up when he saw he big white truck fly around the corner behind him, Range Rover right behind her. He pulled his pocket knife out of his other pocket, flipping it open. “Destiny, I’m sorry. I don’t want to do this.” He reached for her.
For two seconds, she returned. He saw her eyes come back to life, and they pleaded with him. “Not yet, Quin. Not yet.”
“But the warlocks, Destiny—”
She was gone again, but he couldn’t get that look out of his head
. Whatever she was after now, she knew it was important, and she wasn’t fighting this. Who was he to argue?
Fate was going to kill him.
She answered on the first ring. “Why isn’t she stopping?”
Quin hesitated, unsure how to put it, exactly. “She doesn’t want to.”
“How do you know what she wants?” Fate yelled. “She’s trapped inside her own head!”
“Because she un-trapped herself and told me!” he snapped back.
Fate was silent for several seconds. “Oh.”
“Look, I don’t know where she’s going, she didn’t say, but her eyes.” Before he could finish that thought, Destiny was flying around another corner. This time, she did slow a bit, so there was no threat of imminent death, but it was still reckless enough that if he hadn’t had his seatbelt on, he would have toppled right into her. They passed a sign talking about campgrounds and a cave of some sort, but he didn’t get a chance to read it all.
“What’s Minnetonka Cave?” Fate was yelling.
Apparently, she had gotten a chance to read it.
Before Quin could answer that he was clueless, he heard Luca talking about some natural feature and how cool it was, but not appropriate at a time like this.
“That’s where she’s going,” Fate said confidently. “Whatever Destiny is after, it’s in that cave.”
He glanced over at Destiny. She met his eyes and smiled.
CHAPTER TWENTY
AFTER ALL THIS TIME FIGHTING, DESTINY had finally figured it out. Don’t fight the bars in her head, and they’d go away. Do what she was supposed to do, and she’d be free to do it.
Easy peasy.
Except that she’d heard Luca. She knew the warlocks were too close for this little side quest. But she also knew that just because she’d learned to play nice with her own fate, it was still in control. There was no point fighting it. Instead, she pressed the gas pedal down, and they roared up the mountain road, climbing higher and higher until the road just ended. There was a parking lot and a brown wooden building, and a smaller ranger shack. She slammed the truck into park and jumped out, barely remembering to grab the keys as she went. Quin fell into step next to her and she sent him an apologetic smile.
“It’s okay.” He nodded. “I get it.”
The ranger smiled out of his shack. “Sorry. Tours are all done today.”
Destiny shook her head. “I have to go in there. Now. Before it’s too late.”
“Can you make an exception, please?” Quin begged. He was begging. For her. The thought did strange little flip flops to her stomach.
The ranger shook his head. “Sorry. Our tour guides are all heading home for the night.”
“I don’t need a guide. I don’t even need the lights on. Please, you have no idea how important this is.” She gripped the window ledge, losing all feeling to her fingers.
“I’m sorry,” the ranger said more firmly, giving her an odd look.
Fate marched up behind them. Her blue eyes flamed and the setting sun turned her white hair to gold. Destiny winced, readying herself for Fate’s anger.
“Look, mister. She’s a witch. I’m a witch. I’m sure you’ve heard of us, we’ve been causing trouble all over Idaho and Montana for weeks now. We have to go in there — and I say this as respectfully as possible —you can’t stop us.”
Destiny’s chin dropped. So did Quin’s.
The man blinked at them, speechless for several seconds. “Hang on…” he said slowly, picking up the phone. Destiny turned and started to run. “Hey!” he yelled, but she didn’t stop.
Fate followed her.
There was a gate across the cave entrance. Fate whirled her hand and the gate shrieked against its lock and sprang open. “Nice job not breaking anything,” Destiny said breathlessly as they started down the stairs. Luckily, the lights were still on. She might not have needed them, but Fate did. Plus, it was a heck of a lot less terrifying running through a giant cave with the lights on.
At the bottom of the stairs, she turned to see if they were being followed — by the rangers or by Quin, Luca, and Damien. But no to all of the above. Their boys were all still at the mouth of the cave, talking to the rangers.
“We can’t wait for them,” Fate said, tugging on Destiny’s arm. “Which way?”
Destiny closed her eyes. “Okay bars. Any time now.”
They slammed into place and she took off again, hearing the ranger’s voice echo behind her, “They told us there was such a thing but I’ve never seen them—” and then she was out of earshot, leaping down the slippery steps three or four at a time. She would fall, she knew, and she would get hurt but she wouldn’t stop because she would be expecting the pain so it wouldn’t affect her. Fate took the stairs more carefully, but still more reckless than Destiny would have liked. Her sister kept right up with her, her ragged breaths coming in pants. “How many stairs are in this place?” she heard Damien gasp and she guessed they must have finally come after them. Maybe they ditched the ranger. Maybe he came to see what a crazy witch was all about. She couldn’t turn her head or she’d fall. Working with the bars, she was less likely to get hurt — which she was all for.
Quin caught up with them first. She saw him out of the corner of her eye as she sprinted around a corner. And then suddenly, they were at the end. There was no more path, no more stairs. A wider space had been cleared out, with the stalagmites and stalactites blocked off and protected.
But not from her.
She screamed at herself, because these ancient geographical features were highly fragile. The ones hanging from the ceiling were hollow and just a touch could break off thousands of years of growth. And the oil from her hands and feet could ruin the ones she jumped around, dodging across them as best she could. She only slipped and fell twice, tearing through the bandage on her knee, creating a fresh wound.
“Do we follow her?” Quin asked.
Fate shook her head. “No. This is too fragile. She’s on her own for this one.”
On my own with my captive mind. Awesome.
“Did we miss an ingredient for the love potion?” Luca asked. His voice echoed because Destiny was around the corner from him now, in the darkness. She ran into things a lot, but her feet kept her moving in the right direction, which was helpful.
“No. It was all there.”
“Maybe you’re supposed to make two potions. A love potion and a fire potion. Maybe that’s what she’s doing,” Damien said.
“I’ll give her five minutes and then I’m going after her,” Quin’s voice was fading now. “We can’t wait longer than that. The warlocks will be all over us.”
Suddenly, she froze and turned in a circle. Was her crazy self confused? Or lost? She backed up until her back hit the wall and sucked in a deep breath. Then she ran, four whole steps, and leaped.
She caught a glimpse of something shining below her.
Far, far below her.
In her head, she screamed. But outwardly she didn’t make a sound, save for a soft grunt when she landed hard on the other side and rolled several times. She crashed hard into the wall of the cave and lay still, the wind knocked out of her completely.
But there wasn’t time to be winded. She forced herself up to her hands and knees and felt along the wall with her hands. It was smooth and wet and she covered several feet without finding whatever it was she was looking for.
And then she hit a bump.
It wasn’t big. Maybe the size of her fist. When she hauled her hand back and punched it, she confirmed painfully that it was, in fact, the size of her fist. And now it was shattered all around her. She plunged her hand into the crack she’d created, scraping and tearing at her knuckles. Her hand closed around something smooth and cold, kind of the shape of a giant, round tooth.
But there was no time to wonder at what it could be. She’d gotten it and the bars were gone.
And she had no idea how to get out.
Also, the warlocks.
Sh
e wanted to cry. Crying seemed like a really good idea, but there wasn’t time for that, either. She felt carefully along the ground with her foot until she found the place where it fell away into the crevice she’d seen before. She laid on her belly, reached her hands out as far as she could, but she didn’t reach the other side. She slid along like a sidewinder, stretching to see if there was anywhere she could easily jump, but as far as she could tell, it was all impossible. Or there was just the one spot to jump across that she could actually make it, and if she jumped anywhere else she’d fall to her death.
So that would suck.
“Destiny! We’ve gotta go. Where are you?” Quin bellowed. She caught the light from his flashlight coming around the corner and caught the briefest of glimpses into the crevice.
It was enough. She jumped to her feet, told herself she wasn’t shaking, took four steps to her right, and backed up as far as she could go.
Then she ran hard, counting steps, and when she hit nine, she jumped.
This time when she screamed, it was out loud and it echoed through the cave.
“Destiny!” The light came bouncing around the corner, Quin right behind it at a dead sprint. Destiny pushed herself up to her feet and looked back the way she’d come.
“Holy crap. I jumped that? Twice?”
“You what?” Quin sounded strangled. He raised the flashlight until it shone across the chasm to the other side. It was at least a ten feet across. “You should be a long jumper, Destiny. Hold still. Are you hurt?” He scanned her with his flashlight and she felt her entire body flush under his scrutiny.
“I’m fine.” She struggled to her feet for the fourteen thousandth time. “It wasn’t me.” She shrugged. “I wasn’t meant to die yet. Not until I get this into Fate’s hands. Then at least one of us has to stay alive to make the potion.” She held up the little object so he could see it in the light.
