When Fate Unravels

by A. K. Koonce

“Ayden, come sit down. We’ll have plenty of time to reminisce throughout the evening,” a man says from across the table.

  Seated next to President Docile is a man who was once my mentor. I blink a few times, trying to grasp on to all the familiar faces of my past that are now here in this community of mystics. Ayden gives me another long look before taking his seat across from me, next to my mentor.

  “I’m happy you’re all right, Fallon.” Straight white teeth fill my mentors smile as he beams at me. A black button down shirt is crisp against his chest and he smooths it relentlessly in an almost nervous fashion. More gray hair streaks his dark brown hair than I remember, but his eyes are still kind and caring. “I helped Ayden place flyers through the villages. He was worried about his friend… Everyone was worried. We’ll have to update them of your safety to ease their minds.”

  It’s a lie; one I can effortlessly spot. They won’t take time to update the surrounding communities. He continues to brush his palm down the imaginary wrinkles of his shirt.

  “Lorde Raske, this is my friend from my village, Ayden, and this is my mentor, Michael. He helped structure my future from a very young age, focusing on my strengths and weakness to find my perfect place in society.” The word future circles my mind. What a waste all that time was. My future isn’t anything like the plans the government mapped out for me.

  Lord Raske nods to the two men, his smile genuine as he speaks. “It’s good that Fallon has so many people that care about her.”

  My heart pounds, picking up speed as I realize I haven’t had these people with me. I’ve been mostly alone for the past year. A weak smile pulls across my lips, not reaching high enough to touch my eyes or my mood.

  A fae in his early twenties, short blonde hair combed neatly back, his shirt tucked perfectly into pressed white slacks walks toward us. He places a heaping plate of green beans down in the center of the table, leaning closely over Kaino’s side, making the warrior fidget in his seat from the fae’s nearness. The wolf’s muscly arms shift at an odd angle to dodge the fae’s thigh that brushes against Kaino’s chair.

  Other caterers join us, placing food on the table like decorations. The warm smell greets me, reminding me of how hungry I really am, distracting me for just a moment from the guests seated across from me.

  “Please, eat,” Raske says to us all with an excited smile.

  Everyone begins filling their plates as instructed, minimal words are exchanged, a feeling of uneasiness begins to thrum through the silence. The president appears to look over the mounds of appetizing food piled around the table but doesn’t make a single move to touch any of it. Pale hands are clasped before her as she sits with immaculate posture.

  Luca passes me a look, her elbow leaning heavily on the tabletop, her lips quirking in a smile like she’d rather be anywhere but here.

  “How have you been?” Ayden asks, his plate void of any food as he watches me shovel in a heaping spoon full of mashed potatoes.

  “I’ve been really good. It’s amazing here. Freeing.” I clamp my mouth shut on the last word. Should I have said that?

  I glance to Raske and the president but they’re speaking quietly among themselves, ignoring me entirely.

  I relax and give Ayden a small smile.

  “How’s Congress? You seem to be doing so well,” I say and my stomach dips as I realize how formal my tone sounds. Not spoken with a lifetime of friendship but with… polite unattached words. Ayden and I are barely friends at all now.

  I don’t really know the man seated across from me at all…

  I take a sip from my glass and my throat constricts as the ice water tilts from the cup. I lower the drink as I cough, fumeless and pure water is all that I taste. Just water. Glancing into Luca’s drink I confirm that she, too, isn’t drinking alcohol. No alcohol tonight? The one night that I need it, the Wanderers are suddenly a sober community.

  Great.

  Luca quirks a delicate brow at me as she takes a bite of her steamed broccoli. I shake my head at her and draw my attention back to Ayden.

  “It’s good. It’s really good,” he says, but his look doesn’t reflect this. Sadness touches his russet eyes, a frown threatening the smile that’s tilting his lips.

  I stare at him for a few moments, the sweet, gangly boy I grew up with is no longer present. We’re both older now, aged by society in different ways. He’s as happy as he always knew he would be; miserable is an understatement.

  “I missed you,” I finally say, the words nothing more than a whispered revelation.

  The smile that’s in place against his lips pulls a little higher, almost genuine. “I—" He pauses, glancing to Michael who looks quickly away from us, pretending to be enthralled with the baked chicken on his plate. “I missed you, too,” Ayden says, his solemn eyes drifting away from mine, staring at his hands that are neatly folded in his lap.

  My brows lower as my stomach sinks.

  We’re not at all the friends we once were.

  “Tell me, do you work with your mentor, Ayden?” Raske asks, raising his head high to look down the table at the man seated across from me.

  Ayden glances to Michael as if the man might guide him in his response. Michael shifts in his chair, his eyes not meeting anyone else’s, like his personality is shrinking away from us by the second with uncouth movements.

  “No, I didn’t have a mentor.”

  “You didn’t have a mentor?” I repeat, bringing my attention back to him, my spoon held at mouth level, but forgotten.

  How did I not know this about my friend?

  “No, you were the only person I knew that had a mentor,” Ayden says before taking a big drink of water and busying himself by filling his plate finally.

  Lord Raske’s dark button-like eyes shift from Ayden to Michael a few times before he lowers his attention back to the dune of hot food in front of him.

  I study Michael for a few moments, the sweat that adorns his creased brow, his thin lips that he licks repeatedly between messy bites. The overall nervous energy that’s pouring off of him. The wolf seated across from him assesses these details, as well.

  Kaino’s slow traveling eyes seemingly catch every minor thing Michael does, almost as if he’s storing the actions away in a large file within his mind. Kaino holds his hands in front of him, braced on his elbows against the table. Massive hands are clasped in front of him, one fist is held in the other while he sits quietly watching the representative eat.

  When did Michael become someone to be monitored? He was my friend all my life. Or was he?

  Shane bumps his arm against Kaino’s, sending him a questioning look before returning to the mound of food before him, drawing Kaino’s attention away from the suspicious human.

  Dinner passes slowly, dread and sadness and impatience is forming with every hour that we sit at the table. Raske insisted on a private meeting with the president that has taken longer than I thought it might. I know what they’re discussing and I want to run and hide before the two of them have a chance to return.

  I stand from my seat, Michael, Ayden and the other two representatives look up at me. Kaino and Shane whisper quietly among themselves, while Luca subtly etches her blade into the side of the wooden table. She has a nice divot carved into it and doesn’t seem to be drawing attention to herself as she whittles away.

  “Sorry, I haven’t been feeling well. It was very nice meeting you all…” I pause as everyone stops to stare at me. I begin to get the feeling that leaving isn’t an option just yet. “Please tell the president it was an honor to meet her. Sail safely on your journey home.” More surprised attention pins me to my spot.

  I give a hesitant smile that probably resembles fumbling nervousness rather than happiness.

  “Let me walk you to your hut,” Ayden says, pushing out his chair in an instant, not looking back at the other representatives that stare wildly at him.

  Michael’s face is set into a look of panic, a look that almost makes me hesitant t
o leave. “It was nice seeing you again, Michael,” I tell him in an unsure voice as I walk toward the tree line.

  He nods at me absentmindedly before turning back to his empty plate.

  It was strange seeing him again, he was so kind to me when I was in school and now Michael just seems… distant. As if his thoughts are being pulled in a million directions and he can’t think through any of them long enough to get a word out.

  Ayden and I walk at a snail’s pace back to my bunk, I don’t tell him that I don’t sleep in the huts. My reclusive life is no one’s business but my own. I keep waiting for him to say something. Anything. Silence is the only thing between us.

  I stop at the tree that houses my bunk, he turns on his heels when he realizes I’m not at his side. Dark eyes stare down at me, too close for comfort, eyes that are filled with the thoughts of a man I no longer recognize. He looks at me with confusion marring his smooth features.

  His long legs are just inches from mine, his lips parted, lips that once kissed mine with so much devotion I thought he’d always own a part of my heart. It was never his to own though…

  “I—I’ve thought about you every day.” His hand moves at his side as if he might reach out to me but he closes his fist tightly and lowers it at his side. His eyes leave mine as he studies the leaves between our feet, his pristinely shined shoes offsetting my dusty sandals. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No, he helped me.”

  His eyes snap to me once more, his lips part as a breath shakes out, a laugh threatening his voice. “He helped you? Tearing you away from your friends and family. He helped you?”

  A long breath fills my lungs, my eyes closing briefly as I try to think of how to explain this to someone that no longer knows me. Someone that couldn’t even understand my life if I wrote it out in black and white.

  “I can’t explain it, Ayden, but just think about your life and mine. Are you happy? In the life that you live, are you happy? Because I’m the happiest I’ve been in all my life.”

  It’s odd to think about, my life here is strange, a bit lonely at times, but it’s mine. If I wanted to leave tomorrow I could. If I want one child or a hundred no one would question it. If I wanted to spend the rest of my life alone it would be entirely my decision.

  And if I wanted to spend my days with one beautifully lethal hybrid vampire… I could.

  “Fallon, you left before I could properly meet you,” President Docile’s smooth and pleasant voice floats over my shoulder.

  Her face is still curtained by the thin black veil that shields her features from me. My fingers itch to push the fabric aside but I force myself to keep my hands at my sides.

  Her thin body sways closer to me, grace fills her every move, so out of place in the wild Wandering community.

  “Mr. Raske has told me so much about you. I just had to meet the human girl that has become so taken with Kaino. He is a charming boy, isn’t he?”

  Her statement catches me off guard and my mouth hangs open, no words or even a breath slips over my lips. My brows rise high and I find myself looking to Lord Raske or Kaino or anyone of the representatives standing behind the president. No one says a word.

  I feel Ayden’s eyes on me, unspoken questions fill the silence.

  “Yes, he’s very…” I pause, grasping for a word to accurately describe Kaino in a positive light. “Protective,” I finally sputter.

  Thick, dark lashes fan across Kaino’s cheeks as he cringes from my description. I see the sigh he releases from his wide chest but he remains quiet.

  Raske smiles at me, nodding, pleased with my kind words. The president’s veil shakes as she seems to nod at me. Her thin, pale hands are held neatly in front of her, perfect posture has her sharp shoulders strung tight.

  “How nice. Perhaps we will have to revisit the Wanderers in the near future.” The strange woman turns toward Michael who zeroes his attention in on the woman, taking a step closer to her, ready for her every demand. She raises a hand to his shoulder, resting it there against the pressed white shirt. “Let’s be sure to… check in on the progress of this couple and their community very soon.”

  Michael makes note of her words, scribbling quickly across a small white pad of paper.

  She pauses, her shrouded, faceless body appearing to stare at me for a moment longer before she sweeps away, shifting dead leaves and dust in her wake.

  Lord Raske, Kaino and the other representatives trail after her. Except for Michael.

  My mentor’s brows crease as he looks down at me, his lips pinched into a thin, almost nonexistent line. “Be careful, Fallon. Of who you trust, and of who you love. Just”- He swallows hard, a minimal amount of stubble coats his throat and jaw line. He glances over his shoulder at the group of mortals and mystics that are fading into the shadows of the night. “Just don’t… Don’t marry that wolf, Fallon. Nothing good will come from uniting our races. Nothing.” He turns before I can even reply, before I can even fully consider his strange words.

  He runs after his president, wading through the thick trees and shadows until he disappears entirely.

  “What right does he have to tell me who to be with?” I ask more to myself than to Ayden.

  I glance up at him and find him staring at me. A deep line etched between his brows as he glares down at the person he once called a friend.

  Ayden’s always hated the mystics. More than most humans. He might hate me, too, now.

  “Because he’s your father, Fallon.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Like a Memory

  The representatives left early but I laid awake thinking about what Ayden said to me long into the quiet night. I didn’t sleep for more than an hour. After the shock wore off my tired eyes finally drifted to sleep. I awoke soon after with the voices circling my mind again, gnawing at my consciousness until my eyes flew open.

  Leaving me to dwell on my life.

  Ayden wouldn’t lie to me. I don’t think he’ll ever be dishonest with me no matter how much he may hate me now. It makes sense that Michael would be my father really. He’s been a part of my life since I can remember. Visiting me twice a year during school to make sure I focused on all the right subjects, he helped me find my talents, he arranged my union… I guess in a strange way he’s the reason I am where I am in life.

  A yawn pulls at my tired body as I blink hard and try to find the positivity that this day holds.

  Hours later I lead Gabriel into the empty clinic, Asher and Luca follow close behind. Gabriel’s eyes shift around, his head tilting, listening for any kind of insight his other senses might offer him. Suddenly, I’m aware of what he might sense; the way the sun filters off into the humid room, the way my boots softly thud against the tile, the way we’re all holding our breath as we watch the blind hybrid stare aimlessly around the clinic.

  “We’re inside?” He pauses just within the doorway, his lean frame blocking out the bright rays of sunlight.

  Asher and Luca trail in after Gabriel taking up the majority of the space within the small white room. I walk to the back where the package was left for me, excitement simmers in my chest and soaks through my limbs at the idea of what I’m about to do.

  “You know if you have some kind of attack planned, you can’t really do any more damage than there already is,” Gabriel says, his voice echoing through the empty room.

  I smirk at his words. He stands leaning against the wall, almost hesitant to proceed any farther into the room. His fiery red hair has been trimmed and shaven close at the sides, a much cleaner look than when he first arrived, he looks a little less broken, too.

  “Listen, it’s not every day a girl approaches you with a surprise. Maybe you should hear her out first,” Asher says to him, smirking at me out of the corner of his eye.

  My face warms at his words and I can’t help but smile. Luca assesses Gabriel discreetly. Something she does to everyone, I’ve noticed. This time it’s different. Her eyes travel over the hybrid, looking not at his stat
ure or motives but really at him. At his body, at his wide shoulders and slim waist and everywhere in between.

  I arch an accusing eyebrow at her and she shrugs, her shoulders rising minimally when she realizes she’s been caught. She offers a small smirk before turning away from us to look around the room at the few pictures that decorate the walls.

  The pictures are old, from ages ago. From a time when medicine wasn’t just for the dying but for the sick and the elderly. It was all but wasted on such minor issues it makes me sick to my stomach. Imagine what a plethora of medicine like that could do for the people back at camp.

  “So, what is it? You going to put a band aid on this limb or what? Listen, I’ve tried and the whole band-aid thing doesn’t make it much better. Prettier; but not better,” Gabriel says with a half-smile.

  “Do you always talk this much?” Luca asks, her back still turned to us, her fingers brushing over a framed picture of a doctor helping an elderly lady with a walker.

  “Only when I know people are listening,” Gabriel replies, his body shifting toward her voice.

  Ignoring their banter, I start pulling the wrappings from around the item within the box, my excitement increasing with every piece of tissue and plastic I pull away.

  Asher grows serious as he watches me. Our eyes meet for just a moment before I look away from him. A strange fluttering awakens within my chest, a feeling that he’s given me since the day we met.

  Luca turns to me just as I pull away the last of the plastic wrapper from around my gift to Gabriel. Her surprised intake of breath is audible and Asher’s eyes widen as he stares down at it.

  The room is entirely silent. The item is smooth against my palms, a symbol of something clean, new and full of hope.

  “How the hell did you get that?” Asher asks, his eyes never leaving it.

  I pause not wanting to discuss that topic. I busy myself picking up the paper and plastic that surround my feet and stuffing them into the box.

  “Declan got this for you, didn’t he?”

  “What is it? Can someone spare a moment for the blind? Anyone?”