Of Secrets and Solace (The Children of Fate #1)

Prologue

THE BONDSMITH

M y boots crunched in the ice-crusted snow, sinking calf-deep with every step. Pausing, I sank lower into the ungodly drifts and hoisted a heavy pack further up my back. Frigid wind whipped at my already chapped lips and cheeks, reddening them further before pulling my hair free from its bun to swirl through the surrounding gusts.

The wind whispered of change.

Of the anger of gods.

Of the touch of Fate.

The gods were restless again, and it was only a matter of time before they came back to Elyria.

I’d hidden for centuries in the North, past the ice shelf, past the permafrost, deep in the frozen forest. I planned to die there.

But then my daughter was born, and I risked traveling across the ice shelf once to see her safe. My presence here would ultimately alert Solace and Kaos and fuel their jealousy—of my freedom and ability to entangle with the humans, their magical offspring.

They were, after all, my siblings. And the sibling rivalry was more than alive and well between us.

Even more so because we were gods, Children of Fate .

That same jealousy started the Godswar—or the Sundering, as humans called it—centuries ago, plunging Elyria into darkness. But when the Godswar ended and my siblings left, their souls brimming full of new powers that weren’t originally their own, I stayed.

I stayed to help the humans we doomed, to ensure their wreckage didn’t last for millennia.

It took generations, but the people slowly forgot about their original gods and the destruction of the Godswar, choosing to owe allegiance to just Solace and Kaos.

They even forgot me.

Something I gladly accepted—it helped conceal my presence and allowed me to carry out my mission here in Elyria.

My siblings thought I died in the Godswar, at least until I first crossed the ice shelf to hide my daughter.

Somehow, she wasn’t as safe as I thought. I watched a family for years, knew them personally, and found them kind. Yet they were not who I thought they were, and she was sold to a young Northern lord to be used as an experiment.

The anger I felt over her suffering, her terror, was unparalleled.

At the reminder of her pain, runes I’d etched on my skin so long ago, sang and burned with the promise of destruction and retribution.

But Fate called me home before I could give in to the feeling.

Our resulting conversation—bargain, really—would stick with me until the end of time.

“It’s not their time yet, daughter. I have use of them still ,” he said.

“They. Have. My. Daughter,” I ground out between my teeth. “Do you know what they are doing to her? To the other children they collect?”

Fate simply gave me a droll look that neither confirmed nor denied that he knew. Fate appeared differently to everyone. To me, Fate was a male, resplendent in his finery and lounging carelessly on a throne of bones. If this was his actual face, or just what he chose to show me, I didn’t know and didn’t quite care.

“I’m Fate, daughter, of course I know.” I opened my mouth to spit more vitriol at him, but he cut me off, “And, as I said, there is a plan for them. One you must heed.”

I closed my eyes, breathing deeply through my nose.

“But, I’ll make a bargain with you. ”

I cracked an eye open.

“A bargain,” I deadpanned.

He shrugged a shoulder with a half-smile.

“You haven’t made a bargain in . . .”

“Centuries,” he said, this time with a full smile on his stupid face.

He had me, and he knew it.

“Terms?” I spit.

“I’ll save her, your daughter, but you will owe me two favors.” He put two fingers up before lowering them as he continued to speak. “The first will be collected now, the second at a future time of my choosing.” He waved his ring-covered fingers about lazily, as if conducting something only he could see.

Which may actually be accurate, considering he wove the Strings of Fate and Time.

“Fine,” I said.

“Don’t you want to hear what I want of you, first?” He sat up in his chair, head cocked to the side.

“No. I don’t care what you ask of me. Just save her.” I was desperate and pleading. Fate could have asked for quite literally anything—my life, that of my siblings, the destruction of this world—and I would’ve given it to him.

“Interesting,” he hummed, seemingly lost in thought.

“What is it you require?” I asked, tired of his games and riddles. His answer was immediate.

Bastard planned this.

“You will leave the North and go into hiding somewhere in the Border Territories. Your daughter will eventually be delivered to your location, but she will not know you. You will not raise her and will be forced to watch her grow, love, suffer, all without the ability to tell her of her identity. This is imperative for what I have planned.” The color drained from my face. To watch her grow and not be able to hug her? Love her? It would be torture.

Tears sprung to my eyes.

“Is that all?” I asked thickly, and probably dumbly.

“No, that is the first part. The second part is that you will protect these with your very life.” He gestured, and three objects appeared, shimmering in the air and floating between us. The first was a thick but plain book, the second, a singular clear crystal, and the third, a dagger so black it seemed to suck the light from the room. Individually, they radiated their own unique power signatures, but together they felt cataclysmic.

I reached for the book, drawn to it, and my father smiled wickedly.

It felt like . . . me.

I pulled my hand back as if burned.

“Are these . . .?” I whispered, unable to complete my thought, and Fate simply grinned manically.

“Like I said, daughter, protect them with your life. There will be a need for them later. I’ll tell you what and when at some other point. For now, hide them. And hide them well.”

I shook as the objects floated toward me, and gulped as they came to rest in my hands, settling one on top of the other.

A bright light encased me as soon as the objects were secure in my grasp, and I opened my eyes to see the interior of my hut .

The artifacts felt less heady here, like their signatures were muted somehow. I quickly shoved them into a pack before dressing in my furs, cramming my feet into thick boots, and shouldering the pack. I said my goodbyes to the people I’d made my family in the North and started my trek south.

Something was coming, of that much I was certain.

If Fate was scheming and playing, then my siblings were as well.

The last Godswar eliminated not just my other siblings, but most of the people in Elyria as well.

I only hoped that this time, there’d be far fewer casualties.

In fact, I’d make sure of it.

I might not be able to raise my daughter, but ultimately, she would be safe and close, and there were always loopholes to Fate’s bargains. I just needed to find them. They were puzzles and, like my father, I loved puzzles. I’d find the loophole and protect Elyria from the machinations of the gods.

The artifacts in my pack vibrated in agreement with my thoughts.