Chapter 45 Fate
FATE
ASH
The bright teleportation light hadn’t fully faded when the tortured wails of lost souls already reached me—high-pitched keening I recognized from watching souls vanish into Kalthea’s slipstream.
Zeke gawked at the massive iron gates separating us from whatever lay within the fog beyond. “What is this place?”
“Cholian, Young Master,” Roandra said, voice clipped. “Our stop will be brief before moving on to Elyrdin.”
We’d never visited Cholian before.
After our oath to the council, Ezra’s father suppressed the magic required to enter.
The council’s spiritual advisor warned that without sufficient warding during visits, our soul signatures made us desirable vessels for possession by lost souls wandering the purgatory.
Only Cornaith, authorized advisors, and seated elders could access the barren lands. Everyone else required authorization and escort. Even now, Roandra carried wards to protect us while we visited.
Outside of trials, I’d known no one to come here.
Ezra turned from the gates to face Roandra. “Why are we here? Where is my father?”
“Your father has ordered the human to remain here under guard until her trial.”
“What?” Zeke spun around. “How does he know she can survive this place?”
Cyn moved in, steadying him before the anxiety took over.
Ezra cut Roandra off when she opened her mouth to speak. “I want to see where you’re keeping her.”
“I’m sorry, Young Master, but that is impossible. You may not enter.”
I stared up at the gates stretching high into the thick cloud above, wondering what became of souls who refused death.
All my knowledge of Cholian came from books, not personal experience.
Mist seeped through the gates, swirling around my legs, and sliding across the cracked flagstone beneath my feet like a living entity.
It curled and weaved between us, then slipped back into the thick walls of rolling fog, triggering another chorus of wails.
I wondered if the mist and souls were linked.
I knew many lost souls sought a way back into the living world. What better way to return than through the possession of a living host?
Cyn turned his attention to Roandra. “Where is she?”
None of us needed to ask who “she” was.
Even in his resentment, I knew Cyn worried about her like the rest of us.
I still wasn’t over what he’d done in the kitchen. If Ezra hadn’t forced my submission, I’d have hurt my brother when he stole Rae’s necklace.
Even if she was the criminal the council claimed, I couldn’t watch her break and do nothing. I saw the heartbreak in her eyes and felt it like my own.
Maybe everything was a cruel illusion, but that didn’t make it less real. It lived in my chest. It hurt. I couldn’t turn from the connection my heart had already chosen.
That’s what made the betrayal cut so deep.
I’d chosen her.
I thought she chose me.
How wrong I was.
“Come,” Roandra said, turning and stepping into the fog bank. “But I warn you now, she will say and do anything to save herself. The illusion still weighs heavy on you all.”
Zeke glanced around as the fog parted and we moved into another area. “How do you know that?”
“You question where she is. You worry about her safety.”
“That’s what a decent person does,” I said through gritted teeth, eyeing the dark vines and dead leaves that crunched beneath my feet. Where were the trees? I couldn’t see anything beyond a few feet around us.
Roandra sighed. “Perhaps you are right, Prince Cyriac, but you’ve never questioned the welfare of other traitors to the council.”
She had a point.
We weren’t unfeeling; we just didn’t think about them after trial. Those criminals weren’t human—they could survive in our world. Would I have worried as much if they were human? I wanted to say yes. I couldn’t.
Still, criminals were criminals. Even if Rae manipulated us, I didn’t see it as a crime against Elyrdin the way the council did.
A low growl stole my focus from Roandra.
Cyn clenched and unclenched his fists at his side as we followed the flagstone path. If he kept grinding his teeth, they’d turn to dust.
“Calm down,” Ezra said.
“I can’t,” he said, voice on the edge of feral. “She made a fool of me—of us!”
Zeke turned around, forcing Cyn to stop to avoid running into him. “Hey,” he whispered. Cyn’s amber eyes met his. “It’s over. Whatever it was… it’s over. We’re going home.”
Cyn’s shoulders loosened, and his hands relaxed at his sides.
Zeke told him what he needed to move forward, but Cyn still struggled with Rae’s supposed manipulation.
He wasn’t the only one.
Even if magic made us believe in a Nyrith bond, I held on to the moments we shared. The ones that felt untouched by anything but choice. Sharing meals. Laughing. Letting our guards down and talking about movies. Her love for her grandmother. I believed those moments were real.
I needed them to be. I knew Zeke did, too.
Roandra pursed her lips.
I sensed she wasn’t happy about Cyn’s response to Zeke. She never liked Zeke’s ability to tame Cyn. I’d warned Ezra about her fixation on Cyn, but he dismissed it. I suspected it was tied more to how she infantilized Zeke more than the other council members.
“Why won’t you let me talk to them?”
I spun around at the sound of Rae’s pained voice.
“Let’s go,” Ezra said, taking the lead, much to Roandra’s displeasure.
We rounded a stone corner draped in naked vines. I staggered to a stop, making Zeke slam into my back.
Rae knelt in a large iron cage before Ranthus, chains locking her arms behind her. Her eyes burned with unfiltered fury. I’d never seen her like that. For a moment, I wondered if this was the first time I’d truly seen her.
She didn’t have the Zhyfri crystal anymore. Was the illusion fading? The thought made my skin crawl. I hated questioning my mind. Hated not knowing if the woman I cared for had ever existed.
“Let me see,” Zeke said, pushing around me.
Rae looked up when she heard us. “I didn’t—” Her eyes widened, tendons in her neck standing out.
Ranthus suppressed her voice.
“Let her speak,” I barked, stomping to where he loomed over Rae.
The short bastard would put her in a position to feel small when she stood several inches taller than him.
“Young Master, she spouts nothing but lies. I will not permit her to warp your minds any further.”
I grabbed the front of his robe and hauled him into my space, growling more than speaking, inches from his face. “Let. Her. Speak.”
Ranthus cleared his throat, and a cramp seized my hand, forcing me to release him. He staggered back, straightening his robe.
“How dare you harm an heir,” Ezra said, approaching us.
“Your status holds no weight in this situation, Young Master.” Ranthus eyed Ezra. “Your father has authorized me to subdue anyone who would prevent the capture and detention of the human—you four included.”
Zeke tried to step forward, but Cyn held onto his arm. “Did she try to speak in the kitchen?”
Ranthus peered down at Rae, disgust simmering in his crimson eyes.
“He asked you a question,” Cyn hissed through clenched teeth. I’d never seen him so out of control.
“Yes, Young Master, she did.” Ranthus turned to glare at Cyn and Zeke.
Cyn’s eyes widened before he looked away with a grimace.
She hadn’t been silent because of guilt. She couldn’t speak.
Zeke’s voice broke when he said, “Rae.”
Rae’s eyes welled with tears when he looked at her.
“As I said, I won’t permit her to warp your minds. You aren’t acting like Elyrdin’s exalted heirs and it’s all her doing.” Ranthus turned to Roandra. “Why bring them here? This only aggravates their condition. We protect the heirs; we don’t harm them.”
Roandra approached Rae’s cage. “Yes, Brother, you’re right.” She peered down at Rae; her face twisted in revulsion. “However, her hold on them is powerful, and I worried what would happen if they didn’t see her before trial.”
Cyn scoffed. “I knew something was wrong with her from the start.”
Zeke looked back and forth between Rae and Cyn, confusion marring his brow.
Rae’s neck strained as she shook her head from side to side, hair falling over her face.
“Rinlora has already gone to see the council about your return,” Ranthus said, stepping away from the cage. “Come. I’m sure they are eager to see you home again.”
Zeke didn’t move when Cyn and Ezra turned to leave. “What’s going to happen to Rae?”
He sounded helpless, but today’s events had shaken my reality to the core. I could barely muster the strength for myself, let alone him.
“She is to be executed in four days’ time.”
Ezra and Cyn both froze, turning slowly toward Ranthus. Their unmasked rage mirrored my own.
“What? Why?” Zeke looked from me to the guys and back to Ranthus. “You said a trial!”
Rae thrashed in the cage, straining against her bindings, but I knew her efforts were futile. Her chains were magical.
“Enough of that.” Roandra held a hand over the cage. Rae collapsed, all signs of life gone. “Now she can sleep until we’re gone.”
“The trial is a luxury for our people. Humans should not be afforded such rights, but the council begs to differ. Your father”—Ranthus looked at Ezra—“believes that if word were to spread that this human didn’t receive the same justice, when her kind keeps our city stable, it would reflect poorly on the monarchy. ”
“So you’ve already made your decision?” Cyn’s scowl deepened. “When you came to Earth, did you already know she was going to be put to death?”
“Shouldn’t you be happy, Young Master?” Roandra crossed to Cyn, gazing up at him. “You don’t seem too fond of the human.”
Cyn didn’t respond.
I suspected he regretted what happened in the kitchen but struggled to accept anything connected to Rae as real. Considering what he went through years ago, his reaction didn’t surprise me. He hated illusion magic.
Ezra crossed to the cage, and I joined him, staring down at Rae sleeping.
Her brow knotted in sleep, discomfort clear. I wondered whether the atmosphere hurt her.
“I want her chains removed,” Ezra said. “Now.”
Ranthus shook his head. “That isn’t wise, Young Master.”
“I said, now.” Ezra didn’t take his eyes off Rae as Ranthus dissolved the chains. “Can she survive until her ‘trial’ in this place?”
“She hasn’t shown any adverse reactions to the environment, so we believe she’ll be fine,” Ranthus said. “But we can’t say for certain.”
I doubted he even cared. He acted on his duty to protect the council at all costs. He didn’t know Rae the way we did—if we ever knew her at all.
Ezra turned to Ranthus. “If her fate is decided, why are we to wait four days?”
“We need adequate time to assemble the production crew and stage the trial. The people of Elyrdin shall bear witness to her execution.”
I squatted in front of the cage and reached through the bars, tracing my fingertips over Rae’s cheek. The soft sound she made at my touch, and the way her brows relaxed, threatened to undo me. I stood, turning away.
I couldn’t do this.
What right did I have to interfere with Ezra’s father? He’d given me a home when I had nowhere else to go.