Page 16 of The Power of a Myth

A mate knows when their partner dies.

She remembered something she’d been told before. The magical world was a strange one—it linked together those who loved each other, physically and mentally.

I love you, Molly.The words came to her whispered on the wind.

Instead of going to her bed to cry herself to sleep, Molly headed straight for the jungle. She walked with a determined purpose, wiping the tears from her face. She removed her clothes and her own ID tags. She placed them all on the ground and brought Hayden’s dog tags to her nose. She inhaled the scent of them deeply. His smell. She allowed it to invade her body as she shifted into her puma form. Then she ran—she ran toward where his scent was strongest in the jungles of Vietnam.

It didn’t take long before she found herself of the edge of what looked like an abandoned makeshift village of mud huts. She sniffed the air again. Blood filled her senses. Hayden was everywhere. He’d been here.

This is where he’d died.

She stepped forward listening carefully for humans. The place was abandoned, or so she thought until a young boy stepped out in front of her. He wasn’t scared of her at all.

“Molly,” he spoke in English.

She shifted to her human form.

“Yes,” she answered.

“I thought you would come in search of his body.”

Molly sniffed the air. The boy wasn’t human, and he had the scent of many animals surrounding him.

“What are you?” she asked.

“No different to you, except I can be more than one sort of animal if I choose. I died and was reborn to a higher calling. It was my task to lead Hayden to his.”

“Where is he?”

The boy looked to the side of him like he was trying to see where Hayden was at that moment in time.

“He’s beautiful.” Tears streamed down the boy’s cheeks.

“Where is he?” Molly screamed at the boy. She needed to know where Hayden was.

“He’s fulfilling his destiny. Don’t worry, Miss Molly, he’ll return to you when the time is right. Until then, continue to be the woman he was proud of. The woman he fell in love with.” The boy walked closer to her and took her hand.

“I don’t know if I can. I need him.” Molly let tears fall down her cheeks again.

“You can and will. This war being fought here will end soon. When it does, you must return to the Glacial National Park. There’s much anger and strife to come over the next few years, and many will seek your advice. Give it honestly because that is who you are. Others will learn from your kindness and strength. That’s the only way we can win the next war when it comes.”

“Please, is he safe?”

“He is. He’s in the safest place there is.”

The boy lowered his head in a bow before turning around. Molly watched in shock as he turned green with brown markings on his body and disappeared into thin air. She’d seen witches teleport before, but they’d never changed their appearance.

Her heart felt settled when the boy left. Hayden had been called to something higher. It was his duty, and the boy had given Molly hers. When this war ended, she would return to Glacial National Park, her home. She would prepare herself for whatever came her way until the next time she saw Hayden.

She shifted back to her puma form and made her way to where she’d left her clothes. She took her dog tags, and combining them with Hayden’s, she placed them both around her neck and walked out of the jungle.

Overhead the sound of helicopters whirred as the alarms sounded of incoming injured men. She’d been given the option of returning home by her commander, but that wasn’t her. Others would learn from her kindness and strength—that’s what the boy had said, and until this war was over, she would give both of those to every person she met.

Even though inside her heart a part of her had died at the loss of her mate, she knew she’d see him again one day. It was a hope she had to cling onto, no matter how many years passed.

Chapter Eight

Present – 52 years later

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