Shifted (The Undari Trilogy Book 1)

by Sarah Reeves

  “Okay.” Alex rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. “Good night, then.”

  “Good night.” Adrien left, striding further along the path until she disappeared. Alex let out a breath, cursing herself for not saying anything else, and unlocked the door, jerking it open.

  The inside of the room was tidy, with a decent sized bed in the corner. There were sconces on the wall, a fireplace across from the bed, and a door on the far wall that Alex assumed went to the shared bathroom. There was a tiny but functional kitchen directly to Alex’s left. As a whole, the space was a bit cramped, but Alex kind of liked it. It was a place she could be alone, at least. She went to the bed and spied the package sitting on the pillow. Opening it, she discovered exactly what Adrien had said would be in there. Clothing, toiletries, and the like were put away, and Alex stretched out on the surprisingly comfortable bed.

  Alex was exhausted. She didn’t want to sleep. Well, she wanted to sleep, she just didn’t want to be tormented by dreams of Hannah’s distorted corpse. Images from the dream made her shudder and turn on her side. Block it out, block it out. It took effort, but she pushed the horrifying pictures out of her mind. “I have to do something.” she said aloud, and sat up. She had to distract herself. She eyed the toiletries on the bedside table, and decided she needed a shower.

  In the bathroom, there was a shower with a glass door, and a conservative sink with a cabinet underneath. A simple rectangular mirror hung above the sink. Muted gray tiles covered the floor. Alex set her things on the counter, made sure both doors were locked, and was about to turn on the shower when she heard voices in the next room. The walls here aren’t very thick, apparently, she thought, both amused and slightly annoyed. What made her pause was the fact that she recognized the voice.

  Vera’s bubbly and slightly breathless rambling came through the wall, muffled somewhat but still discernible. She seemed to be talking to a guy, which made Alex grin. Weren’t the sleeping quarters meant to be for one person only? Despite her better judgement, Alex leaned closer to the wall.

  “I mean, I know it seems a little weird,” she was saying. “I just want to give her the benefit of the doubt. Maybe she’s nervous around other people, and it makes her forget things. Maybe she’s, well, not the smartest. Not knowing about the Undari race isn’t a reason not to trust her, clearly she’s one of us because if she wasn’t, she wouldn’t get through any portals to the realms.” The male voice said something in return, and Vera gave a short, frustrated sigh. “I’m not just going to ask her, that’s rude. I like her.” Another muffled reply. “Fine, you ask her. Don’t be surprised when she punches you. She looks kinda scary sometimes. She looks sad too. What do you think happened to her to make her look so sad? No, that’s something you will not ask her. I’ll punch you. I’m going to shower after my roommate gets done. Bye.”

  It didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out who Vera and the mystery man had been talking about. Alex leaned against the wall and stared sightlessly at the ceiling. Vera was way too sweet for her own good. She likes me, though. Alex didn’t see why. She wasn’t exactly nice to Vera when they’d met. She’d even said that Alex looked scary sometimes. And sad. Alex decided that she was going to have to try harder to mask her emotions. Apparently she wasn’t doing a good job of it.

  Pushing away from the wall, Alex started the shower running and turned to study herself in the mirror. She could see it, the sadness that Vera talked about. She was glad Vera had insisted that the other guy not ask her about it. Whoever he was. There was no way she was going to talk about it to either of them. It would hurt too much, and she wasn’t prepared to strip away whatever walls she’d tried to put that pain behind. Tried being the key word. She hoped Vera wouldn’t try to breach the subject. Alex didn’t know what she would have said if she did.

  Alex gave a humorless laugh as she stepped into the shower. The hot spray beat over muscles she hadn’t realized were tense, and she rested her head against the shower wall as bit by bit, her body relaxed. She breathed deeply, inhaling the steam and closing her eyes. The water felt so good against her back, and the rhythm of it soothed her mind to the point where almost no thought ran through her head. She could feel the calm pulsing through her, starting at her chest and spreading outward. Wait… Without opening her eyes, Alex prodded at the feeling and realized it was the seat of power for water. She found it was all too easy now to delve into it. When she did, a cool rush, stronger than she’d felt before, travelled down her arm. Alex opened her eyes and a smile broke out over her face when she saw the sphere of water floating above her palm. “Hot damn,” she muttered. “I did it.” Her chest felt cold for a split second, then the power of manifesting a new element rushed through her body. An idea occurred to her then, so she made the water disappear, rushed through the rest of her shower, towelled off, and went into her room, locking the door behind her. She was still wrapped in the towel when she sat on her bed, not wanting to take the time to dress for her little experiment.

  She took a deep breath and relaxed her body again, recalling the sense of peace she had in the shower. In her right hand, she manifested water. It was perfectly clear, and Alex watched it ripple for a moment before turning her attention to her left hand. She concentrated, and gave an incredulous laugh when fire began to dance merrily in her hand. She was only able to enjoy it for a moment, though. Pain shot through her chest, and she gasped, dropping the flow of power and putting her hands to her sternum. Her chest ached, it felt like her heart was spinning beneath her rib cage. Continuous jolts, like electricity, shot down her arms. Alex curled into a ball and waited for it to pass. When it did, she stumbled to her feet and got dressed, ignoring the bright specks of light swirling in her vision. She had to find Adrien.

  Alex burst out of her room and onto the path, accidentally startling someone. “Sorry,” she muttered, and took off down the path, concentrating very hard on the ground so she didn’t lose her footing. She stumbled once or twice, but she arrived at the next set of huts in just a few minutes. She didn’t know which one Adrien was staying in, so she pounded on the first door she came to. The woman that opened the door looked at Alex in alarm.

  “Hey, are you okay?” they asked.

  “Is Adrien here?” Alex asked, trying to get her breathing under control.

  “No, she’s in the second one. What’s going on?”

  “I need to talk to her.” Alex blinked hard to push back the shadows around the edge of her vision.

  “Stay right there, I’ll grab her. You should sit down.” The woman stepped down and strode to the next building, where she knocked firmly. The sound seemed to echo in Alex’s head. Her knees felt like jelly, so she let them give way and sat down hard on the ground while the door to Adrien’s building opened. She heard voices, unintelligible, then someone was shaking her shoulder.

  “Alex!” Adrien’s voice sounded in her ear, tense and worried. “What’s wrong? What happened?”

  “I don’t know,” answered Alex. Her voice sounded distant to her ears. Without warning, she was hauled up. It made her head spin.

  “Come on, let’s go inside.” Cool air washed over Alex as they crossed the threshold into Adrien’s building. Alex heard Adrien bid the other woman goodbye, and then the door shut. “Alex, what happened?”

  “I was able to manifest water,” Alex panted, feeling the pain ripple through her chest again. “Then I used fire in one hand, and water in the other. Then my chest started to hurt really bad, and I came to see you.”

  “You used water?” Alex heard Adrien pulling open drawers and looking around for something. “You know what, never mind. I’ll ask you how you did that later. Right now, we need to get your power under control. It’s starting to be too much for you.” Something small and metal was shoved into Alex’s hand. “Here. You’re going to need to concentrate, okay?”

  “On what?” Alex fisted her hand around the object.

  “Your power. It’s going to be painful, but you need to
focus on all three, and push your power to the hand with the ring in it.” Alex did so, and cried out as her head was lanced with pain. It built, then receded as an intense heat shot from her chest to the ring in her hand. It felt weird to Alex, feeling the power leave her hand. The ring grew hot, and Alex opened her eyes to see the metal glowing in her palm. When the light faded, so did the pain. Alex brought the ring to eye level with a hand that was still shaking. There were seven stones set into the metal, each a different color. The largest stone was clear, like quartz. Three of the stones, red, blue and black, seemed to swim with the same light that her father’s amulet had.

  “Is this your ring?”

  “It belonged to your grandmother. She passed it to me, and I thought about using it for your power, but part of me thought it wouldn’t work. Since now there’s the necessity for it, I had to try. Looks like it worked.”

  “Glad it did.” Alex felt her heart slow to a steady rhythm as she slipped the ring onto her finger. It fit. “So now I’ll be able to use my power without any kind of consequences? Because that wasn’t fun at all.”

  “Yes, you’ll be able to use your powers safely now. That ring is kind of like the overflow. What were you thinking, manifesting two of your powers at once like that? With no safety net?”

  “I was thinking that I wanted to experiment with my power,” Alex snapped. “I was also thinking that I need to get stronger and figured trying to use multiple powers was a good way to do that. And while we’re talking about it, why didn’t you warn me about using too much power?”

  “You do realize that this is uncharted territory for both of us?” Adrien’s voice was calm, but her lips thinned. “I have about as much knowledge of this as you do. But one would think, after using a little common sense, that exercising caution might be necessary.”

  Alex opened her mouth, but found she couldn’t think of anything to say back. Instead, she shut her mouth, glowering at her mentor. Determined to move on, Alex lifted both her hands and repeated what she did in her room. Water and fire, one in each hand, appeared above her palms. “This is what triggered the episode.”

  Adrien came closer, and bent to study the water. “How were you able to manage this?”

  “I was in the shower, and I was able to relax and focus to the point that it appeared. I didn’t do it on purpose,” she added, making the elements disappear again, “It just happened. That’s three elements I’ve been able to conjure so far.”

  “Yes, it is.” Adrien sat in a chair next to a desk. “I wonder how long it will take for you to be able to manifest and master the others. You’ve barely worked on Darkness and Fire, though, so as of yet, you’ve mastered none of the elements.”

  “What qualifies as mastering an element?” Alex wanted to know.

  “There are a series of tests that you need to go through.” Adrien passed a hand through her hair. “They’re pretty standard across all the elements, and passing them means that you’ve officially become an expert in your power. We’ve got a few months before we’re able to start that testing.”

  “Okay. And I’m going to have to do that six times?” At Adrien’s nod, Alex groaned. “Why can’t I just be a normal alien?”

  Adrien chuckled. “I have no clue. You need to go and sleep, though. Tomorrow you’re going to attempt to Shift into something other than a dragon.”

  “Great,” said Alex with a laugh. “Then people are really going to think I’m weird.”

  “What?”

  “Nothing,” answered Alex. “I’ll see you in the morning. Goodnight.” She stepped out of the building and began to walk back down the path. Now that she was calm and no longer in any pain, Alex could take in little details around her. There was a creek nearby, Alex could hear it bubbling a little ways off the path. The moon was out as well, and combined with the light from the torches, Alex was able to see her way quite well.

  “Pssst!” Alex whirled to see Kieran standing behind a tree. Annoyance, quickly banked, rose in Alex before she answered.

  “What?” she hissed back.

  “C’mere.” Kieran motioned to her. Alex drew closer, and he stepped back behind the tree.

  “What do you want?” she asked when she was close enough.

  “I saw you come through here a little bit ago.” His hand tucked a piece of hair behind her ear, and Alex jerked away. “I followed you to the mentors’ sleeping quarters. Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Why did you follow me?”

  “Well I was worried, of course.” Kieran flashed a smile. “I see you’re as chipper as ever.”

  “Just how strong was your worry?”

  “Strong enough that I peeked in the window of your mentor’s room. That is a very interesting ability you have.”

  Alex’s stomach dropped. “Fantastic. I’m leaving now.” She turned to go, only to whip around with a growl at Kieran’s hand on her arm. “I said, I’m leaving.”

  “Hold on a second,” Kieran tightened his grip when Alex tried to jerk her arm free. “I’m only trying to help you.”

  “No, you’re not. You’re trying to get information from me. I’m not telling you anything, so let me go.”

  “Fine, you’re right, I’m trying to get you to tell me what you are. But we’re bound, Alex. I’m supposed to know everything about you.”

  “While we’re on the subject,” Alex turned so that Kieran could feel the full impact of her anger. “You and I are not soulmates. We’re Companions. Just because we’re bound does not mean that we’re supposed to be together in any capacity other than training partners. And we won’t be. Got it?”

  “You’ve been doing research.” Kieran’s grin stopped quickly when Alex growled again. “Fine, yes, I got it. Can you tell me what’s going on now, Companion?”

  Alex hesitated. There was no logical reason for her to be doing this, but: “Can you promise me that no one else will know about this?”

  Kieran’s face turned sober. “Yes, I will keep your secret. I wouldn’t be much of a Companion otherwise.”

  “Follow me.” Alex led the way back to her building. She turned when she got to the door. “By the way, are we allowed to have guests in our rooms?”

  “Yeah, we are. As long as they don’t stay all night. Hormone-ridden teenagers are not to be trusted.” Snickering, Kieran followed Alex into her room, then sat on the bed. Alex paused for a split second, then sat at her desk. “So what’s going on?” he asked. “How are you able to use more than one element?”

  “Okay, in order to explain to you fully what’s going on, I’m gonna have to start at the beginning.” Alex linked her hands together. “I wasn’t born here. I was born on earth. My dad was the guy that arrested the Unseen, and got him sent to the Realm of Nightmares, and when he broke out, my parents went into hiding.”

  “You’re Travis’s kid.” Kieran’s eyes were wide. “I heard you all died.”

  “Not all of us,” said Alex grimly. “The Unseen took possession of my mother, and made her kill my siblings. My father stopped her before she could kill me. He fled, and went to earth. I was raised as a human by a woman he married shortly after I was born. He was killed by the Unseen when I was ten. My mom raised me after that, me and my half sister. To blend in, I was given medicine that suppressed my genetics, so I could pass as a normal human girl.” Her hands tightened. “The Unseen returned and discovered that I was not actually dead, and he got so angry that he released my biological mother from possession. My family and I went on the run, to Georgia, and I accidentally touched my father’s amulet, which triggered my power. I got sick, really sick. My body kept trying to Shift, but it didn’t know how, until my biological mother came and helped me.

  “After that, my two best friends showed up. They had tracked me through my phone.” Alex hadn’t wanted to tell him about her friends, but the words poured out of her now like blood from an open wound. It certainly started to hurt that badly, anyway. “Oliver and - and Hannah.” Alex closed her eyes against the pain.
“They obviously found out what I am, and Oliver took it in stride, but Hannah, she didn’t.” Alex’s voice dropped to barely above a whisper. “She took my dad’s amulet, and when she touched it, she-” Alex’s voice cracked. Kieran made like he was going to put his hand on her arm, but seemed to think better of it and placed it back on the bed. “Oliver and I found what was left of her. After that, Adrien and I left to come here. The rest of my family is still on the run. I don’t even know where they are, so if the Unseen captures me, he won’t be able to torture the information out of me.”

  “All of that makes sense, except for one thing.” Kieran’s voice was gentle. “Why was he trying so hard to kill you? He got his revenge when he killed your father.”

  “Because it was only partly about revenge. Do you know what a Seer is?” At Kieran’s nod, Alex continued. “According to Adrien, when my siblings and I were conceived, all of them Saw at once. I have extra abilities. I will be able to use all of the elements, and Shift into multiple Forms. That’s what you saw in Adrien’s room. I was so sick because I just gained the ability to manifest water, and it was becoming too much to wield three elements at once. Adrien helped me by giving me an amulet of my own. This ring,” she said, holding up her hand. “There are enough stones to hold my power.”

  Kieran’s hand was warm and gentle on hers as he studied the ring. “Can I see it?” he asked. “Your power, I mean. I only got a glimpse of it from the window.” Gray eyes met green, and Alex nodded, not sure why she trusted him to keep her secret.

  She held up her hands, and fire began to dance in one hand while water swirled in the other. Inspiration hit, and she concentrated until darkness manifested between the other two spheres. There was no pain.

  “Damn,” Kieran whispered. Alex stared, and when he looked up at her, he laughed at her stunned expression. “Yeah I know, not supposed to curse. I’m not as refined as my parents are, Companion.” His smile cocked to the side. “And neither are you.” Alex’s face burned as she recalled her crass words when they first met. He turned his attention to the power simmering between them. “This is wild,” he continued. “What order did you gain these in?”