Maybe Fate: A Novel (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

by Brint, Cynthia

  With a budding level of coolness, the anger I'd seen in his eyes melting into something more like forced indifference, Ethan reached out to shake the blonde's hand. “Nice to see you, Nethiun.”

  “Wonderful as ever, Ethan,” he replied, teeth flashing blue in the sudden burst of black light.

  Oh god, what do I do? Are they going to start fighting right here? Even if I'm wrong, and there is NO way I'm wrong about this guy being the same twaelin as last night, I can just feel the hatred brooding in the air between them.

  Around us, the speakers blared the rolling beat of a new song. It was loud, but Becky was louder. “I love this one! Ethan, come dance with me!”

  Ethan wasn't taking his unblinking gaze off of Nethiun. However, he hadn't faced the determined wall that was Becky Rivera. Gripping his upper arm, she tugged him towards the crowd. “Dance with me, please! Come on!”

  The spell was broken, Ethan turned away from the blonde man and gave Becky a look of chagrin. “Alright alright, let's go do this.”

  Laughing cheerfully, she melted with him into the wall of dancers.

  Beside me, Nethiun chuckled, his arm still firmly planted on my middle. Free of the presence of what I was sure was the man who had, last night, looked at me with such boiling fury, I wrenched away.

  Blinking, the twaelin squinted down at me. I was sure I had to look petrified still. “That was him.”

  Still as the surface of a pond, he gave no hint he understood me. “That was who, now?”

  Opening my mouth, I fought down the worry that I was wrong. That I was about to say something entirely ridiculous. Surely, if Ethan was the one from last night, Nethiun would have reacted differently?

  “He—Ethan—he's... he's the guy you were fighting.”

  There, I saw it. His white eyes widened only a hair, but it was there; surprise. With his smile washed away, he spoke calmly. “So you did notice.”

  A shudder ran down to my knees. “So I am right. Did you not know, then? Oh, shit, what do we do? Why is he—”

  Strong hands squeezed my shoulders, his sharp features moving close to mine. Though his opal eyes were more human looking, the seriousness in them still sent my pulse shifting into a sprint. “Of course I knew it was him. Gale, answer me very precisely, how can you possibly know that's the twaelin from last night?”

  I didn't have an answer. Not a good one, anyway. Shaking my head side to side, I forced myself to keep looking into his intimidating face. “It's just a feeling, that's all.”

  Silent, he peered at me like I might say more. When I didn't, he pulled back and let me go. “Just a feeling,” he muttered, looking out into the throbbing crowd. “I see, interesting.”

  Lifting a hand, I touched where he had been holding me so firmly. “What do we do now?”

  “Hmn?” It was like he was a different person, his mood shifting to that small grin again. “I suppose we could go dance.”

  Mouth gaping, I waited for him to indicate he was joking. Of course, he didn't. “But—but Becky is in danger! Everyone is in danger, aren't they?”

  “Perhaps, though honestly, I'm afraid you're still in the worst of it.”

  “I know that!” Balling my hands into fists, wondering if I might shatter the cup into pieces, I spoke softer. “I know that, but that Ethan guy is an attempted murderer! One who's dancing with my friend and...” Briefly, the image of Becky straddling the sculpted body of the twaelin in our dorm struck my memory.

  “You just got very red,” he observed.

  Furiously, I pointed my free hand at him. “We can't just act like nothing is going on!”

  “On the contrary,” he mused, arching one fine eyebrow, “it's all we should do at this point.”

  Tensing up, a knot of muscle cramping in my neck, I glared at him. “This is about me not getting in too deep again, isn't it?”

  There, that hint again that something sinister was swimming beneath the surface of that pleasant smile Nethiun liked to wear. “I'm not so sure you haven't managed to find yourself in the full fray already.”

  Being reminded of what was going on behind the scenes, that others were watching me that I hadn't met, I grimaced. “How do you mean?”

  “Did you forget what I told you earlier, about how twaelin absorb emotions?” he asked.

  “I—no, I remember.” The idea still gives me the creeps.

  Tilting his head, Nethiun sighed. “Then put the pieces together. You looked him in the eye in front of everyone. Then, you gave him the biggest, bluntest display of terror for no apparent reason. It's possible he didn't understand why, but...”

  The cold wash of fear rolled down to my toes. Nethiun nodded knowingly, looking back out into the dancing masses. “Yes, exactly like that. I'm not so sure you're protected by ignorance any longer, Gale. The more I think about it, it's unlikely you could have walked away from this at all.”

  I wasn't listening anymore. My own eyes had floated into the group, the pulse of the music driving them all to bounce and stomp.

  There, I spotted Becky, her hair flying as she giggled. Swaying against Ethan, her back was to me, her expression hidden.

  But not Ethan's.

  In the darkness of the club, the flickering colored lights rippling over his strong features, he was looking straight at me. Yellow eyes, fixed firmly and unblinking, laid on my own.

  Eyes that were serious, and without any pretense of hiding their smugness.

  Gripping the cup, the ice long melted, I found my wobbling words. “What happens if he knows?”

  “You mean, right now?”

  “In general,” I hissed, wiping droplets of sweat from my throat. “You've been saying that you wouldn't tell me more about the guy who tried to kill me because it'd drag me in deeper. If he's here, then aren't I already in deep, regardless?”

  Nethiun mulled over my question, closing his eyes as he did so. “Very astute. I believed things might not progress as far as this, but I was clearly mistaken. At this stage, I don't think knowing more about him would change your fate, one way or the other.”

  I didn't like how he phrased that. Who the hell believed in a thing like 'fate?' Looking down into the useless remnants of my drink, I tipped it back and chugged it down in one swallow.

  Setting the empty glass down on a nearby table covered in forgotten drinks, I turned back to the thoughtful face of Nethiun.

  “I want you to tell me everything you can.”

  Chapter 8.

  Nethiun

  The swatches of energy rolling around were strong, lovely things. Still, they paled in comparison when next to the searing monsoon that came off of Gale Everette.

  It was difficult to not push her further, knowing how close she was to breaking down as she watched her friend dance with Ethlyn—or Ethan, as he had chosen to go by—in the middle of the gyrating club.

  I'm still not positive why Valenforth would bother to send his servant to mingle like this. Not knowing was one of the things I hated most.

  Still, recalling how much undistilled hate had been in Ethlyn's face when he shook my hand, that brought me glee.

  Glancing down, seeing the anxiety in Gale, tasting the sweet edges of it, I breathed in deeply. While I'd desired the pieces to come together, for her to be nudged into the mess of everything just to sate my curiosity, I hadn't imagined it would be as simple as this.

  Valenforth is no longer just watching. The only person who might know his intentions right now, besides the Corpse King himself, is Ethlyn.

  Lifting my head, catching his golden-eyed stare, I offered him a sweet twist of my lips.

  Perhaps I'll stumble into luck again and gather that answer, as well.

  “Here,” I said, reaching out and touc
hing the smooth skin at the nape of her neck. The girl jumped, baffled by my overt contact. That, too, was addicting. “You want to know more, who am I to deny you that? However, you also claimed you wanted to have some fun tonight, why not have both?”

  Flipping her braid, she moved away and eyed me. “You want me to have fun while Ethan the demon-but-not-demon-guy flirts with my friend and stares at me all night?”

  “He's unlikely to try anything here,” I mused, unable to promise entirely. “Like me, he's observing. If he was going to attack, why not do it by now?”

  Gale looked at her roommate, bridge of her nose crinkling. “I wouldn't be dancing if things were normal, how can you expect me to now?”

  “Standing here and gawking at the two of them isn't entirely subtle. Work with me, I'll feed you some facts while we spin around.”

  “I do want to know about him,” she huffed, pinkness flushing her neck, “but I also can't let him be alone with her.”

  Considering her words, glancing once at Ethlyn where he was swaying with Becky several feet away, the solution became perfectly obvious.

  In a single motion, I coiled my arm around her waist. Instantly, the heat of her heart exploded around me, her energy a mass of wildfire.

  Addictive, far too addictive. Why does all of this emotion come off of her so strongly? I've never known a human capable of this.

  Pulling her against me, I snagged one of her hands, entwining our fingers. Clearly too astounded to struggle, Gale stumbled instead when I turned us in a weaving circle.

  “What are you doing?” she gasped, her eyes so wide they were almost just the whites.

  “Dancing,” I said, a smirk tugging at one side of my mouth. Pulling her against me firmly, I bent my head and whispered into her ear. “And talking, like you asked for.”

  Again, her energy flared like a star ready to die out. I didn't think for a second that Gale's emotional roar had reached a peak yet, though.

  The freckles across her shoulders stood out to me even more when she trembled. “This—I—wait, listen, I can hardly dance as it is. Never mind dancing and talking at the same time.”

  Lifting my eyebrows, I leaned back to meet her worried, wide eyes, the color of spring clouds. They looked especially wonderful when they were alive with nerves. “Then I'll move us slowly. Here, just do what everyone else is.”

  “Oh, no, I couldn't,” she blurted.

  Chuckling in my throat, I rolled my palms down to her hips and lower back, holding her warm body against me. It was like hugging a wall of living steam. “Of course you can, just stay like this, and neither your friend or Ethlyn will find us suspicious.”

  I could hear the sound of her swallowing. “You mean Ethan?”

  Grinning, I tucked my mouth close to the hollow of her neck, murmuring into her ear again. “And here we go, talking. No, his name is Ethlyn.”

  Her breathing was rapid, it made her voice fragile.

  I adored it.

  “Why would he use a fake name?” she asked.

  A good question, that. My finger tips traced the curve of her outer thighs. The way she tightened up, solid as brick, was instant. I'm more curious about why you're so easily pushed, Gale Everette. What makes you so anxious around me?

  I said none of my thoughts, it wasn't the moment for it. “I can only guess. Twaelin hardly mingle in among humans, so a name change seems redundant. No one would know who we were, what line of information would they follow?”

  “Walk me through that,” she murmured, and I felt the first nervous, careful treading of her hands touching my back.

  That brought a grin helplessly across my mouth. “We live forever, as far as I've ever known. None of us have wasted away in old age. It seems impossible, when I think about it.”

  “Why, why would that be impossible?”

  For a second, I hesitated. Was it a mistake to tell someone as much as this? Someone like Gale, who my Mistress had already chastised me for getting more involved with than she saw was needed?

  My curiosity, my need to garner reactions from the burning core of energy in my arms... it was hungrier than my good sense.

  Sliding my hands up her sides, listening to her astonished intake of air, I rested my fingers on her shoulders. Pulling back, my eyes narrowed poignantly at her own surprised expression.

  “Gale, twaelin can't die.”

  Digging her fingers into my muscles, she bubbled with an uneasy laugh. “That's impossible, everything can die.”

  Gently, I grazed my digits up her bare arms, feeling the tiny hairs become needles as I want. “Perhaps we have different ideas about what it means to die, then.”

  She dropped her limbs to her sides, and for a moment, we were no longer touching. “You're talking around me. Stop it, tell me what you mean. How is it possible for you to not die, what the hell is a twaelin?”

  I didn't need to touch Gale to feel her. Her emotion was raw, her anger delectable. Strangely, though, having her cut me off sent a welling of dismay inside of me.

  Now, that's interesting.

  Squinting at her, I fought to keep my smile strong. “Ah. And there it is. What am I?”

  “You keep saying twaelin aren't demons,” she said warily, “but you talk about eating emotions and not dying, you fly around and seem to vanish place to place. I saw Ethlyn shoot lightning or something. If you aren't a demon, tell me the difference.”

  Canting my head, I flexed my fingers, then lifted them in front of me. “Demons are imaginary beasts born from stories. However, twaelin are very much real. We're born from other, more powerful twaelin. They're the source of our power.”

  Making a fist, I moved my other hand below it, fingers waggling. “Think of it like rain. It's created, falls to the ground, then when it 'dies' it simply evaporates, eventually returning once more from the air.”

  Blinking, she stared at my display. “But if that analogy is right, that means you can die, you just don't stay dead.”

  I suppose that's one way to put it. The reality of our destruction, it only meant, in the off chance a twaelin was destroyed, we could be recreated by our source.

  My Mistress would bring me back if it ever happened, low as the chances are.

  Shrugging at her point, I spread my fingers between us like a wall. “I concede. Yes, in that sense, if I were to be 'killed' I would just come back eventually.”

  Her frown was thoughtful. “You can be hurt, but you don't stay dead. Is anything about you even slightly human?” The waves of anxiety and excitement had long faded from the change of topic.

  I couldn't have that.

  Lowering my hands, I snatched hers back up, placing them on my chest. There, now I have her attention. Gale gawked, pink lips falling open from my brisk action. “If you wanted to know how much of me was human, I'd be happy to show you,” I murmured.

  Scalding humiliation mixed with her pumping heart. It soothed me, taunted me, all at once. I'd never met a human who pulled me in like Gale did.

  “I—I didn't mean it like that!” she squeaked, fighting to pull away; I held her wrists fast, keeping her touching me.

  Lowering my brows, I stayed silent until she quit yanking to escape. “Shh,” I said gently, “you're acting like a chaste maiden. I was only trying to let you feel the beat of my energy.”

  Gale's face smoothed, muscles relaxing a hair. Flicking her eyes from my own, to her hands, then back again, she cleared her throat. “Your what?”

  “Just feel,” I coaxed her, releasing her wrists. I felt a delicious rush of satisfaction when she didn't rip herself away from me.

  Gingerly, the red-head bent in closer to my body. Eventually, she almost had her ear to my chest. I knew what she would be feeling. It was
a pulse, something similar to a human heart, and yet so far removed.

  My center, my very being. My connection to my Mistress and the twaelin reality; what let me pass between the fibers of the planes and into Gale's world.

  “What is that?” she asked softly.

  Closing my eyes, I listened to the beat of the music, amused by how similar it seemed to what she was sensing. “That's me, the actual me.”

  While I stood there, sinking inwards, I felt Gale's emotions swimming around me. They weren't the luscious tendrils of negativity, or the exciting sparks of her anxiousness.

  How strange, what a unique feeling.

  “It's like a heartbeat,” she whispered. That made me smile, but her next words tickled at something else. “It's... familiar, somehow. I think I've felt this before.”

  Looking down at the top of her head, my fingers scooped up her chin. Tilting her back, so she was staring up at me through eyes soaked in haze, I was almost sorry that my heated tone had ruined the mood. “What do you mean you've felt this before?”

  Baffled by my sudden seriousness, Gale slid her palms off my chest. “I'm not sure, I think... I think it was a few days ago, when I saw you watching me in the commons.”

  Pulling my fingers away from her face, I slid them into my pockets. “You actually felt my presence. Of course. That's how you also could feel Ethlyn.”

  It makes sense, and at the same time, that's perfectly impossible. Humans aren't able to sense us, they never have before.

  “Hey, are you alright?” Gale asked.

  Frowning harshly, I turned away, lost in a flurry of thought. I'll need to tell my Mistress, this has to be part of why she dreamed about the girl in the first place.

  “Hello? Nethiun?”

  It's connected, certainly.

  “Nethiun!” Reaching out, she grabbed at my hand, astounding both of us with her abrupt gesture.

  Freezing in my rush of thoughts, I stared at her, matching her surprised expression.