Free Hurricane (The Charmed) by Dianne Nutting

meeting Jaden and Chase.”
    “Am I in trouble?”
    “No Lyla, you never had the opportunity to be in trouble. Your parents and I should be ashamed of ourselves for keeping you in the dark. I’m always telling you that knowledge is power, I violated my own soapbox lecture.”
    “Are we going to be okay?”
    “Well, I suppose that’s up to you. Let me tell you what’s going on. Your birthdate is November first. Do you know what significance your birthdate has?”
    “You told me that nobody has that date except me, which I still find hard to believe.”
    “Nobody of the Charmed Lyla, it’s our most powerful day. Every hundred years a baby is born on November first, at three thirty a.m. If they find their spiritual mate before they’re eighteen, that person heightens the other persons’ powers. Your parents kept your birthdate a secret. Lyla, your parents thought if they didn’t put down roots, you wouldn’t meet your mate before you turned eighteen.”
    “Why would my parents care? What happened to the others?”
    “The mate became power hungry.”
    “Every instance?”
    “Yes. But look at the different eras where those people lived in, war and famine.”
    “So I just put Chase in huge danger and he might become a crazy person from this?”
    “Not necessarily.” He looked at his watch again.
    “What aren’t you telling me?”
    “Lyla, we have to perform a blood ceremony.”
    “But that’s a marriage ceremony.”
    “Yep, and everything that goes with it.”
    “Are you telling me that in the next hour, not only will I have to marry Chase, but sleep with him too? I’m right, aren’t I?”
    Mr. M only nodded his head yes.
    Lyla was sitting up fully alert now. “But after that, he could become a power hungry lunatic?”
    “Well, the possibilities are there.”
    “I won’t do it.”
    “What?”
    “I can’t do that to Chase. First, what if he doesn’t feel that way about me enough to marry me. We’re both in high school still! Then to force him to sleep with me and then the possibility of going stark raving mad?” Her voice had risen with each sentence.
    “You have to, Lyla.”
    “No, I don’t!”
    “Yes, you do. If you don’t, within the next hour and a half, you both will be dead.”
    Lyla stared at Mr. M. The breath had been knocked out of her. She sat back on the seat and looked out the window.
    Mr. M hadn’t meant to be so abrupt but he hadn’t expected Lyla to say no either.
    “Die?” Lyla’s voice came out as a whisper.
    “Yes. I’m sorry.”
    Lyla turned her head and stared out the window for a while.
    Mr. M broke the silence. “Lyla, the possibility that Chase doesn’t love you or want marriage is slim to none. He’s never dated anyone longer than two weeks. He has completeness about him I’ve never seen before. Plus, the markings don’t lie.”
    Lyla didn’t say anything. She thought about how she felt about Chase. It was true, even she felt better in this world when she was with him.
    Mr. M’s phone rang. “Yeah? Okay, I’ll arrive in ten minutes. Did you get the room? Thanks Jaden.”
    “What about my parents?” Lyla spoke quietly, still looking out the window. She turned toward Mr. M, tears in her eyes.
    “What about them?”
    “Shouldn’t they know?”
    Mr. M sighed. He had hoped not to get into this. “They thought that if they moved around you wouldn’t meet ‘the one’. If you didn’t meet him at eighteen, you wouldn’t die.”
    “But I would have anyway, wouldn’t I?” Lyla was catching on fast.
    “Yes.”
    “So, they almost killed me.”
    “Lyla, they just thought they were doing the right thing. No matter how much I tried to convince them, they truly believed you would live and have a normal life if you turned eighteen without so much as looking at another boy. There must have been some doubt though; otherwise you wouldn’t have ended up here.”
    “Why?”
    “Because I’m a bit of an expert on the subject. I’m sure they wanted you