Fate's Fools Box Set

by Bell, Ophelia

  “At the time, the Ultiori were at their peak, and our kind were being captured or killed in droves. He and I were trapped in the human world, far from any Enclave and fearing for our lives. True affection bloomed between us, a love that I believed in so strongly because it was not predetermined for me. I believe Evie found something similar in Marcus, but by then, I knew their connection would lead her to her One, otherwise I would not have encouraged it.”

  I nodded, recalling the stories of my cousin’s romance from decades ago. Ultimately, Marcus had led Evie to her One . . . the oldest, most powerful Black dragon in existence. It had not been a straight path for them, but they were happy now. All three were still together, and Fate none the wiser. Or maybe Fate had let it go; it did always have a soft spot for the dragons.

  A dark dread seeped into my gut as the implications of Sophia’s story became clearer. She was alone, and had been alone for as long as I’d been alive—more than two centuries.

  “You never had other lovers? Mates?” I asked.

  She shook her head and stared off toward the sea. “When we shared our souls, there was no going back. We had broken whatever links we had to the mates Fate had chosen for us. Your mother was the product of our early love, but our peace didn’t last. When she was born, Fate found out our secret.”

  “What was his name, my grandfather?” There were no photographs or other signs of him around her home, despite all the nooks and crannies cluttered with keepsakes that filled her vast Brooklyn apartment. She never spoke of him.

  “Keyne Oirthear.” Though she whispered his name, it rang as clearly as if she’d spoken into my ear.

  “Why have I never heard his name before?” I asked.

  “Because Fate erased him from existence. When we were discovered a few years after breaking the oldest turul law, Fate’s hounds descended. They are normally docile creatures who do no more than sniff out souls in need of mates and urge them together. They mark them with a song. But if you cross Fate, they can be vicious creatures.

  “They would have torn us both to pieces, devoured our souls whole. But Keyne begged for mercy. Not for himself, but for me. I have wished so many times since that he had not . . . that he had let those hounds kill me too. But Fate saw fit to grant his wish. The hounds spared me, yet I was forever bound to Fate from then on, forced to act as its agent and carry out its plan among the higher races.”

  “Did Fate give you the ability to see souls?” I asked, not quite certain I understood.

  “No. The soul sight was unlocked when Keyne and I split our souls apart and each gave a piece to the other.” She paused and shifted her gaze back to me, brows drawn together. “You cannot see them, can you? After giving Deva a piece of yours?”

  “The souls? No.” I was beyond denying what I’d done. At least I could trust my grandmother not to tell.

  “How long has Deva had the sight?”

  “For a year, she said. Ever since . . .” Ever since we left the realm of the gods. “Fuck.”

  “You gave her that gift along with the shard of your soul, but she was unable to return the favor as she had no soul of her own to share. The fact that it is not a two-way bond may help delay Fate noticing for a time, but not indefinitely. If you intend to stay near her to help her with this task, you must act quickly. I’ll share what information I have, but I can’t stay, or Fate will know I’ve helped.”

  “What more do you have to share?”

  My grandmother chuckled. “Oh, so much more.”

  21

  Deva

  I left the guys with the car, sure the three of them would attract too much attention if we all traipsed into the ICU at once. I was good at being invisible and thought the dress might make me look even less threatening, since it seemed every pair of eyes I passed fell instantly to my breasts.

  Checking to make sure all possible buttons were still fastened, I made my way up to the fifth-floor ward where I had said goodbye to Bodhi and his mother the morning before. I hoped they’d be gone—that would mean they’d managed to get Susannah discharged—but I hoped to look in on John Doe too. Perhaps he’d be awake and I could ask him a few questions.

  The faint beeps and rhythmic noises of the machines greeted me as I passed through the doors. Moving with sure, confident strides, I only attracted passing glances from the nurses.

  Once I’d cleared the nurse’s station, I paused, startled, yet pleased by the sight on the other side of the glass doors leading to Susannah’s room. A very different patient lay there now, a young woman with a bandaged head surrounded by her worried family.

  I shifted my sight and examined her aura and her soul. I felt no link to her, and her aura and soul were entirely human. She was not one of the bloodline.

  Curious, I walked past the other rooms on the way to my second destination, checking the other patients as well. None of them were bloodline, either.

  I strode hopefully around the corner and stopped short outside John Doe’s room. His bed was empty and freshly made as though he’d never been there.

  My heart dropped and my skin chilled. He couldn’t be dead; I’d felt every single death of every soul in the bloodline since I first became aware of them.

  Taking a deep breath, I closed my eyes and focused, drawing on what remained of my power to seek out the threads and find the ones I needed. I hoped like hell that Susannah and her family really had gone home, and that if I found them, they might know what happened to John Doe as well.

  Soon the flickering lights of the souls I sought came into focus. They were not far from here and they were all together, and to my surprise they were surrounded by about a dozen other members of the bloodline.

  With a sigh of relief, I left the ICU and headed back out.

  The guys stood from the benches outside the hospital’s entrance where I’d left them. I kept walking toward the car.

  “They’re not here anymore, which is good, but we need to go find them. How well do you two know this city?” I asked, looking between Rohan and Keagan.

  “Well enough to navigate, if you tell me where we need to go,” Keagan said.

  “Good. I have a general direction in mind, but don’t know the streets beyond the area right around here.”

  “I can drift us, if you let me link to you,” Llyr offered. “We don’t need to waste time driving.”

  I tensed and shook my head. “No, thank you. Linking to you is the last thing I need right now.”

  Llyr’s aqua gaze churned with disappointment, yet he nodded and stepped back, allowing Keagan to take the front seat when we reached the car. After sliding the key into the ignition, I closed my eyes again and pointed.

  “It’s that direction . . . southeast, and I see a street leading straight to the ocean, but there is still water too. Canals?”

  I rattled off a few other names that flashed through my mind, mostly street signs I glimpsed through my links to the Dylans.

  “Venice,” Keagan said. “Take a right out of the parking lot.”

  Trusting his local knowledge, I followed his directions and was relieved to feel the link strengthening as I drove.

  “How far is it?” I asked.

  “A ways. At this time of day on PCH, it’ll take about forty-five minutes,” Keagan said, flipping the radio on.

  A familiar song flooded the interior of the car, making me press harder on the gas. It was the ballad Bodhi and I had sung at the hospital right before he and his mother had been attacked.

  “Dude, turn it up,” Rohan called from the back seat. “It’s our song!”

  Keagan chuckled and turned the volume knob until my entire body vibrated from the beat. Something about it had spoken to me since the first time I’d heard it over the hospital’s sound system, but when Keagan and Rohan started singing along, suddenly I knew the song was special.

  It was a duet called Gentle Winds, Tender Flames, and the chorus incited a deep longing in me for a love like I could hear between the two people singing.


  When it ended, Keagan turned the volume down and said, “I don’t know if we’ll ever do the original justice, man. Lukas and Belah are just too good to top.”

  I shot a wide-eyed look at Keagan. “Lukas North? That’s who that was on the radio just now? And . . . did you say Belah?”

  “Yeah, baby. You knew we weren’t the original members of Fate’s Fools, right?” Rohan said. “The Maestro’s cousins were the ones who started the band. That song was the last single they recorded that made it to the radio.”

  “Did you guys miss the part about who my dad is earlier? You know, Nikhil . . .” I trailed off, hoping I didn’t have to explain. When they just shot me blank looks, I huffed and said, “Lukas and Iszak North are my stepdads, and Belah’s my stepmom. My dad is mated to the three of them.”

  Rohan sat forward and propped his elbows on the backs of either front seat. “Wait, that is the same Nikhil? Former leader of the Ultiori? The one who’s mated to Belah and the North brothers? No fucking way!”

  Keagan slouched in the passenger seat, chuckling to himself.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  He pointed at the radio. “Are you trying to tell me that old butcher is the guy who wrote all those songs? Mind fucking blown.” He lifted his hands to his head and mimicked an explosion.

  “What do you mean, wrote them? Dad couldn’t sing to save his life.”

  “Maybe not sing, but he is definitely a poet. I’ve been in awe of that guy ever since they released their final album last year and I saw his name in the liner notes. Here, I’ve got more you’ve got to hear.”

  Keagan produced his phone from a pocket and proceeded to tap at the small screen on the dash of the car. A few moments later, more beautiful songs flowed from the speakers. I’d heard my dads and Mama Belah sing before, and Evie too, but hadn’t ever heard these songs.

  “When did they record these?” I asked, so fixated on the music I barely heard Keagan’s reminder that we were getting close to our destination. I had to force myself to shift focus back to the task at hand.

  “Just the middle of last year after their little girl was born,” Rohan said. “That makes Layla your sister, doesn’t it?” He met my eyes in the rearview mirror and frowned. “Shit . . .”

  Keagan shot him a bemused look. “Dude, stop trying to do the math. Deva and her sister are four months apart, yes. But Deva is still a grown woman, so you can chill about those dirty fantasies you keep having.”

  “I have an older sister too, if it helps,” I said. “Asha is older than all of you, and I promise she looks even younger than me.”

  I darted a look back at Llyr, who’d remained stoic the entire time, just staring out the window.

  “Llyr’s met her. Haven’t you, Llyr?”

  He blinked and frowned, rubbing his hand over his mouth. “Ah, yeah, your sister’s pretty old, but sorry to burst your bubble, I’m still older than her. If you want an honest opinion, I think the two of you look about the same age, but humans are the only ones who really give a fuck about numbers. I still want you, and I don’t care that I’m a few thousand years older. Asha might be the only dragon who’s mated to a man her own age, if you can believe it.”

  Rohan’s expression clouded and Keagan said, “Don’t complicate things, you two. You’ll break him.”

  Keagan and I burst into laughter, and even Llyr managed a chuckle at Rohan’s agonized look. We turned up the music, and all four of us spent the rest of the trip singing along with the Pacific wind rushing through the car.

  Eventually we turned off Pacific Coast Highway and crept down a street lined with palms, quaint little houses, and a smattering of larger ones. The pressure of the link grew stronger with every block. Soon I hit the brakes and pulled up to the curb across the street from a huge blue house. Dozens of people were milling about the front yard and porch, and piano music drifted out into the afternoon air.

  The four of us approached cautiously at first, and then when the general mood of celebration took over, we relaxed and increased our pace.

  “Looks like a party. Celebrating their recovery from being bitten, you think?” Rohan asked hopefully.

  “I don’t know.” The revelers beamed at us as we walked up the front steps, and I gawked at the enormous banner hanging over the doorway. “Congratulations!” it read, white streamers and puffy paper bells hanging from the sides. The welcome mat was covered in rice and confetti.

  “Looks like someone got married today,” Keagan said. “Are you sure this is the right house?”

  As I opened the door, a guitar had chimed in to accompany the piano, and two familiar voices raised in song. Welcoming smiles greeted us as though we all belonged, even though these people were all strangers. But they were bloodline, and clearly happy to have a few members of the higher races in their midst.

  I wandered through the crowd into a big parlor filled with more revelers. In the center, Bodhi and his mother were singing to an older couple clasping hands on a loveseat by the window.

  I blinked at the incongruous sight. The older couple was familiar to me, but as far as I knew, they were strangers to each other. That had clearly changed, because seated there, basking in the glow of the sunlight and the love they shared, were Susannah and none other than John Doe.

  Before I could wave and greet them, my breath caught. Lounging on the carpet to either side of the newlyweds were the hounds, and they were looking straight at me, as pleased with themselves as ever.

  22

  Deva

  “Not a fan of the happy couple?” Rohan asked at my elbow.

  I jerked and looked at him, confused for a second before realizing he was talking about Susannah and John and not the hounds.

  “They’re here,” I whispered.

  He stared at me before my meaning sank in and his eyes widened. “The . . . creatures?” He took a step back, darting his gaze around the room. I rested a hand on his arm, shooting a pointed look toward one of the hounds to indicate where it was.

  “It’s all right. I don’t think they’ll bite you again. I can’t say the same for the rest of the room.” I looked around at the party. “This place is filled with members of the bloodline. Susannah’s family, I suppose.”

  The hounds themselves seemed perfectly content to sit by Susannah and her new husband, as if they were basking in the glow of the couple’s newly linked souls.

  That thought made me pause and look harder. Susannah’s soul looked different now than it had when I’d left her at the hospital the day before. She had lost the link to the hound that bit her the moment the creature moved on to Bodhi, yet I had clearly seen the remnants of the bite; a collection of dark puncture wounds had remained behind, scars that no longer bled.

  But now her soul was pristine and whole. There was no sign she’d ever been bitten.

  When I shifted my gaze to her husband’s soul, I saw the same thing, and what was more, their souls were joined, a band of golden light stretching between them. The magic overflowed in cascades so powerful it bathed both hounds in its brilliance.

  The creatures seemed utterly disinterested in anything else, and I hazarded a look at Rohan’s soul. The wounds were still there, his aura a bit weaker than it had been when we left the house, and the flow of magic had waned to a trickle—possibly because the hounds were gorging themselves on the happy couple’s bliss.

  The song faded and the room erupted into cheers and hoots. A moment later another began, more energetic this time, and Bodhi leaned over to urge the newlyweds to dance.

  He grinned when Susannah and her husband laughed and stood, and the crowd cleared enough to give them space. Yet despite the flush of happiness throughout Bodhi’s aura, there was a dark pain that lingered. That was when I saw the marks still buried in his soul. Somehow Susannah had fully healed, but Bodhi hadn’t.

  I tilted my head to catch a glimpse of Maddie still seated at the piano. The same darkness plagued her aura as well. Their smiles were forced, I realized, but no
t for lack of pleasure at Susannah’s union—that happiness was genuine, but it seemed like they were making quite an effort to let it show beyond the darkness trying to snuff its light.

  “Something’s wrong with their auras,” Rohan said. “I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like they desperately want to be happy, but something’s keeping them from feeling it.”

  “They’re the victims I met yesterday. The hounds attacked Bodhi and his mother right in front of me just a couple hours before they moved on to you and Willem.”

  “How are they not dead?” Keagan asked. “Something that drains power the way it did to Rohan would’ve killed a human.”

  I grimaced, remembering Rohan’s plea to keep Keagan in the dark about the way the bites seemed to work. Glancing at the dragon, I raised my eyebrows. He exhaled sharply through his nose and turned to Keagan.

  “Seems that the second Willem and I got bit, these nice folks stopped being drained.”

  Keagan’s gaze sharpened as he looked between Bodhi and Rohan, then at me.

  “They’re still damaged,” I said. “That’s why their auras look sick. Their souls are scarred. But I think there’s hope. Susannah’s completely healed, and so is her new husband. If we can find out what they did to erase the damage, we can fix the others. We can fix you, Rohan.”

  I gazed up into his eyes, and he smiled. “I’m going to hold you to that,” he said. “Meanwhile, I’ve got a little energy to spare for those two.”

  Before I could stop him, he closed his eyes and exhaled a lungful of golden smoke.

  Keagan nudged him and leaned in close. “Dude, this room is all bloodline. You know they can see what you are, right?”

  I didn’t see the point in correcting him—only half these people were bloodline, and they were sworn to keep our secrets. They wouldn’t dare give away our presence to the humans in the mix. Still, it was better safe than sorry.

  “Save it for another time. It will keep,” I said, squeezing Rohan’s arm.