3. THREE
THREE
THE GATE ORDER
T he three of them stepped toward me. I didn’t think, I just moved.
I flung my portfolio at them, a useless weapon but the only one I had, and bolted.
But I wasn’t fast enough. Almost immediately, powerful arms locked around me, gripping me tightly.
As I sucked in air to scream, Cillian grabbed me and clamped his hand over my mouth.
I wished I had taken a karate class or kickboxing, something that would help me fight them off.
There was none of that. Art and ballet. Why did I get made to do shitty ballet?
That wasn't going to help me now. It was never going to help me.
Nevertheless, I twisted, kicked, and tried to break free, but they were so strong, too strong for little old me.
Cillian threw his damp jacket over my head. I struggled furiously but felt myself lifted into their arms. The jacket muffled my screams. I felt panic as I struggled to breathe. The more I resisted, the tighter they held me .
"There's nowhere to run, Tilly," Torin whispered tauntingly against my ear.
"You belong to us now."
They began to run. I was blinded and almost deafened by the jacket over my head. My hearing was reduced to the muffled gravel crunching and the torturous sounds of my own breathing.
I had no idea where they were taking me or why. I felt every jolt jostling my body, and each one sent my panic levels a little higher. I felt like I couldn't breathe properly, and I struggled to get a grip on myself.
Panicking wouldn't help me now.
My heartbeat erratically, spurred by panic. I wriggled and writhed but my efforts only prompted them to grip me until I was completely immobilised.
I had to think. But I couldn't. How could I think straight when I was being abducted? How could I apply any sort of logic to a situation so far removed from anything I would have thought possible before today?
My mind refused to focus on escape. All I could think about was the darkness in Fionn's eyes as he kissed my hand. What did these men want with me? God, I didn't want to die, I wanted to live.
The muffled, grave sound of the road transformed into the cushioned sound of open land and finally, the crunching of leaves and branches as they fled deep into the forest.
***
"Did you hear that?" Fionn whispered to the others .
They came to a complete halt and stood so motionless I couldn't even hear them breathe. A subtle shift in the air raised the hairs on my neck. I made no attempt to struggle.
I was lowered to the ground, and the jacket was removed from my head. The first person I saw was Torin. Before I could react, Torin placed his fingers on my lips and shook his head ever so slightly. A silent command. His head tilted, just slightly, like he was daring me to disobey.
Cillian and Fionn had already begun scanning the area. As I watched their every move. I noticed something that freaked me out, their pupils were blown wide, swallowing the colour of their eyes. I became even more alarmed when they sniffed the air like wild animals on the hunt.
Cillian took a few silent steps forward, scanning the shadows between the trees. Once again, I noticed the eerie silence.
The rising sun gradually broke through the thundering clouds and banished the morning chill. Even so, I felt an unpleasant cold seep into my flesh. I wanted to run. I desperately wanted to be anywhere but here with three men who truly frightened me.
Fionn retreated, aligning himself close to his brothers. I felt eyes on me and noticed the intent way Cillian watched me.
My stomach twisted. I could feel his scrutiny, analysing, assessing, as if deciding what I was worth.
"They're here," Fionn murmured.
Cillian’s head snapped toward him, his mouth a sharp line of irritation. “Are you sure?”
Fionn didn’t answer, but his gaze flicked to me for a fraction of a second, just long enough to make my pulse spike.
Torin, however smirked, his earlier intensity slipping into something more playful, more taunting.
“Looks like you’re out of luck, Tilly.”
Who? Who was here? I hoped someone might yet come to my aid. I was more than a little irritated at myself, that I had managed to lose my phone, my only means of communication, through my carelessness.
Donte was expecting me to meet him at nine, but it would be a while before he became concerned enough about my tardiness to become worried.
The faintest rustling preceded flashes of movement in the shadows of the trees.
At first, I thought it was my imagination, but as the brothers closed around me in a tight circle, fear gripped me as eight tall, sturdily built men materialised from the shadows, but none resembled the handsome brothers forming a protective circle around me.
Bedraggled and weather-beaten, dressed in clothes more befitting the Victorian era, they carried swords and daggers from what could have been the Inquisition.
Cryptic tattoos of astrological symbols mapped their hands and bullish necks.
They moved silently, their unblinking feline eyes eerily glowing.
I pinched my arm, hard to snap myself back into reality, but not even my fertile imagination could have conjured such a terrifying situation. The strangers approached, their stony gazes fixed on each of the brothers.
"Let the girl go," the leader commanded in a discordant voice. It sounded fractured, like it wasn’t meant to exist in this world. His eyes narrowed on the brothers.
"You flaunt the boundaries that the Gate Order has upheld since the first days You have no respect."
The Gate, what? Oh hell… that didn’t sound good. This was bad. Really, really bad.
Feeling encouraged by the man's words, I shifted, testing the tension of Torin’s grip.
The moment I moved Torin clamped my hand to the point of pain.
I flinched and looked pleadingly at the leader, but he looked past me, his attention focused only on the brothers.
I felt overwhelmed by a sense of unreality.
Who were these people? Worse, what had I stumbled upon ?
Fionn straightened and boldly faced the surrounding men with an expression of cold rage.
"You know that's not possible, Horous. His voice was low, lethal. The girl belongs to us."
Cillian pulled me against him. I felt his body's heat and smelled musk and leather. Torin flanked my other side and placed his hand on my shoulder. The heat from his hand seemed to brand my flesh. I felt burning, like I had stood too long in the sun.
I was trapped, surrounded by these maniacs.
Fionn turned toward me. Of all the brothers, he disturbed me the most.
"You belong to us, Tilly," he said, "so banish any ideas of escaping from your mind. If you think the Gatemen are going to help you, think again. They'll kill you because of who you are. These men won't stop until you're dead."
It took a moment for me to process his words.
"What—what are you talking about?" I stammered.
"Who do they think I am?"
Tears stung my eyes. The men were beyond dangerous, beyond human. They were something I couldn't even begin to imagine.
I forced myself to focus. Panic was a trap. If I let it take hold, I’d be useless when the moment came to run.
"You must have me confused with someone else," I said.
Fionn merely looked at me and turned away.
Horous gestured to the others. Silently, they pointed their weapons toward us and approached in unison.
Fionn's eyes darkened with each step they took toward us.
"If you don't free the girl," Horous growled, "we'll have no choice but to free her."
Fionn stepped in front of me while Cillian and Torin pressed me between them.
"You’re hard of hearing," Fionn said with a sneer. "I've made it quite clear to you that the girl is ours. Now, I suggest you and your ruffians be on your way, or I guarantee you'll suffer the consequences."
"The girl isn't your property," Horous said. "She must know your intentions before she's charmed by the snake."
Before Horous had finished speaking, he moved like a blur in Fionn's direction, his weapon poised. I backed away at the sight of a fearsome blade resembling a scythe bearing down on Fionn.
"You've stolen far too much innocence because of your false beliefs! And for those sins, you and your kin must pay!"
I looked for a path. In the trees, there had to be a way out.
Horous turned suddenly, his unblinking eyes boring into me. I felt the chill of something unspeakable brush my soul.
"Never trust these men, for they're not what they seem!"
His voice was familiar, yet I knew this couldn't be possible unless I'd seen him in a nightmare.
"The Cohert of the Gate Orderr will not suffer another decade of Vareth’s wrath. We end this—now."
Fionn lunged at Horous with such speed that I heard the man groan beneath the painful cracking of bone. The weapon flew from his hands. He collapsed to the ground, clutching his misshapen arm. Fionn kicked him in the head, knocking him unconscious. The others stopped and warily watched Fionn.
Fionn pulled the knife from the unconscious man's arm, causing his blood to squirt everywhere. It wasn't only madness I saw on his face as he stood upright. He was proud of his conquest. His polished riding boots were now covered in blood, and his coat fluttered in the wind.
"Who's next?"
A bearish man bearing a crescent scar on his cheek stared venomously at Fionn and charged.
Torin flew like a ferocious animal toward him and grabbed him by the throat.
He lifted the man as easily as if he were a feather and squeezed the man's throat so tightly that his eyes popped.
He kicked violently, dislodging a battered boot, and clawed viciously at Torin's hands to no avail.
Only when he gasped for air and his face turned scarlet did Torin hurl him against a tree.
The man struck the trunk and collapsed, motionless, to the ground.
Torin picked up the boot and tossed it toward the man.
"You really should invest in a fresh pair of boots," he said, calmly approaching the nearest man.
The man, tanned so dark he appeared almost black, glared at Torin beneath a tangled mass of coarse locks. He looked unhappily at his beaten comrades.
"You and your brothers are vultures preying on the innocent! You should be punished for your heinous crimes."
Torin’s smirk sharpened.
“The stars have chosen, the hunt has begun.” his voice dropped. “We will not allow a shambling cohort like yours to fulfil this prophecy.”
Uttering a feral cry, he lunged forward, hefting a jagged blade.
The remaining five men charged behind him with weapons raised.
Chaos erupted as the brothers tackled them with daunting speed and agility.
What had been three handsome brothers transformed before my eyes into savage creatures, viciously attacking with inhuman speed.
A soft breeze stirred the air, its touch cool and almost comforting as it brushed against my skin.
It carried a faint rustling that caught my attention, pulling my gaze toward an opening in the trees.
For a brief, surreal moment, I felt as though the forest itself was showing me the way. Guiding me toward an escape.
This was my chance. Stunned, I stumbled away from the carnage of blood and broken bodies. Rising above the fear freezing my movements and the rational thought, a tiny voice in my skull snapped
Run. Run now .
I had to act fast if I wanted to escape. Afraid of discovery, I moved slowly at first, then more quickly when I realised that no one had noticed my flight.
I exploded into a run, my legs carrying me like a sprinter through the woods, moving on pure survival.
Branches scratched my shins, whipping across my arms like claws, and more than once I almost twisted my ankle. Ignoring the pain, I forged ahead, sliding and falling in the mud. I didn’t stop, I couldn’t stop.
Gulping air, my lungs on fire, I kept my eyes ahead of fear that even a glance over my shoulder would draw attention to me.
Sunlight dappled the ground and, above, I glimpsed welcoming patches of blue sky through the lattice of branches.
I didn't recognise where I was, which concerned me.
Though I had often taken walks in the forest to draw and paint, I kept to the perimeter and never strayed too far from either the road or the village.
I continued to run, trees engulfing me in muffled silence. Then a sound. Faint, distant, but unmistakable. The low hum of engines, the sound of tyres.
I followed the sound, I wasn’t lost I could make it.
My heart skipped a beat when I glimpsed the road beckoning through the trees.
My legs pumped harder, my breath erupting in harsh gasps.
I felt certain I'd faint from exertion, but I was only a few dozen metres from freedom.
There would be more cars on the road, and I could flag one down to stop and help me.
I thought of Donte, no doubt wondering where I was by now. He would eventually try to call me, but his messages would simply go to my voicemail. I tried to stem tears as I envisioned his face.
Help me, Donte! I thought, willing him to sense my distress. What would happen when I didn't arrive in the village today? My mother would be hysterical, fearing the worst for me; and my stepdad unreachable on his flight...
I forced myself forward. A few more metres. The air felt alive .
You can make it.
Even the earth beneath my feet felt different, firmer, more solid, as though it were pushing me towards freedom.
I was a single breath away from the road, from safety.
I screamed when a hand reached out from nowhere and abruptly grabbed my arm. I almost tripped and I stumbled in mid-air before powerful arms encircled my waist and pulled me roughly to the ground. I struggled like a wild beast, kicking and clawing while I heard cars passing only a few metres away.
"No, let me go!" I screamed, coming face to face with Cillian. "I want to go home!"
He pinned my arms to the ground and straddled my waist. His ash-blonde hair fell across his brow, tousled in a way that looked unintentional yet somehow perfect. His eyes met mine. They werecaramelat firstglance, warmand familiar until thegreensurfaced.
He watched me with a stillness that made my breath catch, but he showed no other signs of exertion.
Exhausted, panting, and fully aware of the sensation of his body on top of mine, I finally relented. Cillian relaxed his grip only slightly. His face softened as he looked at me, his lips turning up in the faintest, pleasant smile.
"You're human. You'll never be quick enough to escape us. How many times do we need to remind you thatyou belong to theElysiumOrderr now.”
First the Gate Orderr, now the Elysium Orderr, what even is this?
“I don’t belong to anyone,” I choked out, my voice shaking.