FATE
Orphic (adjective): fascinating, entrancing.
DAY 2, HOUR 20
“Where is she?” I screamed to my mates as we dodged the razor-sharp pincers of an ungodly as we fought in the melee.
Petals drifted across my neck.
I was seconds from losing control.
For the last forty hours, we’d slaughtered every infected we’d come across. Thousands of them.
We were thorough.
Unrelenting.
Exacting.
When there were less than a hundred infected left, we’d chased them through the halls and they’d fled into an expansive room.
The last stronghold.
It appeared to be the compound’s living space because there were four stone fireplaces and excessive furniture.
Now smoke filled the windowless space. Velvet chairs and sofas were broken into pieces and scattered about.
Bodies were everywhere, discarded swords lying beside their ripped corpses.
Weapons clashed.
A hair-raising roar echoed. Jax was partially shifted; he had a bear’s head and razor-sharp claws. Infected dropped around him as he swiped.
Cobra was covered in writhing shadow snakes, and they were all over the room, biting infected and sending them to their knees, screaming.
Otherworldly wings clattered as the angels hovered on the ceiling and stabbed downward into the fray. They’d ditched their ice swords in favor of the lighter, easier-to-wield enchanted swords.
The room was chaos.
Pieces from the paintings that had once filled every inch of wall space smoldered as they fell like rain.
The dying screamed.
Our plan had been going perfectly until someone had detonated an incendiary device. When the dust had cleared, Arabella was missing.
She had to be nearby, but for some reason, we couldn’t find her.
It was maddening.
Our Revered had disappeared.
The tether on my control was fraying precariously, and I couldn’t remember why I held myself back from unleashing my voice and slaughtering the world.
Why did I care?
My vocal cords ached to be used.
I chucked a dagger at an ungodly as I dropped to my knees, and Scorpius swung an enchanted sword where I’d stood. Blood splattered. He sliced two infected clean in half.
Ungodly ripped from their flesh, but Corvus tore their heads off before they could stand tall. Scarlet flames poured off him as he threw the severed heads down onto the red-and-green rug and stomped.
At one point, the rug had been white.
Corvus tipped his head back and growled like a beast. He’d dropped his weapons when we’d realized Arabella had disappeared, and he’d been fighting with his bare hands ever since.
He was no longer a soldier.
He was an Ignis whose Revered was missing—a feral creature.
Arabella had to be nearby because the bond sickness hadn’t incapacitated any of us, but we’d searched every corner of the large living space where the fighting was concentrated.
She wasn’t beneath the piles of corpses.
We’d checked.
“Where the fuck is she?” I whisper-yelled as we stabbed, lunged, and dodged in unison.
Panic mounted every second she didn’t appear.
Cherry blossom petals drifted faster across my collarbone, and I gritted my teeth as gore splattered across my face.
Five minutes. If we didn’t find her in the next five minutes, I was unleashing my powers, and I didn’t care if we slaughtered our own soldiers.
They could all die.
“Is Aran with you?” one of the twins shouted as they punched an infected man, stabbed him in the heart, then sliced the emerging ungodly in half.
“No,” Scorpius snarled as he spun and kicked. “We can’t find her.”
The twins stopped moving. Clad in all black, they seemed to disappear into the shadows as the battle raged around them.
“Excuse me,” Luka said with vehemence, “where the fuck is my wife?”
I was startled by his voice because he never spoke; it was deeper than his twin’s.
“She’s not your wife yet,” Corvus replied harshly. “Arabella is unmated and unbonded.” Flames multiplied on his shoulders.
John scoffed as he gutted an infected. “Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth.”
Corvus growled viciously as he grabbed an infected woman’s face and snapped her head to the side like he was imagining it was the twins’. She dropped dead. He repeated the motion with the ungodly. Green gore covered his arms.
Flames poured off his fingers and set the rug aflame.
“She has to be nearby,” I said to the twins. “Because the bond sickness hasn’t set in.”
Scorpius dropped his sword and unsheathed serrated daggers.
He stabbed at one of the remaining male soldiers repeatedly but didn’t kill him. He knelt close, arms and torso painted red, as the man writhed and screamed beneath him.
He didn’t stop.
I watched him mutilate the man with disinterest.
We were unraveling.
Being separated from Arabella was like taking a bullet to the skull. After a lifetime we’d spent searching for her, she wasn’t allowed to leave us.
If we didn’t find her soon, the ungodly would seem tame in comparison to what we’d do, because the sun god himself couldn’t save the realms from us.
“We’ve checked the entire room. We don’t know where the fuck she can be!” Corvus bellowed with frustration to the twins.
All five of us looked around desperately as we fought.
Even with her clad in black from head to toe, we would recognize Arabella because her long legs and lean muscle definition were uniquely hers. No other woman compared.
She was our Revered.
Our soul.
We’d recognize her with our eyes closed and ears covered.
One of the twins pointed at the hole in the wall. “Is she out in the hall?”
I shook my head. “We looked and didn’t see her.” I stomped on the exoskeleton of an ungodly and wished this stupid compound didn’t have so many hidden rooms and corridors.
Scorpius abruptly stood up straight and buried his dagger in the heart of his victim. He didn’t bother to kill the ungodly that sprang from the corpse; instead, he whirled around and stalked toward the far corner of the room.
I killed the ungodly as the four of us followed him.
When he got to the corner of the room, Scorpius pushed his ear up against the brick wall beside the broken paintings.
We waited.
“I can hear her breathing!” he yelled over the fighting. “There must be a different corridor along the perimeter of this side of the room. I think we should—”
Corvus slammed his fists through the bricks, and debris fell from the ceiling as he pummeled through the wall with nothing but brute strength and rage. He slammed his body forward.
The wall exploded, and he stumbled into a dimly lit hall.
We followed.
Scorpius shoved past him and stilled with his mask-covered head cocked to the side as he listened.
We all heard a scream.
Corvus exploded with unbelievable speed, and the rest of us followed close behind.
Up ahead, he turned into a room.
A few seconds later, we followed him inside.
A dozen infected clustered in the corner, hiding, and an enchanted sword pointed toward us, dripping red.
I stilled.
Inhaled.
The copper scent was underlaid with something familiar, an icy scent tinged with power and death. It tasted like adrenaline on my tongue.
It was Arabella’s blood.
I opened my mouth to scream as cherry blossoms floated in the air around me. Before I could unleash my voice, the room’s inhabitants exploded in red flames.
If I weren’t shaking with fear and rage, I would have been amazed that Corvus had unleashed so much fire outside of our powers being activated.
There wasn’t time to think.
Ungodly shrieked as they ripped from the flaming corpses, and we launched forward as a group, slaughtering them.
There was movement in my peripheral vision, and my heart stopped beating.
I ran toward the figure.
Crouching low, I screamed as I applied pressure to Arabella’s sliced-open abdomen.
No. No. No.
The original plan was not to leave the compound until the last ungodly was slaughtered.
My Ignis lifted Arabella in his arms and sprinted down the halls, faster than he’d ever moved, as if death himself chased us.
We broke protocol and followed behind him.
The battle was almost won anyway.
Our footsteps were thunderous as we sprinted as a group.
Our Revered was our priority.
Finally, we stumbled out of the compound, back into the darkness of the night, and we were in the courtyard.
Fairy lights twinkled in the trees.
Corvus passed Arabella’s limp form into my arms, then he gently pulled off her hood.
I pressed a kiss to her icy forehead and cradled her against my chest as I prayed to the sun god.
The others surrounded us.
Blood and gore stained the dusting of snow beneath our feet, then melted into a mess.
Bells tinkled.
Snowflakes drifted softly around us and kissed Arabella’s unnaturally pale cheeks.
Corvus ripped off his hood, and his eyes were on fire.
He leaned close so his harsh bronze features were inches from hers, then he snarled harshly, “I’m going to kill you for this.”
I stiffened and pulled her closer to my chest protectively.
What was he playing at?
My Protector instincts flared. How dare he speak to our Revered like that? How dare he disrespect her so callously?
It was sacrilegious.
Arabella’s lips, which were turning blue from blood loss, curled up into a mocking smirk, and she mouthed, “Go fuck yourself.” Her skin was a disturbing shade of gray.
My Ignis smiled, tipped his head back, and bellowed to the night sky.
Flames shot from his mouth like a dragon.
Scorpius grabbed Corvus’s flaming shoulders and said, “Get the fuck away from her. What is wrong with you?” He voiced my thoughts as he pulled our Ignis away from our precious Revered.
The twins ripped off their hoods and formed a protective shield with their bodies.
“Are you okay?” one of them whispered to Arabella and stroked her cheek.
She rolled her eyes dramatically. “Clearly, I’m fine.” Even bleeding out with a gruesome wound, she was sarcastic.
I would have laughed if my insides weren’t curdled with fear.
A dimple appeared on the twin’s cheek. It was John, and he poked her nose. “Little Smurf idiot got stabbed.”
Arabella struggled in my hold like she was going to fight him.
I tightened my grip as agitation flared sharply in my gut because everyone was acting deranged and she was bleeding out in my arms.
“We need to get her help!” I shouted as I backed away from the other men. “Who the fuck has the RJE?” My voice was loud and raw, power sizzling in my veins.
Everyone stopped moving.
I’d entranced them.
Arabella was the only one unaffected; she squirmed against my chest and stared up at me, her wide navy eyes misted with shock. She no longer radiated cold, and her presence felt small in my arms.
I studied every curve and plane of her face.
The jagged scar beneath her eye and the dark circles from exhaustion enhanced the otherworldly nature of her beauty.
She was the only person in all the realms who was completely unaffected by my voice. While I didn’t enthrall Corvus and Scorpius, my voice still triggered my mates’ powers.
Arabella seemed completely unaffected.
She was perfect—she was also gravely injured.
Unable to help myself, I leaned forward and pressed another kiss to her forehead. “I will never leave your side, ever again,” I promised huskily.
Her skin was unnaturally cold beneath my lips.
“I don’t forgive you,” she breathed out with a harsh rattle.
Snow gathered in the curls that stuck out around her head in a fluffy halo.
I held her tighter against my chest and whispered, “I know, sweetheart. You don’t have to.”
She winced but pressed her face into my shoulder. Her hand splayed across my chest, and her fingers curled.
Bells tinkled, and snow drifted.
No one else existed in all the realms but the two of us.
Seconds expanded. The ground beneath my boots metaphysically shook as an onslaught of emotions battered me.
Something tender spread between us.
It was the same feeling I had when I’d realized what her name meant.
The science behind soulmates was nebulous because the unique composition of an individual’s soul changed how the bond interacted.
I pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and held her close.
Startling clarity gripped me. It wasn’t a coincidence that she was the only person I could speak to freely.
It was fate.
We were destined.
I clutched her against my chest as snow kissed our cheeks and steam rose around our feet.
Fate had brought us together.
The moment broke as the men stalked toward us as the compulsion ended.
“I have an RJE,” Corvus said as he answered my original question.
A device whirled.
All four of them lunged toward Arabella at once.
Crack.
I staggered but held both of us upright as I fought off the dizziness of traveling through space.
Shaking my head once, I turned and ran through the quiet forest, down the path. I cut through trees so I could get to the medical barracks quicker.
Throwing myself inside, I laid Arabella down on the first white cot. One of the twins collapsed on his knees by her side and grabbed her hand.
He whispered to her quietly.
Corvus screamed for the doctors. Cherry blossoms floated around my Revered and covered her stomach, like they were trying to heal her.
The doctors gasped as they took in her ruined stomach.
“Enchanted sword wound.” A doctor shook her head. “It’s too much damage.”
An empty bed exploded in flames.
Scorpius was suddenly standing beside the doctor with a dagger pressed to her throat. “Fix her or die.”
The doctor’s eyes widened with fear.
Arabella tried to say something, but all that came out was a low whimper of pain.
Shock was wearing off, and she was starting to feel her injury. She’d only have a few more minutes before she was screaming in agony.
I clenched my fists.
“Stop it.” Luka pulled Scorpius away from the incompetent doctor.
Cherry blossoms formed a whirlwind.
“Don’t you know who Aran is?” Luka asked Scorpius, and I realized it was the first time he’d ever looked one of us in the eyes as he spoke. He looked at the three of us like we were pathetic. “She’s the Queen of the Fae Realm.”
We stared back.
Scorpius stabbed the trembling doctor in the thigh and asked, “So?”
The incompetent doctor fell to the ground, screaming.
Luka swore and dragged his hands roughly through his messy dark hair. “Aran can’t die without someone ripping out her heart and eating it.”
A faint memory of Aran lying in a marble hall explaining fae succession played at the edge of my mind, but I was too stressed to remember it clearly.
“Are you sure?” Corvus sounded unconvinced.
The doctor whimpered, and everyone ignored her.
“Of course he is,” John said, darkness glittering around him. “She used to complain about it constantly back at Elite Academy. You’d know that if you ever bothered to listen to her.”
Violence ratcheted up.
Tensions sizzled.
The stabbed doctor staggered to her feet and limped through the door that led to the back room of the medical building.
The five of us were locked in a staring contest. Darkness expanded around Luka, and flames leaped higher off Corvus’s shoulders.
Another doctor burst through the same door, holding vials of different-colored substances. He hurried to the bed and leaned over Arabella as he brought one to her lips.
The tension broke as everyone whirled toward him.
“What the fuck are you giving her?” Corvus snarled as Luka asked, “What is that?”
Scorpius lunged forward with his knife drawn.
I grabbed my fellow Protector by his neck and yanked him back.
The colorful vials clattered in the doctor’s shaking hand. “I-I-It’s for p-pain and w-will help her s-s-sleep and heal,” he stuttered.
John ripped the glass from his fingers and sniffed it.
He tipped it back and wet his lips, licked at the substance, then nodded and said, “He’s not lying.”
“Then what the fuck are you waiting for?” Corvus bellowed at the doctor. “Administer it now, she’s clearly in pain!”
Luka snapped, “But do it gently.”
I raised my eyebrows because the quiet twin didn’t talk to anyone besides John and Arabella; now he was fighting with Corvus and addressing a doctor.
The doctor reached for John’s hands, but the twin pulled the vial out of his reach and pressed it to Arabella’s gray lips.
Immediately she stopped squirming and whimpering.
Her eyes closed.
A few minutes later, the doctor pushed a clipboard with hastily sprawled instructions into John’s hands and told him to administer her drugs as he ran out of the room.
Pussy.
“You sure she’ll heal?” I whispered as my knees gave out at the edge of her cot.
“Yes.” John didn’t look away from her.
Gradually, my mates and Luka knelt along the bed as our collective panic and aggression decreased until there was nothing but silence and Arabella’s strained breaths.
I bowed my head and swore on the ancient House of Malum—on the crest of a fire-breathing dragon, on the tender feeling that had engulfed me when I’d held her against my chest—that she would find shelter with me.
My Revered would find peace in my arms.
It didn’t matter that we were champions in the middle of a war. It didn’t matter that I was a soulless creature who had hurt her in the past.
Arabella would find sanctuary with me.
Forever.
Bang. The doors to the medical barracks flung open, and dozens of gore-coated soldiers stumbled in.
Doctors swarmed like mosquitos.
The battle was over.
Quiet was replaced by groans of pain as men and women collapsed onto cots. A man was carried in screaming.
White floors turned red, and doctors slipped as they hurried to patients.
Arabella slept through the chaos.
I prayed.
“Oh my sun god, is she okay?” Sadie screeched as she fell to her knees beside my Revered’s bed.
I glared at her and bemoaned my inability to speak. All of us bristled as the white-haired woman stared down at our woman with wide, worried eyes.
Corvus solved my problem by growling, “Get the fuck away from her. She’s not yours.”
Instead of Sadie obeying, her eyes glowed neon red.
She bared her teeth like a wild animal. A warning growl rattled in her chest as she said, “She’s my best friend, so you better fucking watch yourself. I know her better than all of you, and I’ll be by her side long after she’s done with you.”
I narrowed my eyes, and my stomach churned at her words.
“Shit, what happened to her?” Cobra hissed as he staggered over to Sadie. His arm was gushing blood from a stab wound, but he pressed a hand over it and ignored the doctor trying to get him to sit down.
The shifters were a virus.
“Worry about your own people,” Scorpius said, his jaw clenched as he traced his fingertips softly over Arabella’s arm.
Cobra’s pupils narrowed into slits, and his eyes glowed like his mates’. The jewels embedded in his skin turned into writhing black shadow snakes and gave him the appearance of a madman.
What my Revered saw in these animals was beyond my comprehension.
“She isssss my people,” Cobra hissed angrily at Scorpius, and he took a step closer to the bed like he wanted to fight.
Flames sizzled across Malum’s shoulders, and he stood up and blocked Cobra’s view of Scorpius and Arabella. The shadow snakes writhed faster across his skin, and flames leaped higher.
On the bed beside us, a man screamed as his nose was stitched back on.
“What happened to Aran?” the posh shifter Xerxes asked as he walked over and stood beside his mates. “Jax and Ascher are getting stitched up but are going to be fine.” He stared down at my Revered and furrowed his brow. “Why is Aran not awake?”
John sighed loudly. “For sun god’s sake. She took an enchanted sword to the stomach, but she just needs time to recover.”
A tense moment passed.
“Are you sure nothing happened to her heart?” Sadie asked with concern, the glow receding from her eyes.
“I’m sure,” John snapped at her with annoyance. “We wouldn’t be sitting here calmly if something had. Or are you questioning my loyalty to her?”
“Maybe I am?” Sadie snarled.
He glared daggers at her.
A long, tense moment passed.
Finally, Sadie said, “We’ll come back later when the men aren’t being psychos around her.” She tugged her mates away.
Cobra glared back at us with malevolent snake eyes as he let his mate pull him away.
I scowled back.
She was ours, not theirs.
They’d learn it soon enough.
