Page 114 of Of Flame and Fate

God help me. No matter how easy this choice should be, it’s not.

I step on stage. Johnny’s fans are so mesmerized by his melodious voice, they don’t notice me. They don’t even notice thecallof wolves, surrounding the arena. From every side a wolf is howling, alerting their kind it’s time to fight.

Something is wrong. Gemini called it.

And it’s up to me to make it right.

“T!” Shayna yells from the other side of stage, the swords she holds in each hand elongating. “Shifters and neophytes are invading the arena, we have to get Johnny out of here . . .”

I stop noticing her, my focus completely on Johnny as my lightning charges and the spark within me surges like a wicked storm. One strike, that’s all it will take given the gamut of electrical energy crackling the air and readying to unleash.

But while Johnny’s fans don’t see me, he does.

His face is turned in my direction, his features sullen as thick tears soak my skin.

“The devil comes out to play,” he sings.

The peacock tat on his belly comes to life, much to the “oo’s” and “ah’s” of Johnny’s audience.

“Sometimes he needs to stay,” Johnny sings.

The peacock looks at me and spreads its wings. What appear to be rocks roll from the eyes of the feathers as it shakes them out.

“To hear my will and help me be.”

They stop at my feet. I see them. I do. But I see my target more.

Johnny finishes the melody, drawing out the last two words. “And to give your lives toprotect me.”

The rocks at my feet tip from side to side, tilting up, revealing empty eye sockets and missing teeth.

Skulls.

Just like in my damn visions.

Fuck you, Johnny Fate.

They clatter across the stage as more fall away from the tail feathers. They could be bombs, or something more. It doesn’t matter, they won’t be enough to stop me.

Bottom line, our babies are the ones who need to stay. Fate, his ass needs to go.

“This is how it’s going to be?” Johnny asks, his betrayed tone resonating across the arena. Ironic, seeing he’s the one betraying us.

“This is how it has to be,” I reply. My stare falls to his chest as the tat of the serpent circling the heart comes alive. It constricts the heart, holding it in place when it quivers and opening its maw wide.

Long fangs pierce the center, puncturing deep and making it bleed.

I fall backward, clenching my head when Destiny screams.

My hands slip through my hair and smack against the floor when the truth hits me at once. Destiny is the heart. Fate is the serpent.

I get it now, and does that shit ever make me move fast.

I scramble to my feet as the rafters shake above us, matching the increasing clamor from the skulls. I kick the skulls out of my way as a man dressed in black robes leaps on stage. I presume he’s a neophyte. I also presume he needs to die.

The strobe of light he carries expands in his hand, bleaching his wrinkled face and dark eyes as he spits out a curse. Shayna leaps in front of him, just missing the charge of lightning I send sailing, and slices his head off with her sword.

The strobe crashes against the stadium floor, exploding in a flood of power that flings her across the stage and tosses me against the far wall.

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