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Fantasy
(Fic)
Born to Die: Book 1 of the Born to Die trilogy
by Kat Frost


Sajia Tiet'fa would give anything to die. She is an Eternal, cursed to come back to life each time she dies. Eternals are forced to fight battles not their own, and die over and over again until their minds snap. No one survives a hundred deaths. Sajia is given a last chance to prove herself. Soon, she is leaping from death to death, closer each time to that fateful one hundred, caught up in a whirlwind centered around one man she can't seem to get away from... even if she wanted to. Sajia embarks on an epic mission to change the course of the future, but the price might be too high. Just how much is she willing to sacrifice? "Sounds interesting!"

Prologue

“From beyond the reach of mortal plains, I summon you, Varak, ancient demon of darkness! Speak!”

The demon sighed, no more than a shadowy outline in the red smoke in the summoning circle. “Really, Lamaar, less drama, please. You know you cannot summon me unless I wanted to come. You think yourself powerful, but you are but a tiny bug in my world, hardly worth the effort of using.”

“Yet still you always come at my beck and call. And why? Do you know why,...



Chapter 1
Fifty Shekls of Silver

I didn’t want to be here.

I was more than a dowry, more than a source for silver. I was mad at my aunt and uncle, Lord and Lady Opis, for trying to marry me off as soon as possible just so they could get my dowry. But as if that wasn’t bad enough, when it didn't work out (I wanted to spend most of my time reading, not learning to dance, so not very marriageable in the high class), and they were fed up with me, they decided to sell me. SELL ME!

Well, it was the king’...



Chapter 2
Leander The Torture God

I drifted slowly to wakefulness in a haze of warm fuzzy euphoria. I felt cozy, and... perfect. As if newly minted. I let my eyes drift open, and cool air gushed into them. My vision was watery, and the ceiling above me swam. Where was I? For a moment, I thought I was back in my room at Aecor, where my uncle was lord over what were my father’s one-time estates.

But no. I was lying a hard bed with the thinnest of mattresses on it, in a narrow windowless room, only slightly bigger than the cell r...



Chapter 3
Eternally Welcome

I came to myself in a pleasant fuzz. I felt like I’d just had a nasty nightmare, but it was distant and gone. I peeled my eyes open and found myself lying on my back on a sawdust floor and bolted upright as memory flooded back. Memory or dream? I studied the arena, just like it had been... when I’d... thought I’d died. But the sawdust was not drenched with my blood; in fact, it was immaculate. Leander was nowhere to be seen. I was alone, my body had that newly minted feel, perfectly fresh ...



Chapter 4
Living with Pain

My first training session with Borri went okay, I guess. We claimed a room out of the wing that was the bedrooms for Eternals and converted it into a training room, or practiced on the sly. Borri said that Eternals weren’t generally blabs, but if Leander found out that anyone but him was teaching an Eternal anything, he would be furious and put a stop to it at once.

The thing that frustrated me most was that I couldn’t change overnight. I tried as hard as I could to do exactly everything ...



Chapter 5
When the Fae Walked the World

The pain punched me in the gut in way of greeting. My head thrummed, and each breath sent stars of pain shooting through my abdomen.

“She’s waking up,” a deep voice said. “Go faster, but don’t rush it.”

“You’re contradicting yourself,” a tense female voice snapped irritably. Sparks of pain crawled methodically across my stomach with almost hypnotizing rhythm. “Just hold her still.”

“Whaa –” I tried,...



Chapter 6
I Get My Head Chopped Off

It continued to be hell for several long months. And I only say for several months because after that, things got even worse.

I kept careful track of how many times I died, and I’d died twenty-seven times by the time I was beheaded. Each time I’d just begin to recover from an injury, Leander would decide I was due for another lesson in death, and shortly afterwards I was always due for a lesson on living with pain, and so on. I could never catch a break. When I wasn’t dead, I was u...



Chapter 7
Everything Has a Cost

My head hurt.

The smell of herbal tea filled my nostrils, pulling me from my muddled dreams and into a painful awakening. My mouth had a sour aftertaste in it, too. I coughed, but it only served to make my head explode with even more pain.

“Interesting night?” Paathke’s accented voice caught my attention. I rolled over to face the room rather than the wall, and saw her sitting cross-legged on the floor, a covered lantern beside her. A pot of tea, still steaming, perched on a...



Chapter 8
Ramuri Take Care of Each Other

When I got back to the Low Quadrant, dinner had already been served. I had only had one meal that day was felt near to starving; I was not going to miss a second. I asked a servant to get me something, and he nodded and trotted obediently off. I didn’t envy the lives they led, arguably almost as bad as ours.

I drifted aimlessly after that, feeling Borri’s absence, unable to locate Paathke. Practicing wouldn’t be the same without her. I almost settled down with a book in my room &nda...



Chapter 9
Never the Same Again

For what it was worth, my birthday was last week. Even I hadn’t noticed until today. I was sixteen years old now.


I stood in a stone room, trying not to tremble, knowing what was coming. We were underneath the castle kitchens, and when I’d asked why the smoke wouldn’t be a problem, Leander had waved me off with a “ventilation system – you wouldn’t understand and it’s neither here nor there”. It was my initiation. I had seen Paathke’s...



Chapter 10
The Warriors Three

The shouting reached my ears before we’d even reached the dusk-darkened main square.


“The Warriors Three! Look, here they come!”


“Sajia Tiet’fa! Sajia Tiet’fa! Borri Alka’ad! Paathke Hogran!”


“Protect our city, protect our kingdom!”


“All hail the heroes, the Warriors Three!”


“Please!” A woman thrust her way to the front of the crowd,...



Chapter 11
Gae Bolg

We rode out as the moon peered between the clouds, warning of the approach of midnight only hours away. Most people wouldn’t dare travel in the dark, especially not where we were heading, but the other two had come to rely on my eyes and ears as our nighttime armor. No pressure or anything. (See? Sarcasm.)


Nothing but crickets disturbed our ride for hours, the clink of the bits and creaks of the tack, and the steady clop-clop of the horses’ hooves forming a rhythmic backdrop ...



Chapter 12
Disaster in Gae Athlum

A day and a half later, we reached Gae Athlum.


“What in the...” Paathke muttered. We were lingering deep in the protection of the trees, waiting for nightfall, and trying to figure out what to make of Gae Athlum. In the daylight, Paathke and Borri could now see what only I had at Gae Ark: there was no fires lit in the town, and even in late afternoon, there was no sign of movement in the streets or windows. It was another ghost town, and my uneasiness only grew.





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