Page 761 of Hell Hath No Fury

“It is not cowardice to hope for a brighter fate,” I said in a low tone as she choked and spluttered, her eyes fixed on the stars above while she searched for peace in their embrace. “Sometimes we must look into the darkest of nights to discover the greatest of treasures. I don’t balk from that path, Lethia. I just choose to chase a fate greater than my own.”

I left her there to die with those words hanging in the silence surrounding her, not looking back as I strode away, my bloodstained spear still tight in my grip and destiny calling my name on every errant breeze.

* * *

Three days passed with my Sight guiding me from danger more often than not or helping me to survive the perils of this hell whenever an untold beast crossed my path and forced me to fight for my survival.

The brutality of this ritual was woven into the fabric of my people, the empire I had grown up in. I had never questioned the brutal start to the lives of those blessed to be among the most powerful Fae in our society until coming here myself. It had all sounded somewhat romantic when my father and the Fae of his court described the Marriage Trials. A way to weed out the weakest of our generation and ensure that only the strongestwere allowed to continue into magical education, politically arranged marriage, and eventually claim rule over this land. It was right that we should have to face this test of fate. The stars would ensure that only those most worthy emerged from the jungle after all.

Yet living through it was something else entirely. Seeing Fae I had grown up with butchered, hearing screams of pain and death through the trees at all hours, living in a constant state of fear and exhaustion for days on end. Was it truly fate guiding us through this place? Without my gift of The Sight, I wasn’t certain I could have survived it. Was I to assume that my clairvoyant abilities had been gifted to me so I could claim the destiny of survival, or was it simply a twist of luck that had me still breathing while others lay dead all around?

I had never questioned the path of the stars before this place. Never once doubted that they knew better than all of us which way the line of fate should be drawn, but now I was beginning to question it. Now I was starting to wonder…

A branch cracking. Dark eyes peering through the trees. Determination, resilience, fear.

“The stars sent me to find you.” His rough voice was accompanied by the press of something cold and sharp to my throat, the vision which had found me in sleep coming too late to rouse me in time to avoid this.

My eyes snapped open, a cold flash of dread pouring through my limbs before my mind could catch up to what was happening, who stood over me.

His face had come to me in dreams and visions alike for the last few months, his name whispered upon the wind every time I turned my gaze to the south of the palace walls. We hadn’t ever met before this moment, but as I looked up into the hard lines of his features, Iknewhim.

“I recognise you, Marcel,” I breathed, surprise lacing my tone even as I realised that this meeting had been inevitable for some time now. I hadseenhim coming. And my life would change from this moment on, irrevocably. That was a terrifying thought, and yet no part of me wished to turn from the fate I felt coming for us.

A breeze stirred the embers of the small fire I had lit for warmth before I fell asleep, lifting them towards the leafy canopy above, and I could have sworn I saw a young boy in the flames as my gaze moved to them. A boy with the same cut jaw of the man who stood over me and a smile which lit me up unlike anything I had ever known.

He would grow to be brave and powerful, his gifts greater than mine and that of the man who held me at the point of his spear in the present moment. The boy’s destiny was far greater than I dared to even wish for too, but terrible in ways too. This child of passion and fire, of agony and loss.

My chest heaved as I glimpsed flashes of the life he would lead. The heartache that would come close to destroying him, the despair which I couldn’t understand, and which seemed so unavoidable at the same time. And the love. He would love with a passion rivalled by none and felt by all, he would fall hard and fast, painfully and inescapably into a love so great that it would rock the foundations of the world we knew and beyond.

His life was the most important thing I had ever heard called to me on the voice of the stars.

Gabriel.

My dark hearted son, destined for so, so much.

“I’m going to die tomorrow,” Marcel said, his voice low and calm with an acceptance and maturity beyond his years. “I’m going to trade my life for yours and the life of our son.”

Gabriel.

I swallowed thickly,seeingit now so clearly, the visions which had been slipping to me in sleep and wakefulness alike for weeks all coming together. Marcel’s fate was set. Death would come for him tomorrow no matter the choices we made here and now. The only thing which could change was the life of that boy who I hadseenso clearly in the fire.

Gabriel.

I was barely more than a girl myself, eighteen, a princess, destined to marry a man I wouldn’t have the luxury of selecting for myself. I had no business taking on the role of motherhood. I had no idea of how to do such a thing, especially as I hadn’t even been raised by my own mother, my childhood split between the care of nannies instead. But despite all of that, no part of me wished to deny this fate.

That child, that boy…I loved him already. I loved him so powerfully that it felt like my heart was breaking in two as I looked up at the man who would father him, only to die before ever having the chance to know him in the flesh.

I couldseeso much of the life our son would lead, the visions pressing in on me so thickly that they made tears of pride swim in my eyes before I forced myself to blink them away, push my gifts back and focus on the present.

I didn’t have words for this twist of fate. No words I could give which would be any clearer beyond my own actions, but there was a question in Marcel’s eyes. This was an offer, not a demand. He hadseenthis possibility too,seenthe son we could create tonight between us before death came for him with the dawn, and he was asking if I wanted to claim it.

This was my choice and one which seemed all too easy in that moment despite the huge weight of it. I was a princess, destined to marry for politics and power, bound to serve my empire with unwavering loyalty. But this, a child born of fate’s whims, was something that would be entirely my own. And as terrifying asthat was, as huge as this decision before me seemed, I found myself knowing the answer in my soul. I wanted this, wanted him, and so my answer to the burning question in Marcel’s eyes was a resoundingyeswhich I knew would make the stars themselves quake when it came to pass.

I sat up and pushed the spear away from my throat, my eyes on Marcel as he let me move it aside before dropping it entirely, the heavy thud of it hitting the ground echoing through my flesh as I reached for him. He was a huge man, impossibly tall and built with muscle, his deftly hewn features captivating me as heat rose through my flesh at the mere thought of his body taking possession of mine. I didn’t know him. This was insanity. But as his knees hit the ground at my side and he reached out to cup my jaw in his calloused palm, I knew that I would not back out of this fate.

“Our son will change the world, he’ll be the greatest Seer of his generation,” Marcel breathed, no fear in his deep brown eyes as he leaned into me, no doubt over his fate even as he knew that his life would be forfeit in payment for it. That he would be dead before the sun set again tomorrow.

He kissed me and I parted for him, a shiver of pleasure racing through my entire being as his tongue teased between the curve of my lips and he tasted me in this slow, decadent greeting as our souls met at last, like they had been longing for this moment all along.