Defying Fate by S. M. Reine

Malcolm to discover the liquor cabinet, so he was well on his way to his natural state: utterly wasted. His booming laugh echoed off of the otherwise quiet walls of the Faulkner house.
    When Ariane’s voice carried through the dining room to the kitchen, James could almost imagine that it was Elise sitting at the table.
    But the door was broken. She had no way to escape.
    Would he ever hear her laugh again?
    The timer gave a cheerful ding . Dinner done.
    He carried everything into the dining room. Malcolm had found sunglasses that hid his missing eye. Now he was sitting much too close to Ariane, who cradled a glass of red wine in her palm.
    “You are lovely,” he said, slurring his sentence into a single word. “I’m sure I must know you from somewhere.”
    “I don’t think so,” she replied with a giggle. Ariane seemed to find Malcolm’s drunken, cycloptic stupidity to be more charming than offensive.
    Hannah caught James’s eye and gave him the Hannah Look. The kind of Look that said she was about to do something about Malcolm if he didn’t.
    “We should get down to business,” James said, moving the remaining wine to his side of the table.
    “We should get down to it, shouldn’t we?” Malcolm murmured to Ariane. She giggled again. Oh, for fuck’s sake.
    “The Haven,” James said loudly. “We used a map earlier to locate the region we believe it to be in, but we’ll need more specific information. I can perform a spell to locate it.”
    “And what about getting in?” Hannah asked. “It’s going to be guarded by the Union.”
    Malcolm stood to scoop two steaks onto his plate. “Last I heard, the Union had abandoned its research on the Haven, so now it’s only watched by three or four guys. Should be easy to knock ‘em out,” Malcolm said.
    Ariane swirled the wine in her glass. “What is this ‘Haven’? Is that what the hideout is called?”
    James’s mouth was full, so Hannah responded. “You know how Heaven and Hell are basically in different dimensions? Havens are alternate Earth dimensions, made by angels for habitation by humans. They’re safe. Angels and demons won’t go there because the doors are one-way for them—they can’t escape.”
    “And this particular Haven is just like our world, but without all the bad stuff. Paradise, really,” Malcolm said. “The Union tried to grab it for use as an outpost, but our computers and magic don’t work properly there. It’s useless to us.”
    Nathaniel sat up. “Magic doesn’t work?”
    “It should work,” James said. “But in a limited capacity.”
    The boy rounded on Hannah, and her warning look did nothing to calm him. “I can’t go there, Mom. I’m just getting good.”
    “It’s for our safety,” she said.
    “But Mom !”
    “Hannah is right,” James interrupted. “You’ll be out of Metaraon’s reach.”
    “Would you give up magic for safety?” Nathaniel asked. “Would you be happy lighting candles and floating pieces of paper after you walked between worlds? Seriously?”
    He didn’t give James a chance to answer, which was fortunate—James would have had to lie.
    Nathaniel shoved his chair back. “I’m not going there. You can’t make me.” He stormed out of the room.
    “He’ll come around,” Hannah said softly, her gaze fixed on Nathaniel’s plate. He hadn’t eaten anything.
    James sat back with a sigh. He had cooked so much food, and it looked like nobody had the appetite for it but Malcolm. “My spell will take a few hours. You all should rest in the meantime.”
    “That leaves us plenty of time to get acquainted,” Malcolm said, hooking his arm over the back of Ariane’s chair.
    “Would you like to know why Ariane looks so familiar to you?” James asked. “Her last name is Kavanagh. Ariane Kavanagh.”
    “Elise has a sister? Well, fancy that. I never knew.”
    “You’re sweet,” Ariane said, patting his cheek. “I’m her mother.”
    The light in Malcolm’s eyes vanished. He leaned