Twisted Fate (5, Rhyn Eternal)

by Ford, Lizzy

  Tamer turned on his older brother, and Stephanie watched the worst case scenario unfold before her eyes. Kris tried to attack Wynn next, only for Rhyn to yank him away, and the two of them smashed to the ground, wrestling.

  “No, no, no!” she whispered, stricken. Tears sprang up in her eyes.

  Kiki was glaring at Wynn, who was watching calmly, once more sipping his whisky.

  “Come here, stupid half-breed.” Trayern gripped her arm.

  “Leave me alone!” She tried to pull free.

  He yanked her against him and all but dragged her away from the melee, to the corner near the door.

  She wasn’t able to look away from her fighting brothers. Wynn left the hearth, ignored by everyone, even Kiki, whose focus had turned to Tamer. She almost saw something within him snap, and the animosity she’d witnessed between the two, which Kiki had been suppressing, emerged.

  He launched at Tamer, knife in hand.

  Tears of frustration streamed down Stephanie’s cheeks. She recalled Fate’s warning with no small amount of urgency. Wynn hadn’t just pulled apart their tentative coalition; he’d demolished it without lifting a finger.

  Helpless to stop them or figure out what to do, she could only watch.

  “Trayern, I suggest you confine her to her room,” Wynn said, pausing beside them. “My sons have an appointment with a one-eyed man.”

  She froze, recalling the man from the vision of Fate being tortured. “No!” she cried, starting towards him. “You can’t!”

  The demon yanked her back, and she watched Wynn open the door and summon the guards. They rushed in, and Trayern pulled her out of the room. She began to fight him. He was tougher than those she’d met in the alley, strong enough to overpower her, without any concern about hurting her in the process. He slung her over his shoulder and trotted through the fortress to her room, slamming the door open.

  With little ceremony, he threw her onto her back on the couch. “Do not fucking move, half-breed!” he snarled. “My duty is to protect you, and if I must break your legs to do it, I will!”

  She stared at him. “Protect me?”

  “My master ordered it as part of the deals he made with your mate. But I am so fucking close to fucking you up. Do not test me!”

  “Back off, demon.” Mithra was on his feet, cane pointed at the infuriated demon.

  Stephanie blocked out their short argument and began to cry out of impotent fury.

  Part of her hoped Wynn never let his sons out of the catacombs, or the civil war Fate warned about would begin. The other part of her couldn’t live with knowing they were going to suffer horribly at his hands, and by extension, so would Katie and Hazel and anyone else who made the mistake of loving one of her brothers.

  Wynn was always one step ahead, and the only person who could outsmart him, the only person she could ask for help, was stuck in Hell, along with her soul.

  What the fuck do I do?

  Chapter Twenty Six

  “Guess who’s next?”

  Fate bit back a groan. Panting from his previous tormentor, he was in no shape to face a new one so soon. Darkyn had done away with his breaks upon his return from a night with his mate.

  But he forced himself to his feet, no matter how rattled and wobbly he was from the last round of pain. He rubbed his eyes to clear them from blood and sweat, then peered out at the woman standing in front of his cell without recognizing her.

  “You’ll have to forgive me, but I don’t recall what I did to you,” he said with mild amusement.

  “You stole my daughter,” she replied and folded her arms across her chest.

  “You’ll have to be more specific. I’ve stolen many daughters.” And then it clicked. Fate registered the shimmer around the unfamiliar face too late.

  The goddess glared at him, her look similar to those Stephanie gave him on occasion. “Yet another reason why our families have never gotten along,” she said icily.

  “It’s a pleasure to meet my mother-in-law,” he said, wanting to laugh but knowing how wrong the timing was.

  “You have no idea what it was like seeing your name on her back.”

  Fate stretched back. The worst part of his cell wasn’t the round of auto-torture between his vindictive visitors. It was how it healed him after every horrific event, so only the mental scars remained. Darkyn liked his subjects to be fully healthy when he tore them apart again. The mind-fuck was working. He was starting to dread the thought of eternity stuck here.

  “You’re here to punish me?” he guessed. “I think there’s already a queue. You may have to wait a few months.”

  “It’d give me a great deal of pleasure to watch you suffer.” Her eyes flashed from human blue to black.

  “Ah. There you are,” he said with some satisfaction. “There’s the goddess my father helped strip of her power to create unparalleled disorder.”

  “He promised me an eternity of being only half-whole. You don’t know what that means.”

  “My father was a brutal man, but he had a reason for his actions. If he hurt you, it was to prevent you from hurting others,” Fate said, studying her. “And you’re wrong. I do know what it means. It means you live in pain, because half of what you are is gone. I’m sorry for that.”

  “My love for my daughters is the only thing capable of filling that void. To know the son of the man who sentenced me to living hell now claims my daughter …” She shook her head. “If I had warned her, she’d never be able to love you.”

  “We aren’t to that point yet, if that helps.”

  Chaos began to glow darkly. Her magic was absorbed whisked away by Hell’s magic, but her eyes were solid black.

  “She loves me?” Fate asked, more surprised by this than the appearance of Chaos at his cell. The night with her had been beyond incredible, but he considered their circumstances far too fucked up to risk there being more. Or perhaps, he was hoping there wasn’t more, because he was stuck in Hell for the foreseeable future. He alone should suffer, because knowing Stephanie was hurting, and being helpless to do anything about it ...

  It was worse than anything Hell could throw at him.

  Chaos appeared ready to explode. Her features were flushed, and she was starting to hover inches off the ground rather than stand. At war with the powerful buffering magics of Hell, she’d be unable to unleash any of her remaining magic at him, but she was fighting it hard.

  With an angry goddess before him and Hell’s magic creeping in, Fate’s mind was completely elsewhere, on the mate he hadn’t wanted to exist. Some foreign emotion fluttered inside him. It was pleasant, warm, and ran him through like an internal hug, even if he didn’t quite know what to call it.

  He was also smiling absently, and just a little bit unnerved. It struck him he’d been holding back from letting himself fall completely for Stephanie. They were both fucked as it was, without the added emotion.

  “I came here to free you.” Chaos’ words pulled him back from the warmer thoughts in his mind.

  His eyebrows lifted. “Free me?”

  She had calmed. Her eyes were human blue again, her magic suppressed by Hell. “My daughter needs you. I know what Wynn is, and I don’t have the power or will to stop him if he hurts her again.”

  “I’m at a disadvantage,” he said. “I have no power.”

  “Your family is known for its political brilliance,” she said with reluctant admiration. “Stephanie is smart, but she doesn’t know what you do, and she’s too good to have the stomach for manipulation I know you do.”

  It wasn’t a compliment, he sensed, though she was right. “The Dark One is enjoying this too much to free me.”

  “I’ve taken care of Darkyn.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Care to clarify?”

  “Hostage exchange. I take your place.”

  Fate shifted closer to the doorway. “I can’t allow that.”

  “Stephanie needs you more than me right now.”

  “You misunderstand. I kn
ow what Darkyn would do with the opportunity to have Chaos in his debt. I don’t need to see the Future to know he would use you to further any number of his plans,” he said. “You put more at risk this way than by letting me stay here.”

  Chaos hesitated then shook her head. “I would do anything for my daughters. This makes sense. I can’t protect them, but you can.”

  “Rachel, please consider. You …” He stopped, instinct wriggling. A mother with her power wouldn’t hesitate to confront Wynn, unless …“Wynn threatened them, didn’t he?”

  She averted her gaze. “Not just them.”

  “Meaning …”

  “He has your sister, too.”

  Rare fury trickled through Fate despite his exhaustion. He didn’t have to be told to know how Karma ended up confronting Wynn. His sister didn’t think before she acted; with him in Hell, it was probably only a matter of time. Wynn had trapped Karma and manipulated Chaos into Hell. What kind of favor would the Dark One grant the Immortal for a chance to control Chaos?

  The second chain of events he’d feared was happening. Karma had crossed paths with Wynn, and soon, the Immortals would topple into civil war.

  “You still shouldn’t do this,” he managed to say. “You’ve been out of the game too long to understand the kind of pressure someone like Darkyn can put on you. Not to mention, Stephanie isn’t going to take this well.”

  “Then I suggest you figure something out fast,” Chaos said.

  “There’s so much more at risk here, Rachel.”

  “You don’t understand,” she said. This time, sorrow crossed her features. “I’d do anything for my daughters, even fuck up the world. But you … you killed your own father to alter the Future. You will do what I can’t, no matter what the sacrifice is. And you will protect her with the same tenacity.”

  Fate was quiet. Dread sank into him, along with fear.

  “I already made the deal,” she continued. “Stephanie’s life is in your hands and mine is in Darkyn’s.”

  A chill ran through him. “You may have set your expectations too high.”

  “I know the blood running through your veins. Perhaps the mating bond has added what your kind has always lacked – the ability to see beyond your duty and yourselves.”

  The observation was too accurate for him to counter. He recalled wondering what kind of tool Stephanie would make in his manipulations, soon after they met.

  At some point, he’d begun to consider her in a different light, one immune to what he normally was. Thinking back, he wasn’t able to pinpoint the exact moment when his mate had gone from a useful tool to someone he cared about. But the shift had happened, and he innately understood what it meant for Chaos to place her daughter completely under his protection.

  “How about that,” he murmured, impressed as much by the subtle change in him as the woman at his cell. “Fate and Chaos have a common goal.”

  “You’re free to leave,” she said and stepped back from his cell. “Just so we’re clear, if anything happens to my daughter, I will tear you apart, atom by atom.”

  “Nothing will happen to her,” he replied. He stepped out of the cell, expecting Darkyn to be there to send him right back into it.

  She peered into the cell with apprehension then sucked in a deep breath and entered the darkness.

  Fate lingered. Chaos was a natural rival to the orderly progression of the Future, but he pitied her, as much for what Darkyn would do to her as knowing she’d be severed from any information about her daughters. If humanity had one curse he wouldn’t miss, it was uncertainty.

  He hated knowing Stephanie, and now his sister, were in danger, and he wasn’t able to help them. Free, he’d be able to do more, to see more, to manipulate those he had to. He needed to be in the mortal world to stop the civil war that was coming.

  There was nothing left to say to Chaos, so he walked through the corridor to the demon waiting for him at the end of the hall. He was led to the portal room and permitted onto the dais. The entrance to the place-between-places yawned open.

  Someone was waiting for him. Fate crossed the cavern to Death, whose grim expression was the first indication of yet more trouble.

  “No less than three deities have paid for hits on you. Oh, and Wynn,” Gabriel said with wry humor.

  “It’s not entirely a surprise,” Fate said. “But I can’t talk now. I need to –”

  “You’re not listening. You can’t go back to the mortal world, not until I can recall the death dealers hired to kill you.” He held up his arm. “You’re on my list.”

  Fate registered the information in some disbelief. To have made the list meant he was officially as good as dead. “Take me off your list,” he replied.

  “I’m working on it. But you can’t go back until I get this fixed. I’ve already almost destroyed the universe once. I won’t let your death be what finishes the job.”

  Fate bit back his initial response. Gabriel was helping him, or trying to. He couldn’t know what was at stake, why Fate needed to return immediately.

  “Come on. I’ll keep you safe for a few days.” Gabriel stalked toward a gray door that appeared only for Death and his death dealers.

  Fate’s gaze lingered on the lemon colored portals. His instincts pulled him towards Stephanie, while his rationale acknowledged how useless he was to anyone if he was dead-dead. Even knowing what he needed to do, it was hard to turn away from the woman he yearned to protect from all the dangers of the worlds. The resolve he experienced for ensuring there was a Future, settled within him when he thought of his mate.

  I’m coming, Stephanie. Nothing will ever become between us again. I swear it on my soul, he promised in silence before turning to follow Gabriel into the Underworld.

  Rhyn Eternal

  Gabriel’s Hope

  Deidre’s Death

  Darkyn’s Mate

  The Underworld

  Twisted Fate

  (untitled) 2016

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  Chapter One: Alessandra

  No man or woman born, coward or brave, can shun his destiny.

  – Homer

  For once, Tyche, could you grant me a little luck?

  I slowed before reaching my favorite meadow in the forest, my heart racing and chest heaving. A grin stretched my cheeks, and I stopped to listen for the boy I’d challenged to a race. I heard … voices. Male and at least two females.

  “I guess not,” I muttered aloud.

  The damn nymphs had him. My giddy excitement faded. I was the one who managed to lure a teen boy from the nearby campground into our forest and, as usual, the nymphs stole him. I couldn’t compete with the beautiful women. There were thirty of them my age, all unusually perfect, feminine and graceful. Even my guardian said they weren’t normal, and we’d coined the term nymphs to describe the other girls at the isolated orphanage where I lived under the thumb of strict priests. The other gi
rls were all my age, too, each of them destined for positions befitting their beauty, according to the priests.

  It was disgusting. I couldn’t stand them.

  I was an athlete, uncomfortable in anything but tennis shoes and yoga pants, terrible in school and bearing a scar from childhood across one cheek. No matter how much makeup I plastered over it or how far forward I brushed my dark locks, I wasn’t able to hide it. I was always late to class, always the last to understand whatever torture the priests were teaching us, always trying to catch the first light of Aurora in the reflecting pool or scaling a hill to watch the last rays of Hersperides.

  The nymphs laughed at me. I hated them for it and me for not being able to fit in no matter what I did. I couldn’t change the fact I was shorter, smaller and otherwise imperfect compared to them.

  “Lose another one, Lyssa?”

  “Yeah.” I heard my guardian’s approach and looked up into his scarred, ugly face. A mountain of a man with bright red hair, Herakles had never once understood why I was so disappointed to lose every guy I looked at to the nymphs.

  “If a man can’t outrun you – ”

  “– I can’t bring him home with me. House rules. I know.” It was a stupid rule. Surely there had to be one man somewhere who shared my deer-like agility.

  My guardian chuckled.

  “He was so handsome!” I whined with a sigh, recalling the gorgeous brown eyes and smile of the teenage boy I’d met today. When he had looked at me, my insides turned fluttery and warm. “He almost outran me, too.”

  “Only because you slowed down.”

  I rolled my eyes and spun away, headed towards the compound in the middle of a forest where we all lived. “So what? Everyone here has kissed a boy and I can’t even look at one without the stupid nymphs taking him away. They just bat their eyes and the boys fall all over them.” I made a show of shaking my hips and blinking rapidly in mockery.