Fate Dark Side of Betrayer

 You are lying, I spat, my voice quivering with incredulity. "That is not true."

"I wish I were," Elara said, her tone austere. But Arden, you really must hear this. Ignoring the truth will wipe you before the Circle ever gets a chance.

Her words tore at my mind as my chest contracted. Pieces of a life I believed I had buried started to reappear, jagged and unfinished, like fragments of a broken mirror stored away.

Stopped, I replied, shaking my head. "I not want to hear it."

She added with great conviction, "You have no choice." "Your mark relates to the past. Ignoring it will never help you to break free.

Between us the fire blazed, creating flickering shadows on the cave wall we had sought cover from. Outside, the storm raged, thunder pounding like the rage rising within me. Sitting close by, Caius had a stiff stance and looked at Elara and me alternately.

He had not spoken much since the ambush earlier, but I could sense his weight, consistent and grounding even among the turmoil inside me.

"You are trying to say what? I demanded, my voice growing louder. "That everything I mark, the Circle, everything comes from something I did? \\"

Elara responded gently, "No." "It's due in part of something you are."

Her comments struck me like a blow, and I sensed the brittle walls I had erected around my memories starting to break. My voice barely above a whisper, "That doesn't make sense," I muttered. "I asked for nothing like this."

None of us did, Elara said. But Fate has no say regarding our preferences. It just pays attention to our intended nature.

The silence that followed was stifling, and I could feel Caius staring at me weighing me. At last he spoke, his voice low and deliberate. Arden, what are you not telling us?''

I stammered, the question penetrating more deeply than I would have cared to acknowledge. With a cracked voice, "I don't know," I answered. "I'm not sure.".

"You're lying," Caius remarked, his tone more pointed now. "You are concealing something."

"Don't," I said, my fury blazing. Caius, you are not free to challenge me. Not after everything.

Then quit escaping from the truth, he shot back, eyes flashing. "You are already catching up with whatever you fear."

Our conflict was a live thing, intense and stifling. Though deep down I knew he wasn't, I wanted to yell at him, tell him he was mistaken. I convinced myself they didn't exist; I had buried bits of my past so profoundly. But now, with the mark burning on my wrist and the Circle closing in, those bits were emerging, demanding to be faced.

I murmured, pushing past them and then outdoors, "I need air." Although the rain was cool against my skin, it had no effect to calm the fire roaring within of me.

I stood there letting the storm pass over me, when in years I hadn't heard a voice whisper in my head.

Arden, you are unable to avoid me. You cannot.

The memories struck me like a gut-grab attack. As a little child, I saw myself in a room full of darkness, my father's voice echoing far away. He was debating with someone—a dark-clad person whose comments were loaded with aggression.

Desperate in voice, my father said, "She's not ready." "You are not allowed to take her."

"She doesn't belong to you," the man said icily. She is a member of Fate.

The vision changed and I saw myself older standing in the same room, the mark on my wrist just barely visible. The shrouded man took place of my father; his words was a whisper in my ear.

"Your decisions will help to define the planet, Arden," they said. But the expense will be considerable.

Breath coming in short, terrified gasps, I staggered back into the cave. On his feet right away, Caius steadied me with hands on my shoulders.

"What transpired? His voice cool but firm as he asked.

My head whirling, I battled to find the words. "I started to remember something." About my father. In relation... Fate:

Elara moved closer, her face inscrutable. "What did you see?''

I hesitated, the weight of the recollection down on me. "Someone took me," I whispered at last. "When I was a small child. They declared I belonged to Fate. That my decisions would help to shape the planet.

Elara's eyes grew wide and I saw, for the first time, something like dread on her face. "You are not only a nexus," she added softly. You are a cornerstone.

"What does that entail? "With a harsh tone, Caius asked.

"It means she's more than a conduit for Fate's threads," Elara stated. "She provides the basis. The person holding everything together.

Her comments made me shiver down my spine and caused the weight of the truth to drop over me. The mark on my wrist was a responsibility, one I hadn't asked for and hadn't wanted—not just a curse. But if what Elara stated was accurate, then the Circle's intentions included me more highly than I had ever known.

And that made me more lethal than I could have ever dreamed.

Footfall echoed from the opening of the cave before I could register Elara's disclosure. As a figure emerged into the firelight, Caius pulled his dagger and Elara's hand reached her sword.

Thorne, his face austere, was it. "We have company here," he added. They are not here to bargain either.