“There’s no need to panic. We’re not here to hurt you.”
“Then what’s with the muscle?”
“They’re here as...backup,” he says simply, but something about this still seems off.
He glances back at Guy One, and they stare each other down for a moment before Nick sighs. He turns toward me then, taking another step forward, and I can feel my power sliding against my skin. It really isn’t happy about this situation.
“You need to know that something is coming. Something powerful and practically unstoppable,” he says softly, so low only I can hear him.
He takes another step, now standing less than a foot away. He tugs on his tie with his left hand before his right comes up to lie across my marks. At the contact, a memory stirs, throwing me back one hundred years.
Distraught, I look up at the bright lights of the house. The circular drive is overflowing with cars, and I follow the sounds, around the side of the property and to the backyard where an orchestra is playing. Obviously, they’re having some sort of party; people are milling about, laughing and dancing. I scan the crowd, looking for Liv through the tears streaming down my face, but Nicholas intercepts me.
“Fate, you’re here,” he says, but his eyes don’t quite meet mine.
We’re not exactly friends, and the fact that he sought me out and is talking to me right now is enough to throw me off for a second, but then the sight in the cave comes flooding back in and the tears start to flow harder.
“I need to see Liv.”
He looks around cautiously, tugging on his tie before his hand wraps around my upper arm, guiding me off to the side, away from the people who are starting to notice my presence.
“I’ll get her for you. Why don’t you go wait out back, in your picnic spot, and I’ll send her to find you.”
“Thanks, Nick.”
I skirt the bright lights of the patio, sticking to the shadows to avoid drawing more attention to myself. In my current state, I don’t need anyone looking too closely. As soon as I get to our spot, I see the rectangular hole that’s been dug into the ground. Confused, I stare at it, thinking maybe Liv decided she was finally going to plant that garden out here like she had always talked about.
I’m looking into the hole, trying to figure out what I’m seeing in the dark, when the first blow comes from behind. Before I can recover, merciless strikes begin to rain down on me. I feel each blow, each stab of pain as a knife repeatedly pierces my skin. I’m shoved to the ground, and for a split second, I think it might actually be over, but no. It was a mere pause, the strikes beginning again with renewed force. With each kick to my ribs, each strike to my head, each stomp of someone’s boot, my mind reels and my body aches.
I can barely breathe, let alone scream, as another kick to my face breaks my jaw. The pain is excruciating, but I’m alive. I have to fight. For myself. For my guys. But then I remember why I’m here in the first place, and a different type of pain, this one more immense than any of the physical damage they’re inflicting, hits me with all of the force of the heavens. I stop trying to fight. Stop trying to futilely block their hits. There is nothing here left to fight for.
It goes on for what feels like hours but is probably mere minutes. Hands wrap around my ankles and drag me across the cool grass, where I’m callously dumped into the hole in the ground. The hole that was not meant for a garden, but for a grave. They don’t bother to kill me first. They want me to suffer. I land on my back, facing the twinkling stars in the night sky as I make a half-assed attempt to save myself, to get to the ether, but my power is nowhere to be found. My arms and legs are at odd angles, each breath a struggle, and every bone in my body feels like it’s been cracked in two, but at this point, the pain barely even registers as my body long ago began to shut down.
This is it, I realize. My eyes fall closed, and I let the tears that are falling dampen the dirt beneath my head as they roll down my cheeks. It isn’t like I could wipe them away if I wanted to anyways. I’m ready to face the inevitable.
I am going to die.
I could attempt to get to the ether again, but why? There is nothing left for me here any longer. My time has come. More tears spill down the sides of my face, thoughts of my guys playing through my mind despite the hurt raging through my heart. The happier times. The way I want to remember them. Their smiles. Their support. Their love.
The sound of feminine laughter floating on the night’s breeze has me struggling to open my eyes that are nearly swollen shut. The last thing I see before the dirt starts falling down on me is Nicholas standing over the hole in the ground, peering down into my grave with sorrow-filled resignation on his face. The dirt begins to fall, covering my body, my face, filling my lungs. I say one final I love you to the men who broke my heart before the world goes black.
I’m jolted back to the present as Nick roughly jerks my arm to get my attention. “Fate? Are you listening?”
I look at him and can’t seem to reconcile the man I knew with what happened that night. Something still doesn’t make sense, especially now that I know the entire thing was an elaborate setup. He said so himself. What would he have to gain from my death? My brain begins to put the pieces together, registering the lack of surprise on his face when I showed up at the house. Those murky feelings he’s been giving off. He was a part of it all.
“It was you,” I whisper, unable to say the words any louder.
His eyes go wide.
Reggie steps up beside me. “Fate? What do you mean?”
I ignore her, staring at the man that was at least partially responsible for my death even if he didn’t land a single blow. “You set me up that night. You somehow knew I’d come, and you led me right into their hands.”
“I’m sorry, Fate. I truly am. It was never personal. I…” He looks off to the side, tugging on that damn tie with his free hand, hesitating. “I loved her. Or at least I thought I did. Now I know better, but it’s too late. The damage is done, and I can’t stop it.”
He looks back at me then. Sadness and guilt shining in his opaque eyes that I know are usually a deep brown.
My bicep under his hand starts to tingle then burn slightly. I try to rip my arm away from him, but his grip is too damn tight.
“I truly am sorry, Fate.”
“Nick, let go of my arm.”
“Do me a favor,” he rasps.
Reggie fumes, “I don’t fucking think so!”
“Find Liv and make sure she’s taken care of, okay?”
“Let go of my arm, Nick. Now!” I let my power free, just enough for him to understand I won’t be manhandled and maybe give him a taste of what’s coming.
He jerks his hand away, shaking off the shock from my power, but keeps talking. Faster now, like he knows he’s running out of time, his words just low enough that only I can hear him. “Look, I’ll do what I can, but most of the time I have very little control. Whatever you do, don’t let her get the book.”
“Don’t let who get the book? Nick, you’ve gotta give me more information than that. You’re not making any sense.”
I watch as he struggles to speak, Guy One and Guy Two stepping closer, but Reggie mirrors their movement, distracting them and giving us a few precious seconds. His whispered words are so low now, the music almost drowns them out. “You don’t understand. I can’t tell you. It’s part of the spell she’s got me under. For the first time in over a century, I’ve started to gain a little bit of clarity, but it comes and goes. Just know this. Don’t. Trust. Anyone.”