Page 99 of Ruled By Fate

Brie clicked back into the conversation at precisely the wrong time.

“Well, there are these monsters—”

“I think they’re zombies.”

“Right, zombies. Well, they’re trying to get away, and for a minute, it looks like they can, but then these beasts crash right through the roof of the car—”

Brie stood up suddenly. Too suddenly. She tilted precariously before grabbing the back of a chair to right herself. “I need to get out of here,” she muttered.

Sherry stopped mid-sentence, half-rising to her feet. “No problem, sweetie. Let’s just get you to the bathroom—”

“No!” Brie interrupted, too forcefully. “I mean, no. You stay here. I just… I need some air.”

In all her life, Brie had never snapped at Sherry. Not once. Not even when they were kids. A horrible silence fell between them before she took off suddenly, lurching for the exit.

Cameron grabbed her coat and quickly followed her outside.

She burst through the doors into a welcome rush of cool air that shivered over her body and flowed through her hair. There was a second of respite, but it wasn’t enough. Before she was even off the patio, she flew to the side and started retching into the flowerbeds.

Cameron was there in an instant, holding back her hair.

“Don’t touch me,” she snapped.

He backed away, stung, before trying to approach again. “Brianna, let me help. Let me take this away for you. It’ll only take a second.”

“I don’t want any more of your help!”

She took a second to revel in his shell-shocked expression, then started pacing dizzily away from the restaurant — not caring whether he happened to follow or not. She didn’t look back as she continued yelling. “When have you ever really helped, anyway? You didn’t save my mother. You told me to keep this awful thing around my neck for years, and the whole time, it’s been turning me into some freakish mutant. I have abs now, Cameron. I can hear squirrels. Squirrels! I broke my house in half, and now I’m diagnosing patients with no information because my jewelry told me to.”

She whipped around and jabbed her finger at him through the air. “I thought I was crazy for five long, lonely years, and now, you know what? I wish I were. It would be easier to be crazy, than to try to make sense of any of this.”

Her fingers closed around the pendant, making a tight fist. “All I want is to be normal. I want a normal, boring life. I want to be with my friends and not feel like a freak. I want my life back. I want my scar back. I don’t want this anymore.”

He approached cautiously, like she was something wild. “Brianna, don’t—”

“Don’t tell me what to do!” she screamed. “This is my life, Cameron. I’m taking it back.”

It was over before it started, before she could really think it through. In a single drunken motion, she ripped the pendant off over her head and flung it to the ground in front of her, watching as it clattered on the pavement before going abruptly still. The sound echoed impossibly between them as the last rays of the golden sunset glinted off the shimmering chain.

She stood in perfect silence, trying to catch her breath. Then all at once, she started laughing. Hysterically laughing. She threw back her head and flung her arms wide.

“You see?” she gasped, oblivious to the look of horror on Cameron’s face. “Nothing happened. And nothing’s going to happen. This was all just—”

It came out of nowhere, a roiling grey cloud, as though dozens of shadowy, terrifying creatures had slipped through cracks in the air itself to appear as an impenetrable horde.

She barely had time to scream before they were upon her. Beneath her. Around her.

It was like watching an incoming wave you couldn’t possibly hope to outrun — one that was destined to sweep you into a rough and merciless sea. It was every bit as hopeless and even more terrifying, because this sea had teeth. There was a hunger in the way the creatures came at her. A ripping, howling sound that spoke of famished, barbarian emptiness tore through the air. All she could hear was the sick, thwacking sound of leathery wings and the gnashing of faces made entirely of long, thin, inward-curving teeth. It overwhelmed her. Everywhere she looked was a nightmare. Everything she saw had come straight from Hell.

And then he was there.

He tackled her to the ground, cupping one hand behind her head to absorb the crack on the pavement. With his other arm, he sliced through the air and hit the ground, letting out a deep cry. “Abu-nan, d-b-s’myaa!”

All at once, the darkness shifted. The image brightened as they were surrounded by a glowing sphere orbited by intricate runes. Ancient words swirled around them in rings of protection. From the sphere’s equator, an enormous scythe made of golden light and heavenly heat shot out like a blade made from a sliver of the sun, carving and burning its way through the entire horde, spinning and attacking from every direction at once. The monsters’ revolting bodies froze in place for an instant before sliding apart in perfect halves. The smell that was released turned Brie’s stomach before the blade of light itself splintered apart into shards. These turned of their own accord as though aimed by Heaven’s archers and shot from a thousand perfect bows. They drove themselves into all that remained of the wraiths and dissolved them into nothing until not a trace remained.

Cameron pulled his hand from under her head, revealing the pendant. He stared at it a moment, then placed it firmly around her neck. Her eyes were wild, and her heart was racing. She wrapped her arms around his neck, clinging like a child as he touched their foreheads together.

They held on for a long moment. Then he spoke in a voice that left no room for discussion. “You have to keep it on.”

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