Fate's Revenge (Twisted Fate, Book 4)

Chapter Twenty-Two

Everything was quiet and then deafening. I couldn't see and was too worried to look away from the black tendrils coming towards me to remember to breathe, never mind move. It was like pulling up a lawn chair for fireworks and getting sucked into a twister before sitting down.

Don't breathe it in.

Don't shine a light....

I couldn't remember the third warning Gabe had lectured to me about, but it didn't matter. I couldn't control my light, even now. Especially now. As the area around me grew bright with an expanding circle of light, the wind picked up to blow my hair into my face and block my vision. That included the black wisps that began to hiss. Why couldn't things have been normal? I should be experimenting with alcohol and drugs, not things that can kill me—again. Though, to be fair, if I was a lush, alcohol could be just as deadly even if it wasn't as intentional, and boys were always ruining girls' lives. Yeah... I wasn't an optimist, but right now, it had merit.

The wind gusted again and suddenly, I could see.

The ground was solid, lit by my glow to reveal a clear but obviously unused path. Black swirls surrounded me on all sides and, deciding to set my fear aside to avoid becoming an easy target, I began to walk. Hesitant at first, my pace became surer with every step, and I began to hum—anything to distract me from the danger I'd placed myself in.

But then... I hadn't been ejected into the nearest door yet. That's what was supposed to happen. You shine your light and you're booted out with no way home. It had sounded instantaneous, yet here I was. Still walking. The black breath of the Void stayed curled around the edges of light I was the center of.

Looking up and around, I watched how the tendrils of Darkness reacted. They kept pace with my steady stride, always keeping ahead but never leaving or moving in to attack. I kept the same rhythm for ten more steps and nothing changed. The absence of close proximity allowed the warmth of their cold to dissipate and the chill of my skin thawed. Still, I felt watched.

I started to run, not even taking a deeper breath so as not to warn the wisps dancing like smoke.

Forwards, backwards, and left to right. I ran with laughter, amazed with my results. Not only did it shy away, it soon began to run away. The squeal of their death pricked my ears with sharpness, the ash of their residue coating my skin and sticking to my eyes like sand until it hurt to blink, leaving bitterness on my tongue. I never thought Death could do something so good.

Who knew I could kill the Void?

Well, not all of it, of course—it was too massive for a single person to battle. Even for me. But pieces of it... I could compromise its abundance with light everyone said would be too dangerous to shine whilst trespassing within the Void. The one thing everybody was scared of—all ranks of good and evil—was scared of me.

What did that even mean? If I conquered this, there's no telling what I was about to face. Setting aside the relief manifested fear, trepidation. I had no time for emotion, just answers, so I settled back into a comfortable pace and began again. They don't know about this and once again I have a secret hidden from the Brothers and Sisters. What will they trade to find out what I can do now?

My pace quickened, becoming more determined.

Getting answers was my focus now.

*****

In everything I read from my book on the Void and everything everyone had revealed in conversation, I had never been told how big it really was. For as big and endless the In Between felt, this was even bigger. Infinite, it seemed. Realizing this after what was at least two hours of walking through air as thick and resistant with the consistency of mud made me wish for a wheelchair. I had strong arms. I could push myself through, rest my legs.