Page 29 of Veiled Fate
I couldn’t control the power inside me. That much was clear.
A branch snapped nearby.
“Yes, you can come out,” I called to Kiel. There was no way he would normally step on a branch like that, which meant he was doing it to announce his presence. “I’m fine now. I won’t run away this time.”
Kiel stepped forth from the trees but paused at a distance.
“I’m fine,” I said, closing my eyes as the torrent of rain increased, washing my face clean as I lay flat on my back still. “I promise.”
The big man came to my side, where he crouched. “Jada …”
“I have no idea,” I said, preempting what I was sure were a million and one questions. “Honestly, not a single one. Everything just turned green, and then I could shoot fucking lightning from my hands, okay? You know as much as I do. Oh, and I saw her again. She kept saying that she sees me. There, that’s it.”
“Saw her? Fate, you mean,” he said, latching on to that part of my story.
“I shot lightning from my hands,” I reminded him.
“Believe it or not, I hadn’t forgotten,” he said dryly. “Iwasthere, you know. Watched it all happen.”
“Maybe we should focus on that part, then?” I suggested.
“Jada, if, as you suspect, the piece of Fate we freed from the stone is now in you, then it’s clear she’s giving you powers of your own.”
“Powers that will kill me,” I pointed out tiredly. “My mind was tearing itself apart back there. I wanted to rip my brain from my skull. What if that happens somewhere else? What if I panic and run off a cliff or something? I can’t control her, Kiel, and she’s getting stronger.”
I didn’t mention my biggest fear. What if I had struck him with my lighting? What if, in my panic, I killed Kiel or an innocent?
He grunted in agreement. “We need to get you to Mount Triumph,” he said, reiterating our original plan. “I’m worried about what might happen if we don’t.”
“Yeah, me, too,” I said, my jaw clenching tight.
“Can you get up?” he asked, not immediately trying to help me.
“I’m fine.”
I hauled myself to my feet, water, mud, and other bits and pieces of things falling free.
“You look like hell.”
“You should see the other guy,” I said with a smile that I quickly killed as I recalled the last things we had said to one another before the fight.
Kiel must have understood because he stepped away from me, leaving my personal space.
“Which way?” I asked.
Kiel jerked his head to the right. “This way.”
“Okay. Lead on.”
Nodding, he set the pace. We walked in our human form while I gathered my composure.
“Any ideas what happened back there?” he asked after a few minutes of uncomfortable silence.
“Really? I just told you …”
“No. I meant with the soldiers. How did they find you? What happened while you were downstairs?”
Oh.
