Resonant

Chapter 9

Zale

Fen was avoiding me.

I didn't know when it started, but he definitely was. I was so used to Fen being in my periphery that I felt oddly off-balance without him there. When I realized he wasn't around, I started seeking him out. Not to talk to him or anything. I just wanted to... I didn't know. See him, I guess. But I couldn't get near the man. Every time I tried, he wasn't where he should be. I even tried showing up while he was teaching a class, but he was nowhere to be seen when I peeked into the room and a student had informed me that Mr. Martritz had suddenly run out to make copies. So I went to the vacant copy room, where it was obvious the machine hadn't even been turned on recently since it was cool to the touch.

Then the next day, I tried waiting for him in the lunch room but I ended up sitting in one of those stupid plastic seats, staring at the doorway, for the entire lunch serving window.

I didn't get it. I was supposed to be his soulmate or whatever, wasn't I? Shouldn't that mean he would want to be around me?

I felt bad enough about the lunch thing that I left a sandwich in his classroom (because of course it was empty when I showed up).

I let this go on until the weekend. He didn't answer his door whenever I knocked, and I didn't expect him to come out for me now. Instead, I got Astrea to knock on his door early Saturday morning, and she texted me when she got him talking. He was obviously distressed when I came down his hallway and I saw that Astrea's foot was currently keeping him from shutting his door and she had a hand gripping his wrist. It looked like she was taking way too much enjoyment from keeping the fae from teleporting away without her, and I rolled my eyes at her when she looked back at me.

Then my eyes met Fen's panicked ones, and I sighed. "Fen. Can we talk?"

He visibly swallowed and shook his head a little, but when he spoke, he said, "Okay."

Astrea let his arm go, but she made no move to leave. Instead, she grinned as she glanced back and forth between me and Fen. "Go," I told her.

"Spoilsport," she complained with a pout, but she did as I asked.

When it was just me and Fen, he looked at me for a long moment with something in his eyes I identified as sadness. "Well, come in, then," he finally said, and retreated into his suite with the door left open for me. I followed and locked the door behind me.

"Let's go back to that beach," I suggested. It might help calm the nerves that were starting to buzz through me to be back there.

"The sun hasn't come up yet in California," Fen pointed out, but he held his hand out to me anyway. It still felt weird to reach out to him now that I knew our souls were connected or whatever, but I took his hand and watched the world shift around me.

Fen hadn't taken us to the same beach as before. Wherever we were, it was daylight and the sand was black. I had heard of such places before, but hadn't ever seen one. Before I even realized I was moving, I pulled my hand away from Fen so I could bend down and run my fingers though the sand. I'm not sure what I expected it to feel like, but it was soft and warm and lovely.

I looked out over the horizon, and it was quite possibly one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen.

"Where are we?" I asked, and I knew I sounded dazed.

"Iceland," Fen said in a small voice. He sounded miserable. What had happened? Anger would have been understandable. After all, I hadn't been gracious when he told me I was his soul mate. But when I saw him that night I gave him the mer book, he had seemed normal. I thought we were fine. And besides, this wasn't anger. What I saw in his eyes was closer to dread.