Strings of Fate

Strings of Fate 185- Honesty and hatred As | approach the house, | can see neighbours peering out their windows at us. | give one of them, a kid, a cheerful little wave before he ducks back behind the curtain. | guess the door breaking was a little loud and this is a bit of a weird situation. I'm surprised the police haven't turned up yet. Not that they would do anything. A Shifter Alpha has complete authority over their Shifters. If Bellamy wants her in jail or something, all he has to do is parade her up to the police station, prove who he is and tell them how long she should be put away for. | swear, the only reason the different races don’t all have separate prisons is because they just don’t need them that often. When you add magic and other impressive abilities, most people who commit serious crimes go down swinging and end up dead, like Tristain did. If he had dropped it then he probably would have just been locked away. It’s one of the reasons the MRO doesn’t like having Unknown magics around. No faction is responsible for us. We're a nightmare for lawyers. | can argue that as a Magic, only the leader of my particular race can sentence me. Since no one knows what that actually is... well that’s where it gets confusing. Sure, | am sort of human, but so are Witches and they are sentenced by their covens. Basically our law system doesn’t work if you don’t fit into one of their carefully prepared little boxes. Although I guess that now I'm registered as the female Feline Alpha, | might actually cunder Shifter rules now. It's hard to be sure. Not that | plan on rule breaking, it’s just a strange thought.

| carefully step over the wreckage that used to be the front door. It’s pretty much shattered. There will be no saving this door. Shaun is the first one to noticein the doorway and looks a little shocked. He looks like he might object to my presence, but then he makes eye contact withand after a moment is forced to look away.

He drops his gaze and says nothing. | am about to head into the living room where | can hear talking when | remember the kid in the window.

“Shaun, can you doa favour?” | ask. He looks shocked.

“Of course Al- Miss Gale.” He seems surprised by his own slip. So am I. Was he about to callAlpha? | guess | did just force him to submit. Still, it's enough to makech*ck myself. What am | doing? Storming in here alone. | should wait for Bellamy, we can figure this out together. Shaun seems to notice the change in my expression because he relaxes a little.

“What did you need?” He asks.

“Oh, | was going to ask if maybe you could go chat with the neighbours. | can see their awake. Maybe just let them. know that the Shifter Alpha is here dealing with a Shifter who has stepped out of line. Assure them that no one is being harmed and that they are completely safe. We've got a bit of an audience at the windows.” | point out. He raises an eyebrow but nods his agreement and heads out, passing Bellamy on the way and nodding respectfully.

“That was a good idea.” Bellamy comments. | shrug in response.

“I'd want to know.” Is all | tell him. He is looking atwarily and after a moment | sigh and hold my hand out to him. He steps forward and clasps my hand, twisting our fingers together and holding tight.

“We'll talk to her together.” | say firmly and Bellamy givesa half smile as he nods before leadinginto the living room.

Cheryl is tied to what looks like a dining chair. I'd say that’s enough to hold her, but she’s a Shifter. She could probably break the ropes with enough effort, or just shift out of them. But she isn’t moving at all. Not speaking either, just glaring at everyone. There are guards on either side of her. I've seen them around, but | don’t know them by name. I'll have to remember to find out later so | can thank them properly. | turn my focus back to Cheryl. Her blonde hair which was so perfectly styled last t| saw her is a mess around her face and | can see regrowth at the roots like she’s been 1/2 185-Honesty and hatred neglecting it for a while now. If it’s even possible she looks even thinner than she did before. She looks like she’s barely eaten or slept. I'd be tempted to feel bad for her, except the way she’s glaring atmakes that impossible. If looks could kill I would be six feet under and then some.

“You can speak now.” Bellamy tells her coldly. Immediately she starts spitting out threats and insults. Oh, so that’s why she was quiet. Bellamy did his Alpha command type thing. | assthat’s why she’s not trying to escape either.

“Where is Kiara?” | demand. Cheryl pauses in her tirade and seems briefly confused before she understands my question.

“Kiara? Is that the brat’s name? | don’t have her.” She looks smug and while I've never been a violent person, | kind of want to hit her right now. | decide that instead of pushing her to answer questions she doesn’t want to talk about, Ill see what she IS willing to answer first so | can cup with better questions.

*Why did you take her?” | demand. She shrugs as well as she can with her arms pinned at her sides by rope.

“She can be useful. But mostly | just figured you would notice. You didn’t even react to my first threat, | thought | needed to step it up a bit. Then you moved in with the Alpha which made it difficult to get a message to you. | thought this would make my point just as well. You took my son from me, so | took a child from you. | assshe’s related to you somehow. Your marks match and I've never seen anyone else with that particular marking.” She grins atin a way that definitely suits the psycho nthat we've been addressing her by.

“But why? | don’t even know her!” | realise I'm beginning to raise my voice and carefully take a deep breath to steady myself. Bellamy squeezes my hand in encouragement.

“You don’t? | just assumed you did. It doesn’t matter either way. Clearly taking the girl still got your attention so it did what it was meant to do. Her powers aren't the sas yours, but they're similar enough. It was a coincidence that | found her. Just saw her passing on the street and saw her mark. But when | looked into it and realised that your magic is related to the fates, well | knew what needed to be done. If you weren't so obsessed with fate none of this would have ever happened. Using the girl's ability to see death I've been picking out victims who aren’t meant to die yet, just like my son shouldn't have died.” She smirks and 1 stare in horror.

“Why? Why would you do that?” I ask quietly, my tone almost completely flat.

“To show you that you're wrong. Fate is wrong. It changes all the time. If my son can be killed because of fates meddling then why not someone else?” She is practically ranting at this point. She's actually insane. She killed all these people just to basically prove that my powers are useless? Every last bit of pity | had for her because she lost her son is gone now and all that’s left is hate. | hate her, | always will hate her and if this is the kind of person she is, | don’t see how there was ever any other outcome. For half a second everything is dark, Like I've closed my eyes or blinked really slowly. When | open them | see something new, something I've never seen before. My threads have changed. There is a black thread joining myself and Cheryl that most definitely was not there before.

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