Fates Divided

by Jules Barnard

  “What do I need to do?” she asked Leo.

  Elena would find a cure the way she’d done everything else in her life—by busting her ass until she achieved the right result. Now that she knew who she was and what she was capable of, she wasn’t walking in blind. That had to count for something, right?

  “Only with transmutation can you formulate a healing elixir never created before,” Leo said.

  No stress. Elena squeezed her eyes shut and let out a deep breath. “How am I supposed to do that if I don’t know what I’m doing with liquids?”

  “You will practice in stages. We will begin with the ability that comes easiest—elemental manipulation of a liquid. From there, you will work toward more complex manipulations. Once you succeed, you’ll move on to transmutation, changing one substance into something entirely new.”

  Leo moved aside and gestured for her to approach the beakers. “The first vessel contains water. Change the water into ice, but pay attention to the sensations running through your body. All Fae tap into their powers differently. Determining how your body responds when using magic will help you grow it.”

  Elena stepped forward, sensing Derek’s hard gaze. She wouldn’t be surprised if he was nervous—when it came to this magic business, he’d had a front-row seat of her screwing it up.

  Elena lifted her shaking hands, and a rush of heat seeped into her fingertips. Invisible sparks of energy jumped beneath her skin. She’d felt the tingling before, but hadn’t known it was her magic.

  “Ice,” she whispered, and relaxed her shoulders, releasing the energy as though exhaling on a deep sigh.

  The liquid in the beaker instantly solidified and cracked, bursting the glass. Shards shot into the air and Elena threw her hands up to block her face—in the same instant Leo’s arm flashed out and held the glass and ice suspended.

  She looked at Derek and saw a wide-eyed expression on his face that matched her own.

  Okay, then. Leo’s power was telekinesis.

  They might not be able to perform transmutation, but Elena should never allow herself to forget that the Fae were powerful.

  Leo slowly lowered the shards to the counter. “That was too quick, Elena. Part of your training will be to learn control. Remember, water expands as it freezes. You must measure out the release of your magic. Perform the exercise again, but this time, allow the water to expand within the beaker until it fits inside the vessel as a solid block.”

  For several hours into the early morning, Elena manipulated the elements, learning to control her power. She managed to manipulate water, fire, and air. Leo was pleased that his prediction about her abilities had turned out to be true. She could command more than one element. And the power that yielded was mind-boggling.

  Exhausted and overwhelmed, it would take her a month to wrap her head around what she could do with her ability. But she didn’t have a month. She had a week to master these powers and save the Fae, and she was nowhere near where she needed to be in order to transmute something into something entirely new.

  Her head pounded and the muscles in her body—even internal ones, like her diaphragm—burned with fatigue. Her movements became jerky and unsure.

  Derek grabbed her arm, steadying her. “Enough, Leo. She needs rest.”

  Leo took in her appearance, which must have looked pretty sad, considering the surprised furrow in his brow. She could barely lift her arms, and the room wavered like an ocean.

  “Very well,” he said, but she sensed his disappointment. He turned his back and began clearing the beakers and other glassware they’d used. “You will rest here.”

  What? she thought, at the same time Derek said, “No. She’ll go home. I’ll take her.” He led her toward the door.

  Elena’s head spun. She didn’t appreciate his bossy tactics, but in this case, she wholeheartedly agreed with him. She didn’t care where she put her body down, but she’d prefer that it be in her own home.

  “It is not safe for Elena at her apartment,” Leo said from behind. She would have faced him, if she’d had the energy. At the moment, standing like a zombie and allowing Derek to handle it seemed perfectly reasonable. “She will stay where she can be protected.”

  “I’ll protect her,” came Derek’s response beside her. “She needs sleep. Look at her.”

  Elena finally peered up to find a frown on Derek’s face. A look of similar distaste rested on Leo’s. This kind of scrutiny could eat at a girl’s self-esteem. Did she really look that bad?

  “She’ll sleep better in her home,” Derek said.

  “He’s right,” she managed to get out. “I’d like to go home.”

  She wanted to help the Fae. That didn’t mean she felt comfortable around them.

  “You’ll need peak strength in order to develop your ability in the time we have left.” Leo’s voice was low, as though he was speaking to himself as much as to her. “You’re an asset I do not wish to lose.” He gave a brief nod. “Very well, you may take her home, Derek. We could surround her with guards, but that would draw attention. Our kind stand out amongst humans. I’ll send hidden soldiers, and of course Keen will stay with her.”

  Elena nodded woodenly, willing to agree to anything as long as it got her a pillow.

  Leo studied her a moment longer. “One more thing. I insist you both learn fighting skills—Derek more so than you, Elena. Your focus must be on your powers, but you should learn basic battle maneuvers while you’re working with us in case you run into danger. It will do us no good if you get killed because you put up no fight in a confrontation.” His mouth twisted in annoyance. “It is a disgrace that this world does not teach its youth the fundamentals of battle. Keen will arrange the training.”

  In what world were fighting skills fundamental? “I have two bodyguards, and you just added a few incognito ones to hide in the bushes. Why would I need to learn to fight?”

  “No guard can shadow your every move. Whoever created the virus is deadly. There is no doubt the mastermind would come after you if they discovered your involvement. If at any point we find they suspect you, you will have no choice but to remain in Emain. No exceptions.”

  “Emain?” she asked.

  “The Fae realm embedded in the Dawson campus. That is where we are.”

  Leo turned to his tasks, effectively dismissing them. Derek nudged her forward with his hand on the small of her back, which she appreciated. It helped keep her upright.

  “Don’t worry,” Derek said low near her ear. “We’ll do the fight training together. It’ll be fine.”

  Would it? She didn’t feel fine. She felt frightened and utterly drained.

  Keen followed them to her apartment. Elena managed to walk the entire way on her own, though she wobbled a few times and was pretty sure her eyelids were at half-mast; her vision had constricted to a narrow strip.

  Once inside the apartment, Keen took up residence on the couch, and Derek walked her to her room.

  Elena fell facedown on her bed and everything—the world, her fears—faded.

  9

  Elena blinked her eyes open—to Reese leaning over her in a fuzzy pink bathrobe. “Gahh. What are you doing?”

  Reese yawned, her golden hair plastered to one side of her head, sleep lines marking her cheek. “You were talking in your sleep. Woke me from an awesome dream. What’s going on? And why is our hot neighbor sleeping on your floor?” She wagged her eyebrows suggestively.

  Elena sat up, her arm quivering from exhaustion under her own weight. She peered past Reese to where Derek sprawled like the dead in the corner of her room. He took up a good portion of it too, with his long limbs.

  She didn’t remember anything after landing on her mattress last night, but she’d assumed Derek would walk the few feet across the yard back to his house.

  “We worked late on a project,” she said.

  If Elena was lucky, Reese wouldn’t stumble into the living room where Keen slept on the couch. His presence would be harder to explain.r />
  “Is that why you ditched me yesterday? I thought we were going out. You could have told me you had something to do.”

  Crap, she’d totally run out on Reese. She’d asked Derek to explain things, and considering he’d followed her into Emain, he’d clearly failed in his task, though it really wasn’t his job. Reese was Elena’s friend. She should have said something.

  How could she keep her agreement to help the Fae from her roommate? Reese was her closest friend at Dawson, maybe her best friend. She was bound to wonder what was up with all the late nights. Then there was school. School was her world, but getting through another lab would be impossible with her powers wreaking havoc.

  Elena didn’t want to lie to Reese, but the Fae’s existence wasn’t something you told someone if you didn’t need to. She’d barely wrapped her head around it. She didn’t expect Reese to understand. “I should have said something. I’m sorry. I appreciate you getting the driver’s licenses, though I don’t know how comfortable I am using mine.”

  Reese twisted her hair in a knot at the nape of her neck. “We’ll work on that. For now, finish your project with Mr. Hottie Neighbor. And while you’re at it, get him to come out with us.”

  Elena dropped her voice. “Really? You don’t think he’s kind of…irritable?”

  Reese smoothed an errant curl on the top of Elena’s head that apparently had been sticking straight up. She shrugged. “I thought he was nice, and he’s been coming around a lot, so he’s interested. He’ll go out with us if you ask him. I don’t know why you had him sleep on the floor instead of in your bed.” She waggled her eyebrows again, and Elena shoved her shoulder.

  “Keep your voice down,” Elena whispered. If only Reese knew why Derek was glued to her side. It wasn’t because he wanted to be. He’d made that clear when he’d kicked her out of his lab. Though Reese was right about one thing, Derek had followed her today… No. He wasn’t interested. He was just being nosy. He should have minded his own business, then he wouldn’t have gotten caught up in everything. “I can’t explain it, but he’s not interested. Trust me on this one.”

  Reese didn’t look convinced, but before she could argue—with Derek only a few feet away—Elena asked, “What time is it?” She batted Reese’s fluffy bathrobe out of her face and glanced at the clock. “Six fifteen? I’m late.”

  Elena swung her legs off the bed and staggered to her closet to grab a pair of jeans.

  “Late?” Reese stared at her in groggy disbelief. “What is this project that has you working inhuman hours?” She held up a hand. “On second thought, tell me later. I’m going back to bed.”

  She shuffled to the door. “See you in a few hours when I wake up with the rest of the student body.”

  Elena, Derek, and Keen made it to the lifeless physics building an hour late, yet still too early for the doors to be unlocked. Thanks to Keen’s all-access keys, they entered without a problem.

  “Leo mentioned something about Emain and a different realm,” Elena said as they crossed the auditorium toward the secret door. “How does that work? How do the Fae classrooms exist if we can’t see them from the outside?”

  Keen paused behind the lectern. “Emain is a part of our realm, but not a part.”

  Derek looked at her with a What the hell is he talking about expression.

  Her thoughts exactly. “Make some sense, please. We don’t understand Fae-speak.”

  Keen gestured to the door and the knob Elena’s palm had slipped through like air yesterday. “The rooms beyond here are in a place we call Emain. Emain is owned by Tirnan, the Fae realm, but separated geographically, the way Alaska is separated from the rest of America. That is why the Fae residing within are safe from the disease. Emain shares a timeline with the human realm, making transfer between Earth and Emain simple. This doorway is a portal to Emain. Humans don’t know it exists because they haven’t been granted access.”

  “Okay, that only makes a little bit of sense. Why Dawson University? Why not plop your portal to Emain someplace remote?”

  Keen’s mouth quirked. “You don’t believe your university—situated amongst agricultural fields—remote?”

  “I’m talking really remote. Like the Gobi Desert or the Himalayan mountain range.”

  “A natural energy field plumes below the campus, spreading wide from coast to highland. The energy field allows us to maintain portals with minimal magic. Humans are interested in energy conservation; the concept shouldn’t be foreign to you. As for the setting, we built a university because it provides an ideal monitoring station.”

  A shiver slid across her ribs like invisible fingers. The Fae had built Dawson? No wonder they had access to the buildings.

  “What are you monitoring?”

  He leaned forward as if divulging a secret, a lock of pale hair falling across his cheek. “The Halven.”

  Derek inched closer—close enough to touch without touching.

  Keen straightened and shrugged one shoulder. “As Portia said, millennia ago, angels mated with humans and created the Fae.” He turned the knob to the Fae classroom without opening it. “Fae only mate with Fae. At times, they’ve lain with humans and created a diluted, lesser being, the Halven. It doesn’t happen often. Fae do not generally desire humans. But when it happens, we must watch the offspring for signs of abilities.”

  Doesn’t happen often? Must happen enough that they’d built the university.

  Derek snorted. “Sounds like some serious denial you’ve got going on there, buddy.”

  Keen shot him a look and opened the door.

  Before Elena could walk through, Derek pulled her aside and spoke low in her ear. “Mating with humans? Tirnan and the Fae realm?” He shook his head. “We stick together inside Fae-U, got it?”

  Elena wet her chapped lips. The things Keen had said, Derek’s deep voice in her ear and the protective way he’d been acting toward her—all equally distracting. “What about when I need to use the bathroom?” she whispered. Clearly the stupidest thing that could have come out of her mouth, but she was flustered.

  He shifted his jaw. “I’m not up for your jokes today. Your floor was hard as hell last night.”

  “Hey, no one asked you to stay the night.”

  He bent closer. So not helping the pounding in her chest. “I’m not leaving you alone with that guy.”

  “He’s big, but harmless. A little flirty, maybe.”

  “Exactly.” Derek stalked through the door Keen held open.

  Elena’s shoulders slumped, her breathing, which had pitched in funny ways with Derek bearing down on her, calming slightly. Why was he acting like this? Reese had said he might be interested, and she’d brushed her roommate off. Was Reese right?

  “You’ll begin the day with me,” Keen said as they made their way into the corridors of Emain. “Best that you train with me now while you have the energy.” His smile was sinister.

  Combat training. Ugh. And he looked like he was going to take great joy in pushing her to her limits. She’d rather memorize the molecular structures of the lanthanide elements. Who was she kidding? That would be fun. Combat training, not so much.

  A few minutes later, Elena emerged from a bathroom down the hall from the gym where Keen planned to torture them with fight training, wearing the same clothing Portia and Deirdre had on yesterday—thick black tunics and fitted black pants. Keen had insisted they wear the clothes, which she sort of understood. The smooth fabric had a stretchy quality, making the tunic and tight pants surprisingly comfortable. The boots were made of an all-in-one stretchy material that hugged her legs from her knees to her toes, rendering every footstep silent.

  Elena was still marveling at her soundless boots while tugging at the hem of her top to cover her rear, when she nearly ran into Derek. “Sorry—” she started to say, then lost her train of thought.

  Derek in Fae gear… Had she actually thought him on the slender side?

  Muscles—there were muscles. Not bulging, but thick
and heavily padded along his arms and broad chest. The stretchy fabric clung to intriguing angles, his torso narrowing to a black belt that looked to be made of some sort of rubber instead of leather. Black fitted cargo pants stretched over more muscles, tapering at the bottom and disappearing inside dark combat boots.

  Elena tried not to stare, but her eyes wouldn’t cooperate. Her gaze trailed up from his fit chest to his handsome face. His deep blue irises and golden brown hair glowed against the dark material, making his presence that much more powerful.

  Keen might be beautiful, in that perfect Fae sort of way, but Derek was something else entirely. Oh, he was hot enough to make her mind stutter, but there was also this magnetism—he pulled her.

  Seemed to always be pushing and pulling her.

  Her heart bounced around in her chest, and she told it to simmer the hell down.

  Then she watched in horror as Derek’s gaze dipped to her own chest. His face tensed.

  Elena squirmed, remembering the image in the bathroom mirror. Of course he’d noticed. That was what warm-blooded men did. Not that he hadn’t already gotten an eyeful of her boobs in the emergency shower of his lab. As if that weren’t enough, the low slit at the neckline of her tunic made the view easy. She’d had to adjust the clasp on her mother’s necklace so it wouldn’t show above the fabric.

  Elena appreciated the Fae clothing hugging Derek’s body, but her own? She’d never shown this much cleavage in her life.

  If the Fae were going to recruit curvy Latina Halven, they needed to make wardrobe adjustments.

  “Let’s go,” she said, her face warm. She swept past him toward the gymnasium, and Derek tracked her without a word. She didn’t see or hear him behind her to know he was there, but she felt him.

  They entered the Emain gym, and suddenly Elena forgot all about her wardrobe issues. The gymnasium looked like your average workout room, with padded mats, exercise equipment, knotted ropes dangling from the ceiling—Keen better not expect her to climb those—along with a wall of weapons.