Fate Shifter

Chapter 2

2

Orla pasted a smile on her face.

“Impressive,” the man said. “It took a considerable amount of time and effort on my end to get to witness your dark magic.” A faint accent penetrated his voice, but Orla couldn’t make any sense of it.

“There was no dark magic. Just a trick to fool kids who still believe in Santa Claus.” Orla stepped backward slightly, sizing up the man. He was at least as tall as Lorcan, so he had a height advantage over her. He seemed as agile as a cat with movements of an experienced fighter. It was obvious now that he controlled the walls that blocked her way home, and that meant he was a gatekeeper. Taking all that into account, Orla wagered that her chance of winning this fight was nonexistent.

“Who are you? And what do you want?” Orla asked.

“I am a gatekeeper.”

“I figured as much. I can tell that by the way you’re playing with the dimensional holes. But being a gatekeeper doesn’t guarantee your safety when harassing an ordinary citizen like me. I’ll report you.”

The man chuckled. “I was only trying to protect the gate from intruders—and from those who cheated their way in.”

Now her blood ran ice cold. The only person who knew Lorcan had cheated the system for them to come to the Daimon Gate was Ciaran LeBlanc. But Ciaran had promised not to tell anyone. Lorcan had never told the authority of the Daimon Gate that Orla was a trained sorceress who had used dark magic to cheat his life back, not once but twice. In this universe, if they were caught cheating the system for personal gains, they could face the death penalty.

“I don’t know what you mean. But at the moment, as far as I’m concerned, you’re harassing me.”

“Let’s cut to the chase. I don’t have much time, and I don’t think you and your lover have much time, either. You used the dark magic to throw fireballs at my walls. That’s evidence of using it inside the Daimon Gate. I don’t need to explain the consequences of that to you, do I?”

Orla shrugged. “Well, if it’s in the system, we’ll have to face the consequences. Usually, there’s no way out of a severe penalty. So what’s your ulterior motive for giving us a solution?”

The man laughed. “If all the people from Earth are as smart as you are, I could be in trouble.” The man smirked. “Lucky for me, there aren’t many of those around here. Yes, the evidence of your magic was captured within my system. At the moment, it’s internal and under my control. That explains the number of walls I had to use to shield the view of the EYE. But I can report the evidence to central at any time—unless you do one simple thing for me.”

“And what would that ‘simple’ thing be?”

“Ciaran LeBlanc used the system within your castle to cheat the system. I want you to get your man to report Ciaran to the central.” His voice was as smooth and calm as still water. He locked his gaze with Orla.

“Ciaran LeBlanc, the king of Eudaiz?”

The man sneered. “Not for long.”

“Why? Who are you? What did he do to you?”

“Come on. You don’t owe him anything. But you owe your life to yourself. And don’t you want to live happily ever after with your lover at your castle?”

Orla nodded. “I suppose so. But what if the council has already recorded my use of magic? If that’s the case, I don’t have to do anything you ask.”

The man laughed. “Aren’t you a skeptic?”

“I’d call it brain power.”

“Right.” The man approached Orla. “I’m not a big-time gatekeeper, but I can assure you, I am in total control of my limited world inside these walls. Each gatekeeper has a private zone into which even the EYE cannot intrude.”

Orla arched an eyebrow, then as quick as lightning, she threw a fireball right into the man’s chest. Taken off-guard, he staggered back, grunting in pain. Orla smiled. She might not have any physical advantage over this man, but she refused to go down easily. “If that’s the case, then nobody will see me kill you,” Orla said under her breath, hurling another ball. He dodged it and threw his dagger at her. She threw a ball at his hand, but missed.

As the wall behind him moved, the man was distracted. Seizing the opportunity, Orla threw another ball. The man dodged her fireball once again, and it sailed past him toward the wall behind him that had slid open.

Lorcan stood at the opening wall, holding a portable device. He ducked as the fireball flew past, missing his face by inches. The man waved his arm. Orla couldn’t see anything except Lorcan yelling and pointing at her, and then the wall behind her hit her head. She slumped to the ground, and the whole world turned into darkness.

A large, gothic-looking arch stared down at her, making her blood run cold. There was something wrong with the air around them—her skin felt charged, almost like she was conducting electricity. Lorcan stood in the center of the arch, dancing away from the lightning bolts chasing him. Orla couldn’t believe how many of them there were! There had to be at least a few thousand. She stood there, rooted to the spot, unable to help her lover. She kept trying to run out to help him, but he yelled at her to stay away and save herself. As he shouted at her, he stopped moving, just for half a second, barely escaping the next lightning bolt. Fighting her way free from whatever was holding her prisoner, she started to run to Lorcan, not heeding his warnings to stay away. She was getting frustrated because no matter how fast she ran, she didn’t seem to be getting any closer. Tears started streaming down her cheeks as the hopelessness of the situation started to sink in. She watched helplessly as one of the lightning bolts hit Lorcan, causing him to burst into flame like a Roman candle. As his ashes fell into a neat little pile, Orla screamed in agony. Her heart was dying along with him.

“Orla! Orla! Come on, honey, you need to wake up now.” Lorcan was trying to shake Orla awake, but so far it wasn’t working. He had seen a gigantic wall hit her from behind, and then the man that she seemed to be fighting with fled the scene. He didn’t understand why this was happening. The Daimon Gate was supposed to be the safest place for them, a self-contained world that was the entrance between universes. Who was the man she had been fighting with? He looked like a gatekeeper. Lorcan wanted to look the man up on his computer system, but at the moment, he couldn’t leave Orla.

“Orla! Come on, baby, wake up for me now, okay?” He went back to shaking her gently, hoping she would open her eyes. Her eyelids fluttered, and she groaned. He swept her up in a tight embrace.

“What happened?” she asked groggily.

“I should ask you that.”

She blinked, and then the encounter with the man came back to her. “We’re in serious trouble, Lorcan,” she said.