Fates Divided: Halven Rising

“Christ, Elena. What do you expect me to do with these?”

Elena glanced at the cotton swabs in Derek’s hand that she’d created and named E-tips.

“Swab their noses?”

“They’re Fae, not gorillas. Can you come up with something smaller?”

She glared at him. “My apologies, master. So sorry the size doesn’t work for you. Would you like a different color? Perhaps the cotton in a polka-dotted pattern?”

Derek let out a slow breath and tapped his finger along the side of his leg. “This is serious,” he growled.

She smacked him on his newly sculpted pecs. “I know that. Give me those.”

Elena grabbed the E-tips the size of pencils and threw them on the counter. She closed her eyes, drew from the atoms in the air, and opened her hands, producing four smaller versions to accommodate a Fae nose.

With her heightened powers, Elena didn’t need the exact element to manipulate matter. She could take an air or water molecule and create metal if she wanted, as long as she understood the properties of what she was changing the molecules into.

Two hours later, after a few more fumbles she considered practice rounds, she managed to pull together the tools they needed to create a cure. Maybe.

Elena wasn’t a pharmaceutical company with the capacity to produce complicated antiviral compounds. Not yet, anyway. Instead, she would try to cure Fae by mixing a bit of nature with magic.

After talking it over with Derek, they decided their best bet was to create a type of virucide.

Virucides come from the environment, like peppermint oil, which attacks certain viruses. As long as Elena could study infected Fae tissue and figure out how the Fae virus surpassed their rapid healing, she could design a virucide for it. Derek had taught her enough back home about flu viruses that she knew her way around the biological aspects, but it helped to have him near.

They needed infected epithelial tissue to study diseased cells, but that shouldn’t be difficult to acquire. Several of the guards outside the lab were coughing, and Fae weren’t susceptible to other infections. Those symptomatic had the virus. Convincing Fae to let her take a nose swab was another issue.

Elena did the smart thing. She sent the newly ginormous Derek to collect samples with the E-tips.

Derek returned a few minutes later with a disgruntled look on his face.

She gestured to his cheek. “Is that a new bruise?”

“Fae are crappy patients.”

“What do you expect? They’ve never been sick before. It’s like a bunch of men with man colds, only times ten.”

“What are man colds?”

Definition of man cold: an affliction only caught by men, exhibiting cold-like symptoms, but no one has ever been as sick or as tired as the man who catches the man cold.

Mateo got man colds all the time. They were the worst.

Which was another reason Elena had sent Derek to collect the samples. Fae were legitimately sick and had to be grumpy as hell, between the deadly symptoms and never having been ill before.

“Um, never mind. It’s just, you know, a bad cold,” she said.

Derek grumbled some derogatory response about Fae, and prepared slides for the archaic microscope she’d modified to increase magnification.

He placed a slide beneath the lens and stepped aside, waving her forward for the first look.

Elena bent over and peered through the eyepiece. Several minutes later, she raised her head. “Slight problem.”

“What? Sample no good?”

“No—well, I don’t know. It might be, but I can barely make out the individual cells, let alone see what’s going on inside of them.”

Derek leaned over and took a look.

He pushed the microscope away. “This thing sucks. Why don’t you create a better one?”

Elena pulled her fingers through the hair at her temples and paced the room. “I can’t just make a better microscope. I tried, but I’m not an engineer. I need schematics, some sort of blueprint. Something—anything—to show me how to do it.”

“Calm down,” he whispered, and pulled her to the far corner.

“Look, we have one thing working in our favor right now.” His voice was low and secretive. “They want us to use our magic. They expect it.”

She studied his eyes. “What are you saying?”

“They won’t attack us if we use our powers—which means we can use them to get out of here. We have what we came to this castle for. Let’s create the cure somewhere else, away from Niall. We’ll supply Tirnan with the virucide and return to Emain.”

Elena’s gaze flickered to the doorway. It could work. It was daylight, which put them at a disadvantage, but if they stayed they’d accomplish nothing with the tools at hand.

If the castle’s own laboratory didn’t contain a modern microscope, it was unlikely anywhere else in the kingdom would. And Elena wanted nothing more than to leave this place.

Niall wanted his son and control of the cure. He knew that if he allowed Elena to leave, the first thing she’d do would be to create more virucide for the rest of Tirnan. They were both stuck. Unless they did something about it.

They could do this—leave while no one was suspicious of them using their powers. But instead of creating a cure in the antiquated lab, they’d use their magic to escape to someplace safe. And modern. “Let’s head for Sunland. They’re less likely to harm us there.”

Pissing Niall off could result in disaster, but they were in danger no matter what choice they made. At least this way they had a chance at escape.

“What about trying to find your mother?”

Elena shook her head. “My mom sent me a message with her magic. She told me not to return to New Kingdom. She said to leave the realm as soon as possible.”

Derek peered at the stone walls, then back at her. “Nothing is stopping us. Let’s do it. I have the Tirnan map memorized. We’ll head straight for the woods separating Old Kingdom from Sunland. The forests are dark. That’ll make it difficult for anyone to see us while we’re Blended. We can also hide inside a tree like we did the last time, if needed.”

When they’d entered Old Kingdom, the guards had confiscated their food packets and the last weapons they’d managed to hold on to after Portia’s men disarmed them. They had nothing but the clothes on their backs, and a plate of cheese and bread the servants had brought to the lab while they worked. Elena pocketed the bread and cheese. “What else should we take?”

He looked around the room. “A null gun would be nice.”

“We won’t find any of those lying around. If we manage to make it back to Emain, I’m demanding schematics so I can make one.”

He leaned down and kissed her, cradling her jaw with his large hand. “We will return.” Tipping his head toward the counter, he added, “Grab the E-tips. Took you too long to get those right the first time.” Humor filled his voice and she frowned, but she grabbed the E-tips.

Derek peered at the four walls. “We should go. Hop up.”

She craned her neck. “Do you expect me to climb you like a tree?”

He smiled. “Not my fault you’re such a shorty now.” He bent and lifted her, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. She clung to his broad shoulders, their faces at eye level. “No finger business this time. I want full lips.” He grinned, and Elena’s stomach fluttered. Her attention went straight to his mouth.

They might be running for their lives, but it didn’t stop the scattering effect he had on her. She glanced about to distract herself. “Nice view you got up here.”

“Elena—”

She looked back. “Hmm?”

“Kiss me.”

She leaned forward, her breaths coming in unsteady puffs as she gently brushed his mouth with her lips.

Derek’s hand spread along her back, sliding up to the nape of her neck. He urged her mouth open and slid his tongue along hers.

Her body heated—and they transformed.