Portal: A light fae urban fantasy novel (Arcane Realms Book 1)

by N. M. Howell

  Raina could hardly look up. “It’s been a day. I enrolled at the academy.”

  “You—” Derek put a hand on her arm. His features turned grave. “Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

  “No. I don’t think any of this is a good idea.” She counted out change to a customer and pushed a bag at them. “Have a nice day.”

  “Go. Get something to eat. Knock off. The rush is over. We can handle the rest.” Derek pulled her physically away from the register.

  Raina staggered a little; tried to hide her exhaustion. “Okay,” she agreed.

  “We definitely need to talk about this,” he called after her.

  “Later. I’ve got a killer headache.” Raina made her way to the elevator, the out of service sign still taped to the doors. She needed to eat something, she knew, and hated the fact. Eating used to be an event. Doing so all the time just to stay alive grated on her. She mounted the front staircase and trudged up. At the fifth-floor landing, where the Wings had their apartments, she walked the hall to the back stairs. Her apartment was at the end of the hall on the seventh floor. By the time she reached it, she couldn’t catch her breath.

  “Damn it,” she panted to herself as she unlocked the door. “Damn it, damn it, damn it.”

  Once inside the tiny closet of an apartment, she pushed into the bathroom. Again, the mirror showed only her reflection, no matter how much she concentrated.

  “Talk to me!” she sobbed, putting both hands on the glass. “Please! Are you still there? Are you still alive?”

  The silvered glass remained mute and inanimate. Raina was tired of staring at herself. She dragged herself into the main room, hauled down the Murphy bed, and curled up in a shaking ball.

  Sunlight streamed from the portal, though New York City huddled in darkness. Raina stepped closer. What had she done to open it again? She couldn’t remember. No ugly building blocked her path, only the shimmering, gossamer structure meant to keep the humans away so that the Fae had access at all times.

  Was it the blood in the lake? Just a single, tiny drop?

  Raina raced across the circular pedestal, through the diaphanous walls, hopping on the vast, natural path stones. The rim glowed, streamers of light dancing from the five spires, now standing tall again. Runes blazed on the facings.

  On the far side of the portal, a gathered crowd stood.

  Home! Raina’s heart soared.

  Something was wrong. Instead of the constant sun of Oreálle lighting them, the magic outpour enhancing their natural glow, the figures stood in stark silhouette.

  They beckoned to her, shouting, perhaps screaming. Raina could hear only a muddled sound of distant conversation.

  She gained the tall threshold, almost close enough to touch the Fae standing on the other side. Finally, their words became clear. In panicked tones, each of the dim figures shouted, screamed, whispered the same phrase:

  “Find us!”

  “I’ve found you!” Raina called back. “I’ve found you! You’re right here! I’m right here!”

  Still, they repeated the same mantra. Not as one. It seemed that each figure was lost in its own space, calling as if alone.

  “I’ve found you!” Raina ran through the portal, arms open to embrace the Light Fae.

  No one stood on the other side of the portal. Raina raced right through the shadow figures. Arms pin-wheeling, her feet stumbled down the steps of the rim. Before she could even gasp, she plunged into the lake.

  Cold!

  She thrashed, submerged in frigid water. Raina couldn’t breathe. It was dark, so dark. Where was the surface? Not good at swimming, the thought that she would drown before she reached the surface flashed through her mind.

  The open portal was a dream. Drowning in the black depths a nightmare.

  Raina choked and sputtered. No, not a dream—she really was under water. Her lungs burned. How long had she been under? Had she walked here in her sleep, only to fall into the lake?

  Help!

  She tried to still her mind, hoping she would sense the direction of the surface as she floated. Failed. Thrashed in panic.

  Help help help help

  Her attempt to swim was hampered by a sudden, blazing pain in her right arm. Raina could hardly move it, let alone paddle. A shadowy shape moved past, large enough to feel the current of its passage.

  Help help help help

  Raina couldn’t hold her breath any longer. She felt herself sinking toward the bottom of the lake. The broad, long shadow slid between her and the bright of the surface.

  Help help help help

  Black circles formed in her vision, darker than even the lake water by night. Spasms in her chest made her kick out wildly. She could only stroke with her left arm, the right now cold, paralyzed fire.

  Help help help

  She was going to black out. Black out, and suck in a final breath of icy liquid.

  Help

  Raina was going to die only yards from the portal she’d come to reopen. Around her, the blackness went so much darker.

  8

  Hot!

  Lips pressed against Raina’s. Her lungs were forced open by warm air. Her eyes opened. Jax’ face took up her entire view. She felt his hands on her face, her chest. What had Trini called him? Yummy. He wasn’t pawing at her, but giving her CPR.

  Gagging and gasping, she pulled away, rolling on her side and spewing water everywhere.

  So much for yummy.

  “Sorry,” she managed to croak before paroxysms of coughing and sucking in some oxygen became her sole focus.

  Jax kneeled on one knee, one arm crossed on the other, one hand holding her hair, watching her gag. After what seemed like forever, she finally got enough breath in her. The Dark Fae smiled.

  Raina felt like she couldn’t breathe again, caught in the intense focus of his vision. She stole a glance at her hands. When a Light Fae warmed up to a person of the opposite sex, their natural glow became a light show, a mating display that put peacocks to shame. No, her hands just looked like hands. There was no visible warmth issuing from her skin. There was a lot of invisible warmth steaming through her insides.

  Now she could breathe. She remembered the shadow in the water. When she turned to study the surface, Jax turned her face toward his.

  “I think I should take you to Ernella. Make sure you’re okay.”

  And now she couldn’t breathe. Another session with the Dark Fae inquisitor? No thanks. “No, no, no, no, no, I’m… Well, I’m breathing, anyway.”

  If the assessor turned her full abilities on Raina, instead of being rushed, distracted and eager for lunch, Raina felt Ernella would easily uncover her identity. No way could that happen.

  “You’re soaked,” Jax said. “You must be freezing.”

  Only the first half was true. Raina glanced around. She was at the Lake in Central Park, just like in the dream. She lay on the shore, on the other side of the portal rim. The Dark Fae academy loomed behind her. How had she gotten here? Raina knew of a rare Fae condition, one that affected infants, Od Noctambulism. A baby having distressing dreams would teleport in its sleep to its parents. It only occurred in Fae whose central nervous systems hadn’t learned to control magic. Raina wasn’t a child. Thoughts of her father’s face in the lake flitted through her brain. And the huge, swimming shape. Was it just her oxygen-starved brain working overtime?

  “Can you walk?” Jax got to his feet. His uniform was soaked, revealing a lean musculature. The incongruity of seeing such a ripped physique on a Fae frame sent a wave of heat through her that was so intense, she half-expected to see her skin steaming.

  When he took her hand, she answered honestly. “I’m not sure.”

  He easily lifted Raina to her feet. She considered stumbling into him to feel the firmness of his form, but thought the better of it. Jax led her toward the academy.

  “So what brings you out here so late at night, Rainara?”

  The name jarred some sense into her. Right. Under
cover. Now, to come up with a convincing lie. The Light Fae were inexperienced liars. Mothers could read truths and mischief in their children’s aura, and a lesser ability existed between all Fae. Did it extend to the Dark Fae? If it did, she was screwed.

  “I bought a book about magic history, but when I got home, I didn’t have it. The last I remembered having it was when I was reading it here by the lake. Then that crazy lunch gong went off.”

  Jax nodded. “Magic draws. It’s a fundamental truth. For one unskilled, it can be disorienting. Your fascination with magic is commendable.”

  Raina’s stride relaxed a little. He was buying it.

  “The question I have is, how did you get past the security wards?”

  “The… what?”

  The Dark Fae gestured to a red, pulsing glyph above the back doors of the school. Her Light Fae reading of the symbol was stop. Her understanding of Dark Fae translated the figure to death. Other than the consistent flicker, it didn’t do anything more as Jax opened the door for her.

  Raina stopped short. “Is it supposed to do something?”

  “It should shriek when a human is in close proximity. Of course, you’re with me, so it won’t sound.”

  She considered if the ward sensed she was a Light Fae, and thus safe to enter. At the same time, she had no idea how she’d plunged into the lake. Perhaps she’d avoided the school altogether. Raina didn’t know if other wards had been placed along the lake to warn of an approach from the upper park. “I don’t really know. A girl has to have her secrets, I guess.”

  Jax frowned, features drawn down in speculation.

  She quickly thought of something. “If the ward didn’t sound, how did you know I was in the lake?”

  His features lifted again. “Touché. But as I said, magic draws.” He made a slight bow and gestured inside.

  Raina’s boots squished across the industrial linoleum, her clothing dripping. Jax gestured with both hands, and a wind she couldn’t feel flapped his wet clothes and hair. A very faint Zephyr of Desiccation, Raina recognized. A smart use of a potentially lethal spell. Her own clothing suddenly went dry and warm around her. Still, her boots squelched with each step. The Dark Fae might wield some pretty strong magic, but it lacked a certain subtlety.

  The halls echoed hollowly, empty of pupils or staff. “Since you seem uninjured, and you completely ignored me at lunch, can I talk you into a midnight snack before I take you home?”

  Raina found herself famished. She hadn’t eaten all day. “You’re on, Jax,” she smiled.

  She thought her heart would explode when he took her hand and smiled back.

  They walked together upstairs to the faculty quarters on the second floor. Unlike the academy on the ground floor, not a room number, exit sign, or label was written in any human language. Raina concentrated hard on the glyphs, knowing most of them, but having only a Light Fae interpretation. Despite the obscure figures, the message was clear—this was not a place for humans.

  Jax pulled out a stool for her at a long peninsula in the community kitchen. The room was fully modern, all marble counters and stainless steel. He grabbed a few containers out of an industrial fridge and set to work at the six-burner stove. From the first sizzle, a heavenly aroma filled the air.

  “That smells…” Magical was the first word that popped into her head. It smelled like Fae cuisine, something she hadn’t eaten in half a decade. “Wonderful,” she finished.

  Jax shrugged, his back to her as he cooked. “Simple stuff. Honey and berry cakes in a raw yak butter and vanilla bean sauce, wilted baby greens dressed with nectar and tiger lily water. I know it’s a bit sweet, maybe a little insubstantial for human consumption—”

  “Gimme!” She reached her hands out as Jax plated the food. Raina dug in before the plate hit the counter. The taste made her eyes roll back in her head. It wasn’t just that she was starving. Jax used magic as well as culinary skill to make the snack. Five years without the delicate sensibilities of Fae food nearly made her wolf it down. She paced herself, trying to make it last. Blinking hard, she wouldn’t let her tears show.

  Jax raised an eyebrow at her. “I’m glad you like it.”

  “Um-hm,” she said around a mouth of greens. “Awesome.”

  He smirked and tucked in. “I don’t get much of a chance to cook. It’s always so crowded in here. Most of the instructors avoid the cafeteria. I’m glad you weren’t expecting a ham sandwich.”

  “Should you be doing this? Aren’t you on duty?” Raina gestured at his uniform.

  Jax shook his head as he chewed. “Night class, instructing the new guards. I didn’t bother going back to my room to change.”

  “Your room?” Raina’s fork paused over her plate. “I heard you lived with your girlfriend.”

  He avoided her eyes. “I don’t have a girlfriend. Anymore. Thus the room on campus.”

  She cut into a delicate honey cake. “I saw you with her this afternoon.”

  Jax moved some of the food around on his plate. “We grew up together. Practically family. But it’s never a good idea to live with someone you used to have a relationship with.”

  Raina finished her plate, scraping up the sauce on the tine of her fork to lick it off. “Sorry to hear it,” she lied.

  He lifted his brows, angling his head to the side. “I actually like it here. Let’s me focus on work. I love teaching. Especially humans. You’re always so into it, you know?”

  She didn’t. “I know.”

  When they first met, he had said that he felt the campus wasn’t built in an appropriate place. Listening to him, she felt that perhaps the idea of the academy wasn’t a bad one, even if the placement was insulting.

  “Saves a lot on cab fare, too.” He smiled.

  Raina giggled a little. Then turned her expression mock-serious. “If you’re just going to push those honey cakes around—”

  A keening wail issued through the hall outside, ululating, rising in pitch. It sounded like a person in pain, the pain intensifying, but it also sounded a little like a police siren.

  Jax was on his feet in an instant, knocking over his tall stool. “Damn it!”

  “What is that?”

  “Ward-song,” he raced for the door. “The security runes you managed to avoid. It looks like someone else wasn’t so lucky.”

  9

  Jax was down the hall and on the first floor in seconds. Raina hung back, not wanting to give herself away. Still, she came up behind him quickly. He stood with raised fists, head whipping left and right.

  He whirled around toward her, eyes wide. “Rainara, get down!”

  She shot a look over her shoulder. Purples and blues blossomed like a luminous flower. Raina recognized it immediately: a Pelt Sonorous, the flash-bang of Fae magic. Even without magical defense, Raina had been trained to easily avoid the disorienting effects—but she couldn’t let Jax know that.

  “Oof!”

  She didn’t need to. Jax tackled her to the floor. He protected her body with his own. Raina felt his taut body on hers. Twice in one night.

  “Are you okay?” he breathed in her ear.

  “Oh, I’m good,” she squeaked.

  He shot her a questioning look.

  At the far end of the hall, the Pelt Sonorous detonated. It was like a truck full of music boxes crashing into a sparkler factory.

  Jax leapt to his feet. He held out a hand. Raina leapt to her feet without help.

  “I think that was a Pelt Sonorous or Strafe Plangent. Whoever these guys are, they’re good.”

  Raina begged to differ. Instead, she asked, “What guys?”

  “Junkies. Magic junkies. They hit us every now and then. They claim to be Light Fae sympathizers. They say the compound shouldn’t be here. The Shadow Fae shouldn’t be here. Bunch of lowlife punks.” He said the last through his bared teeth, eyes hot.

  Because they sided with the Light Fae? Raina wondered, but had no time to pursue the thought.

  From the branching c
orridor, a figure in black appeared, face masked. With feet widespread, the man made a gesture, palms facing together about an inch apart, hands chopping past each other in brief arcs. Brilliant pink light appeared between the hands before spouting at Jax and Raina.

  Static Lunge, the thought sparked in Raina’s brain before she hit the deck again. Magenta sparks flew as energy hit the wall just over her head, putting a divot in the drywall. Jax deflected most of the force, his Panoply Rubicund, magic armor, was slow to materialize.

  Sweating, chest heaving, Jax reposted. He had awesome skill in offensive magic, but his Fray Spells lacked much force. While it was conservative, and must have been taxing, it was enough to send their enemy sprawling back the way he’d come.

  Jax went down on one knee, unable to catch his breath. Whatever he believed his attackers to be, they had a lot of training in Fray Spells—battle magic. While none of the strikes held much power, they were precise and potentially deadly.

  “Stay back,” he waved her away, struggling to his feet.

  There was no way she would stay back. The attacks, though underpowered, were definitely Light Fae in origin. She had to find out more about the invaders.

  Jax rounded the corner, following the masked man, Raina on his heels. They entered the dormitory corridor to the sight of blazing, deadly colors and bone-jarring reports. Guards and masked, black-clad foes clashed in magical combat. Together, they darted into a doorway, avoiding a bolt of green that sizzled through the air.

  The fray moved out of sight down another corner, Jax hurrying to join. Three of the intruders pinned down four guards who huddled at the end of the hall. The guards threw up crude shields, Targes Viridescent, dual ovals of green energy that fizzled when an aggressor cast a deft Pelt or Strafe. But Jax now had them in a crossfire. Gesturing, the Dark Fae created a wild, dull wave of force that crackled and burst over the raiders—a rudimentary Strafe Plangent. One of them fell to his knees, grasping his head. A guard managed a similar strafe that glanced off a second opponent. Closing in fast, Jax’ fist brightened as he raised it. Trailing smoke, his punch blasted an assailant off his feet, powered by the boost of an Impel Acclension. Encouraged, the guards charged. Five to three were much better odds, and Jax bellowed and struck again, imposing, inspiring.