Fates Divided: Halven Rising

Elena stared at the PowerPoint slide on the large screen in the physics auditorium. What the hell was going on? She didn’t need her reading glasses today—a first for her. But it wasn’t just her eyes. The percussion of hundreds of fingers flying over keyboards as students took notes sounded like a million tiny mice scampering across a wooden floor, each key pounding into her skull.

This morning, she’d hoped things would be back to normal, that yesterday would be some weird dream she’d wake from. But the liquids were real, her hands still shook, and now her senses were in hyper mode.

She hunched in her seat and winced. After gaining access to the most amazing chem lab she’d ever seen last night, she was no closer to explaining how she made the liquids boil. She didn’t dare experiment at home after the mess she’d created in front of Derek. Which had been followed by one of the most embarrassing shower scenes ever.

Elena had been so shocked by the explosion she’d lost all sense of safety. Derek was right to throw her in the shower. Harmless chemicals or not, they hadn’t reacted as expected. But when he helped her remove the solution, she wasn’t thinking about the danger of the chemicals on her body. She was too busy being stunned by the effect his touch had on her.

Her attraction to him should have been the last thing on her mind, but her breath had quickened and her heart raced in her chest. She was sure he could tell what he was doing to her.

It was no surprise Derek told her to leave. He’d been a bit of a jerk about it, but she couldn’t blame him for getting her out of there. Overnight, she’d gone from a budding chemist at the top of her class to a menace with lab equipment. Everything she knew about science was dissolving. If she could accidentally boil her solution, what else could she accidentally boil?

Jesus—people were roughly sixty percent water. What if she boiled the liquids inside herself? Or inside someone else?

She had to figure this out before something terrible happened.

Elena breathed deeply, attempting to calm down, but it wasn’t working. Because as soon as she returned her attention to the professor, her heightened senses zeroed in on a door behind the podium that was the same color as the wall.

A door she’d never seen before.

Maybe it had been there all along. She could just be searching for things because she’d become an overanxious crazy person these last twenty-four hours.

The door swung open.

Dammit. And if that wasn’t enough to convince her the door was strange, another classroom lay beyond. A classroom that shouldn’t exist because it was physically impossible. Her physics auditorium filled the entire first floor of the building.

Elena stared into the other room. Everything in there appeared larger: the people, the ornate desks spread farther apart than the stadium seating of her auditorium. It was like looking through a magnifying glass. What the hell?

She wrapped her arms around her chest and clenched her elbows. Right now, sprawling farms and the single stoplight of her California hometown sounded nice.

A tall blond guy in dark, fitted clothes sitting near the door in the strange classroom turned and looked right at her, a slow, knowing smile spreading across his face.

Her back tensed. Why was he looking at her like that?

Before she could consider it further, he rose and strolled out of sight, giving her a clear view of the rest of the students. A few of them had light brown hair, but most were blondes or redheads with smooth, pale skin. All of them were unnaturally attractive like the first guy, who could have been a Viking warrior with his height and broad shoulders.

Dawson University was known for its diversity. This Norse group looked out of place.

Elena glared at her physics professor, but the woman didn’t seem aware of the room behind her.

She nudged the girl next to her, who was texting. “Do you see that?”

The girl’s gaze went straight to the professor, as though the other room wasn’t important—or not there. Her long, side-swept bangs dropped over one eye. “See what?”

Elena opened her mouth to say something, then shook her head. “Nothing, I—did they paint the wall a different color? Wasn’t it maroon?”

Her neighbor edged to the far side of her seat. The girl’s body was angled away, but the screen of her phone was visible. She texted, Freak next to me in Phys 4.

Great. A quick scan confirmed the rest of the auditorium wasn’t looking at the strangers in the other room either. Their attentions were focused on the PowerPoint images overhead, even though the room stuck out like Elena’s wavy hair on a humid day.

Rubbing her temples, she faced forward—and her heart launched into her throat.

The strangers beyond the wall had gathered into a semicircle. And they were all watching her.

The physics professor clicked off her laser pointer and crossed the podium, showing zero signs that she noticed the people inches away. She flipped on the auditorium’s bright lights. Lecture over.

Students emptied desks—Elena’s neighbor like a fire had been lit beneath her butt. The crowd blocked Elena’s view of the podium and wall for several minutes.

By the time the last person moved out of the way, the door to the other classroom had closed, all evidence of the strangers gone.

Elena shoved her laptop into her backpack and swung the bag over her shoulder. She strode to the front of the classroom. The professor was busy talking to students and didn’t seem to notice her. She hesitated for only a moment before reaching for the indentation of the hidden door.

The surface was smooth, no grooves, but she could still see the edges. How was that possible?

She peered from various angles and continued to feel around the wall, pressing in different places. That was when she saw the faint outline of a doorknob the same color as the wall halfway down.

Elena reached for the knob. And her fingers slipped straight through as if it were air, her knuckles bumping the wall instead.

She stepped back, shaking her head. The door had opened. It was real. She’d prove it.

She ran out of the auditorium toward the end of the building where the other classroom should be.

And came to a dead end.

No doors. No creases in the wall. Nothing to indicate anything lay beyond.

Elena kicked the surface hard with the tip of her sneaker, the impact reverberating up her leg. The wall was solid.

Why was this happening? She sank to the ground and pressed her fingers to her eyelids. She tried to concentrate on what she knew—to piece it together and make sense of it all.

Logically, the room couldn’t exist. She’d walked past the Physics Hall every day for the last two months. No buildings backed the structure, not even a temp, but the door and the classroom—the students—she’d seen them.

Last night, she’d humiliated herself in front of Derek, could have injured both of them. Nothing should have happened with the chemicals she’d been using, but it had. And now her hearing was elevated and she was seeing things she couldn’t explain?

She needed to see a doctor, because something was seriously wrong.

Nothing in life had come easily. Her mother had left her and her father on Elena’s first birthday, and then the universe took away her father a few short years later. Those were things she couldn’t control and had never understood. But school made sense—science and chemistry, molecules and the predictable ways they reacted. She trusted it to be there for her.

Now her foothold in life was failing her too.

Her head pounding, Elena lumbered to her feet and started to run, her backpack slapping her spine, threatening to unbalance her.

She rounded a corner, desperate for an exit—and slammed into a large body. Air burst from her lungs, stars flittering across her vision. And then the giant wall of a human she’d bounced into grabbed her and picked her up.

“I wondered where you had gone.” The unfamiliar, melodic voice rumbled through the chest her face was plastered against.

Elena couldn’t breathe and her arms were pinned. The man began to move, carrying her away.

She angled her mouth past the thick fabric of his shirt and sucked in air. “Let me go. Help!” she yelled, but his grip tightened and the slight view she had revealed the hallways were empty.

Her struggles grew frantic and she kicked her legs to free herself. The man shifted her body to the side, and that was when she saw his face.

The Viking with the wry smile.

She hadn’t imagined him…and now he was abducting her?

Elena’s blood whooshed through her veins, the throbbing increasing the headache her heightened senses had triggered.

Before she could figure out how to get away, the Viking opened a door and unceremoniously dropped her on her feet.

She spun around, ready to dart in the opposite direction, and froze. Ornate desks, intricate plasterwork—it was the classroom that shouldn’t exist.

Three adults sat behind a wide table like magistrates. A woman with silver, wavy hair and piercing blue eyes nodded to the Viking. “Thank you, Keen.” She regarded Elena. “Good morning.”

Elena glanced behind her to find her kidnapper blocking the exit. “What’s this about? Where am I?”

The woman’s smile was cold. “In due time. For now, all that matters is that we know about you, Elena Rosales.”

Elena had never seen these people in her life. “What do you mean, you know me?”

A man and another woman sat there too. The man had a spray of gray at his temples and the other woman had short red hair, but all three of them had smooth, creamy skin. They wore fitted, dark clothing, like the Viking who’d grabbed her, and were slender and unusually tall, even while seated.

It was the first time Elena had ever felt like the short person in the room.

“We know who your mother is, why you were recruited by Dawson, and what you’ve done.”

Elena had received a full-ride scholarship. It was more than she’d ever hoped for… Had that been intentional? “Wait—” She shook her head. “How do you know my mother? I don’t even know my mother.”

The woman smiled that cold smile again. “No, you wouldn’t.”

That’s all she was going to say? No explanation?

“You’ve been using your magic.” This time the comment came from the man. His features were Nordic, like those of her captor, but sharper, more chiseled, with a longer nose and high cheekbones.

Elena’s brain blew a fuse at his words. A long pause followed while she wrapped her head around it. “My magic?” The prickles along her skin returned full force. “I’m sorry—” She gestured to him.

“Leo.”

“—Leo. If you’re referring to the lab—ah, labs—that was an accident. Won’t happen again.” She hoped.

Leo exchanged a look with the two women at his side.

“Oh, but we want it to happen again,” the silver-haired woman said. “In fact, we count on it.”

The red-haired lady with delicate features remained perfectly silent.

Elena fought a shiver. The liquid disasters, these people with their strange doors and knowledge about her missing mother—there was something very, very wrong with this situation. Still, given the size of Keen behind her and how easily he’d deposited her here, she chose her next words cautiously. “I don’t know what happened in the labs.”

“Don’t you?” the older woman asked. “I think you know exactly what you did, Elena Rosales.”

The solutions had exploded, but there was something—something she’d ignored yesterday because it was insanity. Before the explosions, the shaking and tingling in her fingers had magnified…as if an energy simmered beneath her skin.

This was nuts.

The woman nodded. “I see from your expression that you agree.”

Elena’s control slipped, panic tightening her chest. “Who are you?” she choked out, glancing around the room more thoroughly.

A large map with odd land formations hung behind them, and there was state-of-the-art computer equipment below wavy-paned diamond glass windows. The contrast of old and new reminded her of Derek’s lab and the antique equipment next to modern devices.

“You’ve already been introduced to Leo,” the silver-haired woman said. “I am Portia, and this is Deirdre.” She gestured to the silent redhead. Portia pursed her lips as though she’d tasted something sour. “They said you were bright for a human, but you are proving particularly dense.”

“For a human?”

Portia waved her hand to Keen and the others at the table. “We are Fae. And you are Halven—half Fae from your mother’s side.”