Gifted Ones

Chapter 22 Haven

The smoke in front of us starts to swirl and move before settling near the ground like a liquid. Slowly, lazily, it gathers into a wall of black smoke that seems almost solid. As we watch in curiosity words start to appear just above the surface, the letters in shining gold cursive. They seem to shimmer and almost move as they glow, like a glimmering gossamer thread. As I watch, the supernatural letters spell out the words, "follow the path."

"What does it mean, path?" Chase asks. "We're in the middle of a new dimension. All there is is smoke and rock."

"Patience," Matthew tells him. "If the words came to us, I'm sure that they'll explain themselves."

Chase bites hit bottom lip and doesn't respond. I can tell that he's on edge. He gets really quiet when he's nervous. I take a step closer to him, my face still wet with tears. I'm glad that he didn't interfere during my fight with Annalise. I know that he wanted to, but he last it up to me, and I'm glad. I had to face her on my own.

"You're good now?" He whispers discreetly in my ear.

I shake my head no before saying, "but that's okay. I will be someday."

"I don't want you to be unhappy," he tells me.

I smile slightly. "Don't worry about it. What's now important is the Trial."

He seems to accept this, and we both turn back to the letters as they disappear and start over. "Take the fall and the choose a champion," they say this time. A few seconds later they are erased and the words, "complete the challenge to earn the clue," take their place.

"So only one of us can take on the challenge?" Kara asks. "That sucks. We have strength in numbers."

"This put us at a tactical disadvantage," Garret agrees as the script changes again.

"Good luck!" They tell us, before the whole wall of smoke parts like the Red Sea and makes two great swirling twisters out of the two sides. Then, as if there is a giant vacuum in the sky, the pillars are sucked back up into the air like they were never there in the first place. But now, behind where the wall once was, is a path of darker stone. The smoke seems to dissipate where the trail winds, leaving giving us a clear place to walk. But about fifty yards away the smoke returns again, and the path is obscured once again.

"I guess that this is the path," Matt says.

"I'm assuming so," I tell him, just a little sarcastic.

"Well," he says. "If we're following the directions, we might as well follow it."

"Great," Garret says. "Follow me." And so we do, taking the path side by side in pairs of two. The creeping smoke is eerie, and although none of us will admit it, it makes all of us little nervous. Even strong and silent Tyler avoids the reaching strands as we continue on. I just want to be out of here. This place makes me feel jumpy and tense.

I notice the other clan members' wariness of Anne as well, Garret in particular. I guess her comment about the humans deserving to die shook them. They never doubted her loyalty at all, but now she publicly announced that she agrees with their sworn enemy. Now she's a possible threat, although, from what I've seen, she didn't really mean it. She's just lost without her brother and hurt by his death.

"So what do you think the gold word-thingies meant when they said to choose a Champion?" Kara asks.

"Well, I guess we have to pick someone to fight for us," her mom says. "Probably out strongest fighter."

"Well, yeah, but who would that be?"

"I think that it would probably have to be either me or Chase." Garret says, coming up on the fog bank. He just pushes through it like it's just as clear as the rest of the trail, and so we follow. "I mean, Chase definitely has the long distance abilities, but Shifts are better than Mages at close ra-"