Page 100 of Shadowlands Omega

“Who else?”

I drift lackadaisically in the direction she’s pointing, to the nearest edge of the cliff, my hands still clasped behind my back. Once there, I look down. It takes me a few moments to see the stairs built into the sheer black cliff face and when I do, I’m surprised and can no longer unsee them. Jagged and dangerous, anyone who attempted the climb would be risking death. Each stair is a different shape than the next, some steps simply gaps in the rock, little more than foot holds. As I gaze down, a small white lizard passes from one nook upward to the next. I cock my head, then turn from it with a nod.

“Does Adoqhina wait for me on the ship?”

“No. She’s holding Ruby City. It doesn’t take much to hold it. The Betas there were so eager for our arrival, they turned their bellies up to us right away.” Omora smiles, flipping her white hair, streaked with black that Freya does not share even though they are counters to one another. The doppelgängers have so much in common…and so little.

I nod. This makes sense. I tip my head at the young girl. “Very clever to have disguised yourselves among the refugees. An impressive display of your gifts, Sy.”

The little girl giggles and, as she rises to standing, a tall, spindly female with black hair and eyes and menacing grin rises up and out of her skin. “I am assuming the ones who posed as your grandparents were your other Fated sisters?”

She bats her eyelashes coyly but, on her, the expression appears violent.

“How long could you have kept that up?” I ask, genuinely curious.

“Long enough for its purpose.”

“But not long enough to pose as Berserker Maengor for all those years. Which is why you had the Death Omega do it?”

Sy’s gaze sharpens and shifts to the Omega in chains. She doesn’t answer, but returns her gaze to me and presses her lips together into a tight, thin line.

I snicker, causing all three Omegas to stir. “But you failed, didn’t you? Your control over her mind has weakened since we last had the pleasure of meeting one another. She does not appear as Berserker Maengor anymore. She appears to be quite her own.”

The Death Fate, Noon, shifts in her chains, her expression burning furiously at the other Fates. Tears track down her cheeks. Sy hisses and lunges at Noon and Noon falls to her side in a clear display of pain. I regret my words and untangle my hands from behind my back.

“Alright. You are here for me. As you said, let us get on with it.”

Odette leaves Kiandah’s side and swishes towards me in a dress just like Kiandah’s, all but the scorch marks. Kiandah’s dress hangs from her skin loosely, riddled with charred bits and holes that expose her unblemished skin.She is stronger than she thinks she is. I know her strength. My beast and I submit to it gladly.

She must see something in my gaze that causes her to thrash. Sy goes to her and places her hand on the top of her head, causing her to wince. But she doesn’t cry out.

“Sy. Enough,” Omora hisses. “We’ve wasted enough time. Let’s go.” She gestures to the lethally narrow staircase, as if expecting me to simply walk down to my doom. As if they truly think I’d leave Kiandah with them without first offering up my own life.

I cock my head at Sy and she must read my expression because she withdraws a short, stubby knife from her robes and presses its tip to Kiandah’s throat. “I don’t need my gifts to kill her.”

I don’t react, though my pulse is pounding. On the outside, I appear calm. Calm.

Right.

“You really think I will go with you willingly?”

Odette, wearing Kiandah’s face, snarls, “I think you are bonded to this female. I don’t think you have a choice. Nowgo. And when you go, you can control Kiandah through your bond and force her to obey our will. She will anyways because it’s clear this pathetic excuse for an Omega is in love with you.”

I smile, feeling the heat of her words warm me. Both because they are true, and also because they are so, so wrong. “You are wrong.” I am not bonded to her, though I ought to be.

“Oh? You think I’m bluffing.” I. Always I. Neverwe.

I nod. “I do.”

Odette turns from me and makes it to Sy’s side. She pushes the female out of the way, malice in her gaze and in her arm as she takes Sy’s dagger and presses it to Kiandah’s neck…

And slides it in cleanly.

I have miscalculated.

The Fates have miscalculated. “Odette, what have you done! We needed her!” the other Fates scream.

But I hear them as if standing at the end of a tunnel. All I can feel are Kiandah’s breaths shortening as she chokes on her own blood. All I can taste is her life as it fades.

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