DESTINY (HARDBACK)

August 2017. Balthazar Island, Pacific Ocean.

Lucas Soul studied the man and woman facing each other across the clearing.

Conrad Greene moved first, the double-bladed spear spinning in his hands, the snake birthmark on his left forearm dark against his tanned skin. Alexa King blocked his blows with her sai daggers, her movements swift and nimble.

They seemed evenly matched for several breathless minutes as they fought one another, spending equal time in attack and defense, the power of their thrusts almost identical, two deadly warriors in their prime.

Lucas was not fooled. He had sparred enough times with Alexa to know she liked lulling her opponents into a false sense of security.

The fatal move came when Conrad least expected it. He had just warded off the blade heading toward his belly and was twisting his spear toward her left thigh when she jumped and locked her legs around his waist. He gasped as she dropped into a backflip and sent him hurtling into the air above her.

The Healer landed hard on his back, air leaving his lips in a whoosh. Alexa followed him to the ground before he had time to draw his next breath. She trapped his arms and weapon to his sides with her thighs, and pressed the tip of a sai over his heart.

She arched an eyebrow, a faint smile playing on her lips as she crouched above him. ‘Say uncle?’

Conrad sighed and conceded defeat with a reluctant nod.

‘Wow. You got your ass whipped big time,’ Ethan Storm drawled where he stood next to Lucas.

He grinned at the disgruntled man lying in the sand.

‘I don’t want to hear that from you, Metal Boy,’ Conrad grumbled as the woman above him rose and pulled him to his feet.

‘Yeah, you’re the last person who should be spouting bullshit like that,’ Alexa muttered. Her silver stare shifted to Lucas. ‘You’re next.’

‘Yes!’ Tomas exclaimed, fist pumping the air.

Lucas looked over to where his son and daughter sat watching the matches, faces keen and eyes shining with enthusiasm.

‘If your mother knew how bloodthirsty you two are, she’d faint,’ he said drily.

Lily giggled, chocolate curls bouncing atop her slim shoulders, her mother’s sun cross pendant glinting at her neck.

Anna had stayed back at the house with Olivia Ashkarov. Neither of them was comfortable watching their cousins fight, even if it was just for fun.

Lucas resigned himself to his inevitable fate, collected his daisho from where it stood against a tree, and stepped into the middle of the clearing. He stared into Alexa’s deadly, gray eyes, the swords steady in his grip.

She came at him lightning fast, twisting as she dropped.

He jumped, missed her sweeping kick, and brought the katana down. Their blades clashed, sword against dagger, metal edges glinting under the dazzling sun. He blocked the second sai with his wakizashi, ducked beneath the roundhouse kick heading toward his left temple, and brought his right knee up toward her chest.

She evaded the blow, feet blurring on the sand and teeth flashing her amusement as she danced around him, the sais spinning in her hands. Lucas smiled back.

They engaged for another five minutes, their movements flawless as they sought an opening in each other’s defense, their blades locking time and time again.

A gasp sounded to his right when a sai touched the pulse in his throat. Lucas stilled, the daisho frozen in his hands, Alexa denting his skin slightly with her blade.

‘I guess I win this one too.’ Alexa lowered the dagger and stepped back.

Furious clapping sounded on the edge of the clearing.

‘That was SO cool!’ Admiration was painted across Tomas’s face.

‘My son hates me,’ Lucas told Alexa glumly.

She grinned and patted his shoulder. ‘They’ve just got a kickass aunt, that’s all.’

Ethan turned to Conrad. ‘You owe me ten dollars.’

The Healer muttered something under his breath and reached into the back pocket of his chinos.

Alexa narrowed her eyes at them. ‘You guys were betting?’

Ethan shrugged, unabashed. ‘We always bet. Besides, Conrad is convinced one of us will beat you one day.’ He grinned. ‘Well, one of us did, but you refuse to admit it.’

Alexa sheathed her blades. ‘Twisting my weapons into useless lumps of metal is called cheating. So is using your elemental powers to pin me to the ground.’

‘She’s right,’ Lucas said.

‘I agree.’ Conrad placed a fresh ten-dollar bill in Ethan’s hand and waved an admonishing finger under his nose. ‘This is why we banned you from these fights ages ago. You just can’t help yourself.’

A heavily pregnant woman strolled into the clearing. ‘Can’t help what?’

Conrad’s lips curved into a smile as she closed the distance between them.

‘Ethan can’t help using his powers to cheat.’ He dropped a kiss on her nose.

Laura Hartwell-Greene looped her arms awkwardly around her husband’s waist. ‘You’d think he would have learned his lesson that time Alexa almost drove Lucas’s sword into his heart.’

Ethan tut-tutted, the grin still plastered across his face. ‘Bunch of sore losers.’

‘Things okay back there?’ Lucas indicated the large colonial house under the trees farther along the beach.

Laura grimaced. ‘They’re better now that I’m not there. I can’t understand their fascination with frosting. The one time I made a cake, I almost poisoned Conrad.’

Her husband groaned at the memory.

‘I hear you,’ Alexa said. ‘Baking sucks.’

Everyone stared.

‘You baked?’ Ethan said.

‘You can cook?!’ Conrad added.

Alexa scowled at their shocked expressions. ‘What’s so strange about that? And it was only the one time.’

Laura grimaced. ‘I’m almost too afraid to ask what happened.’

Alexa sniffed. ‘I set the fire alarm off. Big time. Zachary had to repaint the kitchen and everything.’

Lucas bit back a smile. Zachary Jackson, Alexa’s husband, had moved into her penthouse in Manhattan after they got married. He still held his title of Harvard Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology, but now acted as a visiting lecturer at the Boston university while working with Dimitri Reznak on his projects for the Crovir Immortal Culture and History Section.

Three weeks had passed since Tomas and Lily’s sixth birthday, and everyone had finally made it to the island for a late celebration, even Laura, now eight months’ pregnant. It was a tradition Lucas had initiated six years ago, when Alexa, the first of their remarkable circle of Immortal relatives, had entered his and Anna’s lives. Conrad and Laura had started coming to their home the year after. It wasn’t until four years ago that Ethan, Olivia, Asgard, and Madeleine had joined their ranks.

The gatherings were week-long affairs and filled with laughter. They lived thousands of miles away from each other, Conrad and Laura the farthest away in Brazil, and didn’t meet as often as they wished they could.

‘Dad?’ Tomas said.

‘Yeah?’

‘Can I have a go?’ Tomas’s gaze shifted to Alexa briefly. ‘At fighting Aunt Alexa?’

Lucas blinked. His son watched him with an expectant expression.

A sliver of nerves danced through the Immortal at the eagerness in the little boy’s eyes.

As he had done on innumerable occasions in the past four years, Lucas recalled Olivia’s words that day on Dimitri Reznak’s estate in Sumava, when he and Anna had been introduced to the last of their Immortal relatives. He had not doubted the truth of the Seer’s statements then, nor had he since.

He had known, just as Anna had, that their children were special from the moment of their birth.

Although he still remained skeptical about the higher power Olivia had spoken of and the divine beings Dimitri said Guru Rinpoche, the Lotus-Born Buddha, had mentioned in an ancient Nyingma scripture currently in the possession of a secret Buddhist order in Tibet, Lucas could not forget the time he had suffered his seventeenth death. The presence he had felt following what should have been his final demise still lingered somewhere inside him, a warm specter at the very edge of his consciousness, alien yet soothing at the same time.

He could also not deny the evidence of his own eyes.

Although Tomas and Lily were growing at a normal pace physically, their mental abilities and maturity far surpassed those of human and Immortal children their age. They had also started to manifest their gifts. And, as Olivia had predicted, Tomas and Lily each favored specific talents.

Whereas Lily enjoyed practicing her healing and psionic skills, Tomas relished his combat and elemental abilities.

Alexa and Conrad had been the ones who had convinced Lucas he should let the children engage in weapons training if they wished to do so. They had both been there with him last year, on the day Tomas and Lily first picked up swords and play fought each other in the basement of Dimitri’s castle in Sumava, where Alexa herself had trained as a child when she lived with her godfather.

The expression on his cousins’ faces had reflected Lucas’s own wonderment as he watched the twins move across the fencing floor. Though he was loath to admit it, there was no denying that they were made for fighting.

Lucas glanced at Alexa. She dipped her chin, her expression calm.

‘Sure,’ he murmured to his son.

Tomas rose to his feet, green eyes sparkling with excitement.

‘Your weapon?’ Alexa asked the little boy solemnly.

Tomas looked around the clearing. His gaze settled on Conrad’s face.

‘Can I borrow your staff, Uncle Conrad?’

Conrad handed his gilded weapon to Tomas. He helped Laura to the ground and sat with his arm draped around her shoulders. Lily moved to their side and linked her fingers with Laura’s.

They watched Alexa and Tomas walk to the middle of the clearing. Despite the fact that she towered over him, Tomas faced her with an indomitable stance that caused a flash of pride to course through Lucas.

‘Aunt Alexa?’ Tomas said quietly.

‘Yes?’

‘Forget that I’m a kid.’ He straightened, his fingers gripping the staff weapon lightly. ‘I want you to fight me with everything you’ve got.’

Ethan drew a sharp breath and Lucas’s pulse jumped. He had never seen that look on his son’s face before.

Alexa’s eyes flared in surprise.

Lucas didn’t even hear the click of the metal ring on Conrad’s staff, nor did he see the weapon extend into a double-bladed spear. By the time he’d blinked, Tomas had closed the distance to his aunt.

Alexa leaned back, a wicked tip dancing past her cheek. Tomas moved again, the spear spinning in his hands, and brought the other end up toward her chest. She blocked the blow with a sai and jumped back.

Tension wound through Lucas as he watched them fight. He didn’t have to look at the others to sense that they were suddenly as nervous as he was. Only Lily appeared relaxed, watching her twin and Alexa with a faint smile.

It was a couple of minutes before Alexa stopped defending and started attacking in earnest, her gray eyes focused and serious. Tomas countered with the spear before twisting the second ring and drawing the two short swords inside the staff.

They paused for a moment and faced each other silently across the clearing, their breathing slow and steady.

Hairs rose on the back of Lucas’s neck when a flock of birds suddenly rose from the trees and headed into the island, their agitated cries heralding what was about to happen.

SEVENTEEN NOVELS & SHORT STORIES
Hunted (Book 1)
First Death (Short Story 1)
Dancing Blades (Short Story 2)
The Meeting (Short Story 3)
Warrior (Book 2)
The Warrior Monk (Short Story 4)
Empire (Book 3)
The Hunger (Short Story 5)
Legacy (Book 4)
The Bank Job (Short Story 6)
Origins (Book 5)
Destiny (Book 6)

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