Divine Illusions

by Alix Sharpe

  “I never lied,” he said, reaching for her again. “You asked me if I had a thing for the Captain. I said no. I never did, and I never will. I didn’t lie to you about that. But I also didn’t see what good it would do anybody to randomly volunteer that we slept together. Once. I didn’t ask you to tell me about your one-night stands.”

  “So let me get this straight,” she said, tone steady and sharp. “You didn’t even like her, and never will, yet you respect her enough to keep it secret? But you were willing to hide it from me? It wasn’t about ‘volunteering’ the information, Hale. I asked you directly. And you covered it up. That’s a fucking lie.”

  “I didn’t cover up shit,” he said, tone suddenly harsh, “I told you we could talk about it. When you were sober. Reasonable. Not like this.”

  “Like this?” Keira said, mock-sweetness coating her words. “Soren, am I being unreasonable?”

  “Not at all,” he sneered, smirking at Hale.

  “Why are you asking that piece of shit?” Hale said, slamming his fist into the ground. “He’s fucking with your head.”

  Keira snickered. “How is he fucking with me? He’s done nothing but tell me the truth.”

  “He’s playing on your insecurities, Keira. Anyone can see you have trust issues, it’s written all over you.”

  “Oh, good,” she said, “thank you for telling me, I’m glad I’m so easily read. Now I can avoid people like my Ex. And you.”

  Hale stopped thrashing. He sunk lowered into the dirt, kicking his legs out in front of him, arms dropped to his sides. “I’m not like him,” he said, barely above a whisper.

  “You’re right,” Keira said, stepping past him, “you’re worse. At least Hunter finally admitted it on his own.”

  “Keira. Don’t.”

  “We’re done here, Hale. I’m going out on patrol tomorrow without you.”

  “I can go with you,” Soren said, deepening his wolfish grin.

  Keira’s eyes flitted from Soren to Hale and back again. She knew Soren wouldn’t be much help, but if Hale could use him as a tool for his own revenge, so could she.

  “Sure,” she shrugged. Then she stepped over Hale and walked off into the night.

  CHAPTER 18 – HALE

  Hale Draven didn’t know how long he sat there in the dirt, the only thing he remembered was the moonlight glinting off the bottle at his feet. At some point, he picked up the bottle and drifted off to the edge of the forest. He unscrewed the cap and slumped down onto the damp moss. Then he set about trying to lose himself between the shadows of the woods.

  He’d screwed things up so badly.

  He took a sip.

  He should have just told her. He should have known she’d find out eventually, whether from Soren, or Angeline, or even her own visions.

  He took a second gulp, the burning liquid flowing across his lips. His stupid lips that should have just spoken.

  It’s not that he wanted to keep that night secret from Keira, it’s that he was trying, and failing miserably, to keep it from himself. Dredging up that memory, that pain… he needed to prepare for it. He needed to be able to explain it properly to her so that his biggest mistake didn’t keep coming back to haunt him.

  A third swig and the black, empty world began to swirl around him.

  He’d lost her, just like he’d lost Myra. It was his own doing, that asshole Soren was just an accessory.

  He went for a fourth draught and the bottle was jerked from his hands, glass slipping through his fingers, just like her.

  “Getting the party going again without me?” Jessa took a long pull and squeezed in next to him.

  Hale spun slightly to look at her, his back pressed to the bark of the tree.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “Well, since that roommate of mine stole my trainer, I figured I’d come steal hers,” she said, nudging him playfully with her elbow.

  “She didn’t steal him. I lost her.”

  “Don’t be such a doomy-gloomy dismal-downer,” Jessa said. “You’ve known her less than a week. I know she’s cute and all, but get some friggen perspective.”

  “It’s all relative. It’s funny how much can happen even in a matter of minutes,” he said, slumping his head against the tree. “Well maybe ‘funny’ isn’t the right word.”

  “How about ‘exciting’, then?”

  “Exciting?” he let out a short laugh. Yeah, Elves, fallen comrades, heartbreak…

  “We’re in an alternate dimension, battling a mystical force, protecting Earth. We have magic powers. This is the best time of our lives.”

  “Maybe your tune will change when one of your friends dies,” Hale said, reaching for the bottle.

  “My whole family is dead,” she said. “Car crash when I was 4.”

  “Oh,” he said. He definitely had a knack for saying the wrong shit. “Sorry.”

  “We all die at some point. No point wallowing in the past or fearing the future. Just appreciate the present.”

  Hale laughed against the rim of the glass. That was exactly what he’d pushed on Keira. What a crock. “You’re right, we have no future, but the past is always a part of us, that’s what makes us who we are. We can’t escape it. But if you want to appreciate the present, we can stop talking about all this existential crap and finish this bottle.”

  “Now you get it,” Jessa said, reaching across Hale.

  He lifted the bottle just out of her reach, chuckling as she tumbled forward to reach it.

  Her palm landed on his thigh, her lips inches from his. Both grasping the bottle. They stared at each other through the shadows, thick silence pooling around them.

  Then she pushed forward and pressed her mouth to his, squeezing his leg and sliding her other arm down to his shoulder. She brushed her tongue teasingly across his teeth and leaned in deeper.

  For a second he was lost, the sensation pouring over him, helpless under her sway. But then behind his closed eyes, all he could see were Keira’s, big and grey. Almost as though she were watching. No, not like she was watching, like she’d already Seen. This was the kiss, her vision. He turned away and broke the fleeting spell of Jessa’s kiss.

  “What?” she gasped, voice dropped in desire.

  “A fucking self-fulfilling prophecy,” he exhaled a short, sardonic laugh.

  “Oh god,” Jessa said, leaning away. “More existential crap?”

  “No. I’m talking about kissing you. Keira saw it happen. It’s part of the reason she left. But her leaving put me in this spot. It’s a ridiculous, cyclical nightmare.”

  “It doesn’t have to be,” Jessa said, “just tell her.”

  “It’s too late now. This was just half of it. The other reason was from something I did before. I was going to tell her, but that asshole Soren got to her before I could.”

  “I didn’t think that oaf had the mental capacity to scheme,” Jessa smirked, “how did he pull that one off?”

  “Because I did something as stupid as he is.”

  “Well that’s irritatingly mysterious. Care to elaborate?”

  “I was an idiot. It was about my first student, Myra. We got close. Then I got scared and pulled away. One night I got drunk and pulled away too far. I slept with someone I shouldn’t have.”

  “The Captain?”

  “What? How’d you know? Did Soren—“

  “No,” Jessa laughed, “it’s obvious. You and the Captain are awkward in the way that you made out with someone only later to find out they are your cousin.”

  “That’s exactly what it feels like between us,” he said, shaking his head. “But I didn’t know how to explain that to Keira. She asked if I had a thing for Angeline. I don’t. But I also wasn’t ready to tell her that one night I got so wasted I didn’t even remember hooking up with her the next day. She didn’t remember either. In fact, if we hadn’t woken up naked together, we wouldn’t have even known it had happened.”

  “Well,” Jessa said, snatching the bo
ttle from his grasp. “It’s sounds like you have a drinking problem. That I can help with. The Keira problem, you’re going to have to deal with that one on your own.”

  “She won’t listen.”

  “Then make her.”

  “I can’t,” he said, slumping his head back against the scratchy bark.

  “So you’re just going to let Soren have her then?”

  A spark flared in his chest. “No.”

  “Then go get her.”

  “What am I going to say? Will you help me?”

  “No, you need to go, now.”

  “I can’t. I can’t screw this up. I need to sober up, say it right. I’ll catch her in the morning, I’ll—“

  “Hale. She left tonight.”

  CHAPTER 19 – KEIRA

  “You know,” Soren said, leaning in a little too close, “we could have just fucked in his bed, if you really wanted to piss him off.”

  “I’m not doing this to piss him off,” Keira said, blinking her eyes open in frustration. “I’m just trying to do my job. I don’t need Hale Draven to do it. He’s dead to me.” A ball of lead rolled in her gut as she said it.

  “Well if you change your mind—“

  “I’ll let you know. But right now, my mind is preoccupied with the Elves. That massive horde will be on the move soon, we need to stay ahead of it.”

  She squeezed her eyes shut again. Nothing. She balled her fists. Why wasn’t anything coming to her? Maybe they weren’t close enough.

  “Come on,” she said, “we need to go deeper.”

  “Oh I can go deeper,” Soren snickered. “I can hit it in places Ravin’ Draven couldn’t even touch.”

  “Why do you call him that?” Keira said, cringing at the nickname and Soren’s delusional offer.

  “Because after that chick died he didn’t stop whining about it for weeks. Any time someone would talk to him, he’d just go off.”

  She felt something drop in her chest. So Hale really did care about Myra, he hadn’t lied about that. Soren on the other disgusting hand, didn’t appear affected at all even though he watched her go down.

  “You mean that ‘chick’ that you let die?” Keira said, arching her eyebrow in challenge. Yeah, she got it, people died out here all the time, but he didn’t need to laugh about the situation. Why had she been so quick to saddle herself with this moron?

  “She was weak,” he sneered. “Draven should have tried harder. Not my fault she wasn’t ready.”

  “What if I’m not ready? If the Elves come are you just going to let them have me?”

  “Are you going to let me have you?”

  “Did you just insinuate that if I fuck you, you might protect me? Is that what happened with Myra? Did she reject you so you let her die?” Keira couldn’t fight the rage bubbling in the pit of her stomach. It was probably just a stupid comment, but she wasn’t one to tolerate that brand of stupid.

  “She didn’t reject me,” he laughed. “I was fucking her when the Elves showed up.”

  Sure.

  Then a flash of red blazed behind Keira’s eyes. She crushed her eyelids shut, fighting to peer deeper into the vibrant aura of danger. But clarity proved elusive. The vague shapes shimmered like smoke, dancing in the crimson. Too obscured to make out.

  “Let’s keep moving,” she said. “I think there’s something close.”

  “I’d like to get close,” he said, leaning over her shoulder, breath hot on her ear.

  “No, can you focus?” she said, shrugging away from his lascivious laughter. “That’s not happening.”

  “I AM focusing,” he said, reaching for her hip. “Besides, you let Draven.”

  She turned and ripped herself out of his grasp. The red flared again. She didn’t have time to deal with Soren’s pathetic passes. She’d have to keep his dirty mind elsewhere until they found the threat and dealt with it. “Why do you hate him so much?”

  “Because he’s a fucking pretender,” Soren growled, voice sharp, “he puts on this bullshit good guy act when he really came here for the same reason as the rest of us.”

  “Oh, what’s that?” Keira said, bracing herself for the glorious insight awaiting her.

  “To get power and to fuck shit up.”

  “That’s not why I came here,” she said, rolling her eyes in the dark. How did this guy pass the psych test?

  “Why then? Huh?”

  “I came to protect.” Well, and to escape cubicle life. “That’s what magic is for.”

  “Only the weak need protecting,” he said, voice suddenly eerily calm and level. “The Elves have the right idea. It’s all about the offense.”

  “So now you’re siding with the Elves?”

  “Hard not to,” he rasped. “They know what they want and they go for it.”

  The red pulsed hard at the edges of her vision. She whipped her head around looking for the source. Nothing. Then it hit her. She’d been so naïve. She knew the answer before she even shut her eyes. Soren.

  His hands closed around her wrists. “Elves take what they want.”

  She took a deep breath and let her Sight ripple through her fully. She knew what he wanted, and she knew how their fight would go. He’d duck. He’d dodge. He’d catch her again and… No. She’d grabbed a blade from the wagon before they left, but she couldn’t reach it, let alone use it. Maybe she could talk him out of this. Her eyes fluttered open.

  “You’re right, Soren. Let’s fuck in Hale’s bed. I want to see the look on his face.”

  For a second he held perfectly still, icy blue eyes baring down on her. Then he laughed and tightened his grip. “How fucking dumb do you think I am? Your voice is shaking so hard you can barely talk.”

  “I’m just nervous,” she said, closing her eyes again. Another scarlet burst. But this time, it was more than just Soren. Bare feet, crashing over leaves. Spears jostling, clanking against swords and bows. “Soren, I See Elves, they’re almost here. A dozen of them.”

  “I just told you, bitch, I’m not as stupid as you think.” He twisted his grip on her forearms, forcing her to her knees.

  “Soren, I swear,” she said. She kept her eyes scrunched closed, there had to be something there, a way to convince him. Two figures danced behind her eyelids, smoky wisps swimming into shape, solidifying too slow. One silhouette human, hulking, surrounded by flame. Soren. The other, slightly larger, grey skin shading in across the vision. An Elf. And they were talking. Casually. Cooperatively.

  Her eyes flew open. “You’re working for them?”

  “No, I’m not working for them,” he said, fiendish grin spilling across his face, “I’m working with them. Why do you think I’ve been trying to distract you with all that Draven bullshit? Can’t have a Diviner looking into things that actually matter.”

  A rock sank in her gut. How had she fallen for that? This whole time, she thought she was protecting herself, when all she’d done was walk right into a trap.

  “How?” was all she could manage. She had to get away, immediately, but he was gripping her so tight. Think. “Why?” she said, eyes frantically searching for something, anything, a rock, a dip, whatever she could trip him with. Nothing. Fear swelled in her lungs, a black, sticky fluid cutting off her air.

  “Because I like to win. I wanted to fight for Earth, at first, but when I came across The Veil all I found was a disorganized shit show. Half my squadron died in that first year, thanks to that fuck-head Captain of ours. ‘Captain’. What a fucking joke.”

  “Angeline has a better record than most Captains out there,” Keira spat, lip quivering.

  “My point exactly. Earth is going to lose. I figured that out before any of you. When the Elves caught me my second year, yeah, I struck a deal.”

  Deal. Deal with it. That’s what Hale would tell her to do. A wave of calm suddenly rolled through her. So he had tricked her. But it wasn’t over. She needed to focus on his next move. Keep him talking, try to distract him. He wanted to brag about this, so let him. Le
t him think he had all the power.

  “What did you have to bargain with them?” she said mockingly, forcing her voice to stabilize. Soren admired strength, if she feigned confidence, maybe his desire to destroy her could be held at bay long enough for her to escape.

  “You’d be surprised,” he sneered. “It’s all part of their strategy.”

  “The Elves don’t have strategy, they have numbers.”

  Soren laughed, and knocked her to the ground. Her head smacked against the hard-packed dirt sending a searing pain shooting through her limbs. “Is this the part where I’m supposed to spill their secrets? Am I supposed to play into your little distraction? Can’t beat me at my own game.”

  Fuck. The blood drained from her face.

  Soren took a step forward and placed a foot on her chest. His amulet began to glow red as he brought his hands to his sides, smoldering embers at the ready. “The nice thing about Diviners is you don’t even need your body to cast. You could be paralyzed and still use your Sight. In fact, if I immobilize you, perhaps they’ll give me an even bigger reward.”

  “Soren, don’t.” All she could see was red.

  “I wanted to have a little fun first, but since you’re being such a bitch about it, I might as well just break you now.”

  He lifted his hand, a ball of orange raging in his palm.

  She gritted her teeth and shut her eyes, his foot crushing down on her ribs, breath coming short.

  Just like when Hunter held her to that mattress.

  No. She wouldn’t just lie there, powerless. Her visions showed him winning, but if she were strong enough, maybe she could still change the game, change fate. She just had to focus, she just had to take control. She just had to keep fighting. Her amulet began to heat against her skin, the red receding from the edges of her vision. Then she opened the gates of her mind and in flooded an aura of calm, a vibrant yellow-green, a summery field where shadows couldn’t hide. A place where monsters had no power. And with that light flooding through her, she reached for her knife.

  CHAPTER 20 – HALE