Chains of Fate

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

We crashed through the forest, leaping over waist-high tree roots and dodging spiked brambles that caught on our clothing. I didn’t know where we were going, but the terrifying proximity of Ayacinth’s footfalls was enough to make me trust Hadrian completely as he led me through the forest. Even then, I knew that the further we ran into the Eremithian Forest, the faster we were running toward our deaths.

Thump, thump, thump, the giant’s footsteps went, making the ground tremble. We had taken the path backward and zigzagged through the forest, but Ayacinth still knew we had gone back here. She must have been able to smell us.

“Keep going,” Hadrian panted. Sweat clung to his brow as he ran next to me. “We’re almost there.”

I didn’t have the breath to ask him where he meant for us to hide. How was it possible for us to hide in a forest that was crawling with dangerous beings?

Hadrian skirted around a tree too quickly, and I collided with an overhanging branch. I winced in pain as I slid into the leaves and mud. The gypsy ushered me to my feet, and we kept going despite the monstrous footsteps behind us and the pain burning on my face. Ayacinth was so close that I could hear her labored breathing.

We passed trees with bioluminescent maroon leaves and mushrooms taller than myself that crowded around small rose bushes. Normalcy in my world mixed with the exotic taste of this world. I knew this world of magic had rules when I came here. How had I been foolish enough to break them?

Woosh.

I felt the rush of Ayacinth’s hand before I saw it, and Hadrian jerked to the right, dragging me down into a valley as the giant’s hand smashed the place we stood only moments before. We tumbled over the dirt, sliding along with leaves, sticks, and mud. By the time we reached the bottom, the entire forest floor was stuck in my hair. When we stopped, Hadrian leapt forward and looked back and forth. Walls of dirt rose all around us, and a sinking realization gripped my heart. We were trapped.

“A valley of shadow. How appropriate.” I saw a sardonic smile creep on Hadrian’s face. “It seems that this is how you will destroy me. My own idiocy has caused my destruction. I should have let the giant have you.”

His smile sent chills down my spine. “What are you talking about?” I hissed. I could hear Ayacinth coming down the valley as I spoke; she was treading carefully and slowly. She knew we were trapped. “Did you know this would happen?”

The man turned to me, his green-flecked eyes brimming with a pain so deep that it stirred something inside of me—something that…wasn’t me. Eden?

Hadrian’s voice was nearly drowned out by the falling of trees as Ayacinth hurled herself over the lip of the valley. “Yes,” he replied, “because I can see everything. The past, the present, and the future. You, Lannie Brackenbury,” he murmured, “are the cause of my death. Fate has made its decision and now I will pay for my actions.”

I didn’t know what came over me at that moment. My reaction could have been caused by Ayacinth’s terror-inducing presence as she came crashing into the valley. Or it could have been caused by Eden herself.

But something clicked inside of me. It felt as though the piece of a long forgotten puzzle was starting to reappear.

“Fate,” I said as Ayacinth’s foot slammed into the valley floor fifty feet away, “does not control this world.”

And, with the certainty of someone with the balance of the world hanging on their shoulders, I grabbed my pendant and cried out, “Eden, awaken!”

Shadow overcame the world before blue light erupted in the center of the clearing. A woman with a flowing green sash around her bare shoulders hovered in the valley, stopping Ayacinth in her tracks. With a flick of her wrist, Eden sent the lithe giant hurtling backward into the valley’s dirt wall.

Even though I had seen her once before, I couldn’t help but marvel at her exotic beauty. Her long dark hair and skirt flowed around her, airy and light. A light green gauze sash shadowed her skirt, and her upper bodice had short sleeves, revealing slim bronze arms.

She turned to Ayacinth, who was lying on her back in a grove of crushed bushes. The giant’s feet shifted backward as she pushed herself to her knees. She was at half her height now as she stared at Eden, her obsidian eyes wide. “What…are you?”

I felt Eden’s pride inflate to its highest setting. Though she was much smaller than Ayacinth, her chest puffed out, and she held her head high as she looked at the giant. “I am Eden, the Elemental of Water.”

I watched as Ayacinth’s expression morphed into one of awe-stricken disbelief. “Impossible! That— It—” She finally regained her composure seconds later. “Why… Why are you in Nor? I believed the other Harbingers”—she glanced at me warily—“and Elementals to be…gone from this world.” She looked at the ground. “I believed the girl to be lying.”

So that was why she chased me—because she thought I was an impostor and a criminal. But why did she believe the other Elementals to be dead? Did Therin spread the rumor that there was only one living Harbinger left? Surely they must have known that the others still existed if there was a Harbinger living in the Eremithian Forest.

“The Elementals are alive and well,” Eden replied coolly. “And it would not do well for you to be threatening them, either, giant.”

Ayacinth bowed her head, causing the long tresses of her black hair to touch the ground. “I am sorry. Please forgive me. That human harmed one of our own. That is why—”

“The creature she ‘harmed’ is from a race of lying, slothful beings,” Eden interrupted. “Lannie did not harm her. I was there when it happened.”

The giant nodded rapidly. I could see her hands shaking. If Eden had this much influence over magical creatures, why didn’t she free me from the caravan?

You never asked.

Her ivory-flecked blue eyes shifted to me. And then she raised one of those stupid little eyebrows at me while smirking.

I threw my hands in the air. She said the other day that she didn’t want to be used as a scapegoat. And now she was blaming me for not asking for her assistance? “Whatever you say, Eden.”

A chuckle interrupted Eden’s next response. I turned to see Hadrian, who put his hand over his face. “So that’s what it was.”

He must have been talking about my identity. It was good that he wasn’t angry… “I’m sorry,” I told him. “I couldn’t tell you I was a Harbinger since you kidnapped me. There are a lot of creatures who want me dead, apparently.”

He shook his head, laughing deeply.

“What?”

“Nothing,” he said. “I understand now.”

“Understand what?” My brows furrowed. “You still haven’t told me how you can ‘see’ me as the cause of your death.”

Eden set her bare feet on the ground of the valley. Leaves fluttered around her ankles as she walked toward us. “This man is clairvoyant,” she replied, “because of a friend I have not seen in a very long time.”

I covered my mouth slowly. “Wait. Then—”

“Yes,” she said. Eden looked at Hadrian with a satisfied expression. “Hadrian is the Harbinger of Air.”

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A/N: Eep! Harbinger alert! So what did you guys think? Were you surprised by Hadrian's identity? I know a few of you guys guessed he was one of the You-Know-Whos!

Dedicated to @Messeessem! Thank you for reading my works!