The Gifts of Fate

Chapter 13

"How did you get this?" Hond repeated his voice dripping with malice and a smile tugging at his lips. He was enjoying this, the sick bastard.

Shilpy felt a familiar rush within her head, and when her lips move, it was like someone else was talking.

"They beat you, didn't they?" Shilpy said.

"What?" he frowned.

"Ctlu and his friends. They beat you with long sticks down by the river when you were eight. They said it would make you stronger, but really it was because they enjoyed it. They didn't like you." Hond's eyes widened. "They enjoyed it, and they knew you couldn't stop them because you're so weak."

Hond struck her again. Harder this time. But, the sense of watching herself from the outside dulls the pain. Her cheek stung, but the pain seemed far away. Like it was happening to someone else. She laughed.

"Who are you?" Hond stepped backward. Shilpy noted with a perverse satisfaction he wasn't smiling anymore.

"I'm the owner of that sword. I see things."

"What sort of things?" he leaned forward in his chair.

"The past, the future, whatever the Moirai choose to show me," Shilpy said. Her voice sounded dreamy and far away. Without warning, Shilpy felt another rush and the vision was over. She collapsed into the chair exhausted and sore.

"You're Keres Ter Nyx," Hond replied in a cold voice.

"No."

He raised his hand to strike her once more, but Dusk grabbed Hond by the wrist and silenced him with a look. Where did he come from? The bedroom. He must have been listening from the bedroom.

"You agreed to let me question her," Hond said.

"Question, not beat."

Shilpy could barely believe her ears. Was he here the whole time? He must have overheard everything, and yet he let Hond strike her.

Dusk crossed to the other side of the room and stood in front of the window. The glow behind the curtains formed a bright silhouette of his body. With a shock, she realized night was about to fall.

"Where did you find the sword?" Dusk asked.

"You know where I found it," she replied. "I bought it at the auction."

"Did Keres Ter Nyx fund this?"

"No, the Moirai showed me how to get the money. Although, Keres Ter Nyx are coming here, soon."

Dusk and Hond exchanged a look. Something passed between them, and she was partly surprised to see they believed her.

"They're coming for the sword?"

"No, for something else," Shilpy replied, looking away.

"What are they coming here for?" Dusk asked.

Before she could stop them, her eyes lock onto the handbag. Hond crossed the room and opens it. The room was bathed in a green glow from the orb within. For a brief moment, Shilpy felt a surge of hope and despair. Despair, that she'd failed both Thomas and Denise and still hadn't been able to protect the Star from either Keres Ter Nyx or the Erisians. She felt a glimmer of hope that maybe the Star will do to Hond what it did to Thomas. He reached for it

"Don't!" Dusk snapped. Hond's hand froze.

He crossed to Hond and looked inside the bag. Both men's eyes flicked back to Shilpy. "What is it?" he asked.

"It's called the Star of fate," Shilpy said.

"Star of what?" Dusk asked.

"Star of Fate, it belongs to the Moirai. They gave it to me."