Finder's Gate Episode Four

By Odette C. Bell

Zel and Helen are thrown right back into the heart of destruction. They’re dragged back to the Hall of Doors, and this time, there will be no escape.
Can they save the multiverse? It’ll be easier than saving each other, for by the end of this tale, someone must die.
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Finder’s Gate follows a bounty hunter and a hidden princess fighting through the multiverse to save her and everyone. If you love your space operas with action, heart, and a splash of romance, grab Finder’s Gate Episode Four today and soar free with an Odette C. Bell series.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Odette C. Bell
• Release date: Nov 7, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463548363

Book preview

Chapter 1

Zel

I didn’t have any time to celebrate. Just before I could squeeze my fingers tighter around Helen’s, I saw something appear only 20 meters away. In the split second I had before it manifested, my body already appreciated what it had to be. It was Berez. He’d somehow detected us, despite the chaos of our ship breaking apart.

He was coming to finish the job.

I had a chance to brace my body, to bring my arms up, to get ready to fight, despite the fact I had no chance.

As soon as Berez appeared, the last lines of light flickering around his form as the transportation beam cut out, he thrust forward. Eddies of gas shifted around him as he plowed our way.

Though my heart suspected he would go straight for Helen, he didn’t. He was a competent finder, after all, and every competent finder knew that the first thing you did was get rid of your competition.

I had a chance to brace myself, then the bastard slammed right into me. He rounded a hand into a fist and pounded it across my jaw. It had such force that instantly my visor cracked.

My head virtually exploded as every single warning alarm in the zero-gravity suit blared at me that I was one single hit away from total destruction.

Though I hadn’t managed to pair my communication link up to Helen’s zero-gravity suit, that didn’t matter, because I heard her voice echoing in my helmet as she screamed my name.

She still had a hold of Talia’s hand, but when Berez had punched me, I’d let go of hers. Now I twisted around, angling toward Helen with a kick. It landed on her shoulder, and I managed to push her even further out of the way as Berez came around to finish this fight.

No, Zel! Helen tried.

I braced myself. Was this really how it was going to end?

The answer was no. For as Berez came toward me one last time, his fists rounded until they looked like two hammers, I felt something starting to emanate out from Helen.

It hadn’t been 10 minutes. It had been about six and a half. That apparently didn’t matter. Obviously the desperation of the situation allowed Helen to reach in and find a hidden source of energy she’d never known existed.

Helen screamed my name once more, then she spread a hand toward me.

As Berez’s fist flashed toward my face, I spread my hand toward Helen, and I waited to either die or be saved. For now. For one thing was clear – even if a miracle occurred, and I managed to get out of this situation, the race for the end was only just beginning.

Chapter 2

Helen

No. I couldn’t let him die. I couldn’t be this close to him and do nothing. So as the pressure mounted, as my gut told me he only had seconds before that Level VIII finder smashed Zel into pieces, I called on energy I hadn’t known existed. It rose from within me, blasting up my back, spreading across my shoulders, sinking easily into my jaw until I felt all of me vibrate as if someone had miniaturized me down to the size of a spinning electron.

As that power blasted through me, I spread a hand toward Zel. But I spread more toward him, too. I let the energy of a dimension jump wash through me. It felt exactly as if I’d swallowed all the fire and yet all the ice in all of the multiverse. These chaotic sensations ripped through me, making me feel as if I would never be normal again. But I didn’t need to be normal. I just had to do this one last thing.

As my fingers spread, I managed to create an effect field. Talia was still in my grip, and I let her tighten her fingers around mine so that I could concentrate on finally reaching Zel. Just at the last moment, I managed to wrap a hand around his boot.

And I let the chaos of the multiverse spread around me. Just as had happened the last two times I’d jumped raw, as I was starting to call it, every shape and sensation imaginable spread around me, swirling as if I’d jumped inside the world’s largest kaleidoscope.

I had just a moment – just a fraction of a second – to appreciate I’d done it, that I was about to save him.

But then I felt something. It started in my sternum, and it spread. Back when I’d only been ordinary Helen and I hadn’t had access to my memories of Princess Akina, I wouldn’t have known what this was. Now, I couldn’t deny it.

A split second before Berez reached around his back and pulled something out from a magnetic holster, I knew what it was.

It was my lock – the same one Berez had taken from me on Earth when he’d shot off my hand.

And it was recognizing me, pulling Berez toward me.

I no longer had any more time. I’d torn a hole through the multiverse, and it now had to swallow us whole, but as my eyes widened in total fright, I appreciated one thing. I hadn’t managed to save everyone.

I’d only condemned us.

Chapter 3

Zel

I knew what would happen just before that bastard brought Helen’s lock out from behind his back. Something in my gut had spread like poison, telling me we wouldn’t get safely out of this disaster after all.

There was nothing I could do as the multiverse opened around us like a flower. I couldn’t even re-grip my fingers around Helen’s, because she was holding me by the foot.

All I could do was try to remain conscious – struggle to figure out a plan – as we were ripped right through the fabric of reality.

Despite the fact that Helen hadn’t extended a hand out to Berez, her effect field had spread to encase him, recognizing Helen’s lock and having no ability but to draw it toward her.

I’d known when Berez had stolen that lock that it would come back and bite us.

Or strangle us – it would all depend on how Berez wanted to kill me.

As those swirling eddies of chaos shifted around me, I finally felt myself appearing in real air. I had a split second to appreciate that I’d appeared several meters above the black obsidian floor of the Hall of Doors. I managed to crouch, wrapping my arms in before I fell, face first. My zero-gravity suit had already undergone so much damage, that blow was all it took, and it warned me in a shaking alarm that I’d lost my air seal.

That didn’t matter, as I was no longer surrounded by the destructive power of a gas giant.

What did matter, however, is what would happen next.

I immediately shoved up, bracing myself for Berez’s attack.

But Berez did not attack.

Helen landed beside me, Talia next to her. Though Helen landed on her feet, Talia fell down to her knees. She, at least, was conscious. Berez? Berez wasn’t.

Helen immediately thrust to her feet. Attack him, Zel – you have a chance. This is the first time he’s jumped raw, she announced in a shaking breath.

I didn’t need any more explanations. Despite the fact Berez would have jumped countless times through the Hall of Doors, and certainly was no newbie to the act of traveling through dimensions, going raw, as Helen had put it, was a completely different experience. I’d managed to stay conscious the first time I’d done it, but I imagined that had simply been out of pure luck and desperation.

As Berez rolled onto his side, collapsing his hands over his head, I appreciated the poor bastard was as confused as hell. But that wouldn’t last.

I didn’t need Helen to order me again, and I shifted over, skidded down to my knees, and reached out. I wrapped a hand on his shoulder, drawing him backward.

He wasn’t in a zero-gravity suit. No, he was in finder armor, and it was sophisticated enough that no matter how hard my suited fingers scrabbled against it, they could not break through.

With every second, I appreciated the fact that Berez was coming to his senses.

What can I do to help? What can I do? Talia spluttered. She shoved to her feet and hovered several meters back.

Leave it to me, Helen stated flatly as she shifted forward.

Helen, I screamed.

I know what I’m doing, Zel, she said, her tone dark.

She reached Berez just as he twitched. I had a hand around his waist, keeping him locked to the ground with nothing more than my raw strength.

Helen shifted down to one knee, reached both her hands forward, and clamped them on either side of his helmet.

My gut twitched as it told me she was about to do something incredible. After all, she’d just ripped us a path through the very multiverse. Who knew what incredible power she had at her fingertips now?

… She had nothing. That became apparent as, several seconds later, Berez started to struggle against me, his awareness returning like a bear waking up from hibernation.

Helen, it’s too dangerous. Take Talia and get out of here. I’ll buy you time.

There’s no way we’re leaving you, Helen spat as she tried to lock her hands even harder around Berez’s visor.

Helen! I screamed.

This isn’t working, she spluttered. It’s the gloves, she concluded. She thrust back, getting some distance between herself and the now bucking form of Berez.

She wrenched off her gloves, reached forward, and locked her bare fingers on his visor.

Helen! I tried one last time.

Helen closed her eyes. As I stared at her, I appreciated she looked like a completely different person. I swore I could see more than the princess shining through – it almost appeared as if her face was actually changing on fast forward. Or maybe it was just the sense of regal