Thorns of Fate

by Hayley Todd

  I exchanged another glance with my father and leaned close.

  The moment I was within range of her grasp, she grabbed me from about the neck and yanked me across the table. I wasn’t heavy enough to keep her from doing it and the angle made it too awkward for me to fight back.

  “You will learn, little betrayer,” Valeria hissed into my ear.

  Then the room faded into darkness as new images laid over my vision.

  I stood near Carson, in absolute darkness. No, not Carson. It was Marcellus at my side. They shared several of the same features but I could see the armor shining from his chest, the shield at his back, and a sword in a sheath on his hip. I could fairly well in the darkness, shapes making themselves apparent in the shadow. Moonlight peered down on us in the ancient city streets and it shown off of silhouettes creeping from the night.

  We were surrounded on all sides, figures flanked us. He stayed close to me, trying to keep me away from the crowd protectively but there was nowhere safe to go. It was useless.

  A figure stepped forward, splashing themself with moonlight and becoming more easily visible. There stood Valeria. She was tall, though shorter than myself, and thin. Her eyes still held that predatory gaze, and shone with a violet glow. Her skin was pale and her hair still white. Her fangs protruded from her lips as though she took no care in hiding them.

  I gasped. I wasn’t entirely sure if I was simply feeling someone else’s shock or if my own had taken over the scene.

  “Ah, yes, little sister, I have found you at long last,” she said, her voice tight and threatening.

  A shiver ran down my spine. Little sister? I recognized this scene from the end of my list dream with Achillia, though I hadn’t realized that the woman in the interrogation room had also been one of our assailants in my dream.

  “Capture them,” Valeria hissed, pointing a finger at Marcellus and myself.

  The silhouettes neared, becoming more clearly visible as they stepped closer. They weren’t Magicks. They weren’t even vampires. They were all witches except for Valeria. Marcellus and I exchanged a look and there was a wicked gleam in his eye. I nodded to him. We wouldn’t go easily.

  Three figures pushed forward on my right, three on his left.

  With a snap of my wrist, a long blossoming cord of energy appeared, shedding light across the intersection. There were dozens of homes surrounding us, most appearing to have been abandoned. There were several more witches squeezing out from between the buildings.

  On my left, Marcellus took a deep breath and began glowing, emitting a dark blue sheen across the shadows. Two women on his left dropped to their knees, struggling to gain their feet again. The third witch--a man--approached Marcellus, not seeming to be as easily effected.

  I whipped my wrist to the right, knocking back all three figures approaching me with ease. They stumbled across the ground, dirtying their cloaks and struggling to right themselves. Three more figures approached from behind them and I could see that there was a line of beings, only waiting for their chance to approach.

  Marcellus left my side, leaping out at his assailants. He grabbed the standing man about the neck and hurled him to the side where he crashed into the two women and all three of them went sprawling.

  I flicked my wrist again, cracking the whip against the nearest witch’s forearm. She shrieked in pain and welts appeared across her skin. I twisted my arm again, sending her sailing out of the corner of the city and into the field that separated the buildings from the forest. She didn’t move.

  I leapt forward, dashing past the three figures I had knocked down the first time and plowed into the next line of attackers. They lifted their hands, chanting frantically in an unknown language. A sweeping wave of black smoke appeared along the street, speeding toward me.

  I didn’t hesitate though and instead slammed the back of my fist across the face of the nearest person. His head whipped to the side and he immediately fell, knocked unconscious.

  The other witch’s chants become more frenzied, barely identifiable as words now. The smoke coalesced into a long tendril of black power, reaching out for me. I slapped it aside with my whip and leapt at her, sinking my fangs into the skin of her neck. She arched against me but was unable to remove me while I drank her blood. Her life flooded through me, revitalizing and I shook the whip free as it emanated an even brighter blue white glow. When I felt her struggle fade, I dropped her and she sagged to the ground.

  I turned to see Marcellus being overtaken by five more cloaked figures. I lashed my whip toward the nearest one and caught a limb. I whipped my hand away and another figure went sailing through the air and impacted hard against the nearest building. They fell to the ground, unmoving.

  Two of the people near Marcellus had flung themselves at him, balls of dark energy pooled around their palms. Where it touched his skin, a white glow exploded and they were thrown away. He was proving to be quite useful in a fight now.

  He stepped toward the next two, his eyes dark green and that glow passing over them. They shuddered and bowed beneath the power, looking like dogs belly up to their alpha. He swept forward with his leg, knocking them both back. The building I’d thrown my witch into shuddered and a large portion of its structure collapsed into the street, burying all three of them.

  A spear of violet energy shot from the darkness, stabbing through my upper shoulder. I shrieked my agony to the night air and fell to one knee. Marcellus turned to me but more witches were creeping from the shadows and he was forced to turn back, lest his back be left unprotected.

  Valeria stepped forward from the darkness, her face furious. “Take them,” she growled and the sound spilling from her throat could barely be classified as human. I mean I guess she wasn’t but even Magicks resembled humans more than this hate-filled being in front of me.

  She lifted her palm and another lancing bolt of energy stabbed through my abdomen, ripping another scream of pain from me. The grey-black energy roiling across the ground had reached me and crept across my legs. I froze, the inky dark power seeping the energy from my body. I slouched, unable to fight it and already too far gone to fight back.

  Marcellus came to my aid, ignoring too many attackers in the process. He lurched after Valeria but she batted him away with the back of her hand. He went rolling across the ground into the cloud of energy. It overtook him in an instant, hungry.

  The last thing I saw was Valeria’s furious countenance glaring down at me. “This will be the last time you steal from me, sister,” she spat, her voice shaking me to my very bones. She lifted a booted foot and cracked it against my skull and everything went black.

  When I came to, I was strung up on a crossed pike, my arms twisted painfully behind my back and bound around the planks of wood. Marcellus laid in the middle of a circle before me. The circle had been made of flat stones gathered into a shape with twisting malicious lines stretching into the darkness away from us. He was awake and staring at me but evidently unable to move, his arms and legs locked into an ‘x’ shape.

  I watched as witches filled the clearing, advancing on the circle. Valeria stood center of them, her hood thrown back and her white hair clearly visible even in the dark. A burning fury filled me at the sight of her.

  That dark wrong power filled the clearing around us, a barrier from escape. A man stepped up alongside Valeria and my breath escaped me when I saw his face.

  “Emperor, what is this?” I hissed, twisting at my restraints. It was to no avail, they didn’t budge and I remained splayed against my will.

  The Emperor laughed, his blonde hair shining under the moonlight as he approached. Valeria watched him, neither with a friendly gaze nor with a hateful one. She seemed ambivalent to his presence. “Oh, Achillia,” he said, hissing my name. “Imagine my surprise when you appeared in my arena!” He sounded almost hysterical, like a child with his favorite Christmas gift. “I had been searching for you for some time and then, just like that, there you were! I’m so overjoyed that your pet
ty rivalry with my mistress would draw you to me. I was sad to see how easily you decimated my troops as well as Cassandra once the time finally came, though. It had proven to benefit me greatly to hear her visions.”

  Valeria crossed her arms over her chest, her eyes not leaving my face. I refused to look at her, filling bitter anger against her. I bored holes into the Emperor with my glare.

  He stepped closer to me, showing a manic insanity in his blue eyes. Valeria didn’t move, watching me still. He didn’t hesitate when he approached, lashing out with the back of his hand.

  His slap cracked across my jaw and I was immediately sure he had broken something. Agony rippled through my face into the rest of my body. Tears sprung from my eyes and I was unable to withdraw them. They ran over my cheeks and he smiled wickedly.

  The Emperor strutted in front of me, his eyes flicking between joy and fury. I wasn’t entirely convinced that this man was sane. “You see, Achillia,” he growled. “I have plans for Rome and the whole of Italy that you and your kind seem intent on swaying.” My kind? Magicks? He was working with one! None of this made sense.

  “I tried to have you removed through combat in the Coliseum, however you prove to continue to be a thorn in my side. No longer,” he turned to Valeria. “The lovely Lady Valeria has assisted me in your capture under one condition. That she get the man in return,” his eyes flicked to Marcellus’s splayed form. The Emperor giggled maniacally.

  He beckoned to the witches around us and they began their advance, closing in on the circle. “But, better yet! I’ve coordinated with my witches to find a way to incapacitate all three of you!”

  Valeria’s eyes went wide but before she could leap toward the Emperor that black fog enveloped her and she dropped out of sight.

  An incoherent chant filled the air and the circle around Marcellus began to glow with a faint yellow cloud of light. A man stepped over to where Marcellus’s head rested and held his hands over him, palms open. He dribbled red liquid from a bottle. It seemed to sparkle with power.

  The Emperor half turned to me and half watched the witch. “You know the best part of this, Achillia?” He growled.

  I didn't respond, refusing to be goaded.

  He chuckled. “No matter. The best part is that for your insolence, I am having my associates use your own power to curse both your sister and this man! Your own life force will be used to destroy them.” He grinned wickedly and the man over Marcellus began muttering a spell that I could just barely hear.

  “What is old, what is new, it is your time to be through, from time immemorial, to memories long lost, your love and your life will be your cost.” The clearing began to glow, casting shimmering dark purple energy over us all. The other witches echoes his chant.

  It only took me a moment to realize even from my skewed perspective that the coalescing mist seemed to pull from myself in a blue cloud and Valeria in purple, combining to form into the periwinkle layer of energy encompassing the field.

  The Emperor turned to me and for one blinding moment of clarity, I recognized him. His clear blue eyes locked onto mine. “They will lose their purpose, lose their memories, and you, Achillia,” he hissed, “will lose your life.”

  “Until the day that soul mates meet, you will wander the earth in defeat, and when that imprint of love will form, a new enemy will be reborn,” the man continued his chant.

  The magic pulled at me, tearing at my skin, and dragging the breath from me. My vision blurred, leaving the clearing in a smear of colors.

  “Marcellus!” Valeria shrieked from where she had fallen.

  “Imprint on imprint, love will grow, and in that time, your destiny will show. Love to love, till death will we part, and then appears the break of a heart. In the absence of imprint, you all shall die, and evils reign will amplify.”

  Pain filled my chest, agonizing and terrible, splitting me apart and casting my consciousness to the winds. My world exploded and my chest rose for breath no more.

  Chapter Twenty-Eight

  I lurched up, breathing hard, my hand pressed to my chest. Beneath my fingertips I could feel the flutter of my own frantic heartbeat.

  I sat in total darkness, lying in bed, and the forms of Carson’s room began to solidify in my vision. I swept my hands across the mattress finding that I was alone. My gaze crept across the pitch black room and settled on the figure sitting in a chair beside the bed.

  Anton sat there, his eyes wide, his gaze blank.

  He suddenly shifted, gazing at me and the expression on his face did nothing for my hammering heart. “You’re awake,” he gasped, barely a whisper.

  “What happened?” I asked, feeling more aware by the second.

  He leaned onto the edge of his seat, breathing hard himself. “Valeria touched you and you immediately blacked out. Carson ripped you from the room before anyone else could react. He, Damien, and Liam are in the living room.” He gestured across the room to the living room door with a lazy finger.

  I leaned forward, dragging myself from the sheets. My hoodie had been removed but I still wore the oversized t-shirt and sweatpants. Anton reached out and laid a hand across my chest, forcing me back.

  “What was that, Kyra?” he asked, staring hard into my eyes.

  I paused. If he were sitting here, he had likely felt my emotions throughout the vision. Maybe that was why he was here.

  “I-I’ve been...seeing things,” I began, my voice shaky. I took a deep breath and continued. “Before I turned I had dreams of a woman, a gladiatrix, named Achillia.”

  He nodded as though this made sense so far.

  “After the change, the dreams began to advance, showing me her life and her experiences. When Valeria touched me, I was sucked into one of those dreams, continuing from where the last one left off.”

  I hesitated, unsure how to word the rest of the dream. “There was a man, named Marcellus, who looked just like Carson. And Valeria was there. She called Achillia her sister. Or maybe she called me her sister? I’m not sure…” I trailed off, gasping for air, feeling anxiety swell within my gut in a choking wave.

  “Easy,” Anton cooed, grabbing my forearm. The anxious panic faded until I could think clearly again.

  I took another deep breath. “The Emperor and dozens of witches captured us. Valeria had been working with him. She had some sort of vendetta against Achillia. Her reward was supposed to be Car-” I cut off, realizing I had likened Carson and Marcellus as one and the same. “Marcellus. But the Emperor betrayed her and cursed them both, using Achillia’s life force to support the curse. I died, Anton,” I said. I hadn’t realized I was hysterically crying until the warm drops fell against my skin.

  Anton shushed me patiently, taking my hand in his. I felt a little better then and took a long, full breath for the first time since I had woken up. “What was the curse?” he asked, softly.

  “I-I-I...it was...confusing. They said it like a riddle,” I replied.

  He nodded as though this was expected. “Witches,” he hissed. “Recite it to me,” he requested, looking deeply at me. I was realizing more and more that Anton was not the bad guy that he had been painted as.

  I spouted the words I had just heard and they felt awkward and full of potential in my mouth. “What is old, what is new, it is your time to be through, from time immemorial, to memories long lost, your love and your life will be your cost.” I paused for a moment, letting the dream splash over me again with a shiver. “Until the day that soul mates meet, you will wander the earth in defeat, and when that imprint of love will form, a new enemy will be reborn.” I gasped, trying to remain calm though I felt as though the words were choking me. “Imprint on imprint, love will grow, and in that time, your destiny will show. Love to love, till death will we part, and then appears the break of a heart. In the absence of imprint, you all shall die, and evils reign will amplify…”

  There was a long moment of total silence, Anton’s fingers clutched in mine. I hadn’t realized how tightly I gripped
him and eased the tension in my fingers. He squeezed for a moment though and I stopped trying to pull away.

  “Anton, that was hundreds of years ago,” I said, thinking of nothing better.

  He hesitated before responding, turning to me with reassurance on his face. “Exactly. That was hundreds of years ago. Surely, it wasn’t to do with you.” He paused, looking toward the living room door. “You need to tell Damien.”

  It took me a moment to gather my wits and my heart still thundered in my chest. I swept my feet over the edge of the bed and Anton helped lower me to my feet. I found that I needed his assistance to tread across the room to the living room door, my legs weak beneath me. He reached past me, swinging the door open and we were both bathed in light.

  Once I could see into the other room, I caught sight of Damien sitting on the couch, a remote control in his hand and flipping through the channels without interest. Liam sat on an armchair nearby, also vacantly staring at the TV. Carson had been seated at the bar, staring blankly across the kitchen.

  He leapt up as we entered and stabbed a glare at Anton before sweeping me into his arms. “Oh, Kyra, you’re okay,” he mumbled, my face pressed into his neck in the embrace. He buried his face in my hair and for a long moment just breathed into me.

  When I looked up again, my father had stood and now hovered over Carson’s shoulder, looking me over. His eyes darted to Anton and he beckoned him forward. Anton obliged and squeezed past us.

  Carson’s warm fingers pressed against my face as though he hadn’t seen me in years as opposed to however much time had passed. He had dark circles beneath his eyes which assured me that he hadn’t slept. He pressed an eager kiss to my lips and I returned it with desperate fervor.

  A voice cleared behind us and we sprang apart, taking a moment to remember that we weren’t alone. Carson took my hand and led me across the room to a door on the opposite side and ushered me in.