Mark of Fate

by May, W. J.

  Carter took off his jacket and rubbed his eyes, looking just as abruptly exhausted as he had when he’d first arrived. “Rae, no one understands the need for hybrid equality more than me, but I’m telling you that you cannot throw away your entire future in response to a problem that’s plagued our kind of people from the beginning of time. You need to work within the system—”

  She snorted. “You sound like Devon.”

  Carter looked up sharply. “Devon Wardell is an exceptionally bright young man. One who’s given up a lot to help get you where you are today. You’d do well to listen to him.”

  Rae’s eyes flashed as she folded her arms across her chest. “Lanford said almost those same words to me the first year I was here. He turned out to be traitor.” She glared at Carter. “Tell me something: If the Privy Council had known about Cromfield and the list from the beginning—if they were the ones who had sent the four of us to track them all down—why would they be doing it?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “They’d send us out after the hybrids just to keep them from Cromfield, so that he wouldn’t get any stronger. It would’ve had nothing to do with saving their lives, because in the eyes of the Council, they shouldn’t even exist. I shouldn’t even exist.” Her blood raced hot through her veins as she tried to keep her voice steady. “And now you’re telling me that I should be grateful that they think I’m useful enough to keep around? I should be grateful that they haven’t labeled me ‘potentially dangerous’ enough to throw me in one of their dungeons? That I should be so grateful that I’ll put on their little leash and come back and work for them? That’s what you’re saying?”

  Silence fell between them as both retreated to their chairs. The little room filled up with the sound of quick, agitated breathing.

  When Carter spoke, he was quiet and calm. Eerily calm. “You think you’re the only one with a stake in this?” he murmured, barely loud enough for her to hear.

  She switched into Devon’s tatù with a frown, making sure she’d understood. “Excuse me?”

  Carter sat back abruptly, looking at Rae with speculative restraint. “I’m in love with your mother. You know this?”

  Rae’s mouth fell wide open. Her mind scrambled as she tried to figure out where he was going with that, but it kept circling back to a single, terrifying thought. She’d known. Just refused to admit it to herself.

  Carter as a stepfather.

  “I…uh…” She blushed and tucked her hair back behind her ears. “I try not to think about it, to be honest…”

  “Well, I am,” Carter said firmly. While his voice was calm his eyes were a whirlwind of emotions, each one battling for supremacy over the next. “And if she would ever do me the honor of letting me share in her life…I’ve to come to terms with a simple thing.” His voice dropped to something scarcely above a whisper. “She and I could never have children.”

  For the second time that day Rae felt like something punched her in the gut. Her eyes welled up with tears before she could stop them, and she lowered her head quickly to the table so Carter wouldn’t see her cry. “Because…they might be like me?” she asked in a broken voice just as soft as his.

  “No, Rae!” The next second Carter was on her side of the table, sinking down in the chair beside her and taking her hand. “If Beth and I were blessed to have a child as spirited and intelligent, as gifted and brave…well, I couldn’t ask for anything more.”

  Still on the verge of tears Rae finally lifted her eyes to see him. She didn’t think they’d ever been so close before, not even when he was using his ability to stare inside her head. She could see every single flick of hazel in his eyes. Every single line of worry etched into his forehead.

  As she stared something he’d said earlier suddenly made sense. He’d been ranting about the sting of Gabriel’s betrayal, because Gabriel had been entrusted with the most important things.

  She just now realized that in Carter’s mind, one of those things was her.

  “But I see what this world has done to you,” he continued. “I see the horrors and dangers it’s put you through. I see the walls you’ve had to put up; I know how hard it is for you to trust. And no matter how hard your mother, Mr. Wardell, or I constantly try to stop it, it seems as though there’s always someone new on the horizon waiting to do you harm.” He pulled back and shook his head, completely unaware that Beth was standing in the doorway behind them, silent as a ghost. “No, I could not bring another hybrid child into a world such as this,” he said again. However, despite the deep sadness written on his face, his eyes flashed up with determination. “That’s why people like you and I have to do everything in our power to change it.”

  A bit overwhelmed, Rae leaned back and dropped her eyes to the table, thinking hard as she bit her lip with a little frown. She had never thought of it that way. She had always considered hybrids in terms of retribution for those already scorned, not paving the way for those yet to come.

  And what of children she and Devon would have? Sure, it wasn’t something they’d ever talked about but that’s what someday was for, right? What if their children didn’t get a someday because Rae was too entrenched in all the politics happening right now to lift her eyes to the future?

  Beth peeled herself away from the wall and settled down on the other side of Carter, silently taking his hand as they both watched Rae, giving her time to think.

  When she was finally finished she stared up at the both of them—two of the people most harmed, and yet, made strongest by this whole ordeal, the decision already simmering around in her head strengthened with resolve. “And you really think we can best accomplish that by working with the Privy Council?”

  There were no more word games between her and Carter now. No more sarcastic jibes or displays of power. Just the plain truth. And the road to get there.

  “It’s the single ruling body of government in our society,” he said simply. “If there’s ever to be any kind of social change, it’ll start there. Someone just needs to be there to start it.”

  Rae shook her head helplessly. “And you think that someone should be me?”

  All at once both Carter and Beth’s faces relaxed into twin smiles. They shared a knowing look before turning those smiles to Rae.

  “No, honey,” Beth said warmly, taking her hand, “we know it should be you.”

  Rae hesitated, thinking of the path they were considering and mentally bracing herself against everything that was sure to follow. “I make a lot of mistakes,” she said nervously, thinking back on everything from getting outmatched by Cromfield to this newest mishap with Kraigan.

  Carter smiled. “That’s why you need a strong group of people around you to help.”

  Rae’s eyes drifted to the window where her friends were having a silent argument. As if on cue, Devon slipped where he was standing and the other two lowered their heads slowly to peer at him on the ground. “…Great.”

  Beth grinned. “You’ll figure it out. Lord knows we did.” She gestured to herself and Carter.

  “What does that mean?”

  Carter squeezed Beth’s hand. “One of us becomes the President of the Privy Council while the other rises up to become one of the greatest agents the Privy Council has ever known—a woman takes that prize? Yes, Rae, we are firm believers in changing things from within the system.”

  The corners of Rae’s lips turned up in a sly little grin. “Hate to break it to you, Carter, but you’re only one of two sitting presidents on the Privy Council.”

  Carter accepted that wisdom with a wry smile of his own. “That’s true. Just one of the many things we’ll be attempting to set right.”

  “First on the list.”

  The words were out of Rae’s mouth before she realized she’d said them, and both Carter and Beth shared a quick glance before looking back at her with hopeful smiles.

  “What exactly does that mean?” Beth asked, unable to keep a note of pride from her voice.

  Rae
sighed, glancing out the window at her friends as the chapter before them was suddenly made clear. “That means…we’re going back to London.”

  Chapter 9

  There was a special moment hidden inside every London morning, a moment when the whole world seemed to stop. A mere split second in time—the moment just before sunrise. As if the city itself was taking a breath before starting the day.

  Blink and you’d miss it.

  Rae never blinked. Over the last couple of years she’d come to understand that she couldn’t really count on anything. People, places, idealisms, beliefs. Plans for the future, visions of the past. They could be rock-solid one moment, and then the next—gone; almost as if they’d never existed in the first place.

  But she could count on this moment. This solitary instant of peace and quiet. A suspended flicker in time where she could gather her thoughts, close her eyes, and simply breathe.

  CRASH!

  The sound of shattering glass brought her back to earth.

  “Sorry!” Devon called as she whirled around in panic, slopping a good deal of her morning coffee down the front of her robe. “Sorry again,” he muttered, staring down guiltily at the box of broken cocktail glasses she and Molly had purchased for the apartment.

  Rae’s eyes swept over the crystal shards and she fought back a sigh. This wasn’t the first one of these accidents they’d had even this morning. It most likely wouldn’t be the last.

  “It’s okay,” she reassured him, kneeling down to help clean up the mess. The front of her silken robe was hot-glued to her chest with spilled cappuccino, but she maintained a careful smile.

  Devon was not so careful, his utter frustration clearly written all over his face. “I got it,” he muttered sullenly, pushing away her hands. In the process he accidently cut himself on a piece of glass, adding a bright sprinkling of blood to the shattered pieces. “Damn it!” He pulled back with a hiss, holding up his sliced fingers. “Are you kidding me?!”

  Rae bowed her head and bit down on her lip. As someone who had lived in the constant shadow of Devon’s almost superman-esque dependability these last few years, the loss of his tatù and the overwhelming discoordination that followed it could be seen as just a little bit funny. She knew she wasn’t the only one who thought so. Although, she was the only one who had the sensitivity and tact to keep it to herself.

  Regardless, she hoped that wherever he was, Kraigan would just pick up a new ability already so that Devon could get his back. It was as though someone had clipped his wings. And try as he might to take it one day at a time, she didn’t know how much more his frayed nerves could take.

  “I mean, really?!” He cursed again, throwing down the pieces he was holding in disgust. “Is this how you guys feel all the time? This weak and pathetic?”

  He misinterpreted the look on Rae’s face and clarified.

  “I mean, not you. You still have my ability.” He scowled and made no effort whatsoever to keep the resentment off his face. “But the rest of the world, Molly, Julian?” He shook some droplets of blood from his fingers to emphasize his point. “Is this normal?!”

  “Hey,” Rae wrapped his hand in a dishtowel before kissing him gently on the wrist, “I think you’ve just learned to rely a little too much on your tatù to do things for you. It’ll come back.”

  “What?” he sulked, staring at his hand like it had offended him. “My ink or my innate ability to walk without falling down like the rest of you cavemen?”

  Rae’s lips twitched, but she held it together. “Your ink. Kraigan’s a jealous little demon. He can’t be around people with tatùs for very long before needing to steal someone else’s. You’ll get yours back; you just need to hang in there until you do.”

  When he continued to pout, she kissed further and further up his arm, ending with his lips and coaxing out a reluctant smile with one of her own.

  “In the meantime maybe you should refrain from carrying boxes of glass. And, like…using the blender and stuff.”

  He stared into her eyes, looking absolutely heartbroken. “How will I make my smoothies?”

  She snorted with laughter. “You don’t drink smoothies.”

  “I could start to. I think I could learn to like them.” He gazed mournfully at the broken glasses. “Now I’ll never get the chance.”

  “Tell you what,” she giggled again and kissed him again, “I’ll make your smoothies.”

  He held his hurt hand up in the air while the other snaked around her back, tugging her teasingly into his lap. She straddled him with a grin, brushing his dark hair out of his eyes. Despite all recent evidence to the contrary, and though he’d never admit it to himself, Devon didn’t particularly need his tatù. He was already strong and fast and a naturally gifted fighter. That being said, she rarely, if ever, got to see this side of him. All his moping aside, it was kind of adorable. For possibly the first time since they’d met he needed someone to take care of him.

  With a mischievous grin Rae pulled sharply on his hair, snapping his head back so it was tilted up towards hers.

  “Miss Kerrigan, it would be most unfair to take advantage of me in this state,” he teased, eyes sparkling as he stared hungrily at her lips. “I’m clearly not at my best.”

  “Are you kidding?” Rae grinned. “It might be the only chance I ever get to control you. You could be my man-servant. I could send you out to do my bidding.”

  He chuckled and glanced once more at the broken glasses. “As long as it isn’t anything too important we should be fine.”

  As if on cue, the door swung open and Molly and Julian breezed inside. While Julian was laden down with boxes, Molly was carrying nothing but her bedazzled cell phone and a miniature mug of espresso. Once they were inside she pointed to where Julian was to discard the boxes, and pulled off her oversized sunglasses with a look of dismay. “Another one bites the dust, huh?” Her eyes swept over the crystal in question before narrowing abruptly. “Oh Devon! The Waterford? Why were you even holding that?”

  “It’s not his fault,” Julian said, his eyes twinkling, “he’s like a toddler learning to walk for the first time.”

  Molly swung around with her hands on her hips. “That’s kind of my point. You don’t give a box full of high quality crystal stemware to a toddler!”

  “It’s not my fault!” Devon exclaimed, burying his face in his hands. “I had no idea what kind of lesser world the lot of you have been living in. It’s demoralizing as hell. How do you guys even walk down the stairs?”

  Molly smirked. “A lot better than you. I saw you fall earlier today.”

  Devon’s high cheekbones went pink as he dropped his eyes to the floor. “I didn’t think anyone was around.”

  “It’s going to get better, man,” Julian said comfortingly, clapping him on the back. “You only tripped once while getting ready today. And for a masochistic moment I almost even considered letting you drive. Then I thought of the pedestrians…”

  “Oh shut up, Jules. You have no idea what it’s like.”

  Julian raised his eyebrows. “I have no idea what it’s like not to have super speed and agility?”

  “You know what I mean; you’re all used to having things be so terrible. I’ve come to expect something better.”

  This time Rae had to duck her head to hide her smile at the look on Julian’s face. It was possible Devon didn’t realize that in his quest for sympathy he was alienating a lot of people.

  Julian shook his head in amused disbelief. “Welcome to reality, princess.”

  Devon ignored this and proceeded to try to pour himself some orange juice. The second before he did so, Julian’s eyes flashed white and, though he remained quiet, his lips turned up in a secret, knowing smile. As Devon reached up to get the carton, his shoe caught on the edge of the counter and the whole thing slipped from his hands, exploding in the sink in a giant shower of orange spray.

  As Devon blinked drops of juice from his desolate eyes, Rae shot Julian an accusatory gla
re, slipping into Maria’s telepathy.

  I saw that, jerk.

  His eyes widened innocently as he mouthed what?

  You know what.

  He flashed an unapologetic grin, but went to help his friend clean up.

  Meanwhile Rae tossed the last of the broken crystal into the bin and turned to Molly. “Don’t worry. I’ll conjure us some new stuff.”

  Molly shook her head with a sigh. “But it won’t be Waterford.”

  “No, it’ll be better,” Rae tried to cheer her up. “It’ll be magic!” She lifted her hands and was surprised when Molly slapped them back out of the air.

  “We’re not going for magic here, Rae! We’re going for normal. Or at least as normal as things can get. No immortal villains, no mildewing hostels in Peru… just four friends who happen to have super powers, living it up in a London penthouse. Normal as that.” She slapped Julian in the chest as his eyes went white again. “Did you not just hear me? Don’t do that! With our luck you’ll get some sort of vision that the world’s about to end!”

  “I’m just seeing what kind of parking there’s going to be on Sixth.”

  Her face changed immediately. “Oh! Can you also check Keaston and Third?”

  “I thought we were having a move-in day,” Rae interjected, staring around the house full of unopened boxes. They’d made great progress while waiting for Gabriel to return, but they hadn’t had much to unpack. Now that the bulk of their things had arrived from Guilder it felt a bit like they were back at square one.

  “Can’t,” Molly said breezily, “I’m meeting Luke for breakfast.”

  Julian snatched an apple from the counter and headed for the door. “And some of us have our own place to move into,” he added, casting Molly a bitter look. “You know, just in case anyone forgot and demanded help moving all their boxes instead.”

  “Jules, don’t be absurd,” she countered, tilting her head to the side as she examined her freshly painted nails. “You’re not even halfway done unloading my storage box.”