Fate's Demand (Twisted Fate, Book 3)

Chapter Thirty-Five

After a quick shower, I prepared to go to the library and thought about the conversation with Gabe once I'd left Raffy's classroom.

Of course, Gabe had found me only minutes afterward.

Deflecting from the real issues, I'd asked to go home. Weeks had passed since arriving, and I was homesick for my parents and Scruffy. Instead of calling me out for disrespecting Raffy or complying with my request, Gabe had tried to pacify me. He brought me clothes and somehow added a room to my dorm so that I would be able to do my laundry. The distraction hadn't worked. I'd never been away for more than a week, and I thought about home more and more as the days passed.

Don't think of home, not before meeting the groups in the library. It'll only cause tears you don't want to fall, so save it. Wait until you're alone or find a way back.

Shaking the thoughts away for the millionth time, I backtracked through the halls to the library. Progress had been made, much more than I could have accomplished alone, but there was so much to learn that a dent had barely been formed. Still, it was a start. As small as it seemed, it gave me hope. Who needed fate? Or angels? We would figure it out on our own, and then make the Sisters and the Brothers regret their secrecy.

I opened the library doors with a smile, the weight easy to bear after so many visits. None of the students had given up helping. In fact, numbers had multiplied as students' friends joined. Now the groups ranged from ten to twenty students each. Almost a hundred Pure Souls researched what I'd asked of them. It was great, though as the numbers grew, so did my guilt. Knowing the students probably wouldn't have continued to learn if anyone else had asked kept me from asking for anything more.

"Aly!"

I looked up to find Sera racing towards me. She was spunky, her energy contagious. Meeting with her group was always pleasing. I felt like her excitement for everything transferred as an energy boost characters in games received to fill up their health.

"Did Mike make you fight all afternoon?" Sera's face pinched into a sour expression.

She hated combat as much as I had loved it when I had trained with Gus. That was when I could win. Angels hadn't been around to show me how truly inadequate I was fighting against a supernatural entity. In my defense, I was the only one with the inner light that could destroy Darkness and that didn't involve any physical skills.

I winked at Sera, feeling suddenly uplifted. "Pretty much, though I did shower first."

"Thanks for that." She laughed. "We're all ready if you are."

"Anything new?"

"Not really," she said and fell into step beside me as I walked to her group's table. "I think Archer found something about the origin of magic. If you ask me, it sounds like a myth."

"We've just learned that the myths we all grew up with are true, at least in part. I wouldn't be too quick to dismiss what he found just because it sounds unbelievable."

"Right." Sera pursed her lips and nodded. "But this says magic came to humans through the Gods of Olympus and that there is a royal family from which all magic stems from. How can that be if the gods are supposedly alive when this tale claims they're dead?"

"It makes it harder to believe, but not impossible. Remember, the Sisters of Fate also originate from the so-called Greek myths," I said, pausing at the top of the table the group sat at, smiling to greet the rest of the students already seated. "I'm not currently interested in its origin or structure, though I'll want to learn that at some point. For now, we must concentrate on how it works. Has anyone found anything further regarding the types of magic, its abilities, or how they are used? Is there anything about how we are able to strengthen magical abilities?"