The Fire of the Fated (The Chosen Series Book 3)

by K. C. Hamby

  My breath is heavy as it races in and out of my chest, working its way to a sudden stutter of an inhale. My lungs are failing, the frozen organs from the inside of my destroyed flesh. A throbbing hums in my jaw from my teeth gnashing together, trying to keep in a wail of torture.

  This is worse than being at the mercy of Invidia and Damien.

  It’s worse than Damien burning me with hot fire.

  It’s worse than any pain I’ve ever felt all happening at the same goddamn time.

  Stringing together every single curse I know would not even make a dent in describing how unbelievably painful it is for thorns of cold flame to beat and scrape against my too sensitive, torn apart skin.

  My vision blurs, acid-laced tears scorching the whites of my eyes.

  I….

  I scream.

  Holy shit, I scream.

  I must somehow release this pain. I scream louder.

  My vocal cords protest as they are thinned by the repetitive scraping of a razor of piercing strain.

  Until they snap.

  One. By. One.

  Copper coats my tongue when I cough up my shock. Blood races down my chin from the corner of my mouth.

  My voice, what it was, dangles in tatters in my throat.

  The darkness swarms in my mind, following the pain like a parasite looking for a new host. Its talons dig into my soul, shoving deep, making sure if I pull them out, the scars it leaves behind will forever remain.

  Give in to me.

  The Monster.

  No! Fuck off! I scream in my head as I wrap my arms around my burning body, trying in vain to protect myself.

  So tired. This pain is draining everything I have.

  There is a wrenching pull against my soul with frozen, greedy hands.

  It’s her. It’s the Monster, and she’s pulling at my…

  Humanity.

  Give in to me, you worthless bitch.

  No.

  I reply with a little more than a whisper in my mind. I’m so tired. I’m in so much pain.

  What if I can’t fight it? What if I’m meant to fall into the dark thing waking inside me?

  I don’t want to fight anymore.

  That’s right. You don’t have to fight. Imagine the rest you could experience if you halted your battle, she purrs, brushing sharp talons against my resolve.

  No! You fight! Someone screams at me. Not the Monster…

  Nina.

  A brush of her energy caresses my cheek right before excruciating agony rips up my neck, along the scar marring my skin Damien gave me forever ago.

  I try to wail as Nina is shoved out of my mind, but nothing comes out of my mouth except more blood.

  I’m never going to stop burning, am I?

  The pain travels to the scar on my face, clawing through scarred skin and leaving my eye blinded.

  I drop to my knees, curling in on myself, trying anything to shield my body from the fire; if there is anything left of me to protect. Surely, I am only a pile of seared flesh and charred bone by now.

  I’m too distracted to realize the Monster has grabbed my humanity until there is only a shred of it left. I grasp it desperately, begging the Monster to leave.

  My skin burns away, and it snaps.

  …My humanity snaps.

  I shove what little I manage to keep into the back of my mind before it escapes my grasp.

  I open my eyes, the pain suddenly not seeming so great, and there, squatting in front of me in the fire like I’m a wounded animal, is Silas. My father.

  He reaches out and touches his fingers to my forehead, whispering and yet…I hear him.

  Is his voice in my head?

  “To death I depart, and Death I leave. Into you, my daughter, Death shall weave,” he chants, moving his fingers from my forehead.

  The snapping of my mortality has a soul-shattering force, breaking me apart and only picking up the monstrous pieces.

  Silas sits me up, nothing but determination in his black eyes.

  And his clawed hand slams into my chest, wrapping his fingers around my heart.

  I choke on the blood in my throat, attempting to show how much I fucking hate him in my burned eyes.

  A muscle in his neck twitches, but that all the reaction he gives before squeezing my heart.

  My world ceases its spinning, the blood in my veins freezes in place.

  My heart stops beating with one final squeeze of Silas’ hand.

  Just as suddenly as he appeared, I blink, and he is gone. I am left with a unmoving heart, consumed by darkness.

  I vaguely hear screaming that’s not mine.

  But it is familiar.

  Chapter 40

  Nina

  I fall to my knees with the sudden snap resonating in my bones.

  That felt like….

  I look up to the cluster of flames surrounding Fal as she clutches her naked, nearly fleshless body, rolling on the ground in her own blood. Her face is contorted into one of pure agony as more blood than I’ve ever seen before covers every inch of her. It flows off the dais, trickling to the dead grass beneath.

  I move to crawl in Fal’s direction, needing to heal her, but Eddie stops me with a hand on my shoulder.

  “It’s almost over, lass.”

  Tears are flooding down my face. I can see Fal isn’t dead. She’s writhing right in front of me, but that snap was just like when she died.

  The flames wink out, but black smoke takes their place, surrounding Fal in some sort of dark cocoon. It lifts off the ground and squeezes smaller and smaller until Fal couldn’t possibly still be inside. The cocoon pulses after a moment of dead silence, beating as a strong heart would.

  Just as suddenly as it claimed her, the smoke bursts from around Fal—revealing new, perfect skin covered in new clothes—and forms the ghost of giant moth wings on her back before collecting itself and shoving down her throat.

  When it’s gone, Fal drops to her feet and stands still, but her face is one of pleasure...Like something soft is brushing across her skin and making her curl her toes. Her eyelids flutter as a smirk dances on her lips.

  I run to her, nearly busting my ass as I clamber up the dais, blood no longer covering the worn wood as if it were gobbled up as a sacrifice.

  Fal turns as I approach, darkness surrounding her energy and almost suffocating me. Her eyes are both amber and glowing as they stare down at me with indifference.

  I do something so stupid. She just went through horrifying trauma and I do something beyond idiotic. I touch her face without warning when I notice her eye.

  And she flinches. She pulls her face away from me.

  “Fal...your scar.”

  She ignores me and turns to face Hades whose eyes are wide and elated.

  “Have a look, my dear. You are stunning. Truly a goddess of Death, a Reaper of Shadows.” He snaps and a mirror appears from red smoke in front of Fal.

  Her scar is gone. Both of them. All of them. Her skin is perfectly smooth and tan. Two amber eyes stare at her from within the mirror. Two. The cloudiness of her right eye is no more. Both of her eyes have malice lurking in their depths, swirling with terrible beauty. Her hair is shiny, waving perfectly over the...really nice cloak type leather jacket. All her new clothes are still black, but they are nice material. Fancy and fit her perfectly.

  A gift from Hades so she wouldn’t be parading around naked, I guess.

  I watch as Fal’s lips smirk at her reflection. Her tongue moves across slightly lengthened canines, sharpened to a deadly point. She leans forward and looks into her reflection’s eyes.

  I have to blink a few times to make sure I’m not hallucinating.

  The reflection’s right eye is cloudy.

  I choke on a gasp.

  “I win,” Fal whispers to her reflection before the mirror disappears in a plume of smoke.

  “May I present to all you lovely guests of mine, Falen Nyxine Thanatos,” Hades announces, loud and proud.

  Before I
can ask everyone what the hell is going on, Atropos walks up to Fal with blinded, gray eyes, a wicked smile on her lips. She holds a rod out for Fal, and Fal takes it without question.

  As soon as it touches her fingers, it lengthens, revealing a black-bladed scythe with a sharp and curved silver edge gleaming like a devil’s wink.

  Fal’s face is void of any emotion when I turn to her again and her eyes move back and forth, but I don’t think she’s seeing anything here. This is like when Eddie gets a vision of a target.

  Fal blinks, clearing her sight, and swallows, looking to Atropos for guidance. The way she is twitching all over now is like she is super uncomfortable in her skin.

  The Fate smirks with knowing. “Go,” she hisses, and I jump.

  Her voice gives me the willies.

  Fal nods and takes a deep breath. And dissolves into black smoke right before my eyes.

  And, when it clears, she is gone.

  “Happy hunting!” Hades yells after her.

  “Where…where did she go?” I scream as I search for her, pawing at the air where she was standing seconds ago.

  Fal just…vanished in a cloud of black smoke.

  “Eddie…” I whisper. She’s by my side in a second with Ash following close behind. “What...happened?”

  She looks around, gold eyes squinting, searching for any trace of my Mate. “I dinnae ken, lass. I cannae do that, that’s for sure.” She places a hand on my shoulder in reassurance and I look up to Ash.

  “Something is...wrong here,” he whispers, avoiding all eye contact with his father who stands behind Hades like he may actually care what is happening to his daughter.

  I nod my head, completely agreeing with Ash. I was shoved out of Fal’s mind when I tried to calm her as she Burned. Shoved. It was Fal who shoved me but…not. It was a part of her, but a part I never see. It was so dark.

  I wonder if it was the Monster she told me about.

  “It is more convenient for Falen to get to where she needs to be this way,” Hades speaks up, surely responding to the confusion floating in the air. “Think of it as teleporting. We call it Moving. Moving is controlled by only a thought and one may travel wherever they wish even if they have never been there before. The ability is accompanied by an instinct that just knows where to travel to and where the person or target is in the world. Fascinating, is it not?” He clasps his hands in front of his chest like he just sent his first child off to college.

  I grit my teeth, annoyed and worried beyond belief. I mean, this whole Moving thing is cool, but Fal left without saying anything to me. And now, I can’t feel her in my mind. It’s been a long time since I couldn’t sense her with me.

  Alina, Fal’s mom, looks at me with concern and jerks her head to the side, beckoning the three of us to come talk to her.

  I follow, pulling Ash and Eddie along behind me until Alina stops walking and turns to us.

  “Mom?” Ash asks, moving closer to study her face.

  She’s worried. I gulp at the knowledge.

  “Something changed with Falen,” she announces quietly, not wanting to draw attention to us. “I can sense it in the way a mother can.”

  “I...felt a snap. That’s why I screamed. It...felt just like when Fal died last year.” I bite my lip to keep the sob in my chest. “Like when the bond snapped.”

  “Yes, I think in becoming the goddess of Death, she had to first surrender to it,” Alina whispers and I nod like it makes so much sense.

  I guess it does.

  “Nina.”

  I turn to Eddie as she takes her hand from my shoulder.

  “Have you healed her today?”

  “No, other than when she had a panic attack when we got here and a tiny bit before she Burned, she never asked me to.”

  “What about yesterday?” Ash presses with squinting amber eyes.

  “I...no. Not like…a deep heal or anything. Just a little anxiety…” I close my mouth before I tell them about Fal’s psychosis.

  What does healing Fal have to do with anything? I do it when she asks and only if she’s in a panic. I don’t want to take all her negative emotions from her when she has them. Some things are meant to be felt.

  Like when she misses her mom.

  “What is it?” Alina asks, stepping closer to Eddie with clasped hands, worry pressed firmly between her palms.

  “When I went through the Burnin’, I had a fight with the darkness tryin’ to steal my humanity from me. I won, but barely.” She places her hands on her hips as her tongue flicks at her elongated canines. “I’m wonderin’ if Falen lost her fight, effectively killin’ off the humanity she had left.” Her eyes flash when she glances to me and back to Alina.

  No.

  “I told her about it. I told her to get Nina to heal her before the Burnin’.” She curses under her breath when she looks away from their mom. “Prideful wench. I shouldae told you, Nina. I’m sorry.”

  I can’t breathe.

  “This will undoubtedly be a challenge for Falen as for all of you,” Hecate purrs as she appears beside Alina. “But I have faith in her as should you. Especially Nina.” She looks at me with a small smile. “She’ll need you now more than she ever has.”

  “I’ve always got Fal’s back,” I tell her, holding up my chin and swallowing the major freak out I was about to dive head-first into.

  She chuckles. “I know you do,”

  Even in my panic over Fal, I remember the vision from Raven.

  “Wait, Hecate. Can I talk to you?” I ask, my voice smaller than I would like it to be, but I’m surprised I can speak at all right now.

  “Of course,” she replies and holds her arm out, gesturing for me to walk a little ways away from everyone else so we have some privacy.

  She turns and clasps her hands in front of her stomach.

  I take a deep breath. “Um, okay. I had this really weird vision.”

  She tilts her head to the side. “Weird, how?”

  “Well, for some background, there is a new Lupi who just came to Olympia. Her name is Raven.”

  Hecate’s face darkens and purple lightning dances in her hair.

  She knows Raven, then.

  “Edelina’s old friend, Raven, yes?” she asks, voice deep and very very angry. Her eyes glow with a rage I have never seen from the goddess before.

  “I guess you know her,” I mumble, biting my lip at the heaviness of the air around us, almost electric with its wrath.

  “Yes. She turned from me long ago and almost aided in prematurely ending Edelina’s life.” She clenches her jaw, shaking her head as she looks away from me. “What of her?”

  “She claims she is your Prophetess and that you gave her a vision telling her to come to Olympia.”

  Hecate laughs out loud, but it’s dark and kind of scary. “I would never choose Raven for such a task. You are my Prophetess. There is no other. The fact she would claim the opposite is laughable.”

  “Well, she’s causing a lot of problems already. Thane never believed I was the Prophetess because I’m not Lupi.” The words sting as they leave my lips. “So now that he has a Lupi claiming to be your Prophetess, he is willing to listen to her more than me.”

  Hecate twists her lips oddly in thought. “Skepticism is a part of life, I suppose. He will be proven incorrect. This I promise you. Raven will not be able to hold up the façade for long.”

  “Right, well that brings me to the vision. Can I…” I hold out my hands to her. “Can I show you?”

  She places her freezing hands in mine and nods, closing her eyes.

  I replay the vision in my head, every little detail, even the poem at the beginning.

  But when I get to the part where Angus should be…it’s not Angus. The person looks completely different. He is scrawny with brown hair and brown eyes.

  “What the…” I grumble as the vision ends.

  Hecate opens her eyes. “What is it, Nina?”

  I take my hands out of hers and scrunch my eye
brows. “That guy who was talking to Raven…that wasn’t him. Like…” I struggle to find the words like there is a block in my mind. “He was wrong. I don’t know how the vision changed like that.”

  “You mean you have seen a different man in the vision than the one present just now?” she asks, light eyes slowly darkening. “Someone changed your vision.”

  “I don’t know how that would be possible, though. It’s never happened before.” Panic speeds up my breathing.

  “Calm, Prophetess,” Hecate whispers and places a hand on my shoulder. “Now that you have given me the vision, I will be able to examine it. If someone has changed your vision, I will be able to unravel whatever magick they have cast upon it. It may take some time, but I will figure it out.” She smiles softly and places her other cold hand on my cheek.

  It calms me a little.

  I nod. “Okay. Will you let me know what you find out?”

  I want to know what jerk is messing with my visions. This is not okay. And how am I supposed to trust them now if they can just be changed? My confidence in my role diminishes a bit.

  “Of course. I will inform you as soon as I figure it out. But I must go if I am to do so in a timely manner.”

  “Right, okay.” I bite the inside of my lip, my worry immediately travelling back to Fal.

  “She will be alright, Nina,” Hecate assures me, hands going back to clasped in front of her stomach. “I think you both will have trials set before you because of this change, but I have no doubt you two will overcome them.”

  She smiles, close-lipped but still gorgeous, and disappears in her own plume of purple smoke without another word.

  I let out a deep sigh and trudge my way back over to the little group.

  “What was that about?” Ash asks, turning his head to the side like a curious puppy.

  “I told her about the vision. You know, the one with…”

  “Raven,” Eddie growls, finishing my sentence with malice heating the air.

  “Right. That one,” I agree and twirl hair around my finger. A bad, nervous habit I’ve picked up recently.

  Alina’s bright eyes watch my face, pride seeming to beam from her energy. And It’s directed at me. Like…she’s proud of me.

  Warmth brushes my cheeks.