Fate's Keep (Fate's Journey Book 2) Read online

  FATE'S KEEP

  Book Two of Fate’s Journey

  By T. Rae Mitchell

  Genre: Young Adult Fantasy

  The highly anticipated sequel to the Amazon Best Seller, FATE’S FABLES, reaches new heights in this vividly rendered fantasy adventure. Packed with heart-pounding action, compelling new characters, and a romance that strains the bonds of love to the breaking point, FATE’S KEEP promises to leave readers breathless.

  BOOK DESCRIPTION

  Fate Floyd survived and escaped the deadly fairy tale world of the Book of Fables, but at a terrible cost. The boy of her dreams, Finn McKeen, remains a prisoner of the cursed book. To find her way back to him, she must travel to a new world, where she’ll confront the mysterious Keep, the truth of her heritage and a blood oath that could alter her future forever.

  With her heart sworn to saving Finn, and an unbreakable bond to guard the Keep, Fate must dig deep for the strength to protect those she loves. Unimaginable creatures of myth and legend threaten to destroy the Keep, while a slumbering evil awakens within the bowels of the arcane storehouse of magical objects. Fate’s only chance for salvation lies in a series of desperate quests and battles, any one of which may mark the end of everything she holds dear.

  Read Fate’s Keep today and journey to the ends of the universe, where magic abounds and portals open to otherworldly realms.

  For a FREE GIFT and a chance to WIN a Fate's Fables Special Edition paperback, sign up for T. Rae Mitchell's newsletter.

  Click here for your Free Gift

  PRAISE FOR FATE’S JOURNEY SERIES

  “FANS OF GAIL CARSON LEVINE AND CASSANDRA CLARE WILL WANT TO ADD T. RAE MITCHELL TO THEIR READING LIST”

  ~ Readers' Favorite Editorial Review ★★★★★

  “THIS FANTASY HITS ALL THE RIGHT SPOTS”

  ~ Artistic Bent ★★★★★

  “EVERYTHING I’VE BEEN MISSING IN THE YOUNG ADULT SCENE”

  ~ The Passionate Bookworm ★★★★★

  “PREPARE TO BE SWOONED”

  ~ Book Cupid ★★★★

  “AMAZING NEW FANTASY SERIES!”

  ~ Parajunkee ★★★★★

  “FRESH AND ORIGINAL FANTASY!”

  ~ A Walk On Words ★★★★★

  “NOT YOUR TYPICAL YA”

  ~ Top Knot Librarian ★★★★★

  “MAGICAL, FUN AND REALLY ENTERTAINING”

  ~ Pieces of Whimsy ★★★★

  Fate's Keep: Book Two of Fate’s Journey

  By T. Rae Mitchell

  First Editon published February 26, 2017

  ISBN 978-0-9917987-5-9 (ebook)

  ISBN 978-0-9917987-4-2 (paperback)

  Copyright © 2017 T. Rae Mitchell

  Cover design © 2017 by Terry Mitchell

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.

  Original Mix Media Inc.

  1685 H Street #1046, Blaine, WA 98230

  www.traemitchell.com

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  BookDescription

  1 - Back To The Beginning

  2 - The Oath

  3 - A Little Game Of Hide And Seek

  4 - The Unholy Piper

  5 - The Letter

  6 - The Priest Is Gone

  7 - How Will We Explain The Reek?

  8 - The Fiery Divide

  9 - This Is The Keep?

  10 - Every Action Has A Consequence

  11 - This Can’t Be For Real

  12 - Dragon Eye Me

  13 - There’s Nothing Civilized About Faeries

  14 - Xena’s In The Room

  15 - He’s Paper Thin

  16 - Killer Uniform

  17 - We’re Doomed

  18 - Call Me Your Faery Mistress

  19 - The Mortcarion Apocrypha

  20 - The Black-Eyed Goddess

  21 - His Mother’s Son

  22 - We Can’t Act On This Plan

  23 - Here Kitty, Kitty

  24 - Fall Asleep and Never Wake

  25 - Distorted Reality and Fractured Dimensions

  26 - Copious Amounts Of Chocolate

  27 - It’ll Be Over Quick

  28 - Holy Skyscraper, Batman

  29 - Something’s Not Right Here

  30 - Blood Must Run

  31 - What’s The Alternative To Going Boom?

  32 - Not The Monster You Think I Am

  33 - Mr. Romance Has To Go

  34 - As You Wish

  35 - We’re Going To Need A Forklift

  36 - This Beast Has No Manners

  37 - Pinky Swear

  38 - Welcome Back

  39 - That’s How We Do It

  40 - A Masterful Illusion

  41 - Fate Has A Plan

  42 - Where Are You?

  43 - Bad Timing

  44 - Allow Me To Introduce Myself

  45 - Don’t Mess With Me

  46 - The Whitethorn Tree

  47 - Vermis Phobia

  48 - Forever Cursed

  49 - Something’s Flawmaged

  50 - Enough Cheering Up For One Day

  51 - Together

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  1

  Back To The Beginning

  FATE FLOYD TUMBLED THROUGH space toward a world in which she no longer belonged. A dull, ordinary place, where most everyone craved make-believe and magic, because without it, reality was too dreary to face. She used to be one of those addicted daydreamers.

  Not anymore.

  She’d since found out magic was real, and there was nothing pink and sparkly about it. Magic was scary and far deadlier than she could’ve ever imagined.

  Yet she would’ve stayed in that dangerous realm, risking her life, over and over, if she thought it would help Finn. She closed her eyes against the sudden tears and sharp pang in her chest. Leaving him behind inside the Book of Fables had left a hole where her heart used to be.

  The second she opened her eyes, the hardwood floor of the bookstore filled her vision and slammed into her shoulder. Pain drilled down her arm as she rolled with the momentum of the fall and slid to a stop. She was almost grateful for the pain, because all thoughts of Finn vanished…at least for a moment.

  Rising on an elbow, she searched the dim interior for Gerdie. They’d been holding hands only seconds ago. Instead, her gaze landed on the Book of Fables. The ten-foot-tall book, which had just spit her out like some giant who didn’t care for how she tasted.

  She could hardly believe she was back. The massive tome was closed and leaning against the brick wall of the deserted bookstore where she’d originally found it, in what seemed like eons ago. She’d been so clueless then, thinking the book was just a big sign that once hung on the outside of Fables Bookstore. Nothing could have been further from the truth. Giant chroniclers had created the Book of Fables to preserve a record of ancient magic within its yellowed pages in the form of eight horribly unfortunate fairy tales, each of which she’d had the great displeasure of experiencing up close and personal.

  Fate started to stand, when a blow from behind flattened her to the floor, knocking the ai
r from her lungs.

  “Sorry,” Gerdie muttered from where she’d landed on Fate’s back. “But thanks for the soft landin’ all the same.”

  “Glad I could be of service,” Fate groaned, though relieved to have her small companion back.

  Gerdie jumped off. She blew a frizzy, fawn-colored strand of hair out of her brown eyes. A serious expression hardened her elfin features as she took in her surroundings.

  As Fate sucked in a lungful of air, a horrendous stench caught in her throat. Gagging, she covered her nose while searching for the offending odor. She was surprised to find her grandmother’s old bookstore exactly as she’d left it. Dark, decrepit and lit with a feeble fire burning in a metal wastebasket.

  She’d been gone such a long time, yet she was certain this was the same fire Finn had lit the night they first met. She could almost see him kneeling there, the flames lighting the dark gold of his hair, the sweet curve of his mouth and smiling, leaf-green eyes. Tears welled up again as she reached out to the flickering light. Was it possible she’d somehow gone back in time to when he was there?

  She was about to call his name when the next inhale assaulted her nose, pushing her to face the awful truth. She’d been forced to leave Finn behind in the last fable and no amount of wishing for some time-twisting miracle was going to change the dismal reality that he’d traded his own freedom to save her from being imprisoned inside a giant oak.

  The cloying, sickly smell was thick now. Bile burned at the back of Fate’s throat as she peered at her shadowy surroundings. The hair on the back of her neck rose. Someone was sitting in one of the wing-backed chairs of the reading corner. The person sat still. Unnaturally so. Fate’s skin crawled as she stared at the figure. The moment she registered what she was looking at, she scrabbled back on all fours until she banged into the giant book. “Is that what I think it is?”

  Gerdie hadn’t moved. “Yup. Looks like a pruned-up carcass to me.” Stepping closer to the seated corpse, she poked its arm. “I take that back. It’s still juicy.”

  Fate jumped to her feet. “What are you doing? Hasn’t anyone told you not to play with dead things?”

  “I’m no stranger to dealin’ with the dead. Pretty much comes with the territory, when you’ve been livin’ near an evil old hag who’s eatin’ babies for breakfast, lunch and supper.”

  There wasn’t much Fate could say to that. Gerdie had managed to stay out of Old Mother Grim’s clutches all by herself, for what may have been centuries before they’d met. It was still easy to forget Gerdie wasn’t a child. The six-year-old had been suspended in time the moment her black-hearted sister, Brune, had abandoned her inside the Book of Fables.

  Brune was responsible for throwing Fate into the cursed book as well. Worse yet, she and Brune were related. Fate’s grandmother, Gerdie and Brune were all sisters. Fate was happy to have Gerdie as her great-aunt, but she hated sharing Brune’s bad blood.

  Covering her nose with her sleeve, Gerdie leaned closer to the dead body, staring at the necklace hanging around the shriveled gray neck. “Just like I thought,” she muttered. “It’s Brune.”

  “Really? How can you be sure?”

  “She’s wearin’ the Orb of Aeternitis.”

  Unwilling to move any closer, Fate strained to see through the gloom to get a better look at the Orb. The whole reason Brune had forced Fate into the Book of Fables had been to find and retrieve the Orb’s counterpart, the Rod of Aeternitis. From what little she understood, combining the two powerful pieces grants the owner godlike powers. With that kind of power she could free Finn with a mere thought and save him from an eternity of suffering.

  Fate reached for the slim gold bar resting against her breastbone. The chain holding the pendant was cold, but the Rod was warm and vibrating, calling out to the Orb. She took an uneasy step forward. She’d paid a terrible price to get the Rod and her hands would be stained with blood forever because of it.

  Gerdie glanced back at Fate. “How lucky are we? And here I thought I’d have to duke it out with Brune to get the Orb.”

  “Yeah, dandy. How about I leave you to the grave robbing?” Fate had seen her fill of rotting corpses one too many times inside the Book of Fables.

  Gerdie tugged on the Orb, tipping Brune’s corpse forward. She shoved it back and gave the necklace a harder tug. Fate shuddered as the head lolled to one side with a bone-cracking sound and dangled at a disturbing angle. Undaunted by the grisly interaction, Gerdie gave the necklace another solid yank to break the chain, when a bony hand shot out and grabbed the girl’s wrist.

  Gerdie and Fate both screamed.

  Brune pulled Gerdie close to her mummified face. They were practically nose to nose. “You really think it’ll be that easy to take what’s mine?” Brune’s voice was a wet rattle. The smell had to be atrocious, because Gerdie convulsed with nausea.

  Gerdie wrestled free and ran over to Fate. “She’s alive!”

  “It’s not a she,” Fate argued. “That’s what you call a zombie. And FYI, they eat brains.”

  Fate reached instinctively for one of the daggers she was used to having strapped on her thigh. There was nothing there. “Damn, I forgot to get my gear back,” she grumbled. She’d been relieved of her sword, dagger and crossbow when an army of soldier hawks had captured her and Gerdie. They’d been allowed to leave in the end, so why hadn’t she asked for her weapons back?

  Stupid.

  Brune remained seated while she swung the Orb on its long chain in wide circles. Golden tracers began to build into a solid band of light with every swing.

  Gerdie dug her hand in the pocket of her dress, pulled out a little ball of dark red wax and aimed her clenched fist at Brune. “Avra Kedavra, Brune!”

  “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Fate interjected, worriedly. “That sounds an awful lot like the Killing Curse. But just so you know, that’s fiction. Fantastic fiction, but fiction nonetheless.”

  Gerdie frowned at her. “Don’t know what you’re goin’ on about, but you need to stop interruptin’ and make yourself useful.” She shoved a cloth bag full of dried, ground herbs into Fate’s hand. “Pour this all the way around her. And do it fast!”

  Holding her breath, Fate raced over with the pouch, hastily sprinkling the herbs.

  “I cast this circle and bind you, Brune!” Gerdie commanded, though her voice quavered. “Avra Kedavra. Avra Kedavra. Avra Kedavra.”

  Fate finished laying down the circle and ran back to Gerdie, encouraged by the dying gasps and croaks coming from Brune. Fate undid the clasp of her own necklace and swung the Rod in plain sight. She’d been looking forward to this moment for a long time. “I’ve got the Rod, Brune. But guess what? I’m keeping it! How do you like them apples? Look who’s in control now.”

  Brune’s body shuddered as she continued to swing the Orb round and round, its light now sweeping out in concentric circles, rippling further and further out, expanding toward Fate and Gerdie. Fate’s blood ran cold with the realization that Brune was shaking with fits of laughter. And they weren’t dying gasps. They were raspy cackles.

  Before Fate could ask Gerdie why the counter spell wasn’t working, her mouth filled with a coppery taste. The air turned hot, stinging her skin, scorching her lungs. An explosion of molten sparks penetrated deep inside, searing tissue and cells, pulling her muscles so tight she couldn’t move.

  Fate knew this fiery pain. She’d experienced it before. The constricting pain, combined with the stench of Brune’s rotting flesh, had been her last memories before waking inside the Book of Fables.

  “Bring me the Rod,” Brune croaked.

  An invisible force seized Fate. Spasms of pain shot through her muscles, forcing her limbs into action. Tears blurred her vision as her body marched of its own accord across the room. Fate fought and resisted from within, but no amount of will power could stop her legs from carrying her forward with the Rod held out to Brune like a gift. All that was missing was a silver platter.

  2

  Th
e Oath

  FATE JOLTED TO A sudden halt just outside the circle of herbs spread around Brune’s chair.

  “Closer, give me the Rod.” Brune’s decayed, skeletal frame strained to lean forward.

  Struggling to obey Brune’s command, Fate’s body fought against an unseen force preventing her from taking another step. Her muscles seized into excruciating bands of resistance, while the sickening odor of rotting flesh suffocated her. Vomit churned in her stomach and her eyes watered.

  Gerdie continued with her incantations as she stepped in beside Fate.

  Brune craned her lopsided head in the little girl’s direction. “You can’t kill what’s already dead.”

  “True. I was expectin’ you to be alive. You might be dead, but you’re still stubborn as ever.” Gerdie held the ball of red wax out in front of her. “But I can keep you from takin’ that Rod from Fate ‘til the cows come home. I made one of Oma’s Imperio Evocati charms.”

  A ghastly smile spread over Brune’s withered face. “You don’t have my handwriting. Or my blood to be able to do that.”

  Reaching into her dress pocket, Gerdie pulled out a tattered notebook and held it high. “Remember Oma’s spell book?”

  The Orb’s circular swinging lost velocity as Brune’s fogged eyes fixed on the book in Gerdie’s hand.

  “It’s been a long time since you left me in that fairy tale nightmare, so you’ve probably forgotten you wrote down a few spells of your own in here.” Gerdie tucked the notebook back in her pocket. “So yeah, I’ve got your handwritin’ balled up inside the wax all good and proper.”

  The more Brune became distracted, the less attention she put on the Orb. As the pendant’s rotation slowed, the pain and tension in Fate’s body eased a few degrees.