Fates Divided: Halven Rising

Another row of glassware lined the counter when Elena joined Leo in the lab.

“These are elements arranged according to the human periodic table,” Leo explained. “You will manipulate each element into its various states: liquid, gas, solid. Your final test will be to manipulate two of the elements into a third, new substance.”

Elena stared at the glassware. She’d accomplished more than she thought she would yesterday, but… “You really think this is possible?”

“If your gift is as powerful as I believe, yes.”

And Leo was right.

She managed to manipulate every element into its individual states without completely draining herself, though she was tired. The first part of the exercise also revealed her weakness, or magical mental block, according to Leo.

The greater the atomic weight, the more she struggled to manipulate the element. Leo had her reform elements with light atomic weights first. In other words, taking the process of manipulation in baby steps.

Derek joined them after his fight training, right as Leo brought out two tanks for phase two of the exercise. The first tank contained hydrogen, and the second, oxygen, according to the labels. “What’s this for?” he asked.

Leo methodically filled airtight vials with each gas and set a third vial nearby. “Elena will use her power to combine hydrogen and oxygen and form water inside the third, empty vial. We will examine the results to ensure that she did not simply manipulate a single element into its liquid state.”

Elena approached the counter and raised her hands. Her palms vibrated with the power building beneath. She envisioned running her fingers over the atomic pattern of each element, sensing the contours and nature as if turning over a wooden puzzle and figuring out how each piece fit inside another.

She stood there with her hands raised for several minutes, maybe as long as a quarter hour. The intensity of her concentration and the power spreading inside her made her weak all over. When she thought she’d read the atoms correctly, she voiced a command for the elements to combine into water, and released the energy.

A burning sensation spread from her shoulders down through her fingertips, culminating in an invisible spark that jerked her hands back like the kick from a gun.

She gripped her stinging palms above her heart and stumbled back shakily, staring at the liquid inside the once empty vial.

Leo reached for the vial and held it to the light. He angled the glass and tipped the liquid. “Good.”

Elena’s head went dizzy and her legs buckled, knees slamming to the floor. She caught herself by one stinging palm before pitching face-first onto the ground. Mind numb, she sensed Derek lifting her and setting her on a chair. She clung to his shoulder, her head still spinning.

“Are you all right?” His voice was gruff, his body crouching in front of her protectively. He ran his hand across her forehead and down her throat, pausing above her pulse.

She focused on his worried eyes, attempted to put words together, but it was as if her tongue was surrounded by peanut butter.

Across the room, Leo seemed to be testing the liquid for pH. He smiled.

She must have done it—combined the two elements.

Derek ran his fingers forcefully through his hair. “What are we doing here? They don’t care what happens to you. Dr. Evil only cares about achieving his goal, not what it costs you. Come on.” He wrapped his arm around her back and under her arms, easing her up. “It’s getting late, and he won’t notice if we leave. Not at first, anyway. He’s too excited about the progress you made.”

She nodded.

Once she was standing, Derek bent to pick her up.

“No. I can walk,” she croaked, and cleared her throat, relieved to form words again. She fought a new wave of dizziness as they made their way to the door.

“Tomorrow. Same hour.” Leo’s words drifted darkly from behind. “Do not be late this time.”

Of course Leo noticed them leaving.

No matter how crappy her body felt or how worried she was about what Leo would ask of her tomorrow, she couldn’t pretend she wasn’t excited about what she’d accomplished.

In just two days, she’d more than doubled her powers. With a week of training, what else would she be able to do? The possibilities seemed endless.

Elena changed her clothes inside the Emain bathroom, but with each exhausted step home, a flicker of doubt crept into her consciousness. “Derek, what do you think happens to Halven who know about Fae? Do you think they’ll let us walk away once it’s over?”

He glanced at Keen, who was a safe distance behind them. “I don’t know. I haven’t figured out the endgame.” After a few seconds he added, “When I think back, the reason Marlon recruited me may have had less to do with my high school transcripts and more to do with my genes. I just haven’t determined how he would have benefited from it. Up until he disappeared—”

Elena stopped and stared. “Your mentor disappeared?”

Keen had paused as well, presumably to give them privacy, though she suspected he heard more than she wanted him to.

Derek placed his hand on her arm and urged her forward. “Not here. Let’s get you home. I’ll stay the night and tell you what I know about Marlon.”

She looked at him out of the corner of her eye. “You don’t need to stay the night. You live next door.”

He shook his head. “I’m staying. I don’t trust…anyone.”

When they reached Elena’s apartment, Derek secured them inside her bedroom with a towel tucked beneath the door. He paced the room, tapping his finger vigorously against his leg, his jaw working as though he were warring with something inside.

“Marlon had me run tests on a flu virus,” he finally said, glancing over hesitantly.

She sat on her bed, exhausted, but focused. “What kinds of tests?”

“Basic tests, nothing unusual, but the findings showed the virus mutated at an astronomical rate.” More pacing before he added, “Marlon claimed the virus was a regular flu strain, simply more adept at survival than others. We were studying its hardiness, using the properties to research a vaccine to immunize against all flu strains. It was supposed to be cutting-edge science meant to change the world for good. But—” His voice cut off and he peered at Elena, a growing panic simmering there. “What if that’s not what it was? What if Marlon created the Fae virus and had me help him because of my background in immunology and because I’m a Halven?”

He sat on the bed beside her, his mouth close to her ear as if he feared Keen might hear even through the towel he’d tucked under the door. She understood the precaution. Her hearing had improved since she’d reached her majority; what must Keen’s senses be like if he was full Fae? But Derek’s close proximity was extremely distracting.

Elena’s head might be muddled from exhaustion, but she still had enough sense to smell his clean scent, feel the warmth of his body beside her, and remember the sexy image of him in his Fae clothes.

She inched back, but Derek only moved closer, obviously not understanding what his nearness did to her. “Marlon is the only professor on campus working on something like this—at a university run by Fae. And he handpicked me—a Halven—to be his assistant. It’s a pretty big coincidence, don’t you think?”

She did, but she didn’t want to jump to conclusions just yet.

“The last time I saw Marlon, I’d just completed another series of tests. There was nothing special about them, except that we discovered how rapidly the virus gained in its ability to spread from cell to cell. Marlon was happy with the findings and his behavior turned erratic. He stayed in his lab all night. Missed important appointments with students and colleagues. ‘This virus will right the wrongs, Derek,’ he told me. He was eccentric and kind of kooky, so I didn’t think much of it at the time. I figured he needed the most aggressive flu virus he could find to create the vaccine. But what if that wasn’t it?” Derek’s head dropped back and he stared at the ceiling. When he looked back at her, his hands were balled into tight fists on his thighs. “What if Marlon is the madman, and I helped him kill all those Fae?”

Elena grabbed one of his hands between both of hers. “Even if that’s true, you didn’t know. It’s not your fault. And with the advances we made today in my training, we’ll find a cure before it’s too late.”

He shook his head. “No. I put you in this position. If I hadn’t helped Marlon—hadn’t wanted to get away from my dad so badly… I could have gone to another school—the one my father had encouraged me to go to—and this would never have happened.”

He was rattling on and she didn’t understand everything, but she understood his intent. He blamed himself.

“That’s not true. Marlon would have found another research assistant. Any number of people could have run those tests. Your absence wouldn’t have stopped him from developing the virus—if it was, in fact, Marlon who created it.”

He turned to her, the tension in his eyes diminishing some as he took in her face. His gaze dropped to her mouth, and her cheeks warmed. He reached over and tucked a curly lock of hair behind her ear.

The gesture would have been exciting—this touch that had nothing to do with practicality and everything to do with touching for the sake of touching. Except that the hair he’d tucked away slipped its confines and bounced back onto her cheek.

Without breaking eye contact, Elena twisted her lips and blew it to the side.

The hair landed across her eye.

Derek’s mouth curved into a smile that made her stomach flutter. “Your hair is crazy.”

“Hey, I can’t help it.” She pressed her hands to the sides of her head, attempting to smooth the waves.

He frowned. “Don’t. I like it the way it is.”

He reached out and ran his fingers down a long strand, turning it over and studying it. His gaze moved from her hair to her face, and the look in his eyes made her heart bounce around in her chest.

He wound the strand of hair around his finger and gently drew her closer. His gaze dropped to her mouth again and—

A loud knock sounded on the bedroom door.

Elena jerked back at the same time Derek sighed and mumbled something uncomplimentary about Keen.

“May I come in?” Keen said from the other side.

How did Derek know it was him?

“Just a minute,” she called, her voice higher than normal.

She walked over, kicked the towel out of the way, and opened the door.

Keen looked her up and down, then glanced at Derek sitting rigidly on the bed. Keen smirked.

Derek scowled and clasped his hands between his legs.

“You’re expected at dawn,” Keen said. “We will put in more combat training in the morning, and you will need rest for the next phase of lab work. You should get sleep for the exhaustion and”—he waved his hand uncertainly toward her body—“make necessary healing preparations… for any soreness.”

It took her a moment to figure out what he was referring to. “Do you mean pain medication?”

“Ah, yes. That is it.”

Elena rolled her eyes. Fae and their lack of medicine was a serious nuisance. Had they had any hands-on knowledge of disease, they might not be in this situation.

Keen returned to the living room, and Derek pulled off his shoes.

“You really don’t need to stay,” she said, watching him. “I’ll be fine.”

“I’m staying.” He walked over to where he’d slept the night before.

She sighed and left the room to retrieve a pillow and blanket for him. But if she was being honest, she didn’t mind him here. It was a comfort after the day she’d had.

Elena handed Derek the linens and changed in the bathroom, where she brushed her teeth. When she returned, Derek was lying on the floor a few feet from her bed—closer than he’d been the night before. How was she supposed to sleep with him so close? Comfort or not, he still made her pulse race.

She crawled under the covers and watched him toss and turn on the hard floor for a few minutes. She felt safe with him, even if he sent her senses into stimulation overload.

Had he really been about to kiss her before Keen barged in?

Her face heated just from thinking about the look in his eyes. The boy had beautiful, penetrating eyes she swore saw down to her soul.

They each had a stake in this business with the Fae now, but there was a part of the situation they never spoke of—that positive and negative charge between them that was a fraction away from snapping them together.

How in the world was this going to work without one or both of them getting hurt? The Fae wanted her help, and Derek’s project might have been the catalyst that had forced them to come to Elena in the first place.

Her eyelids grew heavy with the enormity of it. Because no matter what she’d told him earlier to reassure him everything would be okay, she was frightened for the both of them.