Page 4 of Broken Destiny

“Sorry, dude.” I take a deep breath. I’m trying to distract myself with everything but where we’re going, which is relatively easy because I’m always distractible, but his seriousness is bringing me back down.

“Don’t call me that,” he grumbles with an uncomfortable movement. Despite his increased form, his body doesn’t make a sound. There’s no wisp of breath, no bodily noises that sometimes escape a person despite their best attempts. “You’re not some Californian surfer, and I’m not your bro.”

I shrug. “Tell me what’s going on, Boo.” The hilarious nickname I came up with for him always makes me giggle.

Kodi sighs heavily and rolls his eyes upward. “That’s even worse. Maybe I’m ready to move on permanently. I can’t seem to get away from you.”

“Ah, come on. Without me, your life would have been horribly boring over the last few years.” No one else could see him. If they could, they ignored him like Benny. The monster considered himself above the ghost, and the fairy had been too sick to care. A couple of other non-humans who’d passed through hadn’t cared or couldn’t see him. I am the only one who treats him like a living being, even though he isn’t.

He grunts noncommittally. “Haven’t you ever heard of Apocrypha?”

I scrunch my nose and slide my hair behind my ear. I really need a bath. I usually don’t give a shit, but seeing actual people reminds me of my laziness. The strange word rings a vague bell, and I think I’ve heard it spoken in my life before the orphanage. I don’t remember that time. It’s not that I don’t want to, which is also true, but mostly I can’t. It’s a big, blank space in my head that occasionally taunts me with vague previews. Those glimpses make me hope I never remember everything. “What kind of name is that? Greek?”

“I don’t know what language it’s from, but I know that it means hidden. It’s the academy that the Eastern Americans go to when they come of age to learn about their specialties or their magic.”

“One academy for half a country?” According to the media and whatever else I can get my hands on, there are far more supernaturals than that. They’re present everywhere: higher tiers of the government, planning boards of all the major cities, Fortune 500 officials. They’ve been under human noses for centuries, but humans have been happily oblivious.

I glance outside for the first time. The city we travel through doesn’t appear any different than the one I’ve been able to explore with my limited mobility. Shiny office buildings and rundown, ancient brick buildings that are undergoing renovations line the streets. The city has always been a mixture of the new and the old.

I squint when we drive by a shop that has a strange sign in the window. I only decipher it after we’ve passed: Humans Only. The two words send a shudder of dread down my spine and a sudden intuition that it means more than just discrimination. It involves the block in my head, the one that doesn’t want me to disappear into the horror that was my childhood. I push it all away. Maybe one day I’ll have to deal with it. But until then, I’ll happily pretend it doesn’t exist so I can live some semblance of a life, however shitty that life may be.

Kodi, oblivious to my internal ramblings, continues. “It’s an elite academy. I can’t believe we’re actually going there. Only the best of the best get in. The three houses only accept the magically mature individuals they believe will help rule the world.” His words hold a touch of wonder, and a shiver of unease pricks my neck.

“Well, they have the wrong people.”

Kodi squares his shoulders. “Speak for yourself. I was on my way to becoming a powerful mage when I died.” His eyes momentarily cross. “I think,” he mutters.

I stare at him. “Yes, but you’re dead now. As far as I know, you can’t become undead.” I eye him with new interest. Maybe. I have no idea. There has to be a reason he’s with us. I shake off the questions. “Anyway, I wasn’t only speaking of you. That…thing…over there is nothing more than a glorified lap dog. And I’m…well…broken.” I shrug as if the words don’t hurt coming out of my mouth. It feels like chewing glass, but I’ve listened to the slurs and insults since waking up in the human hospital with no memories except my name, birthday, and a general knowledge of the world. Even though there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with me, the haughty woman’s words struck a nerve. I can’t be a student at an elite supernatural academy. I stop thinking about it before my heart can burst from my chest with that one beat of hope.

Kodi laughs. I’ve always enjoyed the sound. No matter how vague his form gets, his voice is always deep and full of life in some magical way. “That thing over there will grow to be a powerful shifter once it’s been trained. And you saved the fairy’s life.” Kodi’s voice drops. He’s looking at me, but I shrug and scratch at a bit of ink on my finger.

“Not like the Mother was doing anything for her.” Mother Mary had brought in one doctor, one human doctor, who’d said he had no idea what was wrong with the frail child. Then, she’d stopped. Rene rarely left her room. She didn’t have the energy to walk, which I imagine is just as bad as not being able to. She’s already asleep, a common state for her since she entered the orphanage. Her golden lashes form a curtain against her impossibly pale skin. Blue veins create a roadmap under her paper-thin flesh.

Kodi sighs, drawing my attention away from the faerie. He’s always kept the speech patterns of a live person, regardless of the fact that no breath comes out when he sighs like that. “Unfortunately, I think you’re right. There’s no way we’re going to be students. The elites would piss their pants at a ragtag bunch like us joining their ranks.”

“So, what is our purpose?” I ask carefully, my spine tingling with another warning.

Kodi shakes his head. “I don’t know.”

Silence falls between us, and I lean my head against the leather behind me. I miss my books. They were the only thing I would have brought with me from my stack of meager belongings. I hadn’t been happy at the orphanage, but I’d been comfortable. I could eat and sleep without worrying about dying. Bathing was a different story because the only showers were on the second level, but there was always food. My basic needs were taken care of and I’d helped where I could so that Mother Mary didn’t throw me onto the street among the beggars. I’d been surprised many times that she didn’t, but now I’m heading to a new place. It will have unknown dangers to navigate, not to mention unfamiliar obstacles. Nothing is easy when I can’t run from danger.

Despite my fear, or maybe because of it sapping all my rational thought, I end up falling asleep.

* * *

“Zo?” a voice hisses.

I grumble in my sleep. Damn ghost. He’s always picking on me and waking me up.

“Zo!”

I crack open an eye, belatedly aware that I’m in a car and that car has stopped moving. I wake with a start, nearly braining the ghost with my head, if he could be brained, that is.

I frown at the face above me. It looks like Kodi developed a touch of color while I slept. Instead of varying shades of gray, his hair has a strange tint to it that almost looks red, like the old black and white movies where they tried adding Technicolor. It bleeds through his pasty skin. It’s so distracting, I almost forget why he woke me.

“Quit staring at me and wake up,” he barks. I nod, wiping my mouth of the drool that probably escaped to stain the pristine leather. I’m not worried about Kodi seeing me like that. I’d long ago gotten used to him staring at me while I sleep. The creep factor turned into something else over the years - a guardian angel, or an early warning system, since he couldn’t do much to affect the outside world. That still seems to be the case as he grabs for one of my braces. His hand goes right through it.

“You look…more,” I mumble, shaking the last of the cobwebs away.

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