Looming war threatens everything Fate holds dear
Fate’s reunion with Finn has given her the courage she needs to confront the dark forces poised to claim the immense power stored within the Keep. But a deadly game of deceit is playing out behind the scenes, birthing what may be an even greater threat. As war bears down on Fate and those she loves, her only hope is to break her blood oath as Keep Guardian in order to lure the final battle to unexpected realms, where surprising allies are gathering forces.
To get there, Fate must fight. She will fight for her childhood friend, whose formidable warrior skills are under the control of an ancient evil. She will fight for her father and dear friends, each of whom are prepared to die for her. And she will fight for the future she dreams of having with Finn.
Will Fate succeed in keeping her world from shattering, or is she headed for sheer destruction?
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Chapter 6 – Fate’s War
We’re Talking Zombie Apocalypse
Fate materialized inside the library. “Finn!” Her scream echoed throughout the expanse. Her knees buckled and she hit the floor, sobbing into her gloves.
Arms folded around her and she heard her father’s comforting voice.
She lifted her head to look at Eustace. Tears blurred his face. She blinked them away, swallowing the painful lump in her throat. When she tried to speak, the air stayed trapped in her lungs.
“Breathe,” Eustace told her. “Just breathe.”
Fate took two shaky breaths.
“That’s good.” Eustace removed her helmet. Her hair spilled down over her shoulders. He was quick to smooth back the stray hairs clinging to her forehead.
“Wh-what am I doing here? I was aiming for the sanctuary.” Fate glanced from side to side, startled when Sithias landed next to her.
“Misss?” Sithias weaved his head low, his amber eyes round with concern. “Did something happen?”
The tap of Gerdie’s shoes sounded over the polished marble as she ran over as fast as her little legs could carry her. She slid to a stop. “What happened?”
Fate’s eyes watered up again, making the three of them swim behind her tears. “I left him. I just left him there.”
“Finn?” Eustace asked.
Squeezing her eyes shut, Fate nodded.
Eustace stiffened and he fell quiet for a few seconds. “Was it Kaliena?”
Fate shook her head. “It was Jessie.”
Her father’s complexion paled.
“She was completely covered in this weird, crazy armor.” Her words came in gulps. “It looked like the metal had grown around her. Like it was part of her. I only recognized her by the one eye that wasn’t covered.”
“I take it she was still under Kaliena’s control then.”
“Oh yeah, Jessie’s part of the Borg.” She choked back more tears. “We’ve lost her, Dad. Jessie’s gone.”
Eustace stood and helped Fate to her feet. “Let’s go to the sanctuary. Farouk and Brune need to be briefed.”
Fate couldn’t move. “I can’t.” She teetered, and Eustace steadied her. “It’s all too much,” she cried. “This isn’t how it was supposed to be. I can’t go on anymore. Not without Finn. I don’t have it in me to keep fighting.”
Eustace cupped his hands on each side of her face. “You’re stronger than you think.”
Fate clung to his every word.
“You’ve proven that, time and again. Since we’ve been here, I’ve been amazed by your bravery and determination. I know I’ve gotten in the way of that by being overly protective, but that’s what fathers do and I’ll never apologize for that.” He let out a heavy sigh. “But I can see my job is done. You don’t need me, or anyone else, for that matter. Not even Finn. You have the strength to carry on and do what needs to be done, regardless of what comes.”
The strength in Fate’s legs returned despite the incredible ache in her chest. She stepped into a hug and held her father tight.
Now she knew why she’d teleported to the library. She may have intended to go to the sanctuary, but her heart had taken her to where she knew her father would be. She could always count on Eustace–her strong pillar of strength–to ground and renew her.
Eustace winced and groaned. “Doodles, you’re squeezing a little too tight.”
Fate released him from her cybernetic grip. “Sorry, I always forget how much stronger the armor makes me. You okay?”
Eustace forced a smile, but it was pained. “Just a bruised rib or two.” He turned and walked stiffly toward the exit.
Fate, Sithias and Gerdie followed. The walk to the sanctuary was a silent one, each of them deep in thought beneath the pall of unspoken grief over losing Finn.
When they pushed through the heavy door, Fate went dizzy with shock.
Finn was standing at the big table with Farouk and Brune. He’d removed his armor and the shoulders of his t-shirt were bloodstained. The second he saw her, he rushed over and scooped her up in his arms.
“I went mad with worry when you didn’t show up here in the sanctuary.” He buried his face against her neck. “Where were you?”
“I teleported to the library by mistake.”
He set her down and Fate stared at him, intent on burning every detail of his face into her mind. He was here. He was really here. She wasn’t imagining him. Then she touched his shoulders, seeing that Farouk had already used the rescue potion on his stab wounds. The cuts were completely healed. Relief and joy flooded through her like a drug.
“Now that we have that messbacle rectisolved, we have much work to do,” Farouk interjected, his voice blaring through the transmodulator attached to his cage.
Fate glared at him. “Ow, turn that down before you make us all deaf.”
Farouk reached for the dial on the device with a self-satisfied smile. “I had to get your noticement somehow.”
Finn held Fate’s hand and led her to the table. “I filled them in on everything.”
Eustace rubbed his side with a pained expression. “What exactly is everything? We know about Jessie, but it sounds like there’s more.”
Sithias flitted in next to Eustace, while Gerdie took her usual place on the footstool. “Yesss, please enlighten us. My scales are quivering, which is never a good sign. We’re in even greater danger, aren’t we?”
“Aye, Kaliena’s been mining the core for her elixir.” Finn looked at Eustace. “You were right on all counts. She has the Golandon scientist making huge amounts so she can revive the fleets of armies in the ship graveyard outside the Keep.”
“And I think she’s already tested the elixir on the bodies in the lower cells,” Fate added.
“The scientist didn’t actually say that,” Finn pointed out.
Fate shook her head. “He said the corpses are relatively intact. He didn’t say the corpses should be relatively intact.”
“Aye, you have a point there.”
“Let’s just hope they haven’t used the elixir on all fifty thousand of them.”
“Fifty thousand?” Eustace exclaimed.
“That’s not including the two hundred thousand or more corpses in the ship graveyard they plan to reanimate,” Fate said. “We’re talking zombie apocalypse here.”
“Stop calling them zombies,” Brune scolded. “Having been one of the undead and decaying at an alarming rate, it’s offensive. Nobody asks to be traumatized to that degree. I certainly didn’t.”
Fate stared at her in surprise. “Sorry, I had no idea your feelings were so delicate.”
But she wasn’t sorry. Brune’s reliance on the Orb of Aeternitis to keep her at the age of nineteen for seventy-five long years was bound to backfire on her, given that she used it without the Rod. Though she couldn’t condemn Brune completely for using the Orb to solve every problem that came along. After all, if she hadn’t used the Orb to summon Fate to be the next guardian with the Eyes of Eros spell, Finn never would’ve come into existence.
She gave Finn a sidelong glance and smiled. Would she ever get used to the fact she’d spent years imagining the perfect boy, writing about him in minute detail, creating an entire world and story around him that was only real to her? Yet here he was, in the flesh, thanks to a spell that had inadvertently combined her deepest desire with the creative forces of the Orb.
Finn caught her smile and his eyes lit a bright green. She leaned against him, though her armor got in the way. With an impatient huff, she unbuckled the arm bracers and slid them off. The gloves, breastplate and leg bracers came off in short order. Having stripped down to her tank top and leather trousers, she discreetly rubbed her arm against his, reveling in the warm touch of his skin.
“Kaliena’s building an army we’ll never win against!” Sithias’s wings twitched nervously. A large feather fluttered to the floor.
“Who’s Kaliena?” Gerdie asked, wide-eyed and without a clue.
Sithias eased his head next to hers. “I’ll tell you all about her when we get back to the library.”
Gerdie smiled and nodded. “Okay. I like her name. It’s pretty.”
Farouk pressed his snout through the bars. “We’ll all expirate against these kind of numbers, unless…” When his gaze slid to Brune and they locked eyes, Fate caught a disturbing red glint in his pupils.
Brune was quick to counter. “We have a billion different options. For starters, we could alter all the maintenance robots and drones into killing machines. There’s at least a hundred thousand of them running on autopilot. And there’s a ton of decommissioned robots in salvage we could repair.”
Farouk appeared unimpressed. “Unachieveless. It would take years to retroquip each robot with weapons and artillery.”
Brune refused to accept his argument and her voice rose to a shout. “Don’t tell me that! I know you could program a smaller number of robots to retrofit the others. I’m sure they could get it done within days.”
“Unlikely and highly riskilous.” Farouk eased back in his chair with an air of confidence that was unsettling. “Have you forgotten Kaliena can taintfluence machinery and take control? If we do that, we might as well constructify an army for her.”
Fate sensed a shift between Brune and Farouk. They might still be sharing a secret, but they were definitely having a battle of wills.
“Then we raid the vaults for magical objects powerful enough to destroy Kaliena,” Brune pressed.
Fate jumped on the idea. “I agree. There’s got to be something out there in the Keep that’ll crush Kaliena and her zombie army.”
Taking offense at the ‘z’ word, Brune frowned at Fate, but at least she didn’t disagree like she usually did.
Eustace cleared his throat as he removed his glasses and cleaned them with his handkerchief. “I’ve been researching everything available in the library, attempting to narrow in on Kaliena’s greatest weakness, while also cross checking the vault records.” He set them back on the bridge of his nose. “So far I haven’t found anything that will effectively stop her, especially now that she possesses the Orb.”
“The only reason Kaliena has the Orb is because someone refused to lock it up.” Brune shot Gerdie an accusatory glance.
Gerdie’s expression remained innocent. She’d obviously forgotten she’d stubbornly held onto the Orb, which had given Wodrid the opportunity to kidnap her and steal it for Kaliena.
“Which reminds me.” Brune’s gaze shifted to Fate. “It’s time the Rod comes off your neck and goes in lock up.”
Fate frowned and grabbed at the chain. “That depends on where you plan on putting it and who holds onto the key.”
Farouk stood and held out his furry hand. “I’ll governate the details of that.”
“No way,” Fate argued. “Not until I see where, and the security you have in place.”
“The Rod’s locationality is best kept secretential. If you’re seizurated by Kaliena, you can’t tell her what you don’t know.”
Fate ran her finger over the warm metal of the Rod. There was a time when she’d been under Brune’s spell, an overpowering directive, which had forced her to get the Rod at any cost. The spell had also placed a mania upon her to keep the Rod for herself. Fortunately, the spell’s effects had faded, but Fate had grown accustomed to being its owner.
And there was an even more important reason she wanted to hold onto the Rod. Gerdie had once told her that when Brune was in the height of her obsession with the Orb, she’d experimented with bringing dead animals back to life. Only they were never right afterwards. They were moving carcasses. Brune had even played with the weather until she wreaked havoc, and she’d made plants grow from seed to full size in an instant. The fruit had been ripe and beautiful, but rotten on the inside.
Fate glanced at Finn. He was a creation of the Orb without the benefit of having the Rod to do it properly. She tried not to think of it too much, but there was always a worry at the back of her mind, like a sliver she couldn’t remove, that something might go wrong with Finn at any given point. She prayed the day never came, but if it did, she would move heaven and earth to get the Orb back from Kaliena and use the Rod to unlock its full power to restore him.
Fate stared down Farouk. “I’m Keep Guardian and I’ll decide who holds onto the Rod. Until you can show me a place I agree is safe enough, it stays with me.”
Farouk’s mouth stretched back in a silent snarl.
“Look who thinks she’s the big boss,” Brune said.
Finn reached for Fate’s hand and gave it an encouraging squeeze. She fixed her gaze on Brune. “I am the boss, so get used to it.”
Brune’s smug expression vanished, a sight that filled Fate with a surprising amount of satisfaction. She had allowed Brune to bully her and make her feel inadequate for the job of Keep Guardian for far too long. It was time she took hold of the reigns completely.
Part of that involved taking care of that upgrade she’d been planning.
“Our first order of business is to get the scientist out of Kaliena’s clutches, though she’ll have moved him by now,” Fate continued. “We have to find him and stop all further production of the elixir. Secondly, we need to locate where Kaliena’s storing the elixir they’ve already made. If she’s planning on raising over two hundred thousand soldiers, her supply will be astronomically huge, and most likely, difficult to hide. So I say we find it and destroy it.”
Everyone around the table nodded, their eyes trained on Fate, alert and at attention. Even Brune. Eustace looked proud and pleased. Gerdie appeared lost.
“That means teleporters for everyone,” Fate told Farouk. “Including Darcy and Mason. With diagnostics cut off from the majority of the Keep, we need all hands on deck for this. It’ll be strictly recon missions. In and out. Nothing more. Once we’ve located the scientist and elixir stores, Finn, Brune and I will take care of retrieval and blowing the supply to kingdom come.” She paused to look at each one of them. “Got it?”
Everyone was agreeable, except for Gerdie. “What’s all this about a scientist and elixir?”
Fate called her father over. “Dad, could you take Gerdie to medical and see if there’s anything that can be done to flush the forgetting spell out of her system?”
“Agreed, I’ll see what can be done. We need her sharp.” Eustace took Gerdie’s hand and led her from the sanctuary.
“Finn, can you please roust Darcy and Mason from the love nest and bring them up to date? We need to get on this, stat.”
“Aye, will do.” He leaned close and whispered in her ear. “I’m proud of you, love. Leadership looks good on you.”
Fate’s face flushed with warmth as she watched him leave.
She glanced back at Farouk and Brune to ensure they were engaged with gathering supplies to build additional teleporters. Instead, she found them in another hushed conversation. Curiosity burned hot, but it wasn’t like she could casually walk over and try to listen in.
She crooked her finger at Sithias, who slithered over. “I’ll be needing the exact location and description of Freya’s vault,” she whispered. “I’m going to get what I need while we’re out doing reconnaissance.”
Sithias hesitated. “Misss, are you sure you really want to do this?”
“Stop asking me that. I’m not enough for what we’re up against. I have to be every bit as powerful as Kaliena to win this.”
Sithias shook his head sadly.
“What?”
His amber eyes welled with tears. “I fear you’ll be changed into something I don’t know, and I would miss you terribly.”
This concludes Chapter 6 of Fate’s War.
Stay tuned for the next sneak peek and let me know if you enjoyed this latest chapter by leaving a comment below.
