Kane's Fate Chapter 4

“One will become,” the voice declared, and the sound boomed throughout the cafeteria. “The clock has struck. It is the time of the white tiger.”

“One will become what?” I asked as a chill sent goosebumps down my arms. “What does this even mean?”

“The white tiger fera is a light of hope among the darkness,” the mysterious woman continued. “Only when a threat to peace is imminent will he appear, and then he will be the one who banishes the darkness from our world.”

“Okay, so, I’m going to fight some dark magic?” I gritted my teeth in frustration. “I feel like you’re talking in riddles.”

“They are not riddles, young shifter,” the woman said as she furrowed her brow and met my stare with a firm look. “They are pieces of your story. The last white tiger shifter to activate was more than three centuries before you. Your kind only activates when danger is close.”

“My kind?” I repeated and ran my fingers through my hair. “I’m just now figuring out anything about shifters. I have no idea what I’m doing.”

“You will learn,” she assured me. “Your power is greater than could be foretold, and you will learn it, too.”

I glanced around and realized the other students had gathered around us to listen to the hologram talk about my future, and my cheeks flushed with embarrassment.

This wasn’t exactly the same as them staring at me for my large size or being a white tiger no one had ever seen before. This lady was talking about my power, my time to defeat some darkness thing, and the chance to save our world somehow.

That was a lot of pressure.

“If the danger is imminent, how am I supposed to learn everything that fast?” I asked with a frown.

“You are more capable than you understand yet,” the mysterious woman said and offered a small smile. “Your ability far outweighs your fears if you will only grab hold of it.”

“There’s no way!” a familiar voice scoffed from behind me.

The hologram faded out and disappeared back into the book, and I whirled around to see Seth in a fit of anger. His face was flushed crimson red, and his fists were clenched at his sides as his chest heaved up and down with deep, angry breaths.

“No way what?” I demanded.

“There is no way you’re anything special, Turner,” he said through gritted teeth. “You’re a nothing, a nobody! No one had even heard of you until you showed up here with no fucking clue what to do!”

“Wow, you’re such a prick,” Charlotte hissed. “No one cares about you, loser.”

“Now you have girls standing up for you?” Seth snickered. “Probably because you can’t even shift to handle your own business.”

“Shut the fuck up, Seth,” I growled and rose from my chair to face him. “I don’t know what your problem is with me, but it fucking ends now.”

“I’m not scared of you,” he said in a low voice. “You can barely even shift.”

“It won’t take much to kick your ass anyway,” I shot back as adrenaline began to pump through my veins.

Then his body rippled with the beginning of his own shift, and my body reacted on instinct as the white fur I’d come to know erupted from my arms, and my canines elongated into dagger-like points.

Within seconds, I stood toe-to-toe with Seth in his furry gorilla body while I had only gained my fur, teeth, and claws, though I didn’t need much else to rip him to shreds.

“Enough!” a voice roared across the cafeteria. “Turner, Weaver, step back!”

I turned to see Ms. Canmore march toward us with a huge lion on her heels. His dark blond mane flowed behind his head as he trotted along behind the dean, and his teeth were bared while he released a warning growl. Something about the fera was familiar, but I struggled to see past the blind rage I had pent up for Seth.

As I looked back at the gorilla, he quivered with fear before he took a step away from me and began to shift back to his human form.

I narrowed my eyes on him and then followed suit.

Once we finished, the lion shifted, and the recognition made sense.

Renzo Pearson stood behind Ms. Canmore with a pissed-off scowl on his face. He eyed each of us and then gently pushed past the dean to grab us by the arms.

“What the hell is wrong with you two?” he demanded in a hushed voice. “You think just because we practiced shifting today you can do it whenever you want?”

“No, I--” I started to argue.

“I don’t give a shit!” Renzo growled. “There is no excuse for the utter lack of self-control you both just displayed. It was foolish and dangerous!”

“I’m sorry,” I said and looked down at my feet. “You’re right.”

I’d let the school asshole get to me, even though I knew I was better than that. That hologram had said I was more powerful than anyone could foresee.

I had to live up to that standard.

“You should be,” Seth muttered. “Thinking you’re important because of some stupid magic book.”

“He is important,” Renzo hissed and glared at the other shifter. “If you weren’t so self-righteous, you could--”

“I think they get the picture, Mr. Pearson,” the dean cut him off with a harsh stare before she addressed the whole cafeteria. “Consider this everyone’s one and only warning. Using unsanctioned magic to hurt another student is strictly forbidden at Meloria. You will be expelled immediately.”

Ms. Canmore’s words rang in my ears.

Expelled.

I couldn’t risk getting kicked out of Meloria before I figured out this whole prophecy thing, so I had to control my temper. Even if that meant letting Seth get away with his shitty attitude.

Seth glared at me, grabbed Vic’s shirt, and stormed out of the Medius without another word. Then it was like someone hit “play” as the cafeteria returned to its quiet buzz of conversation, though many of the students stayed gathered around our table.

“What do you think that was?” I asked Auden as I made my way back to my seat and gently touched the pages of the book. “I’ve never seen magic like that.”

“Yeah, it talked back to you,” he agreed. “That’s strange for sure.”

“Well, maybe it wasn’t a regular hologram then,” Charlotte said with a shrug. “Magic is full of surprises.”

“I have an idea,” a soft voice nearly whispered from behind me. “If you don’t mind me butting in, Kane.”

A second-year seer stood over my shoulder and gazed at the book with curiosity. Then she tucked a short black hair behind her ear as she refocused her attention on me and smiled.

“Sure,” I replied. “Sorry, I missed your name.”

“Penny,” the seer introduced herself. “I think I know what that hologram was.”

“I’m all ears.” I motioned for her to sit at the table with us.

Penny hesitated before she slipped onto the seat next to Charlotte and pulled the book closer to her.

“Mmm, yes,” she murmured to herself as she read through the page. “Exactly what I thought it would be.”

“Which is?” I asked when she didn’t say anything else.

“Oh, sorry.” Penny blushed and pushed the book back over to me. “I’ve never seen one in person, but I’ve read about them before. It looks like a Divinity.”

“Pretend we have no idea what that means,” I said as I gestured for her to continue.

“A Divinity is basically a magical fortune teller,” she explained. “Seers can focus on various events or people, but Divinities are generated based on something specific. They’re usually sent from the Concurem to keep the magical world in alignment.”

“Oh, my God,” I murmured. “Just a little message from the Concurem then?”

“Not the current one,” she said and shook her head. “This book is too old for that. It may even be the original Concurem, but I can’t say for sure.”

“Holy hell.” Auden let out a whistle. “We need to find out more about Divinities.”

“Yeah, I think you’re right,” I said as my head swam with all this information.

“Don’t you guys have homework?” Charlotte grumbled. “I know Auden does.”

“I can do both,” he insisted. “Let’s go up to the third floor. There’s a library up there, and I bet we can find more about the Divinities.”

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Penny warned. “It won’t be easy to find what you want to know, especially since it isn’t your type of magic.”

“Are you offering to help?” I arched an eyebrow and watched her cheeks flush pink.

“I-I wish I could, Kane,” she said as she looked down at her hands. “I’d do anything to help you, but Wendy will already be pissed I told you about the Divinity. Sorry.”

The second-year seer stood up and hurried back to her classmates, who seemed suspicious about her return. They gave me harsh glares, and I deliberately rolled my eyes.

This whole separation of magical types was lame. I’d rather separate from Seth and his sycophant.

“Come on,” Auden urged me. “Let’s go check it out.”

“Right behind you.” I shoved the book back into my bag and waited for Charlotte to stand up. “Aren’t you coming?”

“I’m going to my dorm to do my real homework,” she said after a moment. “I keep feeling like I should follow you, but… I can’t, okay?”

“Okay,” I replied with a degree of uncertainty in my voice. “See you later.”

I followed Auden to the elevator, and we rose above the cafeteria with a perfect view of all the students through the glass cylinder. Many of the students watched our ascent, and I offered an amused wave before we stepped off on the top floor.

Auden turned right from the elevator and stopped at a door labeled with a picture of books. There was a thin layer of dust on the doorknob, and he frowned before he twisted it open. We both walked inside, and I was surprised to see only four or five shelves of books were spread out in the room.

A set of desks and chairs lined one entire wall, and a couple desktop computers were humming with power toward the back of the room.

“Guess most people don’t use the actual library anymore,” he muttered.

I pulled open the blinds to let some light into the room, and as the rays from the sun hit my skin, I experienced the oddest sensation of déjà vu. I’d felt that warmth before, and I’d wanted to get closer…

“Alright, I’m going to start with these old Concurem books,” Auden said and interrupted my train of thought. “What are you going to do?”

“I think I’ll read the books Pearson gave me,” I decided. “Then maybe I’ll know where else to look.”

He nodded his agreement, and we got to work.

The books were filled with scrawls of stories from several hundred years ago, maybe even thousands, but I wasn’t good enough with history to recognize the events the book referenced, so I decided to use my history of magic book to give me a little boost.

“Hey, Kane.”

I looked up to see three girls I didn’t recognize in the doorway as they gave me a small wave.

“Hey,” I replied and glanced over at Auden. “How’s it going?”

“We just wanted to check on you,” the redhead said and bit her bottom lip. “The whole cafeteria thing was a little scary.”

“But you were so tough,” her blond friend added and released a heavy sigh. “And so brave.”

“Oh, uh, thanks,” I murmured. “Well, we’re going to get some homework done, so I’ll see you around.”

“Later!” the girls giggled and ran back to the elevator.

“Seriously?” Auden grumbled.

“Maybe it’s my scent,” I laughed.

Auden rolled his eyes and flicked his finger at my notebook, which promptly flipped to the floor.

I gave him the middle finger, and we grinned as we got back to work.

Before I knew it, I was up to my eyeballs in battles, magical disasters, and politics. I yawned as I read through the election process for the Premier, which the people of ancient Rome had created, and I felt myself begin to lose focus.

Then I was awake but not awake.

The world around me was fuzzy and dull, but somehow, I stood tall among a group of gladiators. Their armor was shining silver, and they all looked to me for guidance. In a split second, I turned and pointed, and we all charged up the side of a hill into battle.

My claws shredded through flesh and bone, and blood ran down my fur in crimson rivers. I roared my triumphant victory, and my gladiators cheered next to me before we entered an arena filled with more enemies.

And it was glorious.

Until I saw the bodies.

It wasn’t our enemies who lay maimed in front of me but bruised and bloodied bodies of people I somehow knew were good. They’d been destroyed by something dark, something evil, and it stood proudly on the mountain ahead of us with the sun shining on its back.

I couldn’t make out a face in its darkness, and I started to storm toward the evil monster before I realized my gladiators had disappeared.

Then I woke up.

Rather than blood, drool streamed down my face and pooled on my notebook. I lifted my head from the desk and saw Auden had fallen asleep, too, and I shivered as the image of the dark, evil stranger resonated in my head.

Who the fuck was that, and why was I dreaming about him?

I pulled my phone from my pocket and saw it was nearly ten, which meant we had to get back to the dorm or risk breaking curfew, and I didn’t need any more trouble today.

“Shit,” I muttered as I started to load everything back into my bag. “Auden, dude, it’s almost curfew. We have to go.”

“Go where?” he mumbled. “It’s the middle of the night.”

“Yeah, and we’re supposed to be in our rooms in eight minutes,” I said and knocked on his desk. “So, let’s get going.”

“Ah, fuck.” Auden finally opened his eyes and rubbed them to wake up. “Okay, yeah, let’s go. Wait, did you find anything?”

“A whole bunch of historical shit,” I replied. “You?”

“Not much yet,” he grunted. “Guess Penny was right. We’ll have to try again tomorrow.”

We rushed out of the library and skipped the elevator for the stairs. Then we sprinted around the Medius and split up to hurry into our dorms before curfew hit. I wasn’t sure how the dean enforced the curfew, but I had no desire to find out today since I’d already pushed Canmore’s limits in the cafeteria.

I let the door slam shut behind me and walked casually through the common room, where Madison sat curled up on the couch reading a book.

“There you are,” the blonde said with a smile as she closed her book and stood up. “I was wondering if you were going to make it on time.”

“Uh, yeah, I just passed out at the library,” I replied and then froze when I turned toward her.

Madison wore a tight, cropped tank top over tiny pajama shorts that revealed her flat stomach and slender legs. Her nipples were hard enough to press against her pale blue top, and she caught my stare with a grin.

“Sooo…” she whispered as she smiled at me. “Early day tomorrow, huh?”

“Um, I think I’m just, uh…” I trailed off as my blood rushed south and my mouth began to water.

Holy shit, I wanted to tear her clothes off her body and just fuck her until the sun came up.

“You okay?” she asked innocently as she twirled her hair.

“I’ll see you later,” I said as carefully as I could. I had no idea if she was actually coming onto me, or if I’d just gotten lucky and seen her in her pajamas, but if I didn’t get away from her in the next few seconds, I wasn’t going to be able to control what my cock made my body do.

I practically sprinted to my room and pressed my hand to the panel to unlock the door. Then I went inside and pushed the door shut behind me with a sigh.

“Wooowww…” I gasped as my heart slammed in my chest. Part of me wanted to run back out there, bend her over the sofa, and claim her, but this was like the first day of class, and I wasn’t one-hundred percent sure that’s what she wanted. Hell, up until a week ago women never even gave me a second glance, and all this attention was really fucking with my head.

Maybe Madison and Demi and all these other girls were really into me, but my entire life felt like a whirlwind of change right now, so it couldn’t hurt to just get the lay of the land for a few more days before I started dating anyone.

I brushed my teeth and swapped my jeans for sweats before I climbed into bed and plugged in my phone to charge. Then I sent a quick text to my mom since I hadn’t talked to her about my first day.

First day was good. I’m figuring out my secondary ability, but I can shift. Mostly. Anyway, I just got back from doing homework and heading to bed. Love you.

As I waited for her response, I pulled up my Facebook and was surprised to see I had two dozen notifications. All but two of them were friend requests from girls at Meloria, and I chuckled to myself as I accepted all of them with the intention of showing Auden at breakfast.

Thankfully, the next few days were less intense.

My classes were the same every day, so I found a routine to spend my days learning about magic and my evenings learning about the Divinity. It wasn’t easy to figure out where it had come from, and even though we’d found out only a charmer and seer could create one together, it didn’t tell us who had made the Divinity in my book.

By the time Friday rolled around, we’d established the Divinity had been set up by this mysterious duo and set to activate when I touched it, but from there, we hadn’t figured out much more about it.

I walked into Renzo’s class with a ton of questions in my head. He gave me the books, so maybe I should have already asked him about the Divinity, but our research said shifters couldn’t create one. Maybe he didn’t know it was there. Or he thought it was, but it didn’t matter unless I touched it to set it off.

The professor saw me walk into the room and waved me toward his desk as the other shifters sat down.

“Okay, I’m dying over here,” he said in a low voice. “Are you going to tell me what you found or not?”

“In the books?” I asked in surprise. “I was going to ask you about them. Well, I mean, about the Divinity anyway.”

“So, it was a Divinity!” Renzo pumped his fist and grinned. “I knew it. Well, I didn’t know for sure,, and then you didn’t ask me after it appeared in the cafeteria, and I didn’t want to push you.”

“You aren’t mad about the, uh, other part of the cafeteria?” I wondered with a sideways glance at Seth, who was busy trying to hit on Demi.

“I know Weaver is a tool,” he scoffed. “And your fera tells you not to let him push you around. You just have to learn control. You’ll need it if the Divinity is to be believed.”

“If?” I echoed with a frown. “I thought it was pretty set that I have this big destiny to defeat dark magic.”

“You can’t defeat all of it,” the professor chuckled and shook his head. “You have to bring light to the darkness it’s going to create, like kick someone’s ass, though I don’t think it’s Seth.”

“That’s unfortunate,” I grumbled. “I wouldn’t mind kicking his ass.”

“I don’t think you’re alone in that,” Renzo said with a half-smile. “But for now, you need to learn as much as you can from those books.”

“Alright, I’ll keep reading them,” I promised.

“Good.” He nodded and motioned to my seat before he turned to the rest of the class. “Now, I’m sure you’ve all been hearing about the Bellator in just a few months, but Meloria has decided to add a little fun to our training. Rather than simply learning how to use your magic for the competition, you’ll also begin learning how to use it in battle.”

“How’s that?” Demi wondered.

“We’ll begin hosting duels next week,” Renzo said. “You’ll be paired with a partner, and you’ll use various forms of sanctioned magic to fight.”

“Ms. Canmore is okay with that after… the other stuff that’s happened?” Madison shot an annoyed glance at Seth.

“Yes, she agrees it’s better to learn from real-life experience,” the professor said with a laugh. “Besides, we have enough charmers to heal the losers of the duels.”

“I’m sure that’s a relief for some people,” Seth retorted. “Right, Turner?”

“You tell me.” I shrugged and kept my focus on Renzo, who nodded approvingly.

“Now, let’s talk partial shifts,” Renzo said as he grabbed his customary chalk.

For the next hour, our shifter professor discussed the various ways we could use our fera while still in human form, and I finally figured out how to use my tiger hearing without going full white fur. I could hear the other students’ pens scrape against the paper by the time we ended the class, and then the buzzer went off.

“Your first duel will be Monday!” Renzo called out as we cleared off our desks. “Be prepared!”

Every class covered the skills we’d need for the duels next week, but none of us had found our secondary power yet, and I wondered if it would just be a grisly fera fight for the shifters.

Finally, the last buzz of the day rang throughout the building, and the hallways cleared in a matter of minutes. I made my way to my dorm to drop off my backpack before I headed for the Medius.

Auden and Charlotte were already there at the table we’d basically claimed as our own. A few girls from the connector table waved at me as I passed by, but it seemed most people had quit worrying about a shifter sitting with pushers.

Maybe the other students would broaden their horizons eventually, too.

“Did you hear about the duels?” Charlotte asked as soon as I sat down with my tray.

“Yeah, that’s all the professors talked about today,” I said with a grimace. “I don’t know what the hell I’m going to do. I still don’t have a secondary.”

“You have it,” Auden pointed out. “You just have to figure out what it is. No luck in meditation?”

“I feel like I’m close, but nothing yet,” I sighed. “Francis always wakes us up right before I get it.”

“I felt like that, too,” Charlotte murmured. “But I finally pushed past it, and then it was right in front of me.”

“Wait, you found yours?” I asked with wide eyes. “You didn’t say anything.”

“I didn’t want to make either of you feel bad,” she said as she dropped her eyes.

“Okay, we’ll live,” Auden said and pursed his lips. “So, what is it? What’s your secondary?”

“It’s called psionic blast,” Charlotte answered as a grin spread across her beautiful face. “It’s not very big yet, but when I get to full-strength, I can basically send a mental shockwave through someone.”

“Damn, that’s cool!” I said and picked up a piece of popcorn chicken. “You should have told us. That’s awesome.”

“Maybe we haven’t found ours because we’re stressed out,” Auden suggested. “We should go relax. It’s finally the weekend, no class tomorrow, which means no curfew tonight. We could go into Linsville.”

“I don’t know, man,” I said. “I still have to read those Divinity books, an essay for history--”

“Don’t even bother with your excuses,” Charlotte interjected. “You of all people need to go do something relaxing. You’ve been dealing with class and this whole savior of the magical world thing.”

“Yeah, the best thing for you is to do something not related to either of those things,” Auden agreed. “I heard there’s a movie theater down on the boardwalk.”

“Oooh, I’m down for a movie!” Charlotte gushed and looked at me with Bambi eyes. “Aren’t you?”

I glanced back and forth between them for a few seconds before I let out a dramatic sigh.

“Alright, if you’re going to twist my arm,” I said with a grin. “Let’s do it.”

We scarfed down the rest of our chicken and mashed potatoes before we dumped our trays and left the Medius. It was only about a ten-minute walk to Linsville from the campus, and it felt good to smell the fresh ocean air and feel the evening sun on my face. It had been a while since I’d walked anywhere besides work or my parents’ house, and even though I spaced out of their conversation, I already felt better when we reached the boardwalk.

“There it is.” Auden pointed to a long building on the next block. “I have no idea what’s playing though.”

“Looks like rom-com, drama, action, or scary,” I said as I read the titles on the marquee. “What do you guys like?”

“Definitely action,” Charlotte replied.

Auden and I glanced at her with amused grins, and she shrugged before she marched up to the ticket booth. A few minutes later, we grabbed a huge bucket of buttery popcorn and some fountain drinks on our way to find our seats.

Then we settled in for the show.

Within minutes of the opening credits, the secret spy agent had already kicked the shit out of two unsuspecting kidnappers and was halfway to rescuing a hostage, so my mind drifted to my own dreams of fights and battles, which led to more thoughts about the upcoming duels. I had a feeling Seth or any of the other shifters would put up a much bigger fight than the poorly trained sidekicks to the corporate criminal antagonist of the movie.

When it was finally over, Auden and Charlotte both yawned and stretched, and we walked out into the cool evening. The sun had already set, but my stomach decided it wasn’t time to go home when it released a fearsome growl that even my friends heard.

“I saw a pizza place further down the boardwalk,” Charlotte giggled. “We can grab a few slices before we head back.”

“Sounds good to me,” I agreed.

“Hope it’s better than that movie,” Auden said with a frown. “There’s no way that guy could have jumped from the helicopter to the cruise ship without breaking something.”

“Unless he had magic,” Charlotte pointed out.

“Well, humans tend to call those movies ‘fantasy,’” he argued.

We discussed the possibilities of secretly magical humans until we walked in the door of the pizza parlor. It was pretty packed with humans, but I soon noticed a group of guys crowded around a booth in the corner, who kept their heads down and talked in hushed voices. We headed for the opposite side of the restaurant and sat down at a tall table by the door.

“Oh, balls, is that seriously Seth?” Charlotte groaned. “Why does that tool bag have to be everywhere we go?”

I looked over my shoulder to see the corner group was looking at us, and Seth was right in the middle of them whispering and watching. I didn’t recognize any of the others he was with, and I wondered who they could be. I didn’t think any of the rules involved hanging out with people other than Meloria students, though it seemed odd for Seth to know them at all. They looked to be in their late twenties or early thirties, which was well beyond the third-year students. I focused on using my fera’s hearing ability and tuned into what Seth was saying, but I couldn’t drown out all the other noise from the pizzeria.

“…the one I was telling you…” Seth whispered. “…actually thinks he can win, but you know Pearson.”

There were a few mumbled responses, but I decided to turn back around and ignore them. I had to take Renzo’s advice and steer clear of the class bully, even if that was much more annoying than just fighting him.

Suddenly, I heard the telltale signs of a booth being cleared, and I looked back over to see Seth point right at me. Then the older shifters walked toward me with the unmistakable gleam of excitement in their eyes and clenched fists.

There was about to be a fight.