Fated Souls (The Fated Saga Book 1)

by Sariah Skye

  I sat up immediately. I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes with the sleeve of my sweatshirt and sniffled. "Kit?" I looked her over; her head had turned towards me slightly and she struggled to open her eyes.

  "Leo…" it was a statement, not a question. I clenched her hand between mine, feeling a surge of hopefulness, and watched as her eyes finally opened.

  "Kit!" I gave her a relieved smile. "Oh my god—you’re awake!"

  She blinked a couple of times and a smile struggled on her lips. "Leo. I’m…I’m glad to see you," she stammered. She glanced around briefly and groaned. "Where the hell am I?" Her voice was labored and hoarse but I smiled at her sarcastic tone that was fairly typical of her.

  I let out a low whistle. "Well, that’s kind of a long story."

  Kit allowed her head to fall to the side, and she struggled to smile as she looked at me. "I’m so glad you’re—" she stopped mid-sentence, obviously noticing my tell-tale mythological feature. "What the…" she snorted. "I knew it," she giggled.

  I cocked a brow. "Knew what?"

  She wiggled a weak finger at me. "I knew there was something different about you. I was right."

  I smiled sheepishly. I stretched out the wings on either side of me slightly. "Yeah…you were right."

  "So, what are you? Fairy?" she questioned

  "Um…no. Dragon, actually," I replied, with a hesitant bite of my lip, awaiting her reaction.

  "Dragon? Huh…" She was thoughtful. "How does that work?"

  I explained to her the human-to-dragon form thing, the shifting and her eyes widened, briefly touching on the fact that the wings in my human form were unexplainable.

  "That is so cool!" she said, awed. I grinned.

  "Not really the reaction I was expecting," I replied, with a laugh.

  She gave a small, weak shrug. "Eh. I always knew there was something more to the world than just humans. There has to be. I’m just glad to know I was right."

  "There’s bad things too…" I added.

  She sighed. "Yeah. The bad things." She looked away momentarily, appearing hesitant. "Leo, I’m sorry. This is all my fault. All of this."

  I scoffed. "Your fault? If I hadn’t been in your world; if I’d stayed home—"

  She shook her head. "No, no Leo. I did something very bad." She exhaled slowly.

  "What did you do that was so bad?" I inquired, doubtful.

  She breathed through her mouth, her eyes avoiding my gaze shamefully. "I…well I was messing with things I shouldn’t have been. I did some…spells. I didn’t know this would happen, but umm…yeah."

  "Kit, what do you mean? What could you possibly— "

  She interrupted me. "I was…feeling frustrated. Lost. I can’t really explain why but…I felt so depressed."

  "You mean, after the storm? After everything that happened, Kit, I think you’re entitled," I said.

  She shook her head. "No…no this was before the storm. I was just…down. Besides you, Leo, I have no one. I barely speak to my family; you know they aren't okay with this...witch stuff. And, I haven’t been on a date in years. Years. I’m in my thirties, for shit’s sake!" She paused, summoning up her courage. "I…cast a love spell. But only…it wasn’t actually a love spell, I found out."

  I narrowed my eyes, confused. "I don’t understand."

  "This…this spell just fell out of one of my books. It was to call someone who could help me with my love life." She slapped her palms against her forehead and groaned. "Ack! How could I have been so stupid?"

  "Still not following," I replied.

  She sighed. "It wasn’t really a spell for love. It was…a spell to invite a demon to assist me. Only I didn’t know that at the time." Kit fidgeted with her hands over her chest. "I don’t even know why I did it; it’s just been so frustrating…

  "Well I’d had a couple successes with writing my own 'love spells’," she continued, making quotations with her fingers. "A couple of men had come into the shop before that I hadn’t recognized, one flirted with me and seemed really cute. The other didn’t, but later left his number behind for me. No one is ever interested in me!"

  "I’m sure that’s not—" I began but she didn’t let me finish.

  "No, it is. I’ve been so consumed with…well the shop and everything I haven’t given it much thought until recently. So, when I picked up that book and saw that spell fall out—I don’t even know how it got there, probably from its previous owner. It’s a used book. I decided to give it a try. I should have known better…I…" She buried her face in her palms and started sobbing. "The storms—they're my fault! I realize now that I did them!"

  I reached out to pat her shoulder, allowing her to cry. She continued on, explaining that in a fit of despair, she cast the circle with one extra candle as it asked for—black candles—and spoke the incantation. The instructions said to cast it at either sunrise or sunset when the world was most open to magic (I snickered at that point) and she did. Next thing she knew, she felt a dark presence and she blacked out for a while. I held my breath, as she proceeded to tell me she would black out for moments at a time, and find herself in strange places, like in the woods after the storms. She'd find herself in the woods because she conjured the storms, with the help of the presence that escaped from the spell she released. She had no idea how but somehow she just simply knew she did it.

  Finally, a couple days ago, a handful of unfamiliar people took her while she was on her way out the door and forced her to drive to the clearing in the woods and they pushed her somewhere where she felt like she was being sucked into a vacuum. They blindfolded her and she ended up in a dungeon-like room somewhere, where some angry people started asking about me. After a while, she was locked up and things got dark and she found herself in the shadow realm—although she didn’t call it that, she just referred to it as "the dark place" and shivered a lot when she thought about it. She didn’t know exactly what she was talking about, or what she was doing most of the time, but at a handful of moments she felt urges to injure me, and it was the same presence she felt when she originally cast the spell.

  "I think…" she continued, in a small, shamed voice. "Somehow I cast the spells to make those storms. I…felt compelled for them to hurt you. I…" she trailed off, avoiding my gaze.

  I frowned. I reached out for her hand and grabbed it. "Kit. It wasn’t your fault."

  "How can you say that? If I hadn’t cast that spell none of this would have happened!" she exclaimed.

  I shook my head. "Then they would have found another way." I began telling her about the Shadow realm: how somehow a rift had been opened in between our worlds and how we assumed they were trying to seek me out and either recruit me or kill me. Why, we didn’t know other than they craved power and I apparently had it. They needed it, or needed me to be eliminated to tip the scales in their favor.

  Kit was wide-eyed at this point, and I continued to try to explain everything to her as best as I could from the dragon realm, to some of my life as an outcast, Gabriel’s coincidental arrival and finally bringing us around to the supposed safe-haven of Castle Danger, where we were now.

  Esmè entered after a while, carrying a tray with a bowl and glass on it. "You need to eat, now that you’re awake. Start building up that strength." She set it down over Kit’s lap, and both she and I assisted Kit in sitting up.

  "What is this? Super-secret potion?" she inquired.

  Esmè chuckled. "Very powerful potion. Chicken broth and orange juice. After you’re feeling better, we’ll add the veggies and what not. I know you’re a vegetarian, but I must insist. But for now…we need to see if you can keep this down." Esmè reached for a spoon on the tray and handed it to Kit. "Eat."

  "Yes, Ma’am." Kit gave a small smile at Esmè.

  Esmè looked at me and smiled. "She is strong. She will be okay, I am confident. There is a…a power in her."

  "Power?" Kit echoed.

  Esmè nodded. "Yes. Leorah told us you were a witch, but she didn’t think you had
powers," she explained. "For the Shadows to be able to use you as it did, you obviously do. Untapped, yes. But they’re there…somewhere."

  I exchanged a look with Kit.

  "Sometimes witches can learn powers, at least that’s what Gabriel told me," I offered.

  "He’s a witch?" Kit asked, taking a small sip of orange juice.

  I shook my head. "Sorcerer. He was born with his powers. Witches learn them."

  Kit considered this.

  Esmè crossed her arms over her chest, a smug look on her face. "You don’t seem all that surprised."

  Kit shook her head. "No…I just always thought there was something…more."

  "Interesting…"

  Kit smiled weakly. "Oh but…Leo. You need to know something."

  "What’s that?"

  "When I was held captive—wherever I was. Over in your realm, or whatever. I didn’t know they were dragons at the time but…the Shadows…they were there. The same…thing that was summoned when I cast the spell was there too. It was hard to see; they were dark and sort of formless. It looked like some sort of dungeon; it was cold and hard and sort of foggy." Kit shuddered violently.

  "What? Are you sure?" I questioned.

  Kit nodded vigorously. "Yes. I’m sure of it. One of them…" Kit’s expression soured, like she was going to vomit. "One of them was just…dark. I can’t explain it. I felt the same things there as I did when I was in the shadow realm. Dark. Hopeless."

  "Shit." I yanked my phone out of my jeans pocket and started texting furiously. "This is bad. Real bad."

  "I…don’t remember much. There were two people there; both of them just…surrounded by dark," Kit stammered, struggling to find the right words.

  "Like an aura?" Esmè offered helpfully.

  Kit snapped her fingers. "Yes. An aura. Entirely black, a little gray. My skin just crawled being in the same room with them."

  "You’re sure these were dragons?" I asked, hesitantly. "You were over in the dragon realm. You know this for sure?" She had to be. That portal didn’t go anywhere else to my knowledge. But who would be working with Shadows from the dragon realm.

  She nodded. "I am now. Oh…" she said, suddenly realizing something. "One of them said the other’s name…a big guy. It was…Nicholas? Nicky?"

  My eyes widened; I nearly dropped my phone on the floor but I caught it before it hit. "Nicodemus?"

  "Yes! How could I forget that? Such an odd name…"

  I let out a low whistle, slumping in the stool. I continued sending out text messages to everyone that remained on my contact list: Big news. Need to meet ASAP. 911 911 911. I ran my free hand through my hair and grasped, trying to handle the realization of what this meant.

  "Leo? Is everything okay?" Kit asked, reaching out to me.

  I looked at her, a stone-cold expression on my face. "No, actually. Everything just got much worse. Nicodemus—he was a portal guard. A guard for the Court."

  Esmè let out a low whistle behind me, surely realizing what that meant.

  "I don’t get it," Kit said, looking confused.

  "Court is our form of government, basically. If Nicodemus is working with the Shadows, it means that the Shadows have infiltrated our Court."

  Kit’s eyes widened as I jumped out of the stool to my feet. I got a handful of texts in reply. Uncharacteristically of me, I leaned over and placed a sisterly kiss on Kit’s forehead. "I need to go like…now. I will be back." Kit seemed only briefly surprised but smiled weakly.

  "Stay safe, Leo!" she called after me, as I tore through the house, causing both Evie and another—I assumed Becka—whiplash as they watched me dart out of the house.

  Stay safe…Kit’s words echoed in my mind, haunting.

  But...perhaps it wasn't that far gone yet. Perhaps it was only Nicodemus and we could easily take him out and down before he caused anymore mayhem. Right? Right. I kept coaxing myself with this thought as I stalked mindlessly towards the guest quarters.

  "Leo? Leo!"

  The voice didn't register in my mind as I kept on running. If I distracted myself for even a moment more, I wasn't sure how I was going to deliver the news to everyone because I felt ill myself thinking of the possibility. I couldn't even think of it...my grandfather, my brother, succumbing to the Shadows. The mere thought brought painful tears stinging to my eyes.

  "Leo? What the hell?" She grasped my shoulders to prevent me from running off, forcing me to look directly in her face. My expression must have been dire and frantic to hold me there, seemingly nailed to the ground as she did.

  "Shadows." I said, breathlessly. "Shadows at Court."

  Kiarra’s eyes narrowed. "How do you know?"

  "Kit…" I had to pause momentarily, gasping for air both strangled out of me due to panic and over-exertion from running; my wings were breaking the wind as I dashed. They wanted to fly; but I had no time to deal with that. It would have been faster if I’d been in my right mind but I wasn’t thinking clearly. I gazed around me momentarily; I was well past the square and down the rocky, well-worn path and essentially was only about a block away from the guest quarters. I'd covered about five minutes’ worth of ground in about thirty seconds, I realized. Perhaps they had helped me after all.

  I doubled over, clutching my chest as sharp pains stabbed under my rib cage. "Oh shit," I mumbled, feeling my stomach protest and rumble. I fought the urge to dry heave and took a few deep, calming breaths.

  "Kit what?" Kiarra prompted, her expression confused with a hint of terror in her eyes.

  "Kit… she said… one of her captors… Nicodemus." I managed to finally get out, after another cleansing breath.

  Kiarra’s eyes doubled like saucers. "Oh…gods…" She clutched my hand and began yanking me down the rest of the path towards the guest quarters and the room that Gabriel’s and I had been sharing so far. I waved my hand quickly over the doorknob for my magic to register and we practically barreled in, causing the befuddled expressions of the guys who had gathered, talking uncomfortably from various spots in the room who’d apparently been well enough to be released in the time I was visiting with Kit. Thank the gods for that, I thought.

  Gabriel was the first to stand. He came up to me, as Kiarra, appearing in shock slumped into the sofa.

  "Geez, Leo…what’s going—"

  "We think the Shadows are working with someone in the Court!" I declared.

  Gabriel and Daniel exchanged confused looks, as I fell to the ground, weak in my knees from panic. My wings prevented me from falling all the way and I cursed, trying to shove them aside so I could panic properly. "Dammit… go away!" I yelled behind my back, not really expecting anything to happen.

  I watched as the wings retracted into my back, causing a momentary sensation of dizziness. Gabriel attempted to catch me but I fell to my knees. Maxxus was by my side on the ground in a split second. "Thank god." I muttered, shrugging my shoulders and shaking my arms out at my sides to re-adjust to the feeling of suddenly being lighter. Gabriel smiled, assumedly about to praise my sudden control over something I hadn’t been before, when Maxxus spoke:

  "Shadows? In the Court? How do you know?" he asked, his mouth set in a firm line, worry lines imprinted on his forehead as he expected an answer.

  "When Kit was kidnapped, they took her through the portal," I explained. "She didn’t know what it was but the way she described it—"

  Maxxus gestured with his hand to go on, impatiently.

  "She was in a dungeon. She said she could…feel them. She described it exactly the way I felt it when I experienced it in my dream and then…then when we actually went over there. Dark. Hopeless. She could see them there, surrounding the captors."

  Maxxus shook his head. "I don’t see how that proves—"

  "—Nicodemus was one of her captors. He was Shadowtouched."

  Maxxus’ confusion was quickly replaced with one of rage. "Nicodemus?" He raised to his feet, clutching his fists at his sides. "Nico… that explains why he was such a raging basta
rd the past couple times I spoke with him." Maxxus briefly told us about a couple of uncharacteristic arguments he had with him. One time, Maxxus said he just blew up, accusing him of treason and cursing him for having any sort of friendship with me whatsoever. It hadn't ordinarily been cause for concern; dragons had nasty tempers no matter the dragon and could be volatile. But Maxxus claimed he'd been worse than normal; they'd feuded after I left the portal that day after Nicodemus claimed I shouldn't be allowed to go back and forth because pink dragons of course are "unpredictable" and then of course, the time he tried warning me that day in the portal. Of course Maxxus had been up to something, but he didn't know that and got in Maxxus' face. More so then usual.

  "I thought it was strange; he was suddenly always in his human form during shift changes. He never does that, he thinks humans are below him!" Maxxus growled.

  A sudden realization hit me. "So it was his boot prints I saw outside the portal that day! It has to be!"

  Maxxus nodded vigorously. "He’s always been an ass, but, at least he was honorable. Not… not this confrontational." His face heated, cheeks red with anger. He began pacing around the room, muttering under his breath. He paused in the kitchen, threw his head back and let out an angry snarl, so loud it reverberated off the walls. "I’ll kill him! I’ll rip his head off, and—"

  "First things first," Kiarra piped up, the voice of reason. "We have to find proof. And…who exactly is he working under. Is it just him, and a handful of others? Or does it go further up the chain?"

  "What more proof do you need?" Maxxus roared. "We have a witness!"

  It was my turn to speak up. "Yes but…she’s not magical. Not entirely. Esmè thinks she might be but…" I shrugged. "She’s been through a terrible ordeal, and putting her through anymore…" I shook my head. "No. Out of the question."

  "But—" Maxxus began to protest.

  "No." I stood, narrowing my eyes, my tone commanding.

  Maxxus backed down, releasing his clenched jaw and allowing himself to relax. "I’m sorry, Leo…of course. I just can’t imagine…"

  "No worries," I said, dismissing his apology.

  "But, if he is working with the Shadows…for how long? How long have you been at risk and how long have I been oblivious to it?" He turned away, suddenly feeling shameful.