Destiny Redeemed by Gabrielle Bisset

Thea
wished she could explain all that had happened in the past few days, but she
knew she didn’t have the time. Every second she spent at the diner kept her in
danger of being found.
    “Kat,
I’ll explain everything, but I need you to come get me. How soon can you get to
the town of Cochecton?”
    “Where?”
    Thea
heard her sister tapping on her computer keyboard searching for directions.
    “Google
maps say you’re seventy-five minutes away from me. I’m getting in my car right
now.” Kat paused and the phone grew quiet. “Thea, are you okay?”
    “I’m
fine, Kat. Just get to the Cuppa Coffee Shop in Cochecton as fast as you can.
I’ll be inside.”
    “Okay.
Don’t worry. I’ll drive fast,” her sister reassured her.
    Thea
hurried into the ladies’ room and closed herself in one of the stalls. She knew
Kat would make the trip in record time since she always drove fast. If Kat was
behind the wheel, wherever you were going became a rollercoaster ride of
thrills. For once, she was happy that her sister was a speed demon.
    Fifty
minutes later Thea heard the bells on the door to the coffee shop jingle.
Peaking out of the ladies’ room to see her sister standing near the counter, she
motioned to Kat to come into the bathroom, hoping she’d noticed anyone outside.
    “Thea,”
she said as she wrapped her arms around her. “What’s going on?” Looking her
sister over, she continued, “And whose shirt is that?”
    “I’ll
tell you later. Right now, I need to know if you saw anyone outside.”
    Kat
knitted her eyebrows. “Thea, were you kidnapped?”
    “Kat!”
    “All
right. No, I didn’t see anyone.”
    “Are
you sure you didn’t see a man with black hair and a scar down the side of his
face or a greasy man about five foot eight?”
    Thea
watched as her sister shook her head. There was a chance she’d actually gotten
away.
    “Okay. Then
let’s get to your car and get out of here.”
     
    Thea
closed her eyes not only to block out the usual fear she experienced in the
passenger seat next to her sister but also to deter Kat from wanting to talk
anymore about what she’d been through. Thea knew the vague explanation she’d
offered wouldn’t suffice forever, but she truly hoped her closed eyes would
convince her sister to let her curiosity rest for a while.
    As
they rode over rural roads, Thea’s mind vaguely registered the sounds of the
tires against the pitted pavement and the whirring sound of the wind whipping
by the car. She wanted to shut her mind off from thinking, especially about
Amon, but she could think of nothing else. She pictured the look on his face
when he found she was gone, unsure of whether she should cast him as hurt or
angry. Was she just flattering herself by thinking he’d be more hurt than
anything else? Before their time together in her room, she’d have said yes, but
the way he’d touched her, the things he’d said made her think otherwise.
    As
she thought of Amon, the beginning notes of a song filtered out of the car’s
stereo. Thea smiled at how it reminded her of Amon, not because he’d been what
the song called a “devil” to her but because of what she knew her sister would
say if she told her how she felt about him. A much younger Aeveren in just her
tenth lifetime, Kat had no idea of the people Thea had met in her many lifetimes.
Not everyone was as wonderful as Kat. In fact, not everyone was even as
wonderful as the three men who’d held her captive for the past two days, Thea
thought as she remembered another time in her history when she’d been forced to
heal someone.
    “ He
must live! Heal him!” the Tsar’s guard bellowed next to her head, so loud her
ears began to ring.
    “I
cannot help him if you continue to berate me,” she said looking up at him.
“I’ll do what I can, but yelling at me won’t help him.”
    “What
is your name, healer?” the guard asked as he adjusted his hold on his gun.
    “Yevtsye
Karevshenko, sir.”
    “And
you are