Maybe Fate: A Novel (New Adult Paranormal Romance)

by Brint, Cynthia

  I understood the willpower, then, that had to have existed to bring me back.

  Burying myself in her warmth to the hilt, her cries bounced around the throne room. Together, we rose like a wave, meeting each other, harmonized.

  The sweltering noise of our panting, our grunts, it became all we could hear.

  My hands were crushing her to me, rough enough I was sure she'd have marks on her. If she minded, there was no hint.

  This time, the boiling energy that lived inside of Gale didn't call to me in a way that seemed dangerous. Idly, as my pulsing hit a peak and I arched into her lovely form with gusto, I wondered what had changed.

  What was different about her?

  Above me, Gale pressed her brow-bone into mine. Her chest fluttered, heart racing to keep up with her body's demands.

  Every part of her seemed to embrace me, squeezing me until I groaned and gave out.

  Running my palms down her shoulder blades, I felt the slickness of her sweat. Together we breathed, relaxing in our very existence.

  Kissing the side of her neck, I felt her stir. Propping herself over me, Gale smiled into my face with a comfortable haze. “I love you, Nethiun. I really, honestly do.”

  “I know,” I answered, cupping the back of her neck. Pressing my lips to her warm temple, I smiled against her skin. “I love you, too.”

  I wanted to lie there forever, but she was the first to disengage. Gale slid off of me, standing on still shaking legs.

  Watching her from my vantage point, I lifted an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”

  She glanced down at me, blushing as she understood the view I had. Tugging on her clothes, she cast her eyes around the room curiously. “There are a few things I need to do, is all.”

  Redressing easily, I stood up beside her. “Oh? And what must a god do, I wonder?”

  The way she stared at me, it spiked my guilt. “I'm not a god, Nethiun.”

  “Forgive me, but what should I call you, if not that? Gale,” I said gently, reaching out to take her hands. “You've obtained the power of every twaelin, and somehow the energy of your human emotion, your very essence, has allowed you to rewrite the tenets that built my world. You can do anything you want with it.”

  Gale offered me a weak smile. “I know. And I'm going to.”

  Unsure what she meant, I didn't fight as she pulled away. Gale wandered past the throne, considering it briefly. I felt an awful sensation, imagining her sitting there like my Mistress once had.

  Luckily, she kept going, heading for the exit. In wonder, I trailed after her until we were both standing outside on the twisted front steps.

  Looking upwards, Gale considered the sky. It made me think that she was contemplating the actuality of where we were. “Gale? What are you going to do?”

  “I don't want this power for myself,” she said grimly. “This isn't for me, none of this. I don't want to be a god or a twaelin. I'm going to get rid of it. I'm going to fix things.”

  My eyes, cold as snow, opened to their limit. “You're going to do what?”

  Half-turning towards me, she put on a tender smile that made me throb with trepidation. “Just watch, Nethiun. Watch me change fate some more.”

  Her hands lifted, her eyes closed. As I looked on with disbelief, Gale glowed like the dawning of a new sun. The energy within her clawed at me, came to life as she manipulated it.

  That was the difference, I realized. Gale understands what she can do, she can finally control it.

  Her hair flew around, a sea of bright rubies. She stood out on the background of muted grey, lighting up the world with fire.

  Shielding my eyes, I stared at the vision of the woman I loved. Watched her channeling energy with only her desire to guide her.

  I was afraid, in that moment. There was a tingling warning in my brain that she might lose control, destroying herself and making everything pointless.

  My worries abated in the sudden, abrupt flash of that searing vanilla energy. It hit everything, me included, soaking in with a wondrous warmth.

  The power that came from Gale—was Gale—traveled through my body, passing beyond. She's getting rid of it, where is it going?

  Suddenly I could see nothing, my ears deaf as a roar like the ocean filled them. The scent of brine came next.

  Opening my eyes hesitantly, lowering my arms, I looked out upon the gentle shore line. We both stood on the sand, the sky luminous with the purple of sunrise.

  Turning my head, I stared in awe at Gale.

  What happened? “Gale?”

  Her eyes were stuck firmly on the waves; unblinking, far away.

  “Gale?” I asked again, earnestly.

  Like waking from a dream, the woman I loved looked over at me. The understanding on her face left me astonished. “What did you do?” I whispered.

  “Look,” she said calmly. Pointing over my shoulder, she gestured for me to turn. I twisted, gazing out on the pale sand.

  They were hard to miss, the two of them.

  One I knew, his long black hair waving in the wind as he sat on the ground. He wore an expression of amazement, blue eyes not noticing me.

  The other I had little knowledge of, yet seeing him, I instantly knew who he was. His long red hair, those grey eyes, that confident stance...

  Ethlyn, and the Duke of Creation.

  When I gaped back at the girl beside me, she looked truly pleased. “Maybe this time, they'll have better luck with a new life,” she whispered.

  “That's the Duke of Creation.” I didn't know what else to say.

  Nodding, Gale tucked her hair behind her ear. “I know. He's my father.”

  Shaking my head very slowly, I glanced back at the pair for a long moment. “Do you know what this means?”

  “I do,” she said. “I brought them back with my energy. I'm their source, now. Theirs, and yours,” she added, drawing my attention back to her with her emotional tone.

  We looked at each other, as if it were the first time we had met all over again. “Are you willing to have that responsibility?”

  “There wasn't any other choice.” Her eyebrows leveled at me, daring me to challenge her. To challenge the decision a mortal, human girl had made to revive us three, to give us second chances.

  A decision based purely on her aching heart.

  I wrapped my arms around her, hugging her close. Inhaling the scent of her hair, we stood with the clapping rhythm of the ocean waves at our side.

  “Will you expect me to call you Mistress?” I asked, my smile brazen.

  Gale scowled, before allowing herself to relax and laugh. “I'd never want that.”

  “Good. I'm looking forward to being free of such hindrances.”

  “You'll still have to answer to me in a different way,” she teased.

  Grinning wide, I held her chin, planting a long kiss on her decadent lips. Leaning away, I enjoyed the fog glimmering in her expression. “I'm rather positive I'll relish the responsibilities of being in love, Gale.”

  I knew I meant it, and so did she.

  An Epilogue of Sorts

  Gale Everette

  Sitting on the bench, I smiled down at the birds that skipped across the ground. They gobbled the bread, heads bobbing in quick bursts.

  It felt... good. Just sitting there, wrapped in a thick jacket with the cold November breeze hitting me, it all felt so good.

  After everything that had happened when I'd returned to campus a few days back, I craved a moment of peace. I'd known it was going to be a giant cluster-ball when everyone saw me, but...

  I still wasn't prepared for how angry they all were.

  Becky had been the worst of all. She'd taken one look at me wh
en I walked into the dorm, then broken into tears. That was the easy part, comforting her in her moment of disbelief.

  It was after she'd calmed down that things got bad. She'd wanted to know where I had been for over two weeks, why I hadn't told anyone what was going on.

  My story wasn't a very good one.

  I'd lied to her, said I was overwhelmed by the attention of two guys. I'd run away like a coward, avoiding everyone.

  It was clear she didn't believe me, especially since I had no real explanation for my boots being at the beach. But to her credit, she didn't push the matter.

  She'd confided in me that Mr. Birch hadn't come to class for some time, wasn't answering his phone. Teachers had gone to investigate his home, and finding no sign of him or his wife, they all assumed the worst.

  Nodding at her gossip, I mentally thanked Nethiun for being smart enough to advise me to get my backpack out of that house. I didn't need anything tying me to that situation.

  Looking up at the sky, I sighed into the cool breeze. I wonder if I should have tried to bring them back, too.

  The idea had been one I'd considered. However, when I'd stood there on the stone steps, staring out into the abyss, I realized how ugly it would have been.

  I barely grasped coming back to life myself. Two humans, who suffered in ways I can't even imagine... they might not have handled it well at all.

  Lifting my hands, I observed the lines in my palms curiously. I still had trouble believing I'd done what I had.

  Mom's face, when I showed up with Creation—no, my dad's name is Trethin—at her front door was priceless.

  To my shock, she'd slapped him straight across the cheek. Then, with tears racing down her face, she'd pulled him in for an embrace that might have never ended if I hadn't tapped her shoulder.

  I don't envy how he'll explain away nineteen years of being gone.

  She, too, was angry at me for vanishing for so long. Luckily, she was more forgiving than Becky. It made me grateful they had no clue how far gone I had actually been.

  Inhaling the sweet scent of snow on the horizon, I rose to my feet. Strolling across the commons was interesting, most students were inside to escape the bone-biting chill.

  After the brief time I'd lost the ability to feel the cold, those hours after being resurrected, I almost revered the way it made my teeth chatter.

  “Hey.”

  Turning, I found Ethlyn sitting on the stone wall. The spot I'd first looked upon Nethiun. His long hair was wound back in a loose tail, body decked out a lengthy tan coat. “Hey,” I said, smiling. “What are you doing out here?”

  “Just hoping to run into you.” Lowering his crystal eyes to the ground, he spoke pensively. “Gale, I never got a chance to apologize to you.”

  Tilting my head, I hopped up beside him on the wall. “For what?”

  He tasted the words, acted like they were acidic and rotten. “For killing you that time. There's no way you've forgotten about that, I—”

  Reaching out, I put my arms around his shoulders. He went stiff, but didn't push me away. “No, I didn't forget. But I understood why it happened, I knew you couldn't stop yourself.”

  The power inside of me, when I couldn't control it... combined with my emotions, Nethiun was like an insect to a light bulb.

  Gale Everette, the naive light bulb.

  “You... understand what happened?” He didn't sound convinced.

  Hugging him harder, I closed my eyes tight. “I do. And I forgave you already. You shouldn't think about that anymore, that was a different time.” A different life.

  Hesitant, his arms circled me to return the embrace. It felt different than I had once expected. That hug, that moment, it wasn't tainted by the insidious hunger Ethlyn had been cultivating for me weeks ago.

  I'd been right, the energy that drew the twaelin to me had messed with his head, and his heart. When I'd accidentally absorbed some of him that time in the orange grove, I'd made things even worse.

  Ethlyn wasn't the same person I'd first met in the construction site, the monster with enraged golden eyes.

  Sitting back, I gave him a friendly grin. He returned it; at first weakly, then, it turned on strong.

  “What will you do now?” I asked him.

  “I'm not entirely sure.” Shrugging, he looked out across the campus. “For a long time, I was living the life of someone else. I was trying to undo my own sins by giving their echo of an existence some sort of meaning, some sort of do-over.”

  “You're the one with the do-over, now,” I said quietly.

  He nodded, his mouth quirking up at one side. “I know. I never thought I'd be as free as this. Without the shackles of someone like Valenforth over me, I can live life without any guilt, any fear.” Pausing, he turned back to me, eyebrows crinkling. “Gale, what exactly happened to him?”

  Touching my stomach, I looked away with nervous guilt. “Who knows, exactly.” I'm unsure how much of him is inside of me, still. When I unleashed all that energy to bring back Ethlyn and Trethin, I thought I utilized all of it.

  And all of her.

  But how could I really know? There was so much I just didn't understand still.

  Peering back at the dark-haired man beside me, I contemplated his small frown. “It doesn't matter. He's gone, as far as it counts.”

  “I see.” Picking at his jacket sleeve, he chuckled. “Fine then. Well, who knows. Maybe I'll try to get a hold of some identification and enroll here all over again.”

  Laughing, I turned slightly red. “Guess we can go through classes again together. I'll be retaking everything after missing so much. Not that my grades were very good, anyway. Who knows, maybe this time, deciding to major in English will help.” It certainly made Mom happy.

  He opened his mouth, but another sound butted in. “Gale!” Becky called, running across the commons with her hair bouncing. “Hey, Gale!”

  Grinning, I hopped off the wall as she arrived. “Hey, what's up?”

  “Nothing nothing, just the ever important question of what you'll be wearing when we go to that Thanksgiving themed party a friend is throwing, and...” Trailing off, she let her gaze roam pointedly over Ethlyn. “He—llo,” she crooned, drawing the word out. “And who's this gentleman here?”

  Shooting a look at me, the twaelin slid off the wall, offering a hand to my roommate. “Ethlyn, nice to meet you Becky.”

  “Yeah, I am,” she said softly. “Huh. How funny. For a second there, I felt like we'd met before.”

  The twaelin and I shared a look.

  Giggling, she winked at me. “Guess that must be a sign of fate! Nice to meet you, Ethlyn.”

  Fate, I thought, bemused. Maybe there is something to it, after all.

  “You know,” she went on, gushing over the young man's good looks, “with hair and eyes like ours, any children we have will become the envy of everyone!”

  Together, our laughter floated over the campus like a joyful song.

  ****

  Kicking my feet, I stared down the ledge of the high building. In the past, I might have been scared. Now, I only smiled at the bright lights below.

  “Gale,” Nethiun said, coming to stand beside me. “Are you really okay with things going like this?”

  Gazing at the streets, the distant sound of cars, I imagined everyone below living their lives in perfect bliss. Somewhere in that mess, I knew Becky and Ethlyn were out dancing. I hoped they were having a good time. “Yeah, why wouldn't I be?”

  “It wasn't so long ago that you tried to scare him away from her.”

  “That was when everything was different, all mucked up.” My thick hair teased against my throat in the rough wind. It whistled around us, weaving through
the alley so far below.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw his foot on the edge, toes extended into the void. “And now, things are better?” he asked tenderly.

  “Yeah.” Glancing up, I saw he was smiling. “Yeah, things are much better now.”

  “Then,” he reached down, offering me those deft fingers of his. “Let us go. It's a good night to fly.”

  Without faltering, I grabbed his hand.

  -THE END-

  ..ABOUT THE AUTHOR..

  Cynthia Brint is a new, up and coming Paranormal Romance writer. She loves creating stories with complex worlds and fleshed out characters, all in the hope of evoking emotion in her readers.

  She pulls no punches, and never plans to.

  For more about Cynthia, or to catch news about her next novel, check out her mailing list!

  New Release Mailing List! Click Here!

  Thank you for reading!

  ~Cynthia Brint