The Gifts of Fate

Chapter 2

Shilpy sprinted along the sidewalk. She had to get off the street. The sisters would see her for sure. She turned a corner and shot into a suburban area. To her right were four townhouses. Each connected to the next. On the left was a wooden fence, but the owners had allowed a hedge to grow over the top making it impossible to climb.

If only she could find a shop or something with a garden. Somewhere she could hide. The sisters were behind her. Had they seen her? She wasn't sure, but she didn't dare look back. Where was Denise?

Before running she'd spotted at least four women climbing out of the van in front of Mme Jessica's, but it was hard to tell if the driver had been one of them. They would be looking and wouldn't stop until they found her.

Shilpy had barely escaped Mme Jessica's. That had been a one on one fight with a woman twice her age. The four from the van would be young and well trained. If they caught up to her, she wouldn't stand a chance.

At last, she saw a home with a climbable fence. Shilpy ran as hard as she could and her body banged against the planks. She glanced behind her. The street was nearly empty. No sign of Keres Ter Nyx.

She lifted herself up. Her legs banged against the wood. She slid over, scraping her belly against the top. Wincing with pain, she all but fell over into the backyard. She landed hard on a narrow concrete path separating the fence from the home. Shilpy rolled onto her back and stared up at the blue sky while trying to catch her breath.

God, I hope these people don't own a dog.

If Keres Ter Nyx managed to find her, Angela would either kill her or worse return her to the flats.

She remembered the last time she'd been at the flats in vivid detail. The smell of canvas and flesh burning. Angela's body blackened and disfigured lying twitching on the ground, while the sweat tent where they had performed the ritual of seers disappeared in flames.

Shilpy had fled with Angela screaming at her. Screaming in agony, yes, but also with rage. Angela Wick wasn't the kind to forget a slight, and Shilpy had nearly killed her. If she didn't murder her on sight then there would certainly be some sort of penance to be paid.

Even if there was no punishment, her lifestyle, her freedom and everything she'd built over the last few years, including her relationship with Dusk would be stolen away.

They would put her at the center of whatever strange war they were raging. It's what they did to her mother and sister. They dictated when we ate, how to dress when to bathe when to sleep and even who we were required to have sexual relations with. She would become a weapon to achieve Keres Ter Nyx's goals, and that would be the best she could hope for.

Shilpy checked her phone. There was a message from Denise.

Where are you?

She turned on the location service on her mobile and checked a navigation app. Once the phone connected to a satellite and it revealed which street she was on, she texted the address to Denise.

Nothing to do, but wait.

Expelled from Keres Ter Nyx about eight years ago, Denise was like Shilpy, but without the accursed visions.

Growing up in a cult wasn't the sort of thing you could just tell people, and having someone else who had been there, someone who lived through it created its own kind of sisterhood.

A vehicle drove past on the other side of the fence. It could have been a car or a van. Shilpy hugged her knees to her chest and waited.

After several agonizing minutes, her phone finally beeped. She jogged down the path to the gate, let herself out, and dashed over to Denise's small blue Toyota.