Fate Shifter

Chapter 3

3

Lorcan helped Orla sit up, leaning her against the head of the bed, then he went to get her some water. While Orla took tentative sips and looked at him over the rim of the glass, Lorcan sat at the side of the bed and checked the cut on her arm that he had secured with a bandage. He tried not to look into her eyes because all he saw in them was the trouble that would put to an end the short happy month they’d been living in the Daimon Gate. “What kind of trouble are we in, Orla? Who was the gatekeeper you fought with?” he asked when he thought any further delay on his part would seem odd to her. She told him about the man’s demands. Lorcan said nothing for a long moment. He went to the window and stared silently outside. After a while, he turned to her. “You’d agree with me that we won’t report Ciaran?”

“Of course. There’s a dark side to Ciaran, and he must have created a lot of enemies along the way because of that, but he’s an important man. People in his universe—their lives—depend on him. If we did anything to harm him, we wouldn’t find a place in Hell.”

The sorrow in Orla’s eyes cut at Lorcan’s heart. He wondered whether the universe Ciaran was ruling, the Daimon Gate, Earth, and anywhere else that had living creatures shared the same Hell. He had seen Hell on Earth when they fought to bring Riley back and tried to free Riley’s late wife, Michelle. If he and Orla committed a sin now, would they return to that same Hell? Or did Daimon Gate have its own version of Hell?

“Lorcan!”

“Huh?”

He knew Orla was lonely in the Daimon Gate. They didn’t have many friends here, and after what had happened to them on Earth, they didn’t make friends easily. It had been a month, and the only time he’d seen the light back in her eyes was a couple of weeks ago when they’d had visitors. Ciaran LeBlanc and his people had stopped by on their way through the gate on a multiversal secret mission that he wouldn’t talk about. Some creature had used dark magic on Ciaran, and Lorcan and Orla had done what they could to help him find out what it was. Orla had used her sorcery combined with Lorcan’s computer skills, and for a little while, she had looked happy again. She’d been intrigued and had felt almost like she’d been back at her job on Earth.

They didn’t, however, help Ciaran solely out of the goodness of their hearts. Ciaran made it clear that he knew that Lorcan had died on the 46th floor of the century tower, and that Orla had brought him back with her own dark magic, using it to cheat Lorcan back to life. He had used that as blackmail, and he’d also appealed to their sense of justice. Ciaran was to rule Eudaiz, a universe with hundreds of billion people who relied on him for their safety. Those two things combined had won them both over, and there was nothing else they could do but help him.

The Daimon Gate was a universe full of virtue—governed by virtuous people and operating on virtuous principles. The most serious crime in the universe was cheating any system for personal gain. Lorcan had passed the test that they’d given him and then demanded a deal to get Orla to come with him. The fact that Lorcan had cheated death and come back would be a grave offense, and considered cheating, because he might not be the same person who had initially passed the test. He also hadn’t told them Orla’s real identity, or the fact that she was a trained sorceress. That was something else that could be considered cheating the system. Lorcan’s crimes were grave indeed, but no one knew about them yet. If Ciaran told anyone, then Lorcan would face death by a thousand lightning bolts. That was the vision Orla had just gotten in her delirium.

Ciaran had promised not to reveal their secrets to the Host of the Daimon Gate, and they trusted him. On the other hand, although Ciaran was the king of Eudaiz, if he traveled in the Daimon Gate, he had to play by their rules. If he got caught cheating the Daimon Gate system, he would be killed before he returned to his world. And Ciaran had cheated the system here, right in this castle. He did it to save a senior gatekeeper of the Daimon Gate, Brandon, the prince of the Red Castle. Brandon committed a crime and was supposed to die, but for some reason unbeknown to Lorcan, Ciaran had manipulated the computer system to change the sentence from death to demotion. If Lorcan reported that incident to the authority of the Daimon Gate, the next time Ciaran traveled via the gate, he would be killed.

“Do you think the EYE recorded my use of magic?” Orla asked.

Lorcan shook his head. “I don’t think so. The gatekeeper you fought had blocked the signals well enough. But why did he want to expose Ciaran? The only reason I can think of is that someone is opposed to the fact that Ciaran saved the prince and the princess. But I would imagine there are many other ways to harm Ciaran. Why this way? And why would a gatekeeper of the Daimon Gate want to harm the king of Eudaiz?” he questioned.

Lorcan’s wrist unit beeped. Text had come across the screen suggesting the call was made from the Host residence, asking Lorcan to come and meet with the Host of the Daimon Gate. His nerves started to heighten his senses, and he began to sweat.

He showed Orla the text. A soon as she saw the text, a tear rolled down her face. “The bastard has reported us!” she said.