Twisted Fate

by D. N. Hoxa

  I’d lie if I said I wasn’t surprised. Desperate. Heartbroken to see him leaving, without even a goodbye. He just left.

  I don’t know why I’d created this idea for myself that he would be there, no matter what. No matter how senseless my decisions were, Hiss would always stick by me.

  I guess I’d been wrong. Half of me wanted to call after him, run after him, tell him that I wasn’t leaving if he wouldn’t come with me. But that half was buried by the image of Elid’s face filled with horror. If something happened to him and I wasn’t there, I knew I would never be able to live with myself. My magic would give up on me then. I’d have nothing to offer it.

  And if I made it back here somehow, I could find Hiss again. I could apologize. I could make it right.

  Right now, Gaena awaited.

  There was no plan. My feet took me back to the Guild’s Protection Unit, and my mind was too busy panicking to allow me to think. But there really wasn’t any point. There was no way inside that building but through the front doors. I pulled my shawl down and approached the metal gates, seeing the three soldiers on the other side of it for the first time. They’d been perfectly covered by the darkness, but they were looking right at me.

  “My name is Elo Allens,” I said and my voice broke. “I’m a Healer. I’ve been called by the Guild to help with patients.” The lie flowed easier than I expected.

  I didn’t know how much these officers knew. I didn’t really care. I just wanted them to let me through those gates.

  One of the three stepped back and turned his back to me, a hand pressed to his ear. He whispered something I was too distracted to hear, and his friends never said a single word. Impatience ate at me. Here I was, wearing a different face, about to attack who knows how many Guild employees, hoping to make it to the Gateway in time.

  It occurred to me that I had no remorse. I wouldn’t hesitate to kill to get to Gaena.

  Just like Bo-bo, Ari and the sidhe had. Maybe I wasn’t all that different from them. Guilt snaked its way up to my chest like Hiss used to do.

  I was not like Bo-bo and Ari.

  “Clear,” the soldier who’d been whispering suddenly said. A loud crack later, a lock falling in place, and one of the gates in front of me opened. The soldiers stepped to the sides.

  What had I been thinking again?

  It didn’t matter. Elid needed me.

  I stepped through the gates, letting go of a shaky breath. I should have noticed then that the soldiers had their arms halfway raised, ready to fend off an attack—or maybe to attack me. I should have noticed that when the double doors of the building opened, four more officers were on the other side, waiting for me.

  I didn’t even notice that the wide hallway was completely empty, save for them and me. I just kept on walking, trying to keep Elid’s face away from in front of my eyes, so I could see where I was stepping. The building was brand new. What if they changed the way to the Gateway? The hallway was an exact copy of what it had been, so maybe they’d stuck to the original plan of the building. I certainly hoped so.

  Soldiers behind me, all seven of them. Not a sound could be heard inside the building other than our footsteps. It didn’t occur to me that that was strange. The hallway was large, and there were always people going about their business, even after nightfall. Spreading out my fingers, I let out my magic into the black tiles that set the floor.

  The Gateway, I asked the Shade. Take me to the Gateway.

  A second later, something stabbed me in the shoulder.

  My body hadn’t been prepared for it. Pain shot down my arm and spread on my torso while I lost balance and fell to one knee. Warm blood slipped from the wound, and my magic crashed against my chest, as panicked as me, trying to fix the damage. The small knife with the Guild logo on the handle was still inside me. Gritting my teeth, I reached for it and pulled it out of me.

  My magic closed the wound before I’d made it to my feet, and by the time I turned around, all nine of the doors in the hallway were open. Soldiers were coming out of them, all of them armed. All of them looking right at me.

  I turned to the seven who’d followed me inside. The one who’d thrown his knife at me smiled.

  “One wrong move and you’re dead,” he said, his voice strong, deep, unlike my own.

  They’d been expecting me.

  How?

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” I whispered. Tears in my eyes. How had they known? Why hadn’t I tried to find a better way into the building instead of coming through the front door and hoping nobody would know it was me? I’d given them my name, too. The fake name Mandar had given me while I’d lived with him.

  And if those agents who’d come looking for me in Julie’s house knew, why wouldn’t everyone else?

  Because of Elid. I’d done this because of Elid, and by the gods, I was going to finish it.

  “Please, I just want to get to the Gateway. I don’t want to hurt you,” I repeated. If they let me through, I could be in Gaena in mere minutes. I would run from the Winter Shade all the way to House Heivar if needed, but I would get there one way or the other. If these men tried to stop me…

  “You’re not going anywhere, elf,” the officer spit. “Put your hands behind your back, slowly.” And he started coming toward me.

  Elf. He’d called me elf.

  And Signora Vera’s potion was still altering my appearance.

  There was no doubt left in my mind. Those agents hadn’t been sent to find me by King Caidenus. They’d been sent by the Guild.

  Closing my eyes, I let out another tired sigh. This was wasted time, but I was left with no choice. My magic spread throughout the room, searching the bodies of all fourteen soldiers who were in the hallway with me. It would be impossible to knock them all out at once—I was only ever able to knock out five people at one time. But the seven who’d followed me inside were the closest to me. I would take out five of them and borrow their weapons to fight the rest, until all of them were on the floor.

  There was no time to think. My magic shot out at my command, aiming first for the soldier who’d spoken to me, and four of his friends by his side.

  Everything happened so fast. My magic was hungry, it was wild, and it was faster than usual thanks to the emotional state I was in. I started running for the soldiers while their eyes rolled back in their skulls and they fell on the floor, unconscious. Knives were thrown at me. Magic blasted in the air, some of it colorful, some perfectly invisible.

  I reached the body of the man who’d spoken to me first, and I put my hands on his chest before I jumped to the other side. The door was right there. If I’d been smart, I’d have made a run for it.

  But I wasn’t smart now. I was only desperate.

  I grabbed knives from the holster around his hips, and I began to move again. Magic hit me on the left, pushing me flat against the wall. My magic didn’t need to worry about healing me. My skin wouldn’t let the terran spell hurt me for longer than a couple seconds. A couple of seconds was all my magic needed to take out the other two soldiers closest to me. The sorcerer, who’d hit me with his bright blue magic, went first, and his friend fell on top of him.

  Pain all over me. They threw knives at me, and they hit me with magic, but I must have been more stubborn than I thought because I didn’t fall. I threw the borrowed knives, too, together with my magic. It fed off the soldiers’ pain before it took their consciousness, and when two of them managed to come close enough to me from behind, a long sword blade went right through me.

  The hallway had turned into a bloodbath so quickly. A woman, shorter than me, with pitch black hair and a disgusted look on her face stepped in front of me. Her fist connected with my nose. Blood exploded from it, and the pain took away my vision instantly. My knees shook. My magic was trying to heal me, but the blade was still going right through my gut. Air barely reached my lungs. I needed that sword out of me now.

  Spreading my arms wide, I jumped forward and straight onto the soldier
who’d punched me. The one who’d stabbed me with the sword held onto it, and my body slid off. My teeth were gritted, but the pain did me well. I fell on top of the woman and held onto her for a moment to give my magic time to close the wounds on me.

  I didn’t know how long it had been, but I didn’t feel tired. I didn’t feel weak. I was just impatient.

  And I was healed. So, when another soldier grabbed me by the hair and pulled me up, I was ready. I wrapped my fingers around his wrist and unleashed my magic into him. The woman who was still under me sat up and tried to push me off her, but my other hand was already around her neck, fingernails digging into her skin. My magic always worked better when in physical contact with my targets, and tonight, it was hungrier than it had ever been before.

  Both soldiers stopped moving and collapsed on the floor.

  More came—I don’t know how many. I jumped back and took the sword from the sleeping soldier’s hand. The blade of it was coated with my blood. I used it to keep the other soldiers off me while my magic shut down their systems, one at a time now, until there wasn’t anybody left.

  Where were the rest? I could have sworn there were more coming out those doors, but no soldier was standing now.

  It was over.

  Where to? a voice whispered in my mind. The hallway was clear. I needed to run to Elid, now.

  With the borrowed sword in my hand still, I shot forward, searching for the door that would lead me to the stairs. The Gateway would be below the ground. Even if they’d changed everything, they couldn’t have changed that. Gateways couldn’t be moved.

  All the while, as I ran down the stairs, I begged the Shade to guide me, to help me, and I had no doubt that it would.

  Nobody stopped me until I reached two levels below the ground floor.

  The huge metal doors that would lead me to the Gateway were white this time. They’d been grey then. There was no handle on them, only a panel on the wall to my right. I put my hand over the metal anyway.

  The spell hit me as soon as my skin made contact and threw me back. I hit the stairs with the back of my head, and that hurt me a lot more than the magic protecting these doors.

  I thought I would have a moment to breathe and gather myself, but by the time I could see again, the white doors were already open. Had I been unconscious just now, from the fall? Everything was moving fast—so fast.

  More soldiers. Why couldn’t I catch a break? My sword was in my hand still—I never dropped a weapon. It was the most important rule in battle. There were only four of them, and I guided my magic with my free hand while I ran for them with the sword raised. They said something to me, shouted something, but I couldn’t hear it. All I could hear was Elid’s shallow breaths, even though the Seer Eye had only given me an image. My imagination was more than happy to fill in the rest of the details—like the feel of Elid’s skin, cold against my hand.

  It drove me insane.

  I swung my sword without care of how many lives I took. Reason was lost to me. I just wanted to get to the Gateway and see Elid. Why wouldn’t they let me?

  An eternity later, I stepped inside the room, all four of the soldiers who’d waited for me on the floor. Two of them were dead. I’d cut through their hearts with my sword. The other two were only unconscious, but the guilt of taking lives couldn’t reach me, not when I saw the Gateway. It was as if it were calling out to me on the other side of the glass wall.

  Not when I saw all the soldiers coming in from two other doors in the control room, which was a lot bigger than it had been before. A lot brighter. Completely filled.

  My heart fell. My fingers spread and my magic eagerly shot out of me, but even I knew that I couldn’t take out twenty soldiers singlehandedly in a closed space like that.

  Magic shot at me from all sides. Knives buried in my body, and I no longer even felt the pain. Common sense said I’d lost, but I kept on going until I couldn’t anymore.

  And a lot of soldiers were still standing.

  Please, I begged whoever would listen. Please let me get through this. Let me find Elid.

  But I was on my knees now, and my hands were being held behind me. Four blade tips were pressed against the back of my neck, deep enough into my skin to draw blood. I blinked my eyes, desperate to search for a way out, but there was none. If I even raised my head, those knives would cut through me. My magic wanted to be let out so badly, but it knew that it wouldn’t be able to knock all four of them out at the same time. I was exhausted. My body barely functioned. My limbs were so heavy.

  My resolve didn’t waver.

  I could see the Gateway. A glass wall was all that separated me from it. The Shade would open it for me like it had last time. I just needed to get to it, that’s all.

  More people walked through the doors that were now both open, but these didn’t look like soldiers. The four men stopped a good distance away from me and watched me with contempt. I’d lived on Earth long enough to know that men who wore suits like that were considered important. The way the soldiers made way for them confirmed that suspicion.

  “Please,” I asked them. “I just need to get to the Gateway.” My voice sounded as broken as I felt.

  The men didn’t care. They looked at one another and whispered something I couldn’t hear, and when I tried to move, the knives at my neck sank in deeper. My magic went wild inside me. Two more soldiers stepped inside the room, and one of them whispered something to the man in a suit as black as the darkness that surrounded the Gateway.

  “They’re here?” he asked, a bit surprised but not for long. He stepped to the side, nodding at the other suited men, and everyone moved with him.

  Somebody else was coming, and for a second there, I hoped that it would be Mandar. He’d somehow found me, and he was going to make everything right. He owed me that much. He was going to get these soldiers off me and let me go home.

  But when the man stepped over the threshold and I saw his silver eyes, all my hopes crashed and died a horrifying death.

  He was sidhe.

  “No,” I breathed, more scared than I had ever been in my life. It was him—the leader of the sidhe, the same man who’d brought down the old building. The man who’d trapped and killed all those people inside it without an ounce of regret.

  He was perfectly healthy now, not a sign of the battle anywhere on him. And he smiled brightly for me.

  “I hear you want to go home,” he said, his voice echoing in the high ceiling.

  The world came crashing down on me.

  “Do something!” I shouted at the soldiers, and the suited men who would do nothing but stare at the sidhe.

  He laughed and squatted down until he was eye level with me. My magic shot into the air, searching for his heart. If the Guild wouldn’t stop him, I would.

  But my magic only tasted his skin for a moment before something heavy came down on the back of my head hard. My body let go of me. The people who’d been holding me back let go of me, too, and I hit the floor with my face.

  Move! my magic demanded, but my mind was already shutting down. Consciousness slipped from me, and my vision was stolen from me—but not before I saw the sidhe’s face one more time, so close to me I could touch it.

  “See you on the other side,” he whispered, and everything disappeared.

  Chapter 22

  Chapter

  * * *

  My magic woke me. Sometimes, it sizzled inside my chest and became hot as fire, heating me from within. I must have been burning with fever, but my eyes opened all the same.

  When they did, I wished they hadn’t.

  Voices all around me. So many soldiers that the huge room felt tiny. There was hardly any air left to breathe, but that wasn’t what scared me.

  I was still in the panel room right in front of the Gateway. The only thing keeping me from it was the glass.

  The glass—and my friends.

  They were on the other side of the room, right in front of the white doors that were still wide
open. The suited men were there, too, in the corner, and they talked about something in hushed voices, looking at my friends. They were on their knees—Mandar, Lola, Charlotte, and behind them Julie, Faceless, and Daredevil. They were all there, except for Hiss.

  Soldiers all around them. Daredevil was the only one who’d been looking at me. He was the only one to see that my eyes were open.

  He didn’t give me an expression, but I saw in his eyes that he was ready. I was on the floor still, on my stomach, and the soldiers who were no doubt right behind me would stop me the second I made a move. I kept my eyes half closed and on Daredevil.

  And I gave myself a second to think.

  Elid was everywhere. The thought of him dying overran everything else, but I pushed it away anyway. The only way to get to him was to get through the Gateway. It was only a matter of minutes before the Guild soldiers took us away. Then, it would be too late.

  Except it was already too late.

  At the thought of the sidhe’s face, all my alarms rang again. He’d been here. He’d gone right through the Gateway. And the Guild had let him. All hope was drained from me. I’d failed.

  Tears filled my eyes and they slipped down to the cold tiles I was lying on. All hope was not lost. I was here, and I was alive. I could still fight. My friends were here, too. They’d come for me, as I would have gone for them. A fae was among them, and I was looking right at him. A royal Spring fae who willingly chose to fight beside me in a battle we all knew we would lose. That he was here meant more than I’d realized in the beginning.

  There was still hope in him. There was still hope in me, too.

  I let my eyes close and gathered every bit of magic that was inside me. In addition to my friends, there were more than twenty people in this room. I sent my magic after them to test, to see how much it could reach, to count. Twenty-two bodies. Twenty-two minds that needed to shut down.

  It had never been done before. I had never taken out more than five at a time.