Forgotten Fates

Chapter Sixteen

Elijah

When Alice gets home from school the first thing I do is kiss her for a good five minutes. The second thing I do, is ask her about the crack in her back window which she explains to me was from her terrifying incident with the birds. I remember her telling us about it in the diner but feel myself getting anxious all over again as talks about, even though she is safely in front of me.

"Didn't you see it last night when we were out here?" she asks.

"It was dark, I didn't notice it until Cole and I came out here this morning."

"I hope my dad doesn't ground me for life when he sees it," she says, chewing on her bottom lip with worry.

"Everything will be fine, babe," I assure her. "Now come with me. I wanted to try something."

I take her hand and lead her to the back yard where I have five dead goldfish in a bucket. Alice told us that she had learned some things from Tristan. One of them being that Makaria was all about souls. And if I learned anything from my research, so were necromancers. Which led me to an idea and from there to the pet store. Cole thought the idea was crazy, but the stronger Alice's power is, then the safer she will be.

"I know this isn't the most pleasant thing," I say taking the lid off, "But I think you should practice controlling them."

I watch her face go even paler than it's already natural alabaster color. Something I didn't think was possible. "It's okay, we don't have to," I assure her and go to put the lid back on, but she stops me.

"No, I can do this." She gives me a reassuring smile and I have to admire her bravery. I know I wouldn't want to do it. "I'm just not sure why this power would ever be useful. Who would want to make zombies?" she asks, giving herself the shivers just thinking about it.

"Because, if Makaria needs souls, then what if you could take command of those souls and tell them who to attack."

"I guess, but I feel like commanding just one would be hard enough. I don't think I would be able to do multiple souls at once."

"We are stronger together, right?" I say clasping her hand in mine. "If the four of us are together and our lives were in danger, I don't think there is any limit to what you would be able to accomplish."

"I think you have more confidence in me than you should," she sighs.

"Alice, think of how easily you threw me and Cole around when you were protecting Paige," I remind her. "You are way stronger than you give yourself credit for."

She gives me a big smile, before turning her attention to the bucket with more determination. It's my first time watching her use her necromancer power this way, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. But I feel amazed when, one by one, each fish that was belly up starts slowly swimming through the water.

"That's amazing," I whisper in awe. "Now try giving them a command. Like a direction to swim."

She tries for several minutes, but all five fish continue to swim throughout the bucket without purpose. I tell her it's alright and we can try again another time, but I can tell she is disappointed in herself.

"Maybe you need to start a little smaller. Try focusing on just one at a time," I suggest.

She nods, and within second one fish comes to a complete stop as the others continue to swim around aimlessly. She gives it audible commands, instructing it to swim up, down, or even in a full circle. It follows her will every time.

"Now we know that you can do it," I say, "It will just take practice to be able to do multiple at once."

I start to put the lid back on when I hear Alice whimper behind me. "What's wrong?"

"We can't leave them like that," she says referring to all the zombie fish still swimming.

"Oh, sorry. Go ahead and do whatever you do to make them.. You know," I grimace. I was starting to understand why she was so apprehensive when it came to this part of her power. It didn't really bother me at first. They were only goldfish, and they were already dead when I had Cole distract the guy working the aquatic section so I could scoop them out of the aquarium. But watching them swim around with their cloudy, dead eyes and discolored scales. Yeah, it wasn't the greatest thing to watch. I'm sure for Alice, being the one to reanimate them and all, was far worse.

While Alice closed her eyes and focused on sending our new pets back to fishy heaven, Cole pops his head out the back door to find us. "Hey, Paige and I are going to go out to dinner. You guys want to come?" he asks, while also signaling me with his eyes that I better decline the offer.

"No thanks, I think we are going to hang out here," I respond in an exaggerated bad acting voice.

"Very funny," he says. "We'll bring you something back though."

Now that the stars had started appearing in the sky and the air has gotten even colder, I decide to light a fire in the firepit, hoping it will let us stay outside for a little longer. I lay down on one of the patio loungers and hold out my arms, inviting Alice to join me.

She curls up against me and almost immediately her phone starts buzzing. At first I assume it is her dad, but her face falls when she sees the screen and she ends up ignoring the call. Giving me a different idea of who it could be.

"Where's Tyler?" I ask, wanting to make sure we are actually alone.

"He went to check on Zoey," she says.

"That's your ex-boyfriend's little sister right."

"His twin sister actually."

"Is there a particular reason why Tyler is checking up on her?" I see her bite her bottom lip I know she is debating sharing information with me. "Look, if you made some kind of a promise to someone and you can't tell me it's fine," I smile to let her know that I don't need her to feel like she needs to betray someone else's trust.

"It's not like that. I didn't make any promises not to say anything and it's not even a secret. Pretty much everybody around here already knows about it. It's just that.."

"It's just what?"

"It's his family's personal life and I feel like discussing it with my new boyfriend is... like some kind of a betrayal," she confesses.

"You have a good heart, Alice Mason," I say, then slowly lean down to kiss her.

It doesn't take us very long to turn up the heat, and before I know it she is straddling my lap and pulling my shirt over my head. She takes off her long sleeve flannel, leaving her in just her tank top, and I run my hands underneath the fabric and up her back while our breathing becomes heavier.

She is reaching for my belt buckle when we are both halted by the sudden sound of music drifting over the fence. Alice turns her head to look back and I follow her eyes to see the house diagonal from hers with people crawling out and onto the roof.

"Maybe we should go inside," she say.

Then I see, thanks to bright light shining through the open window, that one of those people is the infamous Finn. I slide Alice off my lap and stand up to grab her shirt. I hand it to her, and she starts buttoning it while I pull mine over my head. I reach for her hand to lead us back inside when Finn's begins to yell over at her. She looks back at him with a hurt expression, and I become murderous.

Then her eyes go wide with fear as she shout Finn's name, and I watch her wind rush over the fence towards the crowded roof.