Twisted Fate Read online

  Twisted Fate

  The New Orleans Shade - Book 3

  D.N. Hoxa

  Contents

  Also by D.N. Hoxa

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Also by D.N. Hoxa

  Copyright © 2021 by D.N. Hoxa

  This book is protected under the copyright laws of the United States of

  America. Any reproduction or other unauthorized use of the material or

  artwork herein is prohibited. This is a work of fiction. Names,

  characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s

  imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons,

  living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales, is entirely

  coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  Also by D.N. Hoxa

  The New York Shade Series (Completed)

  Magic Thief

  Stolen Magic

  Immoral Magic

  Alpha Magic

  * * *

  The Marked Series (Completed)

  Blood and Fire

  Deadly Secrets

  Death Marked

  * * *

  Winter Wayne Series (Completed)

  Bone Witch

  Bone Coven

  Bone Magic

  Bone Spell

  Bone Prison

  Bone Fairy

  * * *

  Scarlet Jones Series (Completed)

  Storm Witch

  Storm Power

  Storm Legacy

  Storm Secrets

  Storm Vengeance

  Storm Dragon

  * * *

  Victoria Brigham Series (Completed)

  Wolf Witch

  Wolf Uncovered

  Wolf Unleashed

  Wolf’s Rise

  * * *

  Starlight Series (Completed)

  Assassin

  Villain

  Sinner

  Savior

  * * *

  Morta Fox Series (Completed)

  Heartbeat

  Reclaimed

  Unchanged

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  Chapter 1

  Chapter

  * * *

  Mace

  * * *

  I killed her.

  It didn’t matter if my eyes were open or closed—I saw it all in perfect detail. Every second from two nights ago, when I’d woken up from unconsciousness, when I’d seen her face. Before, she had looked like a terran with dark hair and blue eyes. Just a bartender I’d met in the New Orleans Shade who said her name was Elo.

  But then she’d changed. She’d transformed into the woman I loved with an intensity that didn’t make much sense to me. My soul knew hers, and it didn’t care for reason.

  Magic didn’t care for reason, either.

  I’d looked at her and I’d felt hatred to match my love. I’d seen all the memories of her, both the real ones and the fake ones planted in me by a terran wizard. In my mind, I’d seen her paralyzing me, keeping me in a bathtub full of my own blood while she tortured me—all fake memories. And I’d believed them. I’d believed them wholeheartedly, even though I’d known the truth. It was my father who’d kept me prisoner in a cell below his castle. It had been him who’d ordered the terran Bo-bo to put that spell on me, erase my memories and put new ones in their stead.

  I remembered looking into her eyes, and I remembered her words. How helpless she was. How vulnerable. She’d promised to heal me. She’d tried to help me even when I’d called her a traitor.

  She told me that it wasn’t my fault, while my knife was cutting through her heart. But it was. It was all my fault for being weak in the face of merciless men full of greed for power.

  That’s why I’d killed her. With these two hands, I’d put an end to her life, and I was still breathing. Was there no justice left in the world? What gods would allow such a thing to happen?

  I looked up at the dark sky, at the bright moon taking over half of it. It mocked me, laughed in my face. Justice? There was no such a thing as justice. You either kill or be killed. I’d learned that in the first battle I ever fought, but I must have forgotten somewhere along the way.

  Holding onto the railing of the balcony I was on, I made it to my feet. My brother Ethonas had lured me here from the party my father had thrown to celebrate victory, when there was none. Ethonas brought me out here, away from everyone else, so he could destroy me with nothing but a terran spell.

  He had. Now, I was all alone, as I should be.

  I grabbed my sword in my hand again and tried to breathe. The cold in the air did nothing to calm me. Nothing would—except death. Only this time, I would make sure that I saw it before my father had the chance to cut me open and wipe my mind again.

  When I walked into the hallway that led to the Great Hall of the Winter castle, I began to hear the music. A party. We were celebrating my victory. What victory? I’d slaughtered men—that’s all I’d done. There was no pride in that. There was no joy, but my father, the mighty King Caidenus, cared as much about appearances as he did about living. It was my luck that over five hundred fae of all kingdoms were here in the Winter castle tonight. It was my luck that the hatred my brother Ethonas felt for me pushed him to open my eyes and see reality. It was my luck to die here tonight. I couldn’t have asked for a better fate.

  The tip of my sword touched the marble floors while I dragged my feet. I couldn’t feel my body, even my fingers were numb, but I was determined to see the end now. I’d lived here two more days than she had. I couldn’t leave soon enough.

  People danced and laughed and talked to one another, blissfully unaware of the slaughter that went on inside me. They didn’t care—why should they? I’d killed an elf. That was worthy of praise in their eyes. We’d been at war with elves our whole lives, thousands of years, and I’d once hoped I could change that. I’d wanted to change that. I’d been nothing but a fool.

  My father and the people I called family sat around a large rectangular table, three wide stairs over everyone else in the Great Hall. When I stopped in front of the stairs and looked up at him, I had no words to express my hatred. He was a monster, far worse than anything nature could create.

  And now, the whole world would see.

  Enough with pretending. His true face would show, and all three kingdoms would witness it.

  Raising my sword took all my energy, but I managed. I pointed the tip of my blade right at him. My arms shook, but I controlled myself. It would soon be over.

  “King Caidenus,” I said, as loud as my voice allowed me. “The king of all the Winter kingdom. The most powerful Winter fae to live in Gaena. The most cunning and merciless mind the gods have ever created.”

  The music stopped playing. The people stopped dancing. All their eyes were
on me.

  My father stood up slowly. He tried to keep his expression neutral, like always, but he wasn’t fooling anyone this time. I could see the rage burning in his eyes that were a copy of mine. And he was going to unleash that rage on me.

  I laughed.

  “You murdered your own father to claim the throne you sit on today,” I said. My voice echoed in the Hall. It was a big place, the ceiling high. Everyone could hear me. Everyone was already whispering. “You killed countless innocents, some of them your own blood, for daring to oppose you on any matter.” I could practically hear his jaw clenching. “You tortured me, your own son, for days because I disobeyed an order. You tortured me a second time, too. And you had a terran alter my memories because you needed a pawn in your hands.”

  “Maceno,” he warned, but I wasn’t done yet. Far from it.

  “You needed a fool to manipulate for your sick dreams of claiming control over all fae kingdoms. You forced me to agree to marry Ulana to take control of—”

  His magic hit me from below. It had spread on the marble floor, from his feet and down the stairs, creating a thick layer of ice that I hadn’t even noticed. I’d been too focused on his face—the face of my nightmares, awake and asleep.

  But I was glad I hadn’t seen it. I was glad when I felt the pain, the cold wrapped around me. It threw me in the air, taking my breath away, and slammed me on the floor on my back. It didn’t let go of me. Magic coated my skin, squeezed my lungs, tried to take my vision from me. My sword was no longer in my hands, but that was okay. I had no need for it now.

  “Is this true, Caidenus?” a voice echoed in my mind. King Aurant of the Autumn kingdom.

  My father didn’t say anything. The whispers that went on around me gave me the strength to sit up, at least halfway.

  His eyes were bloodshot, both his arms raised my way. My mother sat on her chair, gripping the armrests, watching. She wouldn’t intervene. Her life depended on it—and the lives of my brothers, too. Five of them because Ethonas had already disappeared.

  “You let me kill her!” I shouted, knowing full well that it was worthless to waste breath now. But I needed to say it anyway. He’d let me kill Taran, my elf, my salvation. The soul of my soul.

  “I should have killed you the day you were born,” he spit, and even though he whispered it, I heard it anyway. I wished he’d killed me the day I was born, too.

  “Is what the boy is saying true, Caidenus? Did you kill King Nixus?” a man from my right said. King Solinnar of the Summer kingdom.

  “You dare speak to me in that manner?” my father said, the magic rushing out of him pushing the large table away. Glass broke. Things spilled on the floor. Nobody dared to even move while he pushed the entire table away from him and stepped forward. Ice leaked from his feet. It reached me in pulses, holding me down, attacking me with every second. It was all I could do not to scream.

  “You are fools, all of you,” he said. “And you, my son, my disgrace, will get the end you so want. And I promise you, I’m going to make it hurt.”

  My heart froze. I felt the layers of ice wrapping around it. My own magic slipped from me, begging me for guidance. It wanted to do something, to protect me, but I wouldn’t let it. I didn’t deserve protection. I didn’t want it.

  I just wanted to die.

  Closing my eyes, I opened my mouth and tried to breathe, even though no more air reached my lungs. My legs and my arms were covered in ice, holding me up. Almost there. Just a few more seconds.

  My body tried to fight death, no matter how much I wished it would just give up already. I no longer heard anything clearly. Not the whispers, not the loud voices. I couldn’t make out a single word, but it did sound like a fight was going on around me. That had been the whole point. It had been the only way I knew for sure to make my father kill me—by exposing him to his enemies.

  Because King Aurant and King Solinnar were his enemies by his standards just as much as the elves.

  And any other creature that breathed and wasn’t in his full control.

  I waited an eternity. I’m coming, I said to Taran in my mind. I knew we weren’t going to the same place, but in those last moments, I wanted to think that I would see her again. I needed to. It was the last gift I would ever give myself.

  The ice around me broke.

  My back hit the floor covered in broken pieces of ice. My lungs expanded and air reached them. My heart picked up the beating, no longer a prisoner of my father’s magic.

  My body was mine again.

  Was it over? Had I died?

  I opened my eyes, and I saw the wide ceiling of the Great Hall. Paintings of fae in battle, spilling elven blood, were portrayed in detail, but none were as beautiful as that painting Taran had left me on the wall. My father had taken away the memory of it completely. What I would give to go back to the Winter Shade, just to see it again.

  Silence all around me. Nothing moved. Nobody whispered anymore, or even breathed. I sat up, surprised to find my strength all mine. My body was no longer numb.

  When I looked around me, my mind became blank once more.

  My father was at the top of the stairs, his mouth wide open, looking at someone on the left of the room—King Aurant. He had his arm raised toward my father, and his mouth was open, too, his eyes bloodshot with anger. Behind me, all of the fae who had been partying until minutes ago, watched with their eyes wide open.

  All of them frozen in place.

  My mind insisted that what I was seeing made no sense. There was no ice around people’s bodies. There was no reason why they would be so completely still, like someone had pressed pause on the world. I looked at my father again, sure that this was his doing. He was manipulating my mind again somehow, but his eyes spit fire and his mouth remained wide open. He’d been shouting his heart out, and King Aurant had been doing the same.

  Yet neither of them moved.

  Nothing moved except me.

  I never got the chance to even stand before I heard that sound. Metal clicking on marble. It came from far away, but I heard it in the complete silence surrounding me. The footsteps grew closer and closer, louder, and soon, I was able to make out where the sound was coming from—the same narrow hallway through which I’d come.

  There was no room for thoughts in my mind, no idea to explain what was happening around me—until I saw it.

  That’s when I knew that I’d already died.

  Chapter 2

  Chapter

  * * *

  The color of its fur was white, and it glowed. Its entire body glowed like there was an inner light to it that its skin couldn’t quite hide from the world. It walked slowly, every bit of it the image of a horse, very similar to Storm, but completely different. I couldn’t move if I tried. I could only stare.

  Its wide black eyes never looked away from me as it approached. My instincts insisted I needed to get up, put a lot more distance between us, yet my body refused to obey. Even the weight of the air had changed. It wasn’t as warm as it had been, or as heavy. It was like we were all standing under an open sky all of a sudden.

  And then, it spoke.

  “Prince Maceno, I am humbled to finally make your acquaintance,” said the voice of a woman. It was barely an echo, and it sounded like it was coming more from my own mind than from the horse. Her mouth didn’t move at all, only her neck and head lowered for a bit, before her eyes met mine again.

  “Who are you?” I asked, only realizing that I’d spoken when I heard my voice. It was different from hers. It was real. Hers was a breath away from a dream.

  “We are the Winter spirits, Prince.” The horse took another step forward, moving her elegant neck to the side. Snow white hair, as soft as Taran’s, bounced around it, threatening to hypnotize me completely. The way the light bent around her—and the light that came from within her—made me want to stare at her forever. “My sisters and I have been watching you our whole lives. Your time to die has not come yet, Prince Maceno. No matter ho
w much you wish for it.”

  Her words were lost on me. I shook my head. “Watching me? How were you watching me? From where?”

  “From our home,” the voice said, taking over my mind completely, as if I already belonged to it. “The mountains at the castle’s back.”

  My flesh rose in goose bumps. The mountains at the castle’s back were perfectly visible from the windows of the room I grew up in. I’d been terrified of them until I became an adult. I always felt like someone was constantly watching me. My brothers mocked me for it to this day.

  “I don’t…I don’t understand.” What she said made no sense to me at all. She made no sense.

  “We used to live among the fae centuries ago, but your grandfather banished my kind when we became too powerful to control. But we never left. It is our duty to protect the Winter kingdom, and we shall do so whenever we are needed,” she explained, her voice light as a feather. She looked at all the people surrounding me, everyone who was still perfectly motionless.

  “Did you do this?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.

  “We did. We had no choice,” she said, and suddenly, she sounded alarmed. I wanted to ask why, and how, but she didn’t let me. “You must get up now. This is not where you die.”