Fates Altered

by Jules Barnard

  “Yes.”

  “Will you explain it to me?”

  She swallowed and stared off. “No.”

  She couldn’t explain Fae magic. It was complicated even for her kind. Some possessed elemental abilities—power over nature’s elements—and others were able to manipulate the mind. But Theda didn’t want to tell Alex any of this. The more he knew, the more danger she put him in. He shouldn’t know anything about her kind. And if a Fae nearby noticed the slight burst of power she’d released to help the herd… She couldn’t think of it.

  Alex didn’t press her further, but she could tell something bothered him, even as he quietly stood and walked back inside the house, murmuring something about getting sleep.

  What she’d done, no human should be able to do. She was different. So far, he hadn’t demanded answers, but how long would that last?

  When Theda finally fell asleep that evening, she dreamt of her family—and of a guard tracking her relentlessly in the Earth realm.

  When Alex got home from work the next day, it was to find Theda sitting at the kitchen table chatting with his father.

  His dad rose. “That’s my cue to leave.” He gave Alex a thumbs-up as he passed and walked to the door.

  Alex stared at his father’s back, waiting for him to close the door before turning to Theda. “Why was he here?”

  “Your father came over and introduced himself.”

  Right. Alex should have done that. He wasn’t playing his boyfriend role very well. Though he’d made a damn good show of it last night with the good-night kiss. What had he been thinking?

  “Your father is very proud of you. We talked about you and the farm.” She glanced down. “Farming is a common occupation where I come from.”

  He removed his jacket, setting it on the hook near the door. He didn’t speak for fear she’d stop talking. He wanted to know everything about her. Especially after what he’d witnessed last night. He didn’t know how she’d done it, but she’d somehow made those animals turn around and return home.

  There was no way he and Tony and a handful of workers would have been able to capture the entire flock wandering the freeway before one of the animals got hurt or killed, but Theda had saved them in seconds. It was incredible and terrifying at the same time. Because he’d fallen for her a little bit more last night, and he had no idea who she was.

  She was different. He’d always known it. Different because of the way he’d felt about her from the start, and how quickly those feelings had grown. But also different for other reasons she wouldn’t explain. She was from some place he never could quite picture in his mind, and now he suspected something really out there. A different planet?

  Shit, what the hell was he thinking? He didn’t know, but she wasn’t like him or anyone else. And he didn’t want to see her hurt because of the place she’d run from, or the things she could do.

  Theda was working her way into his life, whether he wanted it or not, and he knew nothing about her. How would he find her if she up and left?

  When she didn’t offer more about her people, he asked, “Can you talk about where you came from now?”

  She glanced away. “No.”

  He rubbed a hand down his face. “Don’t keep your past bottled up. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to me, at least talk to Leti.”

  She looked up pleadingly. “I cannot talk to anyone. I’m sorry, Alex.”

  “Why? How bad can it be?”

  Her face hardened and her chin rose. “You have no idea what you speak of.”

  He threw up his hands in exasperation and a little anger. “Exactly, I don’t. And I want to. I want to understand how you talked to those sheep last night. Because you did talk to them, didn’t you?”

  Instead of answering, Theda stormed to the bedroom.

  Alex considered walking after her, then thought better of it.

  He turned and walked out the front door without bothering to grab his jacket. He climbed into his Jeep. He didn’t know where he was going, just out. Away. Because the more time he spent with Theda, the more he fell for her, and he couldn’t fall for her if he didn’t know who—or what—she was.

  10

  Two weeks went by, with Alex and Theda getting into a rhythm that involved a lot of avoidance. She’d asked Leti to teach her how to cook, and when Alex was at work, Theda spent her days helping Leti with the baby and learning the basics of preparing food. It seemed boiling water and toasting bread were two more things the place she’d come from either didn’t have, or simply hadn’t taught her. If he had to guess, he’d swear she’d been trapped in an underground bunker her entire life. But that didn’t seem right. And now he suspected things he couldn’t voice. Aliens? Some sort of magic? All he knew was that he cared about the girl. Really cared, which was why he couldn’t push her. She didn’t want to tell him, and he had to respect her wishes.

  As far as Alex knew, Theda hadn’t spoken to any more animals, though he was suspicious of her relationship with Lucho. That dog was far too well behaved around her. He couldn’t believe he was even thinking about his beautiful houseguest talking to animals, but he knew what he saw. And none of it mattered because it didn’t change the way he felt about her.

  They’d stopped spending time together when they didn’t have to, which only made Alex realize how much he’d enjoyed her presence before their fight. It had been damned awkward the one night Tony had stopped by and Alex had needed to put his arm around Theda’s shoulders. For appearances only. Of course, it felt like electricity shot down his body where they touched.

  He walked in the front door after work, expecting Theda to be there, but he didn’t see her. “Theda?”

  No answer. She must be with Leti.

  Instead of taking off his jacket, Alex grabbed a beer and went out onto the porch, slumping down on the stoop. What was he going to do? Theda had him twisted up inside. He wanted so badly to help her, and she wouldn’t let him in.

  He popped the can open and swallowed a large, cool gulp of beer. This was his favorite time of the day, twilight turning into evening with the sky a purplish blue, the trees shadowed. Only tonight he couldn’t relax. Something was eating at him, and it wasn’t simply what he didn’t know about Theda. He sensed something was wrong.

  He pulled out his cell phone to call Leti and Tony and see if Theda was with them—when he heard her.

  Or sensed her.

  Theda was crying out, but not into the night. Her voice was in his head.

  Panic filled his chest, his heart beating a mile a minute. He abandoned the beer and leapt off the porch, racing through the fields. He didn’t know how he knew, but Theda was in trouble.

  He sprinted for ten minutes straight into the fields, sweat pouring down his temples. He skidded to a stop near a ditch, his head swiveling around, searching, but he didn’t know where the fuck she was, just knew she was out here somewhere.

  Going on instinct, he raced for the shed where he’d first found her. Why? No good reason. But she had to be there. Every sense he possessed told him she was.

  Half a mile later, the sky was even darker, but not dark enough to hide the two figures wrestling in the dirt. The larger one hauled the smaller person up, and that was when Alex realized Theda was being held against her will by one of the biggest men Alex had ever seen.

  She’d sought refuge. A moment away from the strain that seemed to fill every moment she spent with Alex, and even the moments in between. Theda wanted so desperately to get closer to him, but after he’d witnessed what she could do with animals, she didn’t dare. So she went for a walk, returning to the place where it had all begun.

  Theda found the shed where she’d first met Alex a mile or two from his house. It was locked, and she smiled, remembering how surprised he’d been when he first found her there.

  What would she do now? Things were so tense between them. They couldn’t go on ignoring one another. She was learning to cook from Leti and had found ways to help around the house
, but that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t fair to Alex. She needed to find her way in this world without relying on his kindness.

  She stared out at the deep blue sky, growing darker as the minutes passed, knowing she must leave and not liking the idea. Not when it meant leaving Alex.

  And then she sensed something.

  Not something. Someone.

  She spun around, staring past the fields.

  Just beyond the shed, a man stepped out of a copse of trees, and Theda’s heart nearly stopped in her chest. Then she was running.

  She didn’t get far before a large body slammed into her. She fell, her body skidding across the dirt and gravel, his weight cutting off her air supply.

  “At last, you are on your own,” the Fae said near her ear. “I worried I might need to expose myself to get to you, and then murder your little friends. I wouldn’t have minded if it weren’t so messy to clean up.”

  Theda bucked to get him off her, but he was twice her weight. Not just any Fae—a tracker. She had dreamed true. “Let me go,” she said, gasping.

  He flipped her over and pinned her hands above her head, pressing down his larger frame against hers, making breathing difficult. “Never. Have you any notion how long it took me to find you?” He tore the bracelet her brother had given her off her wrist and tossed it away. “Your little trinket might have hidden you, but once you used your magic, you were mine. It was only a matter of time.”

  She’d acted impulsively, saving the animals for Alex. But she’d wanted to help, and now this man would return her to Tirnan. She’d worried about staying longer with Alex, being a burden, and now all she could think about was getting back to him.

  Theda tried to free one of her hands. She’d brought her knife with her; she always did when she left the house. Only it was in her boot and she couldn’t reach it.

  The tracker’s eyes narrowed. He had a deep scar down the side of his pale face. Fae didn’t scar unless they’d suffered months of deprivation and were attacked with magic.

  He gripped both of her wrists with one hand and patted down her body—touching her in a way that made her stomach lurch. “Much as I’m enjoying this, you could spare me the effort and tell me where you’ve hidden your weapon.”

  “What weapon?” She feigned ignorance.

  His mouth twisted and he slid his hand down both of her legs until he freed the dagger from her boot. “There she is.” He tucked the dagger behind him, presumably in a pocket, and slipped something around her wrists. Shackles made of magic and glowing a vibrant electric blue.

  He hauled her up, but before he could straighten, she swung her locked wrists over his head and kneed him in the face with all her might.

  The tracker grunted and Theda ran. Until he tackled her again. But this time, she twisted quickly and slid halfway out from under him. And then she heard it.

  Alex, calling to her.

  She looked in the direction the tracker did, to see Alex running full tilt toward them.

  The tracker moved to stand, and Theda grabbed her knife from where he’d tucked it in his belt. She stabbed him in the side a second before he knocked the blade from her hands and fastened his arm around her neck.

  But it was enough time for Alex to reach them and leap on the tracker.

  She didn’t know what power the tracker possessed, but all Fae had something. And this man was much larger than Alex.

  The tracker elbowed him in the stomach, forcing Alex to fall back. Then cracked his large fist across Alex’s jaw, dropping him to his knees.

  Theda went to grab the dagger in the dirt several feet away, but the tracker locked his arm around her waist before she could get past him, hauling her into the air. “You’ll be coming with me.”

  “No!” Alex shouted, looking up from where he’d fallen, his dark eyes desperate.

  “It’s okay,” she said. The Fae would kill him; there was no doubt in her mind. She couldn’t let that happen. Not to this man. “It was inevitable things would end this way.”

  The tracker waved his hand in front of him in the shape of a square. A second later, the air wavered. He had the power to make portals. Convenient for him, not so convenient for her.

  It was over. She’d be returned to her father. Likely married off to Adelmar—after she’d faced whatever punishment her father deemed adequate. But it had been worth it. Alex had been worth it.

  Instead of stepping through the portal like she expected, though, the tracker suddenly lurched to the side.

  She looked up and saw blood dripping from his mouth. Theda slid to the ground as his grip loosened, then fell away from her entirely. Because he was falling to the ground too, blood pouring from his back.

  Alex stood behind them, his hand holding the dagger and shaking.

  The tracker wasn’t moving, and the electric-blue shackles around her wrists sputtered and disappeared. That could mean only one thing.

  Alex had killed him.

  Few things killed Fae. But beheadings and direct strikes to the heart could.

  Theda threw her arms around Alex’s neck, holding him tightly. He didn’t say anything, simply dropped the knife and held her too, his arms bands of strength keeping her upright.

  “Will there be more?” he finally asked.

  “I don’t know. I—I don’t think so. Trackers usually travel alone. It’s more efficient.” She let him go and grabbed her bracelet from the ground where the tracker had thrown it, putting it back on her wrist. “They’re not easy to catch off guard. He underestimated you.”

  “No,” he said. “He underestimated the lengths I’d go to protect you.” He pulled her close and kissed her for the first time in weeks, and she kissed him back as though she were starving. Because she was. Starving for him. She never wanted to leave Alex. She’d work it out—find a way to make herself useful and safe, and stay with him.

  11

  Last night, Alex had put his conscience aside and buried the body near the shed. He’d killed a man—or what he thought to be a man. But it was either kill him, or lose Theda to who knew what fate.

  He’d slept curled around her on his bed, both of them fully clothed. He’d been too afraid to ask her where the man had come from. Afraid her answer would make what was building between them impossible.

  He held her and kissed her forehead before leaving for work. “Will you be okay?”

  “I think so. No one else has come, and they would have by now if the tracker were working with others. It’s unlikely he told anyone he’d found me. They get paid per job. He wouldn’t have wanted to share the spoils.”

  “Jesus.” Alex scrubbed a hand down his face.

  “How did you know?” she asked.

  “Know what?” His shoulders were tense with worry. Maybe he should stay home. Call in sick.

  “That I was in trouble.”

  Good question. “I heard you.”

  “Heard me?”

  “You were calling me. And I heard you.”

  She shook her head. “I wasn’t able to use the powder. I didn’t call to you.”

  He lifted his eyebrow. “Powder?”

  “Alex, the things I can do—It’s complicated. Will you trust me that it’s better if you don’t know?”

  “I wish you trusted me enough to share it.”

  She twined her fingers with his. “I trust and admire you more than anyone. I would tell you if I could, but it’s safer for both of us if I don’t.”

  He kissed her softly again, this time on the lips. A shot of electricity zoomed down his spine, lighting up his body with want. She swayed into him. “Should I stay home today?” he asked, hoping she’d say yes and give him a reason to skip responsibility and spend the day with her.

  “Go to work. I’ll visit Leti. Everything will be okay.”

  Reluctantly, Alex left, but he worried about Theda the entire day. He called Leti to check in, but really, he just wanted to know Theda was safe.

  When he got home that evening, Theda was already in
the kitchen, and the scent of meat filled the room.

  Burnt meat.

  “Everything okay?” he asked.

  She glanced over her shoulder, looking harried. “I—No. I’ve been cooking, but it seems I’ve done something wrong. The meal doesn’t smell right.”

  He toed off his boots and moved into the kitchen, opening the oven door. A rush of steam and smoke hit him in the face and he shut the door partway and opened the kitchen window. “I think I see what the problem is.” He pointed to the stovetop where the oven knobs were, and switched them off. “You set it to broil, when you should have turned it to bake. What were you trying to make?”

  Theda licked her lips nervously. “Leti said you liked steak. She showed me how to bake, and I thought…”

  He smiled gently. “Thank you.” Theda hadn’t said as much, but he got the sense she wasn’t a big fan of meat. Yet she’d tried to make him a steak because she knew he loved it.

  He pulled out the pan, now that the smoked had wafted away, and set it on the stove, scratching his jaw. “We could still eat—”

  “No.” Theda shook her head, laughing. “Please. I don’t think I could.” She scrunched her nose.

  He smiled, chuckling, because she had an adorable belly laugh.

  After a moment, she looked over and her smile faded. Her eyes dropped to his mouth.

  He swallowed and looked away. Didn’t matter her past or what she could do; she had an effect on him he couldn’t deny. “I’ll go out. Get us something to eat.”

  “May I come with you? I don’t want to be alone after last night, if that’s okay?”

  “Of course. I’d rather you not be by yourself until we’re certain no one else will come. That is, if you want to stay here. You’re not trapped at my house, or with me, Theda.”

  A sultry smile spread across her mouth before he could blink—before he even thought she knew what she was doing. “I’m here because I want to be with you.”

  Alex gripped his neck. “Come on. Let’s get some air.”

  A lot of cold, cold air. What was he going to do with her? He didn’t recognize himself anymore. The lengths he was willing to go to protect and be with her were extreme.