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  I watched Sophia walk away. I believed what she said. Real love was earned. Turning back to the soup, I lifted the spoon to my mouth. My tongue tasted nothing, but I emptied the bowl, hoping to gain a little strength from it. I felt like I was back at square one when it came to earning Uriah’s love. Even if I had to begin from scratch, I would prove to myself and everyone else that I still loved Uriah and would never turn my back on him.

  3: Direction

  The desert landscape blurred around me. Scrub brush melted into the sandstone bluffs beneath a perfect blue sky. I wasn’t sure how long I had been driving, or even where I was going, really. Hano, Arizona, held a remnant of Tewa Indians who had fled New Mexico, seeking escape from the Spanish conquerors. Hano was out in the middle of the Arizonan desert. I had stopped for directions, but what I was riding toward was still a mystery to me. I didn’t know who or what I was going to find there.

  The idea of being around other human beings sent a shiver down my spine. Two days ago I had been happily engaged to Claire, dreaming of the day we would be married. Now, I wandered the desert with a thin promise from a woman who had already betrayed me twice. I had one last chance to rescue Claire from the embrace of the Twin Soul bond.

  My childhood had been filled with Tewa myths and legends, but finding out that they were more than simple stories was too much to bear. I could hardly look at the casual passerby and not want to shake them, scream at them that they were the ones living in the fantasy, happily thinking that there was nothing more supernatural to their existence than the power that made text messaging a part of everyday life.

  If Twin Souls had been the only myth to come to life, perhaps I could have handled that, but with one came more. Not only could the woman I cherished be torn away from me by a man the universe deemed a more perfect match than I, but Shaxoa’s potions truly produced wicked results, shape shifting monsters fought my every effort to save the woman I loved, and stories of men boding and communicating with their animal brothers were manifesting themselves as if commonplace in the modern world.

  For the last, I was actually immensely grateful. As I struggled to rein in my emotions, my cougar companion was searching the desert hills for my pursuer. Talon had been the first to offer me his help, though even he did not know why he was drawn to me. I felt safe knowing that every animal in the area had been alerted to the dangerous Matwau’s presence. Even though the Matwau had lost its chance to destroy Daniel before the Twin Soul bond could form, he had made it perfectly clear that he would come back for me.

  I sighed in frustration. There were still so many unanswered questions. Why was the Matwau after me? Why were Talon and the other desert animals compelled to help me? Why was I able to speak so clearly with the animals now when I had never been able to before? And why were so many people and forces telling me that I could never be with Claire?

  I had wanted to stay and demand answers from Quaile, who had set off this whirlwind of change. After facing her betrayals twice, I was not sure that I would be able to believe her words, even if she had been willing to offer up an explanation. The leather necklace Quaile had given me hung around my neck, the woven pendant brushing my chest.

  She told me to give it to the shaman in Hano, and I would not be denied the help I was seeking, but would I be denied answers? Perhaps a different shaman, one not so connected to what had happened, would be more forthcoming. I desperately hoped that would be the case. I needed answers as much as I needed help.

  Images began filtering through my mind, showing the landscape barren, just as before. Talon’s messages were not spoken with words, but with images, showing me what I needed to know. The first time I had experienced the communication two days ago, it had confused and frightened me. Now it seemed as natural as breathing. Most of our conversations now flooded into my mind with ease, the pictures interpreted so quickly that my mind registered them as simple words.

  Although every desert animal I came in contact with was immediately drawn to my aid, Talon was the most intelligent and understanding. He was able to empathize with what I was feeling and offer the sage advice I was often in desperate need of. Without Claire in my life, his presence was one of the few things keeping me from rushing off to the Matwau and seeking the death he had promised me.

  “Do not think of such things,” Talon warned. His thoughts were clear, even though I knew he was more than a mile away. It was not that Talon could actually read my thoughts as much as hear them. It seemed that whatever I thought was projected out to him, regardless of whether I wanted it to be that way or not. Perhaps one day I would learn to control my thoughts a little better.

  “I know, Talon,” I said wearily. “I know it does me no good to think of the Matwau, but I also know he’s out there waiting for me, and being without Claire is so painful. Sometimes I don’t think I can hold myself together without her.”

  “The only chance you have to break the bond is in Hano,” Talon reminded me. “If you are not strong enough to make this journey, you will lose Claire forever.”

  “I know.” Even though Talon was sympathetic to what I was going through, he was still a hunter and fighter above anything else. He would not tolerate whining or weakness from me. When the pain became too great, he pushed me forward, reminding me of what was at stake.

  “I just wish I understood why all of this is happening,” I said. “I don’t understand why Quaile wouldn’t just tell me what she knew. If I had known about the Matwau before I left San Juan the first time, things might have gone better for us.”

  “She did know more than she was willing to tell you,” Talon said. Although Quaile was not able to communicate with Talon as I was, Talon had been able to hear her thoughts and judge them as truthful. Without Talon’s confirmation, I may not have believed Quaile when she told me the Hano Shaxoa knew how to sever the Twin Soul bond.

  “Did you hear anything that she didn’t speak out loud?” I asked.

  “Nothing specific. She has known what you are since the day you were born. She understands more of her visions than she told you,” Talon said. “When she thought of you, it was not as a young man, but as a warrior. She believes you are meant for some great purpose.”

  “How am I supposed to accomplish anything when I seem to be the only who has no idea what’s going on?”

  “You will discover what needs to be done, Uriah. You must be patient,” Talon said.

  Quaile said her vision had shown me fighting through thick forests against some kind of monsters. They feared me and were trying to stop me from doing whatever they believed I was about to do. Then her vision had changed, showing me standing in a desert valley surrounded by monsters as I tried to rescue a woman I had never met.

  At the time, her words had meant little to me, but now I feared that I was beginning to understand at least some of what she had told me. The Matwau was a shape shifting being stepped out of a realm I had no understanding of. It claimed its purpose was to destroy those seeking their Twin Souls before the unbreakable bond could form.

  When we first encountered the Matwau, I had assumed it was following me only to reach Daniel, but the creature had been quick to correct me. While it wanted Daniel at the time, I was his ultimate target. He never took the time to explain why I was so important to him, a fact that still gnawed at me. I still had no idea where these visions were taking place, or when, but I had a sinking feeling that the woman I was meant to rescue would be my own Twin Soul.

  Before leaving my precious Claire behind, she had begged me to find a way to free her from the Twin Soul bond trying to tear us apart. With the hope that I would not fail her again, I was racing to seek help from the powerful and feared Shaxoa witch in Hano. Quaile promised the woman would be able to give me what I needed, but I could not help but fear the meeting Quaile’s vision foretold.

  Was the vision telling me I would be unsuccessful and sent off to save a stranger instead? Or would I free Claire only to become ensnared by my own unwanted fate? Shaking my
head, I pushed the dark thoughts away. Talon was right. Dwelling on what I couldn’t do anything about was hardly useful.

  As I rode my motorcycle through the desert, I thought of Claire. I wondered what she was doing right at that moment. We had made plans to drive down to Santa Fe, to celebrate gaining permission from the Elders to marry. Instead of sharing an intimate meal at the restaurant we had gone to the night I proposed, we were now further apart than we had ever been in the past year and a half.

  The distance between us was painful. Every mile I drove seemed to be one more strand of connection left behind. Silently, I prayed that Claire would have faith in me. I hadn’t been able to save her from her father’s poison, but I refused to let anything stand in my way now. I would do whatever the Shaxoa asked of me to sever the bond Claire shared with Daniel.

  A penetrating calm filled my body, banishing my fears and worries. Talon’s presence always had the same soothing effect on me. He claimed it was a talent he had possessed since birth, making him a deadly hunter. That did not explain how he did it, but I was somewhat disconcerted that the same trick used to catch his prey also worked on me. Scanning the horizon, I spotted his tawny colored fur darting among the piñon and juniper trees.

  “It’s getting late. We should begin looking for a place to stop for the night. You need to rest,” Talon said.

  I had been going nonstop since Claire had collapsed in her parent’s home, but I could not help but feel guilty for acknowledging my aching muscles and tired mind. “We can go a while longer,” I said.

  Talon’s reply was patient but firm. “Your bike is drifting on the road and your thoughts are beginning to wander too much. It is time to stop for the night, Uriah.”

  Sighing, I had the distinct feeling that there was little chance that I would win the argument. Talon was extremely protective of me and would not hesitate to find a way to stop me if he felt it was necessary. “Fine,” I said, “let me know if you find something defendable.”

  The shape shifting Matwau had not been seen since leaving San Juan Pueblo, but he was out there somewhere, waiting for me to make a mistake and fall into his trap. The Matwau feared me, but was compelled to destroy me just as strongly as Talon felt the need to protect me. My guardians kept the creature away for the time being, but eventually he would become tired of waiting and attack. I was only hoping that we would make it to Hano first.

  The green and white of a highway sign announced that we were less than an hour from Gallup, New Mexico. My hopes of reaching Hano without stopping rose. Gallup held all the modern conveniences a traveler could need, but I did not want to stay the night in the city. It would be difficult to explain Talon to the hotel manager, and I was not about to sleep without him by my side. From the directions I had gotten earlier, I knew Hano wasn’t much farther.

  “Have you ever been this far from your territory before, Talon?” I asked.

  “I have rarely travelled this far from my home, only when poor hunting has forced me to leave,” he said.

  I wasn’t very familiar with cougar mating habits, but I was suddenly curious to know whether Talon had left anyone behind to come with me. “Do you have a family, Talon?”

  The cougar’s answer was tinged with amusement. “Not in the way you are used to, Uriah. I have many offspring and mates, but cougars do not travel in packs. After the mating season is ended, we part ways and go back to our own lives.”

  I was surprised by his answer, though I supposed I shouldn’t have been. I knew that very few animals mated for life, but Talon seemed to understand everything I told him about Claire and Twin Souls. I had assumed he would have been different in some way.

  “Does any of this make sense to you?” I asked. “I mean, me dragging Daniel back to San Juan to save Claire and now going to Hano to speak with the Shaxoa?”

  “Of course, Uriah. I may not be familiar with love in the way you see it, but I have felt your devotion to Claire. I understand that you are bound to her more than Daniel will ever be. You cannot abandon her, now or ever. I understand responsibility,” Talon said.

  “I almost did abandon her,” I said. When I felt the bond form between Daniel and Claire, I made the decision to step aside and free Claire from her promises to me. The heartbroken look on her face had stolen my will to go on.

  “You were only doing what you thought best for Claire at the time,” Talon said. He was not trying to make me feel better. He was simply stating a fact as he saw it. “If Quaile had been more forthcoming about what she knew, you would never have left Claire’s side.”

  “I still wonder whether I’m doing the right thing,” I said.

  “Claire asked you to do this,” Talon said.

  She had. Claire had begged me to rescue her, to keep our love whole, but still I wondered. She would be giving up so much for me. Was I wrong to let her put aside the happiness she might have without me? I debated the question many times, never coming to a satisfying answer.

  Coming out of my thoughts, I realized how much the traffic had picked up. We were nearing the city. The low profile of Gallup was visible on the horizon. Surrounded by red rock bluffs and deep canyons, Gallup looked much the same as I remembered it. Even though I had already been to the Albuquerque Balloon Festival several times, the trip to Gallup for the Red Rock Balloon Rally had proved very memorable for me. My father had volunteered to help crew one of the hot air balloons, earning a ride for the two of us.

  Having never even been on a plane, sitting in the open air basket had been thrilling. My mother had waited for us on the ground, not as excited about flying through the air with only a wicker basket to keep us safe as we had been. The flight had only lasted about twenty minutes, but by the end of it, I was ready to commit my life to being a hot air balloon pilot. I smiled at the memory, glad that the idea had proven only a passing fancy. The memory of that day was still strong in my mind as we drove through the city.

  “It’s only another two and a half hours from here,” I said. “I think we should keep driving and just get there tonight. It’s only eight o’clock. It will be too late to talk to anyone, but I don’t want to stop.”

  “We’ll keep going as long as you can stay awake and alert enough. You haven’t had a restful night’s sleep since we met,” Talon said.

  That was certainly true. Even when I did get a chance to sleep, my mind was immediately filled with dreams of Claire and nightmares of the Matwau hunting me. Even with the exhaustion, being so close to Hano made me reluctant to stop before reaching the village. I had no idea how long it would take to convince the Shaxoa to help me, but there was no point in wasting any time.

  “I’ll be fine,” I said. Talon’s answering thought seemed to say he would be the judge of that. “Has there been any sign of the Matwau?”

  “No, there has not.”

  “Where is he?” He had attacked us three times before we made it back to San Juan with Daniel. His threats to come after me were certainly more than idle words. Why hadn’t he fulfilled his promise? I was glad that I hadn’t had to deal with him again, but his absence was starting to worry me.

  “I do not know, Uriah. I had feared that he would attack as soon as you were far enough from Quaile, but none of the sentries have seen any sign of the Matwau,” Talon said. “I am beginning to wonder if he is limited in some way.”

  “You mean like he can’t come after me for some reason, like when Quaile said Daniel was under her protection?” I asked. Somehow Quaile had been able to repel the Matwau when he tried to attack Daniel in her presence. I wished I knew how she had been able to do that.

  “I do not think Quaile can protect anyone who is not very near her person, but I think there is some reason the Matwau is staying away,” Talon said.

  “Well whatever it is, I’m definitely glad he’s leaving me alone for now.”

  Talon echoed my sentiments.

  Spotting the sign directing me onto highway two-sixty-four, I signaled for a right turn and headed for the Arizona bo
rder. A few stray manufactured homes and adobe brick houses still dotted the landscape, but soon even those would disappear. Now that we were away from the city, Talon came in closer to the highway. Falling back into his scouting pattern, the cougar darted from tree to tree.

  Instead of the two and a half hours I had predicted, we rolled off the highway towards Hano just before midnight. The old road was in desperate need of a few repairs. I rode in darkness, the single headlight of my bike cutting a swift path. Slowly the dark outline of a town started to grow ahead of me. Easing off the accelerator, I pulled to the side of the road. Talon was next to me in an instant.

  “This is it?” he asked.

  “This is Hano.”

  “It is smaller than I expected,” Talon said.

  “San Juan used to be this small, before the casino,” I said. Looking at the town I guessed that it held a few hundred families, definitely less than a thousand people. I missed how simple life used to be. Once, I had known almost every person in my home town. Back then, all I had to worry about was feeding the sheep. I feared that simplicity would never return.

  “Well,” I said, “I guess we better find somewhere to sleep. Did you see anything coming in?”

  “The others have already found a defensible spot,” Talon said.

  “Let’s hope we don’t need the defensible part,” I said. “I really need some sleep tonight.”

  4: Reassurance

  My mother had urged to me go to sleep, but after being trapped by the Shaxoa's potion, sleep was the last thing I wanted. What I really wanted, and needed, were answers. My mother patiently answered every question I asked for the second time, except the ones about my father. All she would say about him was that he would be dealt with, and that I shouldn’t worry about it.