by JL Madore
FATE’S JOURNEY
Scourge Survivor Series – Book Five
JL Madore
Copyright © 2018 by JL Madore
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JL Madore
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Fate’s Journey/ JL Madore -- 1st ed.
ISBN 978-1-989187-02-9
FATE’S JOURNEY
Blue bolts of magic cracked overhead. The cluster of supporters at the ancient ruin site broke into chaos. Samuel launched from the assemblage with his wand pointed. Another blue beam of energy exploded across the evening sky, and I followed the trajectory of his attack. The stream of blue magic collided with an invisible force, lighting up an iridescent shield.
Abaddon.
The plague of the realm held Lia captive within a magical field. His hulking frame loomed forward, pressing her against the wide trunk of an ancient tree.
The ground shook. Knocked to my knees by an explosion, I twisted and watched my sisters vanish. I should dematerialize too, but the moment held me captive.
Lia was my friend. And Jade. And Lexi.
What would happen to them?
Talon warriors burst into war-cry as a wave of deformed Scourge Raiders invaded. Like putrid ants to a picnic, the incoming forces reeked of death and rot, their soulless lives dedicated to an evil master.
With the issue of Lia’s mating rights forgotten, the hearing transformed into a battle of life and death. Debris flew. Bodies scrambled. Blood spilled. Was this their reality? The promise of violence awaiting the members of the Realm of the Fair?
A tattooed warrior gripped my elbow and yanked me toward the trees. His wrenching hold suggested he was unaffected by my station as a Fae Fate. Or perhaps the man-handling indicated exactly what he thought of me as a Fae Fate.
Another explosion detonated.
The forest spun, and we were knocked off our feet. In a tangle of silk and leather, we collided, first in the air and then in the scant brush. The impact of the forest floor brought to focus the fragility of ribs. I cried out at the snap, breathless beneath the weight of the warrior.
I gasped, jolting from memory, my hand gripping my side. The pain of the injury had subsided weeks ago, the fracture reknitting the moment I materialized back Behind the Veil.
Still, the trauma stayed with me. No matter how I tried to put it behind me, those haunting images returned in vivid replay whenever my mind had a moment to wander.
“Zophia, are you listening?” Zana stood, hands on hips, before my loom. The four of us had been tending to our daily duties in the Hall of Destiny while she droned on about realm dwellers not deserving the right of free will.
I adjusted the silk sleeve of my gown and gathered my braid over the crook of my arm. “Honestly, no. However, I’ve heard it enough, I could retell it to you verbatim.”
Zana scowled. “Watch yourself, sister. Holding yourself above your peers only gives you farther to fall when someone knocks your pedestal. You hold them in higher esteem than you do your own family.”
Zinnia glanced up from reading her destiny bowl, her frown more grave than usual. “Why do you dote on them so, Zophia? They’re ants—plankton, really. If you want a pet, speak to your mother and choose anything the universe offers.”
I regarded the three of them, their dark hair, iridescent skin, and midnight blue eyes a mirror to mine, yet there ended any similarity. “They aren’t pets, and they aren’t plankton. They’re people. And several of those people are our family. Extending a polite greeting to Jade, Galan, Lia, and now Samuel would go a long way in showing the members of the realm that we’re not a bunch of heartless, manipulative bitches.”
I finished updating the tapestry hanging framed in my station and sent it back to join the others in a gentle breeze. With a change of direction to the flow of wind, I called for the tapestry of the Talon soldier who risked himself to shield me from the Scourge.
Jade said his Talon nom de guerre was Savage.
The man sparked a mysterious curiosity. Mute. Violent. He covered his flesh with black ink and sneered his disdain for the world, but something in his ebony stare told me there was far more to the man than an antisocial Talon Enforcer.
And who could refute the charms of a good sneer?
Zora ranted on. “Those immortal nuisances are not family. Realm-bound are bugs. Do I care what the gnats in the garden think of us? They are beneath your interests. A collection of nothings who almost got you killed.”
I laughed. Puzzled when no tapestry came forth, I upped the demand on the wind and re-sent the call. “No one dies from broken ribs. Stop fussing. I’m perfectly well.”
“Wrong,” Zinnia said, swiping her fingers through the image of her seeing bowl. “People do die from broken ribs—punctured lungs, torn aorta, et cetera.”
I gave up on Savage’s tapestry, determined to resume my search when I could concentrate. “And yet, not one person who succumbed to those injuries were an immortal Fate of the Fae Pantheon.”
Zora swiped through the surface of the image in her bowl and offered a sympathetic glance. “Being Keeper of Lives, Zophia’s connection to those of the realm is deeper than our own. Let’s be thankful she wasn’t killed, and put that whole nasty Scourge business behind us.”
I smiled, grateful that at least one of my sisters had an ounce of understanding. Zora didn’t speak up much, but when she did, her input was well-thought-out.
“Right you are,” Zana said, strutting to the butler’s cart and pouring herself a glass of sparkling punch. “Why waste breath on the weak, irrational, and unworthy. They are savages, the lot of them.”
I chuckled. “Ironically, it was a warrior named Savage who risked his life to keep me safe. We mustn’t judge the realm by the actions of a few malicious people. Remember, the person spearheading the violence of the realm is one of us, not them. Abaddon is Rheagan’s right hand. In a way, our Pantheon is at fault, not the members of the Realm of the Fair.”
Zana frowned, something dark flitting across the perfection of her face. “Be mindful not to entangle yourself too tightly with them, sister. A hair’s breadth separates interacting and interfering. Then where would you be?”
With Zana’s words of caution still nagging me, I left my sisters to their gossip and sought the company of the only person who wanted nothing but my unguarded love.
“Mother? Are you here?” I eased open the moss-laden door and
peeked inside her woodland cottage. The place smelled of lavender, comfrey, and a dozen other herbs and essential oils. No light or candles lit the space, save for the few enterprising rays that outsmarted the ivy taking over the stone of the house.
I picked up a sprig of lemongrass and headed down the limestone walk toward the garden. “Dandy, where is she?”
The peach cockatoo perched on the gate rail raised his salmon crest and bobbed his head. “Mistress is and yet she ain’t. Mistress can and yet she cain’t.”
“Uh, huh. You need a new line, Dandy.”
“Dandy is a dandy,” he squawked, and ruffled his feathers.
“Yes, you are at that.” I stroked the parrot’s head and left him to his bobble-heading.
The meandering path to the riverbank ebbed with life. Lush foliage on both sides of the walkway grew more dense and wild until barely enough space remained to walk two abreast. My mother wandered these grounds endlessly and was out here somewhere. Castian warded this entire wildlife sanctuary to keep her, and her animal creatures, safely contained.
“Mother? Helloooo, where are you?”
A sing-songy whoooop sounded in the tree behind me, and I braced for impact. Leaves rustled, and Hoola thudded onto my back, wrapping her long hands under my chin. I rubbed the leathery pads of her fingers and tilted my head to greet her. “Hello, Hoola girl, where’s Mom?”
Reaching around, I removed the hoolock gibbon from the back of my neck and shifted her to my hip. Rubbing a hand down her cinnamon and ivory fur, I gave her a gentle butt scratch and glanced around. My mother’s ape companion was never far from her side.
“So, what are the two of you up to today? Is it otters sliding at the riverbank or meerkats digging in the desert sands?”
Hoola squirmed, and I set on her back legs and took her hand in mine. She toddled along beside me, waving her free arm in the air as gibbons do. The moss and limestone paths throughout my mother’s sanctuary made travel easy enough but the sheer volume of the biosphere settings and natural habitats made the possibilities of her location pretty much endless.
My stomach growled. “Time for treats and tea, Hoola. Point the way.”
Hoola stared up at me and smiled a goofy smile, showing me her discolored teeth. Sadly, I hadn’t inherited my mother’s ability to speak with wildlife.
“Zozo?”
I turned toward the rainforest and stopped cold. “Mother, what are those?”
My mother held a basket writhing with tiny, sunshine yellow snakes while a much larger one coiled around her arm and across her shoulders. “Bothriechis schegelii,” she said, placing a hand on her hat as the breeze blew her hair into her face. “Look, babies. A healthy brood. Twenty.”
“Congratulations,” I said, now understanding why Hoola waited on her own. “Are you ready to say goodnight to your viper friends? I’ll walk you back and make you some warm milk and brownies if you like.”
Her face lit up, and she ducked back into the trees. When she returned, her empty basket swung carelessly at her side. With the snakes settled back in the forest, Hoola abandoned me like a hot rock and leaped into my mother’s arms.
“You look tired, Zozo. Did you miss your nap?”
I hooked my arm through hers and leaned my head on her shoulder. “I’ll catch up on my sleep tonight but tell me, what adventures did you and Hoola have today?”
We strolled together, retracing our steps to her stone cottage until an immense bumblebee buzzed up the path. The bee hovered and hummed by my mother’s face, and we stopped so they could chat.
“Yes, of course, dear.” My mother nodded and pointed off to the left. “I revived a lovely patch of purple Bougainvillea this morning. Come back at dawn, and they’ll be in full bloom.”
She stared after her friend and waved goodbye, then looked at me. Her eyes widened. “Zozo, you’re here. What a lovely surprise. Did I know you were coming?”
I gathered her elbow in mine once more and headed back to the cottage. “I came to bake with you before bed.”
“Can we make brownies and warm milk? That’s my favorite. Hoola’s too. Dandy prefers rice cakes.”
“Rice cakes over brownies, that’s ridiculous.”
Mother shrugged. “He is a strange one, that Dandy.”
I leaned my head against her shoulder once again and absorbed the warmth she had always offered. “That’s all right. Everyone has their own way of looking at the world.”
I rose the next morning, thankful my sisters preferred beauty rest and waited until the world readied to receive them in all their self-important glory. I laughed.
No world would ever be ready for them.
“Good morning, Zo.” Castian stood on the expansive back lawn of the Fae palace surrounded by his beloved deer. The herd nuzzled and shuffled to gain an advantage but Castian never left them wanting. Before he left to begin his day, they would each have their fill and then some. “What have you there, sweetheart?”
I held up the bouquet of purple bougainvillea, and the breeze picked up the succulence of their scent. “I spent the evening with my mother last night and picked these for Abbey. Is it all right if I go in and give them to her?”
Castian smiled the soft, private smile he reserved for a precious few. “She will love both the visit and the flowers, I’m sure. Thank you. And how is Shalana? I really must take some time to spend with her.”
“Good. Her animals are thriving and keep her busy. Her focus slipped a few times last night, but she seems content.”
Blessed to be among the inner circle of Castian’s affections, I never took for granted the lengths he’d gone to protect my mother’s reputation and her happiness.
He extended his palm to a submissive doe who had been pushed aside by the others. “Few things soothe a soul like those you love living well and thriving around you. Give her my love when you see her next, would you?”
“Of course.”
His ruminative tone gave me pause. “Uncle? Risking the possibility of upsetting you, may I ask how you think Abbey is doing? Lia told me of the giant hawk which led her through the forest to find Jade last month. Do you think that was a coincidence?”
Castian rubbed his empty hands together and shook his head. “Abbey is coming back to us. She feels safe in her animal form but as Jade spends more time with her, and with the birth of the twins grows closer, she’s fighting her way back from wherever her mind took refuge. I’m certain of it.”
The pain in Castian’s words made my chest ache for him as well. I prayed he was right. I left him with a quick wave and closed the distance to the palace.
Castian’s wing took up the east end of the palace. The marble steps, the grape vines, and porch all lay bathed in the warmth and glow of morning sunlight. I pushed back the glass wall of his private sitting room to welcome the day into his suite. Abbey remained peacefully still, washed by the warm velvet breeze.
“Good morning, Abbey. I brought you flowers from Mother’s sanctuary.” I rounded the dais, where she had lain in stasis for the better part of two decades, and fetched the vase from the hutch. “I was speaking with Castian about Jade and the twins just now. Did he tell you that your grandbabies are doing better? Since binding Jade’s powers, the pregnancy has settled, and the three of them are doing very well.”
Disposing of yesterday’s rose medley, I dumped the water in the ensuite sink and replaced it with fresh. “Did you hear Galan’s sister, Lia, mated Samuel. Love is a crazy thing, isn’t it? Galan is trying to be supportive, but it’s clear he’s losing his mind. It’s all tense and awkward between the four of them right now but I’m sure with a bit of time, and likely a few drag-out fistfights, everything will smooth out there too.”
I placed the vase back where I found it and dried my hands on my dress before picking up Abbey’s hand. “Can you smell the bouquet? It reminded me of the summer you were pregnant with Jade, and you snuck me down to the realm to go to the beach. Remember?”
I searched her fa
ce for any sign that Castian was right and she was making her way back to us. Part of me would always believe, but another part of me hated to see Castian build up his hopes. As God of gods, he had few vulnerabilities. The depth of his love for Abbey was his biggest. His guilt over what the Scourge did to her nearly destroyed him.
They deserved better.
I squeezed her hand. “Come on, Aunt Abbey, you want to be here when Jade gives birth, right? Castian needs you. He puts up a good front but misses you every minute of every day. Find your way home to us. I promise you’re strong enough to survive this.”
After folding her hands over her stomach, I left her to herself and returned to the Hall of Destiny. My sisters’ stations, the three seeing bowls of past, present, and future lay unattended. I slid into Zinnia’s seat and stroked a finger through the waters of the present.
Show me my Haven family, I thought.
The physical manifestation of my powers fluttered my hair in its breeze as the image on the water’s surface formed.
I checked on Jade and Galan at home in her manse, Lia and Samuel recuperating at the Silver Citadel, Bruin and his human mate Mika at the Dens, and then expanded to the other members of Jade’s extended family. Lexi, crazy in love with her Fae doctor, Rowan, and thrilled with their budding new family with Elani and Coal. The four of them thrived in Attalos, which was healing after the damage Rheagan had caused. Then there was Julian, their genius brother, the man in charge of Haven security. He seemed anything but content.
But they were safe and well for the moment.
I dipped my finger. With a gentle ripple, I tugged the images this way and then back, until I found Savage. He sparred with another dark-haired, Talon soldier with eyeliner and piercings. With long, black staffs, they fought one on one, while six young men, wearing Academy uniforms, watched on.
Where Savage was built with brute strength and covered in tattoos, the other male was athletic and trim, his brow, lip, and ears adorned with nickel piercings. As their sparring shifted from offense to defense, the muscles on their backs and chests tightened and released, glistening beneath the glow of the sun’s rays. The one with the piercings was beautiful to watch in action. Confident. A little cocky.
