“Come.” Niall rose suddenly and strode across the room. The guards in his chamber flanked him and surrounded Elena. “We will see what other changes the leaves have wrought. You will use the castle laboratory. The alchemists have abandoned it in favor of a more isolated domain.”
A few minutes later they entered a large room Elena wouldn’t go so far as to call a lab. Some of the instruments looked like they belonged in a museum, not capable of withstanding heat and chemicals. More important, something else was missing, or rather, someone.
She spun in a circle. “Where’s Derek?”
Niall peered at an ancient glass vessel in his hand. A flask? A bong? It was so old, she wasn’t sure what it was.
“Indisposed. You work alone today.”
No way.
“Look, sir, your majesty, king—whatever—I need Derek. You may not know this about him, but he’s a brilliant immunologist. That was one reason the Emain Fae coerced him into helping me. It’s essential he be here.”
Really, she just needed to know he was okay. She didn’t like being separated from Derek, and no matter what he had agreed to, Elena wouldn’t leave him behind with his zealot father.
The corner of Niall’s mouth twitched. “It seems my son was very busy last night. He is being disciplined for his defiance. However, under the circumstances, I will withhold the remainder of his punishment until later.”
That didn’t sound good. Not good at all.
What had Derek done?
Niall stationed a handful of guards outside the door to the lab while Elena waited for Derek. She distracted herself by inspecting the first microscope ever created. She wasn’t certain it was the first one ever created, but it was mostly made of wood, which made it way too old to be of any use to her.
Twenty long minutes had passed, when she heard a buzzing sound.
Elena swatted the air near her ear and what she thought was an insect, only to realize the buzzing was coming from inside her head.
The noise faded and softened into an echo of her mother’s commanding voice.
Elena, I pray this message finds you safe. Samuel and I are in hiding. Whatever you do, do not return to New Kingdom. Return to the human realm as soon as possible. A revolution stirs in Tirnan…
Elena experienced a moment of deep, shuddering relief. Her mother was alive.
But what was this about a revolution? They hadn’t cured the virus. Why were the Fae preparing for war?
Too much to worry about right now. Thank God her mother was okay. Elena would return to the human realm as her mother said, just as soon as she survived Old Kingdom and Niall.
Seconds later, a brigade of guards entered the lab. They parted like a flower opening for the sun, and Derek stepped out. Stepped being figurative.
Derek lumbered forward, one leg dragging behind him, blood oozing down his shirt from a split lip. He cradled his wrist in one hand, the joint contorted at an odd angle.
Elena’s body shook, her breathing unsteady as rage overwhelmed her. How could Niall do this to his own son?
She glared at the guards. “Leave us. Now!”
One of the guards, a short one, which meant he was probably slightly less than seven feet, stepped forward. “We are to remain while you work.”
Elena counted to ten and took a deep breath. “Fine. Watch from the other side of the door. I can’t concentrate with you people around. You make me sick!”
The guard’s nostrils flared, but he walked out. The others followed, leaving the door ajar.
The moment they left, Elena raced to Derek, stopping just shy of touching him, afraid she might hurt him. “What can I do?” Her voice quivered and she swallowed back a bitter flavor in her mouth.
“Help me sit.” Blood gushed down his chin with each word.
She gingerly lifted his good arm around her neck and guided him to a chair. “What happened? Why did they do this to you?” Her voice caught. If she wasn’t careful, she’d start crying.
“I drank the mixture. They could tell as soon as they entered my room this morning.” His swollen, battered mouth twisted in a mock smile.
“What do you mean, you drank the mixture?” She stared, taking him in from his arms and broad torso to his long, muscular legs and—did a double take.
He was hunched over, the bloody gore a massive distraction, but even so, she didn’t know how she could have missed it.
“You grew,” she choked out.
“I stole extra leaves. Made more of the tea in my room and drank it. Wanted to be as strong as possible.”
The leaves could have killed him. But then, he’d been out of the room stealing leaves when Niall had explained that potential outcome.
She waved her hand down his body. “I grew a couple of inches, but you—how tall are you now?”
“I don’t know. Best guess, the drink added an extra seven inches to my height and more bulk. My old clothes were literally choking me when I woke. Before they beat me, they were kind enough to offer new ones.” He flicked a finger at a ripped sleeve.
“Seven inches?” The clothes fit his new height and build, but they were now bloodied and torn in several places.
He flexed the fingers of his bad hand, gently working the wrist back and forth as it healed. “I wanted to improve my powers and help you. I had no idea I’d turn into a giant.”
She shook her head. “Not a giant.” She glanced past him to the door. “You—we’ve—become like them,” she whispered.
What exactly had the Ancient Allon done to them? They’d both changed physically, and if all went correctly, magically.
How else might they be like the Fae?
Derek scowled. “Don’t say that. That’s what Niall wants. He was pissed that I disobeyed him, but not that I’d grown and become more powerful. He expects me to rule with him. To lead one of the other kingdoms he plans to take over. He thinks that with the Ancient Allon in my blood, I’ll live longer.”
That was Niall’s plan and why he wanted Derek? “Well, he can’t have you,” she said, determined.
A shadow passed over Derek’s face. “He’s powerful, Elena. Before the beating, he had one of the alchemists put his hand to my head. I felt the magic, but I don’t know what it did. No matter what, you have to make the cure. Promise me.”
“Yeah, of course.”
He let out a breath. “Good.”
But she wasn’t leaving Derek with his father, if that’s what he was thinking. She didn’t care what Niall wanted.
Derek continued on, oblivious to her silent promise. “I’m not like them and neither are you. We’re still part human. I’m tall, but not as tall as those guys—” He jerked his thumb at the door. “We’re still Halven.”
Derek was taller than the shorter Fae men, but she didn’t think he’d appreciate the observation. “How are you feeling?” she asked instead. “Can you walk?”
He eased out of the chair and stretched his back to full height.
Elena’s breath caught. Derek had always appealed to her in some innate way, but he really was the most beautiful man she’d ever seen. His cuts were healing and he stood evenly on both legs now.
He peered down at her with a sweet smile and pulled her into his arms. She pressed her nose to his upper midriff and breathed in his scent.
He smelled the same. At least that hadn’t changed.
The sense of being connected and safe settled over her. Not everything was different. They were still them.
She looked up, but he was gazing over her head with a frown. “What is this stuff? Because it sure as hell isn’t laboratory equipment.”
“Tell me about it. But it’s okay.” She beamed. “I have an idea.”
Derek gazed at her warily.
Where was the trust?
She held out her hands like a surgeon before an operating table, fingers waggling. “Let’s put the tea to the test and make our own equipment.”
42
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 the 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 the Fae weren’t susceptible to other infections. Those symptomatic had the virus. Convincing the 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?”
“The 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. The 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 the 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.
43
Derek avoided the
doorway and went straight to the back of the lab, easing through cabinet and stone as if it were air. He ran full force with Elena in his arms to what he hoped was the exterior wall, but to tell the truth, he wasn’t certain.
Normally his mind was like a steel trap, but he hadn’t been completely lucid when they’d dragged him from the torture chamber.
Having the living shit beaten out of him wasn’t an experience he wished to repeat anytime soon. It also had illuminated the kind of father Niall would have made. Ruthless, unforgiving, not the kind of person you wanted raising you. Derek appreciated his adoptive parents more than he ever had in his life.
Derek had believed his biological parents had given him away because he was unwanted. In fact, his mother had made the ultimate sacrifice with her life in order to set him free of Niall. One day he’d mourn the mother who’d done so much for him. Right now he needed to get Elena to safety.
Taking a risk, Derek leapt through the stone surface he hoped led to the berm. And instantly regretted it.
He skidded to a stop. Inside the great hall, where dozens of soldiers stood in front of Niall as he gestured and commanded his men.
Very slowly, Derek stepped back, silently retreating the way he’d come.
A shout rang out. “Over there!”
The room whirled into motion. The scuffle of footfalls sounded, along with the pitch of metal sliding through sheaths, and strings tightened as the Fae drew weapons.
Derek ditched his plan to go back, and on instinct, sprinted straight for the entrance of the castle and the light he saw through the panes of a small window high above the door. Later, he’d consider whether that had been a smart move—running through a swarm of guards instead of retreating to an uncertain maze within the castle—but right now, he went for it.
He swerved around null blasts, breezed through bodies and arrows, and burst through the castle’s exterior into the open air.
Derek darted across the berm; the Fae outside were a second behind the action going on in the castle. All too quickly, though, the guards trained their crossbows on Derek, likely zeroing in on the telltale signs of his transformation, thanks to the bright sunlight.
Fates Divided Page 29
