Fates Divided: Halven Rising

Leo removed his lab coat and stepped to the center of the room. “I’ve asked Beatrice to introduce you to the Tertullian Codex. It is a seventeen-hundred-year-old text said to possess the key to transmutation, among other things. Now that you’ve mastered elemental manipulation, it is time to move on to the next level.”

“Why can’t you show me the book?” Elena didn’t trust these people, but at least she knew Leo.

“The Codex is written in a dead language. Beatrice has the ability to place a glamour over the text. You will see the words translated in your language, but the writing is convoluted like poetry, and subject to interpretation. Only the reader may decipher the meaning.”

The Tertullian Codex didn’t sound like the perfect solution, but it was a book. Books she understood.

He looked toward the door, and a slender girl about Elena’s age and only a couple of inches taller—all Fae were taller; this one just seemed slightly shorter than the rest—entered the room. “Here is Beatrice now.”

Beatrice wore the same fitted clothes as the other Fae, her strawberry-blond hair swept rigidly from her face in a ponytail.

“Go with her. The Codex is integral to devising the antidote. Some spend months studying it. Perhaps you will be lucky and have a sense for its meaning the first time you read it.”

The look on his face said he wasn’t convinced. She would have to make the best of the time she had.

Elena nodded and followed Beatrice out the door, along with Derek. The girl’s shoulders were stiff as she led them down the mazelike corridors of Emain, the walls blood red above mahogany paneling. The inside of Emain looked like a Victorian building that had mated with the Pentagon, with numerous wide hallways and modern fluorescent lights buzzing and clicking above her.

Their guide wasn’t giving off a friendly vibe, but it seemed strange to work with her and not know anything about her. “Are you one of the Fae researching a cure?” Elena asked.

Beatrice’s mouth tightened. “Do what you’re told and don’t ask unnecessary questions.”

Ouch—definitely not friendly.

Derek stopped Elena, glaring at Beatrice’s back as she continued down the hall. “I don’t want to leave you with this chick, but I’ve got to take care of something. Will you be okay for a bit?” He leaned down, warm, peppermint-scented breath brushing her ear, sending a shiver down her spine. “While you’re looking at that crusty old book, I’m going to my lab to check things out.”

She peered up to find his sapphire eyes intent. “I’ll be fine, but are you sure it’s safe for you to go back? What if Marlon returns?”

“I have skills.” He winked. “No one will know I’m there.”

She considered bringing up the We Stick Together Inside Fae-U policy, but a library was about as sedate as it got. No point in making him stay for that.

“I’ll be fine,” she said, but he seemed to hesitate.

After a moment, he must have decided it was safe, because he squeezed her arm. “I’ll meet you back here at five. Be careful.”

Fae would be stupid to hurt her when she was helping them. But if Derek’s mentor was involved in creating the disease and suspected Derek had betrayed him, Derek could be in danger. “You be careful.”

His gaze dropped to her mouth and a splash of heat spread through her belly, reminding her of the near kiss last night. “I will.”

At first, it annoyed the heck out of her that Derek had followed her to the Fae classroom and insinuated himself into her drama. But now…now she valued having him near.

Elena didn’t trust these people. Why she trusted her neighbor she couldn’t explain. But she did. It was the way he watched her, the look in his eyes when he worried over her safety. And the fact that he wasn’t anything like the cold pretty boy he first projected.

Beatrice hadn’t slowed, and Elena worried she might lose her in the labyrinth of hallways. “I better go,” she said.

Derek nodded, and she gave him a quick smile before hurrying after the girl.

Elena turned the last corner where she’d seen Beatrice go, and came to a skidding halt. Beatrice was there, but so was Keen. And they were in some sort of heated discussion.

Beatrice reached up and slid her hand behind Keen’s neck, drawing him closer. She brushed her mouth along his cheek and the corner of his lips. Not a kiss—more of a caress—then she whispered something in his ear that Elena couldn’t hear from this distance.

Keen straightened and blinked several times. He walked away, never once looking at Elena.

Wasn’t he supposed to be guarding her?

Keen rarely made a sound while shadowing her and Derek, and sometimes she’d forget he was there, but he always was. She hadn’t realized he hadn’t been behind her until now.

They suspected a Halven had created the virus, not a Fae. Keen must think it safe for her inside Emain. In that case, she needed to have a little chat with her bodyguard. If he was going to pick and choose his lax moments, he could quit following her to the bathroom.

Beatrice glanced directly at Elena, as if she’d known she was there all along. She opened a door and stepped inside, the door closing silently behind her.

Wonderful. Why had Leo paired her with this person? Beatrice didn’t have any love for Halven. Or maybe she just didn’t like Elena.

The hallway went eerily silent, not even the buzzing and clicking of the overhead lights sounding. Elena jogged down the intricate parquet floor to the door Beatrice had entered.

Taking a couple of steps inside the darkened room, she called out, “Beatrice?”

Elena felt along the wall for a switch just as the heavy door slammed shut behind her, turning the room pitch black.

Her head went dizzy without a speck of light. She crouched and placed a hand to the floor, grounding herself. “Beatrice, turn on the lights, or I’m leaving,” she said in a firm voice.

A feminine giggle sounded from above, like laughter on the wind. Or was it inside her head?

Oh, hell no.

Screw this. Elena shifted to her hands and knees and crawled toward the sliver of light a couple of feet away that streamed beneath the door. She slid her palms up the hard wooden surface to reach the knob.

And found nothing.

She traced every inch of the door. No knob, no hinges—she couldn’t even fit her fingers beneath the gap at the bottom. Not that it would have mattered. The door didn’t rattle or budge as she pushed and kicked its surface. It was as though it had been sealed closed. The rasp of her breath was the only sound inside the cool, empty space.

Elena concentrated on the rise and fall of her chest to keep from going into full panic mode. No reason to be afraid, she told herself. It was just a dark room.

A dark empty room with no door. Inside Emain. And Beatrice had vanished.