WeavingDestinyebook (16 page)

"No problem. Where's Dr. Silva?" Jacob asked.

"She's checking on Malini with Gideon. She should be done with her initiation tomorrow afternoon. Dr. Silva just wants to check her body."

"To make sure she's still alive," Jacob added, gravely.

Mara turned then, her blue eyes catching the light. "Yes."

Jacob moved toward the house slipping his backpack off his shoulder. A heavy weight settled over his heart. Hopefully, the training would distract him from the constant worry. He tossed the pack down next to the greenhouse and gathered himself together. "So where do we start?" he said.

"Dr. Silva wanted us to spar. I guess we just attack each other. Don't hold back. We need to simulate how a Watcher would fight."

"She's trying to get us ready. She knows it's just a matter of time. "

"But we've known that since Chicago, Jacob. Why do you think she's encouraging this now?"

Jacob thought about the question. His eyes burned with fatigue and he rubbed them with his thumb and forefinger. "I think it's Malini. She's a Healer. One of only two in the whole world and now they know who she is. I think Dr. Silva knows they'll try to find her. I think they want to end her before she knows what she's doing. If they have some kind of plan, if you believe the Watcher's warning, she is the only one of us who will know how to stop them."

Mara twisted a tendril of hair that had escaped her braid around her finger. She seemed to be weighing something in her head.

"Let's get started." She walked around the bench and squared off against Jacob, the bell in her hand.

"So, we use our full powers. No holding back?"

"Kind of," Mara said. "Technically, I could stop time and thrust something sharp through your gut. Game over. But a Watcher can't do that, so neither will I."

"Thanks."

Jacob reached out with his power, to the puddle that collected under the drainage spout. They bowed to each other and the fight was on. The water flew to Jacob's hand, his sword cruising in her direction. She leapt into the air and the weapon passed beneath her feet. And then she was gone.

 Jacob tried to react but her arms were already bear hugging him from behind. He threw his elbow into her gut forcing her backward. She let go.

In the blink of an eye, she was in front of him, again. He brought the sword around. She disappeared. A foot caught him in the ribs and he went flying, tumbling across the back lawn. He flipped up to his feet, and charged at her, tossing a sharp disc of ice in her direction. She disappeared again.

His only hope was to get close enough to touch her. If he was touching her and she stopped time, he'd stay animated with her. She reappeared behind him and wrapped her arm around his neck in a chokehold. Big mistake. Within her arms, he twisted to face her. She broke away and Jacob saw her move to ring her bell.

Lurching forward, he grabbed her wrist. Time stopped around them but because of the contact, he didn't stop with it. She struggled to free herself, twisting and hurling her other arm at his face. But he abandoned his sword, allowing it to drop to the earth, and blocked her punch. She tugged backwards, ringing the bell again and Jacob felt the air move around him once more. But, he didn't let her go.

Mara's foot shot forward, sweeping his legs out from under him. He tried to shift his weight and failed. Falling to the ground, he pulled her down with him, rolling over until he'd pinned her to the lawn. Hands restrained on either side of her head, she was helpless. He'd won.

"Gotchya," he said.

She stopped struggling. There was a look on her face he didn't understand. It was more than defeat.  It was surrender.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

She shook her head slowly, raised it from the grass, and planted her lips on his. For a moment, he wasn't sure what was happening. Her lips were warm and wet and his body responded automatically. Her lips parted. Jacob jerked back, standing clumsily and wiping her kiss from his mouth.

"Mara, I—" he began. The next thing he knew he was lying on his back, his arms pinned on either side of his head. She was straddling him, her body pressed against his, her face so close he could feel her breath.

"Gotcha," she said into his lips. Slowly, she crawled off of him.

Jacob sat up feeling disoriented. His heart was pounding against his ribs, quickened by the sparing and maybe something else. Mara looked toward the horizon, working pretty hard not to meet his eyes.

"Mara, did you do that to distract me?"

The slightest hint of a blush colored her cheek.

"Of course. Why else would I do it?" she said, but her body betrayed her. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and popped her hip out defensively.

"It felt real."

"Well, you obviously haven't kissed very many girls then."

Jacob got to his feet and walked over to the place he'd left his backpack. Slinging it over his shoulder, he thought about just leaving and forgetting it ever happened. But in the end, he couldn't let it go.

"No. I haven't kissed anyone but Malini. But I hope I never kiss so many people that I can fake it as well as you can."

He turned to leave.

"Jacob?" Mara said.

"Yeah?"

"I wasn't faking," she mumbled toward the horizon.

"What?" Jacob had heard what she said but didn't want to believe she'd said it.

She turned to face him. The late afternoon sun glowed behind her head and in the light she was stunning. "I didn't fake it," she said more clearly. "I want to be with you. I've never met anyone who made me feel the way I feel when I look at you. We're equals, Jacob. Can't you see how good it could be?"

He didn't know what to say. His jaw dropped open and his mind went blank. All he knew was her silhouette against the light, the way the breeze and their sparring had loosened tendrils of her black hair, and the sudden electrifying memory of her body pressed against his. She was walking toward him. There was something he should say. There was someone else he should be thinking about.

And then her arms embraced his neck and she kissed him again, a hard, demanding kiss that set him off balance. Her hips pressed into his, her hand dug into the hair at the back of his neck and Jacob tried to remember why he should stop this, why the kiss and the heat felt good and wrong at the same time. It was a while before he remembered.

Slowly he pushed her away. "I can't do this. I'm with Malini. I shouldn't have let that happen."

"But you did. You're not married to her, Jacob. If you like me, why not give me a chance, too."

"I do like you Mara and you are…unbelievably beautiful. But I love Malini. And that means more to me. It would kill me to know I'd hurt her. I'm sorry."

"Yeah."

Jacob nodded a goodbye, straightened the backpack on his shoulder, and walked as quickly as possible to his truck. He was relieved when he climbed behind the wheel and locked himself in. He'd never intended to kiss Mara but he couldn't deny he'd enjoyed it.

The greatest temptation was that he could get lost in her. Kissing Mara, he hadn't thought of Watchers or Katrina or Malini's initiation. He hadn't thought of anything. She was an escape. Mara didn't have a dad who hated him and she was a Horseman, just like him. It would be simple with Mara.

But Jacob didn't love her. He loved Malini.

He started the truck and backed out of Dr. Silva's driveway, disappointed he'd let it go as far as it did. Malini would be home soon. Would he tell her what happened? Could he? Could he live with himself if he didn't? Jacob rubbed his chest where his heart began to ache.

Chapter 22

The Last Challenge

Once Malini regained her composure, she released Wisnu's neck and sat down on a boulder near the path. Raising her right hand, she saw that the glove Death had given her looked exactly like her own flesh and blood. There was a thin pale mark on the crook of her elbow. She dug her finger in and peeled back the glove to reveal the bones.

Wisnu backed up, whimpering.

"Yeah. Imagine being attached to it," Malini said. She flexed and stretched the bone hand in front of her face. Next to her, a patch of dandelions bloomed. She reached out with the dead fingers. One slight brush and they shriveled, crispy brown. Near her foot, a spider scampered toward Wisnu. Malini, who had even less love for spiders after the first challenge, touched it with a skeletal finger. It died, the legs curling into the abdomen.

Could she touch herself? She must be able to if she was attached to it. She tested it out by removing her slipper and tapping her little toe. Besides the odd feeling of bone touching skin, nothing happened.

Malini slid the glove back on and frowned. She was exhausted. Gauging the time of day by the sun was impossible; there wasn't one, just an undefined glow that filled the sky. She wondered how long she'd been there. What day was it? The stone was black around the edges now, with only a soft glow from the center. She had to keep moving.

On her feet again, she continued down the path. "Come on Wisnu. We have to keep going." He trotted along next to her, sniffing at her gloved hand.

"Be careful. It's safe with the glove on but I don't want to take any chances."

Wisnu snorted and trotted to her other side. The path changed as they went from dirt, to sand, to pebbles. Malini's feet and legs ached from walking and her eyes burned, her lids heavy. She should've rode Wisnu but by the time she thought of it, they came to a place where he wouldn't go. The pebble path led to a shiny brass gate. Behind the gate, row after row of headstones stretched as far as she could see, and the path continued right up the middle.

"I'm guessing the best time for guidance is before I walk into the creepy cemetery."

Wisnu paced nervously a few steps behind her. The sky grayed with no moon or stars to break the dingy night. Malini felt along her sari for another thread and pulled it free of the fabric. She laid it across her palm. The pulses of light wrapped around her, pulling her into the lesson of her past. It was easier this time, now that she knew what to expect.

She was standing on a cricket pitch. An Indian man and his son were hunched over a stitched leather ball. She recognized her grandfather right away, but it took her a while to know that the boy he was teaching to bowl was her father at eight years old. She had to remind herself that it was called bowling and not pitching like in baseball. It had been a long time since she'd watched someone play cricket.

"Place your fingers like this, Jahar," her grandfather said, positioning her father's fingers wider on the ball.

"But why, Baba?"   

"Because this will cause the ball to spin and make it harder to hit."

Her father bowled the ball across the cricket pitch. It bounced and veered left out of bounds.

"The other way is easier," her father said.

Her grandfather growled out a disappointed scoff. "Easy? Nothing worth doing is easy, Jahar. Nothing worth having is easy. You need to learn different ways so you can adapt to the situation."

"You mean I need to throw what the hitter can't hit?"

"Yes. Yes. This isn't just about cricket, Jahar. In life we have to solve the problems we face. We have to think critically about the situations before us. Your education, your experiences, they are all valuable. They create your tools, to overcome the difficulties you will face."

Her dad squatted to pick up another ball near his feet.

"Bowl again, Jahar."

"Yes, Baba."

Malini emerged from the vision with a smile on her face. The advice her father always gave her, 'solve the problem', it came from her grandfather. She tucked the thread into her pocket, wondering how this vision would help her. "See you on the other side, Wisnu," she said. "I hope." Opening the gate, she followed the path into the cemetery.

Once the gate clanked shut, she was enveloped by silence. The only sound was the shuffle of her slippers on the pebble path. She reached the first row of headstones, but couldn't make out any of the writing in the stone. The grave markers were ancient and weathered, the inscriptions worn away. She continued, watchful.

About halfway across, she smelled the first Watcher. It was perched atop a mausoleum, cloaked in the illusion of a man but with his wings fully extended. He turned to her, his eyebrows rising before he jumped down from his perch.

"What have we here?" he asked. The phrase hung in the air between them. Malini picked up her pace toward the opposite gate. But there were more. Watchers poured out from every corner of the graveyard, closing in around her. Taunting her.

"Looks like lunch to me," a redhead in black leather said. She licked her lips.

"I want a leg," a tall Watcher with a goatee snapped.

"Now, now, Bernard, we all need to share but there will be plenty to go around."

Malini turned in a circle, trembling as she counted six Watchers closing in around her. She wanted them dead. She wanted out of this place. It seemed the perfect time to use her new gift.

Pulling her glove off her hand, she raised the skeleton hand in front of her. "Stay back or die!" she yelled.

"What's this?" a blonde male with stocky muscles said. "Less meat for us." He reached out and snatched the bone fingers. Then brought his face dangerously close to hers. "If Watchers were alive, I might consider that a threat." He moved in, flashing teeth.

Her other hand shot up and pushed the Watcher away as hard as she could. The pain was immediate. Her palm sizzled against his flesh and blisters bubbled on his chin.

It backed off. "It burns!" he hissed. This incited the other Watchers and suddenly they were upon her. She reached out, burning one then another, but it was only flesh on flesh that worked, and soon they had figured out that grabbing her hair or sari was much more effective. Everywhere talons clawed at her, ripping, hurting. And then a belt was around her neck. She hadn't seen it coming. The Watcher behind her laughed as he tightened it, choking her.

"Perhaps we can eat it after it's dead," the redhead hissed. Malini worked her fingers inside the strap, trying to hold enough space to maintain her windpipe. Instinctively, she'd used her healing hand, her left. She looked at her right hand, the hand of Death and thought about her vision. How could she use it differently?