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Yet she felt slightly detached from the recollection and her voice sounded far off as she said, “My father shoved my mother behind him as the shifters moved toward them He reached for his sword She had one too Mine But I think she was too scared to pull it fro”
Sheena asked in a soft tone, “What did the shifters ith your family?”
“My father was the leader of the village,” Jade told her She had no concrete answers but surmised, “I suppose they wanted to start at the top and work their way down If they eliminated him and the slayers, the people within the borders would be easy to kill and they could take control of the village Set up camp at the base of the castle as they awaited their ar’s men At least, that’s what the slayers suspected, and I’ve always subscribed to that theory” Further consideration made her add, “This is probably the reason I was so ada Tanner when the fire wraith’s army arrived before Darien’s”
Jade crossed to the patch of trees she’d gestured to She reached out a hand and her fingers grazed the bark of a wide trunk A chill ran down her spine
She said, “I re I should run away Find a slayer But I couldn’t move I was literally paralyzed with fear I wanted to screa as it had been fifteen years ago “I opened my mouth, but no sound came out And I knohy”
Sheena didn’t speak
“I knew there was nothing I could do,” Jade continued “If I did cry out, the shifters would come after me too If I ran, they’d followat s to distract the shifters’ attention froet the wolves to chaseI’ve never forgiven myself for”
The vaently on her shoulder “You siet”
Jade’s eyes flashed to Sheena’s concerned face “I never thought of it that way”
“Why must you always first think that you should be the savior?”
Their gazes locked Jade’s heart beat a bit faster She had no answer for her friend’s question, other than to say, “I have abilities others don’t Doesn’t that mean I should try to save those weaker than me?”
Sheena looked stricken “You’re not invincible, Jade You’re human and mortal So even if you had distracted the shifters, you wouldn’t have gotten away from them or survived their swift attack They would have circled back for your parents Then, Jade, all three of you would be dead”
Tears crested her eyes “I know this, Sheena But it doesn’t comfort me Can you understand that? I cowered here, and while s I wanted to do—I couldn’t physically move, other than to turn my back and cover ”
Her body jerked at the memory and her tears came faster
“Eventually,” she ain, seeing a rider descending upon the shifters with fury They’d already…dismembered…my parents” She sed down the bile that rose in her throat “They took off and the rider followed I only recently learned who he was—Morgan He killed the shifters”