“Is that what that noise is?” I asked him curiously. I’d been hearing a high pitched whirling sound and wondered what it was.
“Yep, they’ll quiet down in a bit. They tend to sing their song in the summer. Bit late this year, but it’s still warm and dry.”
“I like the sound. This place is really different from Arizona,” I commented, and watched them exchange one of those looks. The one they had anytime I mentioned Arizona. I’d learned over the years to pick up on people’s cues, and reading people came easily for me. Something about Arizona and the Youth Village made them uneasy, and I couldn’t figure out what, only that they didn’t want me to ask. My life was much better now, so it was easy enough for me to avoid the topic, usually. But Tennessee was very different from Arizona.
“It is,” Frank said jovially, before changing the subject, a move I was familiar with by now. “So are annual camping trips in our future? Is this how we’ll celebrate your birthday each year?”
I looked at them, their eager, happy faces, and it wouldn’t have mattered if I hated camping, I would have told them yes. They were so excited to introduce me to all the things I’d missed at the Youth Village, and I would never disappoint them.
“Sounds like a plan to me.” I smiled, happy just to be with them.
“Happy ninth birthday, Katie.” Nancy kissed my cheek, and Frank raised his thermos.
“To a lifetime more!”
The sight of a shooting star above brought me back to the present, and I made a quick wish. We’d only managed seven more birthdays before both of them were gone, their lives sacrificed for mine.
It still hurt to remember those last moments with Nancy, her face covered with blood as she told me to run.
“Go, Katie, RUN. Don’t come back.” Her eyes filled with tears as she struggled to breath. “I love you. Always and forever. You have always been my greatest gift. Now GO!” Her voice compelled me, my feet moving before my mind could even catch up. It was dark, and my feet slipped on the sloping ground. I could hear voices from the road above, but I ran away from them. I didn’t know if they were the ones who’d run us off the road and couldn’t take the risk.
Nancy was dead.
Frank was dead.
The thought became a continuous loop in my mind. They were dead, and it was because of me.
The night blurred in my mind, my only memory one of running, until finally collapsing on the ground sometime before dawn. When I’d woken up, Kai had been there.
At sixteen, I hadn’t realized he was a wolf cub. I’d just thought he was a puppy, as lost as me. His soft fur soaked up my tears before he led us out of the woods. Six years later, and we hadn’t been separated since.
That was the night I had my first vision, and realized what evil was. I understood then why Nancy had forced me to memorize the spells I’d always assumed were useless to me. Eight years of sideways glances and abrupt moves made more sense, once I realized magic was in my blood, a magic so deep and pure, its very existence would change the world.
Chapter Four
Three sisters were torn apart, scattered to the winds, and hidden from the power in their blood. The Earth roiled, sensing the power inside of them, and unhappy at its binding. Mother Nature soothed the Earth’s rumblings, promising the power would be unleashed in due time.
The girls learned to adapt, the memories of their abilities slipping away from them with each year. As they forgot their magic, so did the magic slip from those that knew how to wield it. It didn’t disappear, but became temperamental, unused to being restrained as it was. Magic was elemental, by its very nature a part of everything, but these three sisters formed a trinity, and within each of them was the ability to command the very essence of magic. But their mother’s blood bound the magic, forcing it deep inside each one of them, her desire to protect her girls so strong, it defied nature itself.
Magic was tricky, though. Power such as theirs could only be restrained for so long, before destroying the very ones who held it. To counter this danger, Mother Nature gave each of the sisters a protector: A man born to be her perfect match, their magic a complement to one another. By doing so, she safeguarded the sisters. Once the sister found her one, her own magic could not destroy her.
The years went by, the magic inside of them growing, impatient to be free. As danger came to each sister, the binding that held her magic broke, setting it loose, and as each sister’s magic unleashed, their combined power only grew.
Kincaid
I woke suddenly, the story of the three sisters on my mind. The forest around me had a subtle glow as dawn broke in the east. Kai snuffled, asleep in front of the tent, guarding me. I rubbed the mark on my wrist absentmindedly, the incomplete trinity symbol reminding me that one of my sisters did not yet have her powers.
When I’d woken up in the forest that night after my first vision, the mark had been there, two loops inked into my skin. No amount of scrubbing would remove them, no matter how hard I’d tried. Research had finally led me to believe it was a trinity symbol, albeit an incomplete one. I suspected one of my sisters had already come into her magic, and when I finally did, the symbol appeared.
Those first weeks after my magic was unleashed, I would have given anything to have Nancy and Frank back. Their losses coming back to back, along with the sudden release of my magic, had left me reeling. In the years I’d lived with them, we’d moved five times. I had a vague suspicion it was because of me, but they always claimed work caused the moves.
Then one evening, Frank didn’t come home. When the police showed up a few hours later, to inform Nancy he’d been the victim of an apparent carjacking, I’d collapsed.
The vision had come at me like a freight train. Flashes of shadowed men chased us, a car sped down the road, Nancy’s eyes stared sightless amidst the twisted metal of a car, and the scent of sulfur burned my nose. She’d known immediately what had happened. In fact, I think she’d understood it better than me. It was almost as if she’d expected it.
Her smile had attempted to reassure, even as she told me to grab some clothes. I’d followed her directions in a daze, unable to comprehend everything I saw following Frank’s death.
“I saw …” My eyes filled with tears as I looked at her.
“I can only imagine.” She touched her finger to my lip, and then cradled my cheek. “We have to go. You’re in danger, and I swore to protect you with my life. And I will.”
“But ….” I couldn’t bring myself to utter the words, to speak of her coming death, but my eyes must have told her.
“Then so be it. My life is nothing compared to saving you. Now go, pack, hurry. I don’t imagine we have much time.”
I shook my head, racing up the stairs to gather a few items. Clothes, toiletries, and my wallet all got thrown into my camping backpack. At the last second, I grabbed a picture off my mirror, one from our last camping trip. It was from a couple months before, taken on my sixteenth birthday by a passing hiker. As I turned from the mirror, my eyes caught my attention. Staring back at me weren’t the normal dark, muddy brown eyes I was used to, but instead, a brilliant neon blue. A blue so bright, it looked unnatural. I stared, not blinking, my heart racing, wondering what it meant.
Nancy shouted my name, breaking my daze, and I darted from the room and the sight of my own eyes.
We drove for hours that night. Nancy stumbled over her words, as she attempted to tell me everything I needed to know. She told me to change my name, to hide my magic, that people would want me for my ability. She apologized over and over for not explaining sooner, believing they had time.
“I don’t understand. Why me? Why did someone kill Frank? We need to get out of the car!” My words were frantic, understanding dawning that the car in my vision was the same one we were in now. My chest tightened with every second, my lungs threatening to burst from the pressure.
Nancy looked at me sadly, “It’s too late, Katie.”
Blinding light suddenly filled the car
, and by the time I realized it was headlights from another car, they’d bumped us. Nancy jerked the wheel, and we were air born, time seeming to slow down as the car flipped, until the crash jolted me and time raced forward again.
I left her there to die in the mangled remains of our car. She’d told me never to go back to any of the places we’d lived, so I didn’t.
I survived in the woods with Kai for weeks, grateful for the backpack. It had the essentials I needed those first weeks, until I could figure out a game plan. Nancy and Frank had been teaching me for years how to survive on my own, how to start over if necessary, and their teachings became invaluable. They’d taught me the skills I would need to survive, but Kai kept me sane.
It took me several months to realize he wasn’t your typical dog. One, he wasn’t actually a dog, as I’d originally assumed, and two; we could communicate with one another.
One night, not long after Nancy died, I sobbed helplessly, awoken from the same dream I’d had since the car accident. It was as if my original vision continually manifested, twisting and torturing me each night when I closed my eyes. Kai rubbed his head against mine, attempting to comfort me, and I held tight to him. He’d grown rapidly, quickly morphing from a small puppy to a wolf that outweighed me. I’d begun to suspect he wasn’t your run of the mill wolf, and what happened that night confirmed it.
He nudged me, forcing my head up to meet his eyes. His blue eyes were startling against the black fur on his face. He was a mottled grey wolf, his fur a blend of gray, white, brown, and black. He was beautiful and striking to behold, as well as intimidating around anyone but me. As our eyes held, it was as if our thoughts merged, and I heard him for the first time. A voice that sounded distinctly male and very determined.
“Not your fault.”
“I saw it. I should have stopped it.”
“Can’t change Fate.”
“No, I don’t believe that.” A violent shake of my head broke our connection, and I leaned back from him, shaking. I truly thought I’d lost my mind at that point. Weeks hiding from people, going into towns at night to gather supplies, as we constantly moved, living in the woods. No one could blame me for becoming insane.
“Not crazy. Magic.” The words were clear as a bell in my head, and I recognized the voice as Kai’s. I rubbed my eyes, the very same eyes I refused to look at in a mirror, despising the blue they’d become. Oh, I wanted to deny it, but looking up at him, I knew. He was my guardian, my companion, and that was when I began to believe the story of the three sisters might be more reality than fantasy.
I now knew I was one of the three sisters in the story, the second sister, and a powerful seer, one whose gift was coveted for its immense possibilities.
A vision had led me to the University of Tennessee, and a long held memory gave me the name of Guinea. But nothing so far in my life had prepared me for the man I’d met in a gas station parking lot. The idea that he was destined for me, that our paths were meant to cross was difficult for me to accept. It seemed as if I had no control over my own life, caught in an inescapable march toward a destiny I did not choose and could not seem to fight.
“You always have a choice.” The words drifted through my mind, and I knew Kai had awoken.
“Do I?” I muttered, staring at the flames that had never died through the night, created by my magic.
“Yes. Not making a choice is still a choice. It’s an acceptance of your fate.” His words were chiding, our argument a familiar one. I knew he was right, but it didn’t ease the frustration I felt. We should have a right to choose who we loved, how we used our magic and not be forced by an ancient prophecy that had destroyed my family, not once, but twice.
“It’s okay to be afraid.” I blinked back a sudden rush of tears at his words. He understood what I hadn’t said. I was afraid. I knew the battle was coming. Death was a possibility in my visions. Protectors didn’t just show up randomly. He was here, because I would need him, and his presence meant we’d edged inexorably closer to confrontation. My last vision had revealed Sinclair to me, and the fact that she was coming. The implications both thrilled and terrified me.
My mind flashed back to the night of the vision.
I sat up, my eyes sightless as I saw her coming. She was so much older than the last time I’d seen her, but there was no mistaking the determination on her face. She hadn’t lost her mutinous expression in the years since we’d been separated, and I smiled, happy at the knowledge. My hand went to my wrist where the partially formed trinity symbol marked my skin. I wrapped my hand around the symbol, my eyes unblinking, in case my vision of her disappeared. I studied her, memorizing the familiar features set in a grown-up face. My own blue eyes stared back at me from an oval face framed by wavy chestnut hair, her body longer and sturdier than my own.
I swallowed hard at the realization she looked like our mother, a woman I didn’t remember very well, only one vague memory of a laughing brunette woman calling me, ‘her Guinea girl.’
As hard as I tried to keep it, my vision began to fade, and I blinked, becoming aware of my surroundings. I was in my bed, and it was still dark outside, so the vision must have pulled me from sleep. Excitement bubbled inside of me, and I looked down at the symbol I unconsciously stroked. The missing loop must be Quinn, I thought to myself, knowing Sinclair’s blue eyes meant she’d come into her powers, as I had.
A snort came from next to me, and I pounced on him, eager to share my news.
“Huh? What? Genny?” Scott muttered, disoriented as I shook him.
“She’s coming,” I told him excitedly, bouncing on the bed.
“Who?” He’d thrown his arm over his eyes when I’d woken him, but moved it when I squealed, “My sister!”
“You have a sister?”
“Yes, I saw her, and she’s coming here,” I replied, not thinking about the fact I’d never told him about my sisters, or my past.
“You ‘saw’ her?” His tone hovered on disbelief before he switched to humoring me. “Well, I hope she doesn’t show up this weekend. We have the fundraiser at work and need to make a good impression.” He glanced at the alarm clock and groaned, “We also have work in the morning, so back to bed. Don’t want to have droopy eyes at the office. No one wants an ugly banker.”
My eyes narrowed on him as he turned over and went back to sleep. He didn’t believe in my visions, and his obsessive concern about work and my looks was frustrating. I felt the weight of the rock he’d put on my finger just a few weeks earlier. Its weight became heavier every day.
A low whine caught my attention, and I looked across the room. A pair of beautiful blue eyes met mine in the darkness. They weren’t quite the same color as mine, but close.
“She’s coming,” I whispered, knowing he heard me. A soft snuffle was my reply, and I flopped back on the bed, my smile huge as I considered seeing Sinclair for the first time in eighteen years.
Again, a smile broke across my face at the thought of seeing Sinclair. No matter how terrifying the thought of battling dark forces was, knowing I’d see her and Quinn again gave me joy. A prophecy may have destroyed our family, but we had an opportunity to put it back together.
I jumped up, tired of thinking about the past and what ifs.
“Let’s hike.” Kai got up, eager to show me what he’d found on his night time exploring. I grabbed a granola bar from my backpack, slinging it over my shoulder, just in case. We spent the rest of the weekend splashing through creeks and creating paths in a wilderness rarely seen by people. Kai had taken us far off the beaten path, his own animal instincts craving the wild as much as I did.
Sunday afternoon, we packed up and headed back. I finally remembered I’d never told Scott where I was going and wondered if he’d even cared. I told myself, that’s unfair to Scott. I laughed at myself. I was positive he cared … how would he develop his portfolios if I wasn’t there to guide him?
My thoughts were interrupted by a scream, and I paused as I stepped back onto a m
arked trail. Another muffled scream had me looking at Kai. I nodded, following his lead. As we came close, I smelled the acrid scent of sulfur. It meant only one thing to me. Whoever was in front of us was evil.
He had her pinned to the ground, on her stomach as his hips thrust into her. Her moans were pitiful as she cried, and I could feel my rage build. Death would be too easy for this bastard.
Kai growled and his hackles rose, knowing a kill was in our future. The man was so consumed by his mindless thrusting, he never heard us. The wind rustled, electricity racing over my skin as the magic responded to my emotions.
Kai’s growling became more menacing, raising the hair on my head at the implied threat. The man jerked around, finally sensing the danger he was in, far too late.
I could only imagine the sight he saw, my eyes glowing in a vibrant blue, Kai standing massive next to me. The sight of Kai alone should have sent him running. He was over six feet long, two hundred pounds of lean muscle, and bigger than your average wolf.
The Trinity Sisters Page 19
