Adelaide's Fate (Her Fate Series Book 1)

by G. Bailey

  “Did they hurt her?” Rick demands, walking until he is right in front of me and placing his hands on my shoulders. “Are you hurt?”

  “Yes, they hurt her, and I’m fine. One of those shock collars knocked her out,” I tell him, remembering the heart-tearing scream that left her lips before she blacked out. I desperately tried to fight my way to her, but there were too many of them. By the time I killed the last of them, it was too late. They had taken her. I’m a fucking idiot.

  “I’m going to get the weapons. Think of a plan,” Josh tells us, and he walks straight up the stairs without looking back. The air next to us shimmers for a brief second before they appear. Queen Winter, King Atticus, King Dabriel, King Wyatt, King Jaxson and Mich all appear in a line together, looking downright terrifying even to me, and I’ve known them years.

  “Rick, what has happened? Where is Josh?” Queen Winter demands, rushing to Rick and pulling his tall frame into a tight hug. Queen Winter looks about our age, but she is about ten years older and pregnant. I’m shocked the kings let her come here, but from what I remember, Queen Winter always did what she wanted.

  “Josh is fine, just upstairs, and there is this girl—” Rick starts off and quickly gets cut off as Queen Winter’s eyebrows shoot up as she looks up at Rick.

  “What girl?” King Wyatt asks at the same time King Atticus asks. King Wyatt crosses his arms and glares at King Atticus, who only smirks. “Why have we not been told of any changes to this mission? This isn’t a game, boy.”

  “With Winter…” Rick starts off, and Queen Winter steps back, crossing her arms over her little bump that you can see under her blue vest top.

  “If you say because I’m pregnant—” she starts off and no doubt is going to tell him that her being pregnant isn’t a reason for us all to risk our lives, but Rick cuts her off.

  “Wait. Don’t get mad. We don’t have time for this,” Rick growls, shaking his head. “She could be my mate. In fact, I’m nearly certain she is, and Graves has her. I can’t let her die. I need your help…please.”

  “Mate?” King Jaxson mutters. “We need to have a long chat, Freds.”

  “Congrats, kid!” King Atticus says, holding a hand up for a high five, and everyone glares at him. “Not the time, alright I’ll save it for later.”

  “Atti, go back to the castle and get the royal army ready in ten minutes,” King Jaxson growls. “And bring me my sword.”

  “I’m coming with you as well,” King Dabriel says, and Atti places his hand on King Dabriel’s shoulder before they both disappear. Josh runs down the stairs, two bags of weapons in his hands, and he drops them on the floor.

  “Get in here, man,” King Atticus states, pulling Josh into a reluctant man hug just before Queen Winter gets to him, pulling Josh into an embrace as well. I look away when they start speaking quietly. I ignore them all, and grab one of the bags of weapons, picking it up and dropping it on the sofa in the lounge. I open it up and pull out my favourite swords, flipping them around in my hands. We are going to get her back, or I won’t ever stop until she is safe. I know he wants her for something, so he won’t kill her yet. If he kills her—

  “What happened exactly?” King Wyatt asks, stopping my train of thought and stepping to my side. I don’t answer him straight away as he starts going through the bag of weapons, pulling out the ones he doesn’t want and dropping them on the other side of the sofa.

  “I got distracted. They must have been waiting, and now she is gone,” I explain.

  “I didn’t mean tonight. What exactly has been going on with this girl, and why have you all kept her a secret from us?” he asks.

  “She just turned up and turned our lives upside down,” I admit. “Thinking straight hasn’t been a thing for us recently.”

  “Women tend to do that,” King Wyatt lightly chuckles, his eyes drifting to Queen Winter before coming back to me as he picks a heavy sword up. “Does Rick know you’re in love with his mate?”

  “No,” I admit.

  “Secrets cause problems, and sharing does work if you can all be honest. You have all grown up together, don’t lie and fall out because you won’t talk about how you feel,” King Wyatt tells me. “Make sure you tell your family the truth.” I don’t get a chance to reply to him as he walks away, and I look over to see Rick watching us closely. I’m well aware he could have heard our conversation from this distance, but he doesn’t react in any way, so I doubt he did listen in. Rescue Adie first and then deal with our feelings later.

  I blink my eyes open, coughing on the dust that is somehow in my mouth and all around me, stinging my eyes. When the dust settles a little, I open my eyes to see a piece of wall in front of me, broken into pieces, and one of the larger pieces has an arm underneath it. I shake my head as I pull myself up, seeing the red flashing lights and hearing the blaring sound of an alarm in the distance. The room I’m in is destroyed, and I can’t see anything but dust, rock, broken walls and glass. I glance down, seeing the broken collar by my hand and my other hand goes to my slightly burnt neck, pulling away when it stings as I touch it. I think back to my Asteria holding my hands, and then the pain and what I think was screams. What happened? I look back at the arm, hoping it’s Asteria, and move to crawl across the floor to it. I pull the heavy bit of wall off the arm, and I’m relieved to see Asteria on the ground, covered in pieces of wall, but she is just waking up.

  “Asteria?” I mutter her name, sliding an arm beneath her back and pulling her so she sits up.

  “You remind me of your father,” she says, her voice croaky. “Just as magical.”

  “You must have hit your head. We need to escape here, and you can tell me all about him. You can tell me everything, Asteria,” I tell her, and she nods with a smile. I shakily stand myself up and hold a hand out for her. I manage to get her to stand up, but she nearly falls as she tries to put weight on her right leg, and I look down at all the blood pouring from it through her white trousers. “Put your arm around me.” Asteria does as I ask, and we slowly make our way through the open door and into a long corridor. The flashing red light doesn’t do much to show us where we need to go, but it does show me dozens of other doors down here.

  “Call me mum. Just once,” Asteria whispers to me.

  “When we get out of here, I will. We need to find some stairs or something,” I mutter, shifting Asteria’s weight a little and deciding to head in the direction of the siren noise. We hobble down the corridor, and I glance to my right, seeing all the doors again and knowing I need to open these before we escape, or the guys’ mission would be for nothing.

  “What did you do to me in there?” I ask Asteria as we carry on walking slowly. “What happened?”

  “You inherited your powers,” she tells me.

  “And then what caused the explosion or whatever happened to that room?” I ask. I seriously hope Graves and those hunters are dead under all the gravel and broken walls.

  “You did. You are far more powerful than I was when I got my powers, but then with who your father is, that is no surprise,” she muses, and I go to ask her who my father is when I see the flashing stairs sign. I hurry us towards it and pull the door open, stopping to stare at the emergency release button on the wall. I glance back down at the doors and wonder if it will open them. Only one way to find out. I lift the plastic covering and slam my hand onto the red button, and a blasting alarm sounds. The doors each start popping open one by one.

  “We have to go,” I remind myself and Asteria, knowing I’ve done my best to help them, and I need to get us out of here. The others can come back for the prisoners. I’m sure they are on their way to rescue us. I hope Nath has gotten out somehow, and I know I will go back for him if the others don’t rescue him first. I help Asteria up the stairs, pausing every few steps with her to get our breaths back. I freeze when I hear steps below us, and three guys, carrying small children in their arms, run past us like we aren’t even here. When I look down the staircase, there are more men
, children and women slowly climbing the stairs behind us, all wearing those horrible white clothes. I have to pray Nath is with them. I slide my arm further around my mother’s waist with more determination, and we carry on up the stairs, knowing we need to leave this place.

  “Did you have a good childhood? Were you happy?” Asteria asks me, her voice breathless.

  “Yes,” I reply, trying not to break down emotionally right now. I can do that when I am somewhere safe and have some time to process this. Not right now.

  “That’s all I wanted. All we wanted for you. The throne is nothing without happiness,” she says. “Everyone forgot that in Frayan.”

  “What throne?” I ask her as we keep walking.

  “Yours. You are the heir to the Autumn court, Adelaide,” she tells me as we get to the top of the stairs and make our way to the doorway right in front of us.

  “That’s crazy. I’m no princess, and you really must have hit your head,” I tell her firmly.

  “Being the heir to the throne is only half of who you are. The other half is far more powerful, and if you don’t control it, embrace it, you will destroy everything like the prophecy said,” she warns me, coughing on her words. I think back to the book and the mention of a prophecy in that book mum left me.

  “Are you saying there is a prophecy about me?” I ask Asteria, and she nods.

  “Yes, and I did everything to save you from it. I fear it has already started now,” she says as we make our way across the reception room.

  “What did you do?” I ask her, confused, and she goes to answer when three loud gunshots bang in the room and Asteria screams out in pain, falling out of my arm to the floor. I fall with her, not even looking for who shot her, as I turn her over onto her back.

  “Adelaide. I never thought I’d get to see you one more time before death. This is a blessing, my sweet child…a blessing…” she whispers, her eyes fading, and then she starts to disappear. Her body slowly turns into red dust in my hands until there is nothing left but a pile of red dust that floats across the floor.

  “Mum…” I crackle out, staring at the red dust in pure shock.

  “She deserved to die. That bitch almost killed me. Now, Adelaide, be a smart girl and come here,” Graves beckons, sounding not far behind me. Anger fills my mind, and my hands start to crackle with blue lightning.

  “Adelaide, what are you doing?!” Mr. Graves’s panicked voice shouts from behind me, but I see nothing but blue light as the lightning crackles all over my skin, and I stand up.

  My body twitches in slight pain as I move us all to just inside the Hunter’s Organisation base, and my hands fall to my knees once we appear as I bend over, getting my breath back. I’ve never moved this many people before.

  “Impressive. I can only move forty, but you managed to move forty-two,” King Atticus says, sounding as out of breath as I am. I glance at the competitive witch king and shake my head.

  “This isn’t a competition, guys,” Queen Winter huffs, walking over to us. King Jaxson slides an arm around her waist, stopping her from going any further.

  “You’re staying right by my side, lass,” he quietly tells her, but we all hear it. Josh rolls his eyes at the interaction and starts the walk towards the base, with Rick and Nath at his side.

  “Let’s go,” I suggest, nodding my head at the base. We run silently towards the building, walking between the cars to get to the entrance. The royal army floods around the building, running in all directions to make sure we have all exits covered. We trained with the kings’ royal army, and we know they move like one; they are as deadly as it gets. I pause next to Josh when he suddenly stops, and everyone does the same. I stare open-mouthed as all the hunters are running out of the building, not even glancing at us as they run. Mixed in between them are clearly prisoners, their white clothes are hard to miss. I gape in shock as Adelaide steps out of the building, every part of her body covered in blue energy, and blue lightning shoots out of the sky, hitting her body and making the blue energy grow larger. A hunter runs out the building, and she reaches a hand out, shooting blue lightning at him, turning him into dust in a second.

  “Please say that’s the girl,” King Jaxson mutters, “because I don’t fancy a fight against her, and I don’t think we need to rescue her.”

  “Adie!” Rick shouts, stepping closer, but Adie doesn’t even look his way as more blue lightning flashes across the sky, and she puts her hands up in the air. The lightning hits her hands, and she seems to just keep draining the lightning.

  “We need to snap her out of it,” I tell the others firmly.

  “How do you suggest any of us do that?” King Dabriel asks, staring at Adelaide. “She looks very familiar.”

  “I don’t care if she is familiar, we are moving back. Try to stop her or we will knock her out. You have a few minutes,” King Jaxson states, pulling Queen Winter, King Wyatt, King Atticus and King Dabriel with him as they move back to the trees with the royal army not far behind.

  “I can make a ward that covers me and get to her,” I say, ignoring King Dabriel and thinking about it.

  “She won’t listen to you. You guys don’t even get along,” Rick snaps.

  “And you don’t know fucking everything, prince Fredrick. I’m the only one that can get close to her,” I say, feeling like we need to do something before she takes in too much power. I think she is getting new powers and going through a change like we have at sixteen. This is what happens sometimes, and someone needs to stop her. People do change from the change, and I won’t let Adie die for something like that.

  “She could kill you,” Rick warns. “That isn’t Adie. Something has changed about her, and she is out of control.”

  “Then she kills me, or she kills us all. I have a feeling she is going to kill everyone near her soon,” I say, knowing all that energy has to go somewhere.

  “I have a better idea,” Josh interrupts, “one that doesn’t get any of us hurt.”

  “What?” I ask, shocked that Josh wants to help at all.

  “Hold my coat, and stop me if I can’t pull it back,” Josh says, pulling his coat off and chucking it at me. I catch it and frown as I realise what he is going to do.

  “Fucking hell, you’re going to try and drain her with your demon powers?” Rick asks in shock. It’s a terrible idea, but it might work.

  “She seems like the type of girl I want to save and be the good guy for. So sure,” Josh says, shocking us all and winking at Rick who goes to protest when Josh’s eyes flash blue. I grab Rick’s arm, making him step back when I know we can’t stop Josh now. Josh is our best chance, and it’s too late to stop the idiot anyway.

  “Sweetheart,” Josh’s soothing voice whispers to me, but I hold my hands in the air, seeing and feeling nothing but the lightning flashing through my body and blocking out the intense pain in my chest and the tears that I want to let fall. I can’t fight my body, I can’t fight the power controlling me, and I don’t want to.

  “You aren’t here,” I cry out.

  “I am,” he whispers, and I gasp as I feel like Josh is so close to me, but I’m too scared to open my eyes to look. I gasp again as I feel some of the power leaving me, feeling like it is drifting from my body.

  “Why would you come for me? You don’t even like me,” I ask, knowing this is just my imagination.

  “I want to save you,” Josh tells me.

  “Why?” I cry out, the words feeling painful to say. “I’m not worth saving.”

  “Because you are worth saving, Adelaide. You are worth fighting to save, and I am here for you,” he tells me, his words feeling soothing.

  “I’m scared to let go of the power. I’m scared to open my eyes and you won’t really be there,” I whisper, my voice cracking. “My parents are dead, my mother is dead, and everything is so wrong. I am alone.”

  “No. You have a pack. You have us and Sophie. We need you, now let go. I will catch you,” Josh whispers, his voice is so seductive that I open
my eyes. Blue energy bounces everywhere, making it hard to see, and the lightning is crackling around all of my skin. Josh doesn’t let that scare him as he stalks through the storm like there is nothing there. Like there is nothing that would stop him from getting to me. My power doesn’t touch him, letting him walk to me with his glowing blue eyes. Josh holds a hand out to me.

  “I thought you didn’t like me, yet you’re really here,” I gasp, seeing his blue eyes, and the blue veins crawling from his eyes. He is using his demon powers.

  “Take my hand and let the power go,” Josh demands. “I like you, Adie, and I’m here.”

  I stare up at the lightning flashing from the skies before meeting Josh’s eyes again, and I lower my hands slowly, staring at the crackling electric sparks covering them before moving my hand and sliding it into Josh’s. The moment our hands touch, a massive boom sends everything around us flying away in a whirlwind of blue energy, and we are left holding hands, staring at each other as Josh’s eyes fade back to their normal blue. I’m smiling when suddenly, my knees give out, but Josh sweeps me into his arms before I can fall.

  “Thank you,” I whisper, wrapping my arms around his neck.

  Josh wordlessly carries me over to the others, gently putting me on my feet, and Rick wraps his arms around me first in a tight embrace.

  “Are you okay?” he asks, and I nod, still feeling dizzy as I try to stand on my own. Nath’s eyes meet mine over Rick’s shoulder, and he smiles at me, looking relieved, but there is guilt in his eyes that I don’t understand. I look up in shock as an owl flies out of the trees, landing on my shoulder, and I stare into its pink eyes, recognising the owl as Tay. Was she worried about me?

  “Maybe I should have a look at her?” a male voice says behind us, and I turn to see an angel walking over to us, a woman holding his hand. The man is a light angel I suspect, with his white hair, purple eyes and white wings. The woman is a little shorter than me, with long dark brown hair and a kind smile as she holds her hand out to me.