Fate's Keep (Fate's Journey Book 2)

by T. Rae Mitchell

  “No, that would be my dad.” Fate’s remark garnered no response from Eustace. He was too engrossed in his reading to hear her. “So whatcha got?”

  Steve leaned eagerly in toward them. “There’s a few ways you can take on the Chimera. The first is the obvious full on attack with whatever weapons you’ve got in hand. Apparently, arrows and spears will pierce the hide. There’s a story in here about how Bellerophon used a lead-pointed spear to–”

  “Not gonna happen,” Fate interrupted. “I’m not risking third degree burns by getting close enough to spear that thing. I’ll snag Brune’s laser gun.”

  “Right, I guess that would be best,” Steve agreed. “Well, you can also use magic to weaken the different animal powers and then take them out one by one. Not sure what book we need to find those particular spells in, but I’m sure the librarians can point us in the right direction.”

  “Is that it?” Fate asked. “Those are my only options?”

  “There’s one other, but it’s trickier.” Steve turned the page. “If you confuse and scare a Chimera, the different animal parts will turn on each other.”

  “You mean like make the snake strike the lion?”

  “Exactly. Make that happen and you can just sit back and watch it self-destruct.”

  Fate frowned. “I don’t know about that one. It’s going to be hard enough getting past my own fear and confusion. How am I supposed to scare it? Jump out of the dark and say boo?”

  Steve’s enthusiasm flagged. “Sorry, the book doesn’t say.”

  Fate realized her negativity wasn’t helping. “Well, at least that’s more than we knew five minutes ago.” She gave him the thumbs up. “Nice work, Steve.”

  Jessie slumped in her chair and rested her chin on her hand.

  “And you too, Jess,” Fate added quickly. “Steve nailed down a few key solutions and you eliminated a whole bunch of other stuff.”

  Jessie flung her head back and stared at the ceiling. “You’re welcome.”

  “What’s wrong with you?” Fate asked. It wasn’t like her sweet-natured friend to be so sullen. But then again, these were outrageous circumstances.

  Jessie let her head roll slowly to where she could see Fate and studied her with an icy stare. “You know what.”

  Fate held her hands up, staring questioningly.

  Jessie kept her cold gaze leveled on her. “Remember how long we worked on our Nightingale armor for last spring’s Comicon? And the kickass routine we came up with for the contest?”

  Fate smiled at the memory. “Uh huh, we totally crushed it.”

  “We worked on our look for an entire year. That’s all we ever talked about. Like how much we wanted to be real wood elves with all those killer skills: archery, sneak, pickpocket, alchemy…” She looked Fate up and down. “Now you’re all that for real. I’m not.”

  Fate’s stomach twisted in a knot. She finally understood why Jessie was so upset.

  “You know, I think maybe I should check on Farouk and make sure everything’s Kosher over there. Want to come with?”

  Jessie’s hazel eyes widened with surprise. “What about all the research we’re supposed to do?”

  Steve put a finger on the page to hold his place and looked up from the book. “You two go ahead. I’ll search for the Chimera weakening spells.”

  “Thanks a bunch.” Jessie all but sprinted for the door.

  “Yeah, thanks, Steve.” Fate stood and waited for Eustace to argue against them leaving, but he continued to read without interruption. She’d never seen him so completely absorbed before. It troubled her a little, but she needed to remember how she used to be about her love of books and the fascination they once offered.

  She glanced around for Gerdie so she could tell her they were leaving. Fate finally caught sight of her on the third level of the library with the robots. How had she gotten all the way up there? There weren’t any stairs or ladders anywhere. Had she piggy-backed on one of the librarians?

  Fate continued to watch Gerdie, wondering what she was doing. Her heart fluttered with hope. Gerdie had promised she’d find a way to get her back to Finn. Was she looking for some kind of map showing which gateway leads to Oldwilde? Fate wanted to climb the book shelves and hound her with questions.

  “Where’re you going?” Jessie called out.

  Fate stopped and looked back at Jessie. She hadn’t realized she was walking in Gerdie’s direction. “Nowhere special,” she replied before turning to join her. “Yet.”

  15

  He’s Paper Thin

  “THERE’S SOMETHING NOT RIGHT about this human,” a feminine voice crooned next to Finn’s ear as she tossed O’Deldar’s wand to a neglected corner of the room.

  Finn’s pulse raced with fear. He’d done his best to hide the darkness he’d been touched by, but this one seemed to have found him out. He desperately wanted to open his eyes, but he heeded the grimoire’s warning and kept them closed.

  She tugged the hood of his cloak away from his face and scraped a talon along his rune-marked temple “He’s been marked by the Elder race.”

  The hoofed creature clopped back into the center of the room. “Hmm…unfortunate.”

  “Yesss, he’s protected,” the slitherer hissed.

  Finn listened in surprise. The runes his friends, Grysla and Tove, had inked into his skin had increased his strength and speed to super human levels, but it had never occurred to him they would protect him against the fae as well. Gratitude toward the tree troll and her daughter rushed in. He owed them so much. First, for saving him from freezing to death in the Twisted Bone Forest. Second, for making him part of their family. And now they’d given him a shield in one of his greatest hours of need.

  Did that mean he could look at these creatures without going insane? Possibly, but this was no time to be testing such things out.

  The female drew closer to Finn, so close the heat of her breath fanned his face. It smelled of damp earth and moss. “No, the Elder race runes aren’t what make him…different,” she continued.

  Finn’s heart skipped a beat. She was narrowing in. He had to stop her from probing. Otherwise, he’d lose his leverage in the negotiation.

  “He’s paper thin.” Her talons clicked against the stone as she circled him.

  Her comment astonished Finn. What was she getting on with?

  Stopping in front of him, she tapped his chest with the point of her claw. “This one did not come from a mother’s womb. He was conceived and born from pure heart’s desire.”

  Finn stopped breathing. How could she possibly know he was Fate’s creation come to life, a character she’d invented and fallen in love with? When he’d first found out he was merely the sum of meaningless words strung together on paper, his world had been ripped out from under him. His whole life had been a lie, the offhand daydream of a bored girl. The amount of grief and rage the awful discovery had caused him had been almost unbearable at the time.

  In the end though, Fate’s love and his own efforts to redefine himself had given him the foundation he’d needed to carry on. Yet, now that the wound had been reopened, the old anguish rose to the surface.

  “Such a beautiful boy and so much pain,” she whispered as she trailed her claw lightly down the length of his arm.

  Swallowing the lump in his throat, Finn drew breath again and pulled away from her touch. He hated this emotional manipulation. It was time to put a stop to it. “I command you to find my guide immediately and take your leave of me.”

  “Bring forth a guide and let’s be done with this,” the hoofed one said, his tone impatient.

  Finn breathed a sigh of relief.

  “No. We must all agree that this almost human has authority over us,” the female argued. “I contest his right.”

  Wanting to punch her, Finn clenched his fists.

  “His humanness is not at issue. I sense a righteous mission, therefore we must obey,” the hoofed one replied.

  Finn nodded in agreement.
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  “It’s true, a strong love lies at the heart of his mission, but pain distorts the purity of his intent,” she said. “As sweet as this lovely boy smells, he reeks of loneliness and longing.”

  A queasy sense of defeat churned in Finn’s gut.

  “Are you sensing a stain on his soul?” the hoofed one asked.

  The female fell quiet for a moment. This had been Finn’s main worry all along. Once she probed deeper, she’d discover he’d been possessed by evil at one time. After that, it would only a matter of seconds before he lost whatever clout he had over the Triad. Then all would be lost as far as finding Fate.

  “Possibly,” she said at last. “I’ll need more time with him.”

  She had to be lying to the others. Finn frowned with confusion, then cracked his lids to have a peek at her. He needed to see what he was up against. For a split second, he glimpsed a pair of shapely bare thighs and delicate kneecaps, which turned into flesh-toned feathers near the shins and the rough, gray scales of a raptor’s claws at her feet. Before he could raise his gaze to view the rest of her, she jerked his hood down over his eyes.

  “You really don’t want to look upon my true form,” she warned. “I promise. Your mind will break.”

  “What the–?”

  “I’ll stay and be his guide until I know for sure there’s no mark on his soul,” she told the others.

  The room filled with silence.

  “Very well,” the hoofed one said as he clopped across the room.

  The slitherer followed and Finn heard the crackling of the portal as both creatures slipped through the gateway. He stood still, nervous and unsure about how to deal with the one that had stayed behind.

  “Alone at last,” she purred near his ear.

  Needing to put some distance between them, Finn walked over to the heavy curtains and drew them back. The night sky was clear and moonlight splashed across the black ocean. “Why are you doing this?”

  “Because the only way you’re going to find your Fate is if you have a proper muse.” She turned him around to face her. “Open your eyes and look at me.”

  Keeping his eyes shut, he shook his head. “What is this, some kind of trick?”

  The voice she used next sent shivers over his skin. “Finn? Look at me.”

  “No,” Finn croaked, barely able to speak for the wave of emotions crashing in on him. “Please, don’t do this.”

  A hand touched his and fine-boned fingers laced through his own in an all too familiar way. Finn’s heart hammered against his ribcage. He fought against looking at her, knowing that once he did, it would be the end of him. Yet, he could not resist. He desperately needed to see her face again. And with that, he lifted his gaze and drowned himself in the deep pools of Fate’s cinnamon brown eyes.

  16

  Killer Uniform

  “HOLY CROW,” JESSIE MUTTERED under her breath as they walked across the expansive chamber and stopped at the edge of the sunken arena. “It’s the freakin’ Borg.”

  Fate was too shocked to reply. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. In the span of a few hours, the goof, Lincoln, and Darcy’s mild-mannered boyfriend, Mason, were almost unrecognizable. They were no longer dressed in their costumes. Farouk had provided them with burgundy military jackets, leather pants, gloves and combat boots. They were now soldiers who were sparring with astonishing expertise.

  “Wow, those Dragon Eye gizmos actually work,” Fate commented, while trying to hide her envy.

  “Uh huh, and they look super cool. And kinda hot,” Jessie added.

  Fate didn’t disagree. Their movements were confident and the headgear gave them an edgy futuristic look she found appealing. The Dragon Eye wrapped around the head, covering the forehead with an elaborate array of mechanisms, which circled down around one eye. Embedded within the cybernetic machinery clustered over the covered eye, was a gleaming, reptilian eye, which upon second thought, was disturbing.

  “Ew, did I just see those Dragon Eyes move and look around?” Fate watched for a few minutes. Concern coiled tight in her stomach. Who was running the show? The soldier or the headgear?

  Jessie waved her off and headed down the ramp. “I didn’t see anything. Come on, let’s get down there.”

  Fate followed lock step. She and Farouk needed to have a conversation. He was sitting back in his bucket seat chair, arms behind his furry head as he watched his test subjects with apparent satisfaction.

  Fate banged on his cage. “I’m not comfortable with this.”

  Farouk gave a start and scrambled off his chair clenching his heaving chest. He caught his breath and frowned at her. “What are you doing here?”

  “Checking up on you.”

  His ears angled back as he narrowed his gaze on her. “Unbligessary. Everything is working as calcumated.”

  “If by working, you mean you expected your Dragon Eye doohickeys to turn these guys into the Borg collective, then we have a problem.”

  “The tempora merely locks onto the nervous system and connectifies with the reptilian brain, allowing the Dragon Eye stone to governate the physical movements.”

  “Those aren’t stones,” Fate argued. “Those are creepy, blinking snake eyes.”

  Arrogance smoothed Farouk’s frown. “There is much you miscomprestand. The Dragon Eye stones were mined by Shaolin monks of the Sui Dynasty and empowered with positive sheng chi energy and the honorable thought forms of Kung Fu masters.”

  Fate had to admit that sounded impressive, enticing even. “If they’re all that, then I should be able to strap one on too.”

  “No, we cannot risk the guardian.”

  Frustration set in. She’d had months of intensive training with the best warriors in all of Oldwilde. The training had at least stayed with her, even if her supernatural strength and speed had abandoned her. She wasn’t about to admit it out loud, but being shown up by a bunch of cosplayers who hadn’t earned their training was really getting under her skin.

  “I want to try the Dragon Eye on,” Jessie pressed. “Along with a uniform.”

  “Jess,” Fate warned, “We talked about this–”

  Jessie stopped the words in Fate’s throat with a sharp glare. “You just said you’d like to try it. And now you’re stopping me? What’s your malfunction? Why are you always trying to keep me down? Are you afraid I’ll be better than you for once?”

  The accusation stung. “No, why would you say that? Is that really what you think?”

  Pressing her lips in a tight angry line, Jessie took the headgear Farouk handed her. “Where do I change?” she asked him.

  Farouk pointed to in the direction they’d just come from. “Back up the ramp and all the way to the left wall to the weaponry room. The uniforms and swords are in there.”

  Hurt and confused by Jessie’s outburst, Fate watched her best friend storm away. How long had she been harboring all that anger and resentment? The pain of it made her miss Finn all the more. Suddenly, the ache of him not being there, mixed with Jessie’s hurtful words were more than Fate could face. She desperately needed a distraction from the compounded pain.

  “Is there something I could be doing?” she asked Farouk. “Maybe I should go out and help Brune.”

  Farouk looked her over, as if measuring her worth. “Not before you have gone through your final initiation.”

  “Oh goody. And what horrors does that involve?” Fate stared back at the creature suspiciously. “This isn’t like a college sorority hazing, is it? I don’t want any food dumped on me. Unless it’s chocolate syrup. I suppose I could handle that, but no marshmallow fluff. Got it?”

  Perplexed, Farouk wrinkled his snout. “I knew you had pequirkuliar customs on Earth, but that one is nonsensical.”

  “Says the nonsensical sounding varmint. Which begs the question. Why do you mix your words like that?”

  Farouk stood still. Only his eyes moved, and for a split second Fate thought she glimpsed a flash of light, like the glow of smoldering emb
ers. In that instant she felt fear without knowing why, but then the light blinked out and she wondered if she’d imagined it.

  Farouk let out a sigh and tapped the device amplifying his voice. “The transmodulater mixes my words. The device is not always exacturate in its translation.”

  “You’re speaking a different language?”

  He smiled slyly. “You could say that.”

  He sounded Indian, but she was fairly certain he wasn’t from Earth, let alone India. “What’s the language? What are you?”

  “Someday, if you’ve proven yourself uprightable, I might tell you. For now we must address your initiation. This is no small thing, and it should already have been done.” He glanced at his small army of two. “I was not previsionating these others to have to deal with.”

  “You and me both.”

  “Wait for me in the sanctuary. I will join you, but first I must leave them with sword techcedures to master.”

  Fate fought the feelings of resentment rising as she climbed the ramp. She could see how Mason and Lincoln had given over to the power coursing through them. Their faces were emotionless, except for the glint of excitement in their eyes at the superior ability they’d been suddenly blessed with.

  She remembered what that had felt like when she’d been inducted into Murauda’s army. The war goddess’s power had consumed her mind, body and spirit. Lightning, wind and untold strength and speed were all that had existed. She’d been made invincible. Most of all, Murauda had freed her of all emotional ties. The kind that weakened warriors.

  The kind that weakened her now. Fate really had to wonder how she was going to do her job when she was missing Finn more and more with each passing day, all the while worrying about everyone else’s safety.

  Jessie arrived the same moment Fate reached the top of the ramp. She was dressed in full gear, her dark hair slicked back in a ponytail and sword in hand. For the first time since she’d known Jessie, Fate felt as if she didn’t recognize her friend. As gorgeous as Jessie had become, since she’d first hit puberty, she’d been self-consciously hiding her good looks behind her hair, wearing oversized fluffy sweaters with smiley faces and kittens, and always jeans, never skirts. For some reason, Jessie had always found it impossible to radiate any sort of confidence. Yet here she was, standing in front of her thoroughly self-possessed.