Maryanne: Did Jonah almost kiss us?

  Lesley peered past his book: Yes.

  Strength: Yeah! He’s way outta line!

  Mark: Not if the dude likes us and we like him.

  Jack: Am I the only one who noticed us getting a vision of the Kin Beast? We should view it.

  Maryanne turned her head at the screen that had appeared. Strength, Lesley, and Mark did the same as Jack pressed the play button.

  —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  Everything was hazy, but the face of the bowl-haired woman was visible. A frown was on it.

  “If we can’t get you to cooperate by your lonesome, then maybe attacking your bondmate will move things along,” she said, grabbing something from a pillowcase, which looked like gold thread, and a mirror. She trailed her hand by the mirror’s edge that was glowing with runes.

  “Do you know what this mirror is?” she asked the Kin Beast, whose eyes went wide.

  She chuckled. “I see that not all of you are uncouth beasts.” She leaned in, her bangle sounding like a chime. “I’ll give you one chance. You’re already trying my patience.”

  The Kin Beast blew its trunk at her and shifted to stand, but the woman smiled and drew a green glowing finger down the mirror’s side, where the runes were. The mirror came to a frothing halt on the view behind her, where she kept the thread. She pulled on the piece of enchanted thread, and like a hound, the mirror searched for its quarry, until it found me and Jonah about to kiss.

  The woman smiled evilly and lit the string on fire, causing the Kin Beast to fall to its knees and wail. I did the same in the mirror. The woman dropped the string and the mirror stopped glowing.

  “Let that be a lesson to you. Do not test me, beast. You will not win,” she threatened, running a bangled hand through her tresses. The Kin Beast rose to its imposing height but the fire that burned within had been banked. Two men grabbed it by the tusks and latched a seating palanquin to it.

  The woman rose and walked to them.

  —------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  They sat in the sitting room thinking for a minute before Strength spoke up.

  “How do we know that witch isn’t tailing us now?”

  Mark sighed and went back to reading his magazine. “We don’t.”

  “Myra can make that decision,” said Jack, as I stood there thinking. I had seen the vision too. One had already taken place. Could oracles see into the past? I’d ask Jonah. I, too, was worried that the woman was tailing us with the mirror and would warn Jonah. It was all I could do. I had to rescue Chamomille. Not for the scrolls but because it was the decent, humane thing to do!

  As for Jonah trying to kiss me, well–I did want it, so why in Oppolomei’s name did that have to happen then? Why not after? It would be freaking weird now every time we touched that wasn’t rune related or needed. I had held fast for the rune lesson and inking, but further?

  Maryanne: Don’t be so hard on yourself or him. It was bound to happen sooner or later.

  Strength: It was?

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  Mark sighed: Yes!

  Lesley: Seriously, I was the dumb one?

  Jack: It’s been heading this way for a while now.

  Maryanne: Lesley, you weren’t dumb, just mentally challenged.

  Strength: Ain’t tha the same ting?

  Mark: Strength is a whole other ball game.

  “What, but!” I stuttered, blushing and ignoring their usual ribbing on one another.

  Maryanne: Face it, Myra. I’ve actually been wondering when it would happen after the Amel confrontation.

  Strength blinked: You have?

  Mark rolled his eyes and straightened his glasses: Yes, Lughead.

  Jack: You two only needed to realize what was already there, but the touches, the glances, the feelings? All there. Buried but there.

  I stood shocked. My voices saw something in the friendship we held before?

  Lesley: I would call it a special friendship.

  Mark: And I’d call it flirting.

  Jack: Whatever it was, it's led to now. Are you going to let it pass you by?

  Strength: WHAT! HOLD UP!

  Mark: Ignore Lughead, he needs to GROW UP!

  Maryanne and Jack sighed, and I winced at the glare Strength gave Mark.

  Strength: All I’m saying is be careful, the guy was our bully.

  Mark: Not this again?

  Lesley: Now I see why he’s called Lughead.

  Jack: Yeah. Strength, the guy has changed, for the better.

  Maryanne nodded: I have to agree. Jonah may have been our bully, but he’s grown.

  I sighed and left them arguing; this was my problem. Instead, I concentrated on the breakfast I was eating. Jonah was across. Every so often, his eyes would fall on me, and a softer look would enter that heterochromatic gaze of his.

  I blushed slightly under it. “What?” I asked self-conscious.

  He smiled. “Nothing. Just noticing things I should’ve a while ago.”

  I nodded. I sure was! The way his hair fell over his eyes made my heart skip a beat, or his now smouldering eyes. They were a big–

  “Come on,” he said, turning from me, but I could make out a bit of a blush on his face. “We’ve got a Kin Beast to get to.”

  “Wait, Jonah,” I said, gripping his hand. He entangled our fingers together.

  “Yeah?” he asked voice a few decibels lower, making me shiver.

  “I–” I shook my head and concentrated on the words, trying to ignore the slight sparks gathering between our fingers that had nothing to do with any elemental power.

  Maryanne: More like attraction!

  Strength: Could that be a power?

  Mark: Maybe.

  Jack: If those sparks are any bigger, she could brandish them as a weapon.

  Lesley: Heh, I agree with you, Jack.

  Laugh o laugh. You guys are also in my body, so–

  “Myra!” called Jonah, snapping. I turned to him, blinking owlishly.

  “What?”

  “What were you about to tell me?” he asked, gazing into my eyes.

  “Oh! That witch we saw? The green-haired one? She might know we’re coming,” I said as he dropped my hand. I frowned. Why did he do that?

  He eyed me. “How?”

  “Through a runed mirror. She saw us about to,” I trailed off, blushing. “Anyway, she can look in whenever and know where I am due to the bond somehow.”

  “The mirror of Kin Bonds. I thought it lost,” he said, eyes narrowing. “We’ll have to be very careful from now on. If she’s listening–”

  “Isn’t there a rune for that?” I asked.

  “Not everything can be solved with runes, My.”

  “Can an oracle see the past?” I asked, blushing as we came in contact with each other. We were putting the camp to rights, storing the tents, sleeping bags, and cooking gear in our runes. We split the cooking gear, tents, and bags. That way, if either of us got separated, both of us could survive til we found each other.

  He stared at me, eyes wide. “Did you get a vision from the past?”

  I nodded, standing and wrapping the scarf around my neck. Good thing it was of a durable fabric. This trip around Sapherine was wasting it quickly.

  “Oracles can see the past, but maybe it was your Kin Beast bond?”

  “Maybe,” I muttered, not too sure, and began my trek forward.

  “Wait, Myra. There is a way to check,” he said, gripping my arm in a gentle hold that I could break easily. The problem was I didn’t want to.

  I idled beside him. “Haven’t we bothered Noali enough?”

  “Not Noali. Datha. She would know too. I can trick her into saying so,” he said, smirking. I leaned in and ran my hand through that golden scruff he called hair. It tickled my palm as I ran my fingers through it. It was so soft and silky! Nothing like mine.

  “Myra,” he coughed, slipping his hand in mine and lowering it from his hair.

  “What?” I asked in a somewhat annoyed voice. I was being taken away from my new toy.

  He chuckled and slid our hands to lie in a space, his thumb tracing my knuckles. “Sorry, you sounded so cute.” I blushed at his name-calling. “Anyway, Kin Beast, remember? Chamomille?”

  I blushed deeper and led him forward. “Follow me. The witch left a marker of her power–” I searched the underbrush, using Mark’s ability to communicate with plants. I soon found green power leaking from the pores of a Hibiscus plant.

  “Aha, here!” I said, and Jonah leaned in, also seeing the marker for what it was.

  “Let’s hurry. I don’t want that witch finding you out,” he said.

  “Us,” I replied, but nodded, and we were once more off to the beast.