The Fates of Yoran (The Chain Breaker Book 3)

by D. K. Holmberg

  “Gaspar still cares about Desarra,” Wrenlow said.

  “He does, but he’s too foolish to do anything about it.”

  “I don’t know. I think him following her is a start.”

  “If he wants to do something about it, he should go after her,” Gavin said.

  Wrenlow cocked a brow at him. “The same way that you did?”

  Gavin grunted. “I’m not so sure that there can be anything between Jessica and me long-term. She enjoys my company, and I enjoy hers, but I—”

  “I’m not talking about Jessica.”

  Gavin grunted again. “I’m not so sure anything can happen there either.”

  “Why not?”

  “She’s El’aras.”

  “You say that as if it has some grand meaning to me,” Wrenlow said. “As if you have no right to the same title.”

  “I’m not sure what to make of it.”

  “You could find out.”

  “Not without leaving the city,” Gavin said.

  “You still have her marker, don’t you?” Wrenlow asked.

  An older man jostled past him, and Gavin instinctively tensed. The man continued on, chatting with the others walking with him, all of them too loud—and intoxicated.

  “I still have it,” Gavin said.

  “Then you could use it.”

  Gavin chuckled, pulling the marker out of his pocket and squeezing it briefly. “She already answered me once. I don’t need to force her to come again.”

  “I’m fairly certain she isn’t going to feel any irritation with you calling out to her. Come on, Gavin. She stayed in the city while you were recuperating.”

  “Maybe after I finish the job.”

  “The job?”

  Gavin patted his pocket. “The one that started this whole thing. I’ll meet you back at the dragon.”

  Wrenlow took off, skipping along the street. He passed Gaspar, clapping him on the back, and hurried up to Olivia. The two of them started murmuring, and they disappeared around a distant corner.

  Gavin pulled the necklace out of his pocket and hurried through the city toward the old woman’s home, passing several patrols of constables—each time with an enchanter with them. Things really had changed in the city.

  With crowds gathering in the market near the old woman’s home, there was more activity, stores with doors open to the street, and minstrels playing on several intersections. Yoran had come alive.

  Or maybe he had.

  He was still tired, but this needed to be done.

  Gavin reached the woman’s door and knocked.

  The old woman pulled the door open, and her eyes widened. “You. I heard what you did.”

  “What was that?”

  “Killed the Captain.”

  Gavin grunted. “Then you heard wrong. And maybe you don’t want this.” He held out the necklace, and her eyes widened even more.

  She reached for it, taking it slowly and delicately. “I can’t believe you found it.” She looked over to him. “It’s worth every bit of the gold I promised you. Let me get it—”

  “No,” Gavin said.

  “I can’t pay more. Not that it’s not worth it, but the gold is all I have.”

  He made sure to get paid on his jobs, but something about this didn’t feel quite right. Maybe he had changed more than he’d realized. Then again, he hadn’t actually been the one to find the necklace. “I’ll get what I’m owed from the other enchantments the Captain had stolen.”

  She stared at him for a moment. “I don’t have much, so I won’t refuse the offer, but if you’re ever in need of supplies, might I suggest Eserra’s general store. I know the owner and can help with whatever gear you might need. Just ask for Holva.” She sniffed. “That’s me, by the way.”

  He smiled. “I’ll take you up on that.”

  Gavin started to step back when Holva hurried toward him and hugged him.

  “Thank you for this. I thought I’d never have those memories back. Now…”

  She swallowed and stepped back into the home, clutching the necklace as she closed the door. Gavin stood in place a moment.

  Could he make a home in Yoran?

  As he started back toward the Dragon, he reached for the El’aras marker and squeezed it.

  The coin started vibrating in his hand.

  That was unexpected.

  Gavin held the El’aras marker. Anna had given it to him for a reason. Perhaps he needed to keep that fact in mind. And now she was using it. Or she was using him.

  He followed the vibration within the marker, noting how it increased in frequency. Unsurprisingly, it guided him to the forest outside of the city, where he found her waiting in the shade of some of the towering trees.

  She looked lovely. Her golden hair caught streams of sunlight, and the deep green jacket and pants she had on hugged her figure and made her blend into the forest.

  “I wasn’t sure if you would recognize the call,” Anna said, stepping toward him.

  He took a deep breath. She smelled of lilacs, along with a pleasant aroma that reminded him of the forest. There was something to it that struck him as similar to a home he barely remembered. “I wasn’t sure that you were calling to me,” Gavin said.

  “I went back to check on you. You were gone.”

  “You didn’t have to stay.”

  “You returned the egg. I did have to stay,” she said.

  Something went unsaid. Gavin wasn’t entirely sure what it was and wondered if he would ever learn. Maybe not from her directly. She had been hiding. That was the reason she had been in Yoran before, and now she was preparing.

  But preparing for what?

  The warm wind whispered along his cheeks, giving him a faint flush, though some of that might’ve come from his proximity to Anna. “If it was yours, then I was only giving it back.”

  “Not mine, but the people’s.”

  “Still.”

  They fell silent for a moment.

  “I don’t know what to make of what happened,” Gavin said.

  Gavin looked up at her. Since coming around and since learning Anna had disappeared, he had feared he wouldn’t have answers. Having her stand across from him now, with the opportunity to ask those questions, left him uncertain how to proceed.

  “Why didn’t you tell me about Tristan?” he asked.

  “I told you that he still lived,” Anna said.

  “Yes, but you didn’t tell me that he was El’aras.”

  She watched him. “To be of the people, you must accept your place.”

  “And he has not accepted his place?”

  “He has not.”

  “But he’s not full El’aras, isn’t he?”

  That mattered somehow. Gavin didn’t completely understand the intricacies between someone who was full El’aras and someone who was not, but he recognized that there was something to it. Somehow, it mattered that Tristan—and, for that matter, probably Gavin—was not fully El’aras.

  “I’m not certain,” Anna said.

  “How can you not be certain?”

  She smiled. “It’s not so easy to know.”

  There was more to it, Gavin was certain, but he didn’t push. “What happened?”

  “That is something he will have to tell you himself. Unfortunately, I do not know the details.”

  “But something happened.”

  “Something happened,” she agreed.

  “Did he steal the jade egg from the El’aras?”

  Her mouth tightened slightly.

  Gavin grunted. “He did. Then how can he be as old as you say?”

  “You must have learned that our kind lives for a long time. Even you, Gavin Lorren.”

  He should have known that he was not what he had believed his entire life. He had always healed quickly. When he was younger, he thought it good luck more than anything else. As he had grown older, he had believed that it was simply his training. Now it made a different sense. It wasn’t only good luck—it w
as tied to some part of him that he didn’t fully understand. One that he needed to better understand.

  “Are you saying that I’m not as youthful as I look?” Gavin asked.

  “You know that you are not,” Anna said.

  He chuckled. “All this time, I’ve been used by him.”

  “Did you think it would be otherwise?”

  After escaping from his training and thinking that Tristan was gone and dead, Gavin had believed that he made his own choices. Perhaps he had, to a certain extent, but there was also some part of it that left him thinking that perhaps he had not. Maybe he had truly been used all this time.

  “I think he’s still planning something,” Gavin said.

  Gavin couldn’t move past the idea that it had been nothing more than a test. Whatever Tristan had been after had been a way to push him, but push him how?

  He wanted the Fates gone, though Gavin didn’t quite know why.

  He would have to do something more, and somehow, he would have to do it from within Yoran while keeping the city safe from the Fates.

  “Most likely,” Anna replied.

  “I might have to stop him.”

  “You might,” she agreed.

  “What about you?”

  “I called you to offer you my help.”

  Gavin smiled. “You already offered me your help.”

  “A different kind. One that you weren’t ready for when I was here before, but I suspect you are now.”

  He knew what she was asking, and had she offered it even a week ago, it would have been difficult to refuse given everything that he’d learned about himself. He wanted to understand the power he could use.

  Now Yoran needed him.

  And he wanted to help.

  “I can’t.”

  “I haven’t told you what my help entails,” she said.

  “You want me to go with you. To learn from the El’aras.”

  Anna said nothing, but the slight flicker of her pale blue eyes suggested that he was right.

  “But I can’t,” Gavin said. “The Fates are going to return. They’re gone for now, but I have offered the city my protection. I need to remain to ensure that the people in the city are ready for their possible return.”

  “You could serve them better by understanding what you could be.”

  “If I leave, the Fates will know. The city will be in danger.”

  Anna smiled sadly. “Then perhaps another time.” She leaned forward, kissing him lightly on the cheek again. Heat rose within him, along with a surge of longing. In that moment, Gavin wanted nothing more than to go with her, to follow her. Did it stem from some El’aras power she possessed, or was it truly his attraction toward her?

  “I fear that whatever started in Yoran is not over. I fear that we will meet again,” she said.

  “If I call…”

  “I will answer.”

  Anna watched him for a long moment, then spun and slipped into the trees. She disappeared quickly, and he watched until she was gone. He felt her presence within the forest long after she left. He stood there for a length of time, waiting, watching, wishing that he could go with her but knowing that he could not.

  This was his city now. He had to help it. He had to offer whatever protection he could.

  And he was going to train and be ready. The next time he faced Tristan, it would not be a test. The next time he faced Tristan, Gavin was determined to defeat him, to destroy him if needed. He was not going to be used any longer.

  Pick up the next book in The Chain Breaker series: The Stone Wolf.

  A new magic threatens to destroy Gavin—or change him forever.

  Gavin has secured the city, preventing the deadly Fates from bringing their terrible sorcery back to Yoran, but Tristan remains at large. Their fight had been a test, and Gavin knows he can’t fail the next one.

  When a strange attack pushes him to reveal the depths of his magic, Gavin knows Tristan has returned to finish what he started. This time, he’s working with a power greater than any sorcerer—and something Gavin has never faced.

  A friend’s abduction forces Gavin to take action he never would have considered in order to save them and stop Tristan. He must use all his connections in the city, but even that might not be enough to save them—or stop a plan that’s been in play for years.

  The Chain Breaker will not be enough.

  He must find a way to become something more than he’d ever trained to be.

  Author’s Note

  Dear Reader,

  Thank you so much for reading The Fates of Yoran. I hope you enjoyed it. If you would be so kind as to take a moment to leave a review on Amazon or elsewhere, I would be very grateful.

  I’m also always happy to hear from readers! Email me at dkh@dkholmberg.com. I try to respond to each message. Don’t forget to follow me on Facebook as well!

  Review link HERE.

  All my best,

  D.K. Holmberg

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  Series by D.K. Holmberg

  The Dragonwalkers Series

  The Dragonwalker

  The Dragon Misfits

  Elemental Warrior Series:

  Elemental Academy

  The Elemental Warrior

  The Cloud Warrior Saga

  The Endless War

  The Dark Ability Series

  The Shadow Accords

  The Collector Chronicles

  The Dark Ability

  The Sighted Assassin

  The Elder Stones Saga

  The Lost Prophecy Series

  The Teralin Sword

  The Lost Prophecy

  The Volatar Saga Series

  The Volatar Saga

  The Book of Maladies Series

  The Book of Maladies

  The Lost Garden Series

  The Lost Garden