by Skye Malone
But if this was the Sylphaen…
I kicked hard in the water, taking off for the city wall.
They’d trapped me in a cave hundreds of miles north of here, but in that cave they’d had a setup intended for sacrificing her. Their crazy leader, Kirzan, had made their plan clear. And with a place like that, they probably wouldn’t stay in the city long – especially since anyone with a brain could predict that Ren would have Nyciena searched the moment he learned Chloe was gone. So they’d go north. They’d sneak her out of the city somehow, and fast, and take her to their hideout to be killed.
Unless someone stopped them.
Houses and startled dehaians blurred as I twisted through the streets, and in only a few moments, the base of the veil came into view. Without more than a cursory glance to the sensors by the rocks to confirm that nothing human was around, I shot through the barrier.
At the edge of my senses, I could feel a single dehaian swimming toward the city. In the distance far above me, some fish drifted along in water that was nearly black from the night.
And otherwise, there was nothing.
Cursing, I raced north.
At best, they probably only had a few hours’ head start. And depending on how they were bringing Chloe with them, transporting her might slow them down.
This would work.
I fought for more speed.
And felt the other dehaian turn to follow me.
Already racing, my heart found a way to go faster. Ren’s soldiers hadn’t stopped me through the entire length of town. They’d left me alone, either because they didn’t want a fight or because they couldn’t catch me.
One lone guard wasn’t going to mess that up now.
“Zeke!”
I blinked.
“Dammit, Zeke, wait!”
I spun sharply, my momentum carrying me back through the water for several yards before I came to a stop.
Jirral swam toward me, breathing hard.
“I don’t have time for this,” I snapped. “Chloe’s been–”
“Chloe’s fine,” he panted. “She… she’s with me.”
My brow drew down. “With you where?”
“At my camp. Outside the city.” He swallowed hard. “Damn you can swim, boy.”
I ignored him. “What about the Sylphaen?”
He took another breath. “I shot the two holding her. The others escaped.”
“Was one of them a gray-haired woman with blue scales?”
He hesitated. “One who got away, yes.”
I swore. I really wanted to get my hands on Liana, though knowing she was dead would have been almost as good.
Because now she was still out there, where she could try to hurt my friends and family all over again.
“Where’s this camp?”
“This way.” He nodded toward the water behind him.
I started swimming in the direction he’d indicated. He hurried to keep up.
“What were you planning on doing if you had caught the Sylphaen?” Jirral asked.
Barely holding back a glare, I didn’t respond.
“That was really stupid, Zeke. Racing off like that.”
“What would you have preferred? Ren and his soldiers weren’t going to help.”
He paused. “You could have come looking for me.”
My gaze flicked toward him before I could pull it back to the water in front of us. He didn’t glance my way.
We swam on in silence. From the shadows, the hills started to emerge, their slopes barren of anything but the occasional pockmark of a cave.
“Up here,” he said, swimming toward an opening high on the side of a hill.
I spotted a glimmer of torchlight when we came close.
On a rough bed of seaweed, Chloe sat with her tail curled tight to her chest. Relief flashed across her face at the sight of us, followed swiftly by worry.
“Zeke.” She pushed away from the bed, one hand clutching the torch and her smile wavering as though uncertain it should be there.
I hesitated, my eyes scanning over her. Purple shadows colored her torso and face where they shouldn’t have, like the ghosts of bruises.
“Are you okay?” I demanded. “What happened? Did they hurt you?”
Her gaze went to Jirral for a heartbeat. “I’m fine.”
I looked between them, hearing something in her voice that she wasn’t saying.
“How are you?” she asked.
Annoyance hit me for the change of subject, and I gave a quick shrug. “Fine,” I replied, though really, I probably wasn’t. Everything had gone to hell in the past few hours. I didn’t know what I was anymore.
She smiled again, with that same uncertain expression like she wasn’t quite sure what to do. “And Niall and Ina?”
I didn’t want to be talking about this. “Ina’s fine too. Niall’s still unconscious. His physician, Liana, she… well, I mean, she was the one who took you out of the pit, and we think maybe–”
“That was Niall’s doctor?” she interrupted.
I nodded.
“But he’s okay? She didn’t try to–”
I shook my head. Chloe let out a breath, appearing relieved for a heartbeat before she looked back up at me.
“She was the one who poisoned your dad.”
I could hear a question in the horrified statement. “I think so.”
Chloe turned away.
I grimaced and then glanced to Jirral. “Did you see where Liana and–”
“Which way is it to Santa Lucina?”
I looked back at Chloe.
She was watching us both, her face intense.
“You can’t–” I started.
“The Sylphaen killed your dad. They’re after me. If I leave, maybe they’ll–”
“Liana’s been a palace physician for years,” I protested. “There’s nothing to say she did this because you were here.”
“Except that she went to get me two seconds after your dad was dead.”
“That still doesn’t mean–”
“I don’t want more people getting hurt, Zeke. You, Ina, your brothers…”
Her pained expression made me turn away. I didn’t want anyone getting hurt either. Obviously. But that included her. It really did. The Sylphaen wouldn’t stop, whether she was in Nyciena or Santa Lucina, and if she was here, at least I could help.
And Santa Lucina wasn’t remotely safe. They’d nearly killed her the last time she was there.
“But what about the neiphiandine?” I argued. “You can’t go on land anyway and–”
“It might have worn off. And even if it hasn’t, I’ll just stay near the coast till it does.”
“Alone?”
She blinked at me.
I grimaced, looking away again.
“They headed north,” Jirral said into the silence. “But I don’t know if they’ll continue going that way.”
Distractedly, I shook my head. “No, that’s probably right. They have a cave up there.”
“They may have other places to hide.”
I hesitated. He could be right. Their leader, Kirzan, had chains and an altar and all sorts of psychotic junk up there for killing Chloe, but he could have more of the same elsewhere.
As comforting as that was.
I closed my eyes.
“I need to get back to land, Zeke,” Chloe said quietly. “If I can get some distance from the ocean, the Sylphaen might have a harder time finding me. And your family… what if the Sylphaen are doing this because of me? Because I’m here?”
“Why kill the king just because you’re in Nyciena?” I asked without looking at her.
She didn’t respond.
“Because it’s easier to do what you want in chaos than order,” Jirral said.
I glanced to him.
“Assassins alter the status quo,” he explained. “They disrupt things so another goal can be accom
plished. Torvias had Chloe under guard, but as a guest of the palace despite Ren’s assertion she was a spy. No one was going to challenge that, and finding a pretense for getting Chloe out of Nyciena…” He shrugged. “But with Torvias gone, suddenly there’s confusion, a killer in our midst, and everyone becomes preoccupied. If you’re Liana, you suddenly have the run of the place. You can do things you couldn’t otherwise.”
Jirral paused. “Chloe’s right. She needs to get out of here.”
I turned away from them both. This wasn’t going the way I’d planned – though on measure, I didn’t really know what I’d intended anyway.
Not this, though.
“My friends will help me get out of town,” Chloe said. “I’ll go as far from the ocean as I can stand and… and maybe the Sylphaen will leave you all alone.”
She paused. “I’m sorry for this, Zeke. I am so, so sorry.”
I looked up at her. “It’s not your fault.”
She gave me a grateful smile, though she didn’t seem to believe me.
“It’s the best option,” Jirral said to me. “Given what she is, she can probably get farther inland than they’ll be able to reach.”
My brow furrowed. “Huh?”
Chloe looked down.
Jirral glanced between us, seeming surprised. “You didn’t tell him?”
“I only found out yesterday,” she explained defensively, as if repeating something she’d already said.
He paused. “Chloe is half landwalker, Zeke.”
I blinked.
“They’re real,” she told me. “My mom was one. The ocean makes them sick, so they keep away from it normally, but she… she didn’t. I think that’s why I could stay on land all those years, though. The dehaian stuff didn’t start,” she grimaced, as if searching for a word, “start waking up till I came to Santa Lucina.”
I stared at her.
“Real-life legend,” Jirral said. “Though from the stories, your friend shouldn’t even be alive. Landwalkers aren’t like humans; dehaians can have children with them, but the kids from those unions – if they even survive infancy – they never manage to change without dying.”
The memory of what happened when she’d entered the water yesterday flashed through my mind, leaving me to wonder if that’d been the effect of the neiphiandine after all.
“Maybe that’s why it hurt so much,” she offered softly, as if reading my thoughts.
Jirral made a sympathetic noise. “There’s a chance, though, now that you’ve survived changing, that things might balance themselves back out for you. Let you remain on land longer than us, or go farther inland than we could reach. Possibly even stay in Kansas till the Sylphaen can be stopped.”
“You think so?” Chloe asked, hope in her voice.
A breath escaped me.
He shrugged. “Maybe. Regardless, it’ll be better if you put distance between you and Nyciena, before the Sylphaen try something else to get their hands on you.”
Her hopeful expression melted into something almost pained at the words.
“It wasn’t her fault,” I snapped.
“No, of course not,” Jirral agreed. “But she’s still the reason they’re–”
“I said it wasn’t her fault.”
The words were hard, and at them, he paused. I looked away, my heart pounding.
“It wasn’t yours either, Zeke,” he told me quietly.
I shook my head. I knew that. Ren had been an ass for suggesting otherwise.
Even if I had been the one to bring her here, knowing full well the Sylphaen were after her and that they’d do anything to get what they wanted.
I’d just believed Nyciena would be safe.
Drawing a breath, I pushed the thought away. Clearly, I’d been wrong. So wrong. She needed to get as far from here, from us, as possible. Back to that human boy, and her human friends, and everything there.
And who knew when she’d come back.
“Zeke…” Chloe tried.
“How far inland can you go?” I asked, the hard tone returning.
She hesitated, watching me, and then gave a small shrug. “I didn’t feel too bad in Utah. Not like I did in Colorado, anyway.”
I nodded. Hell of a lot farther than us, then.
“Good,” I said. “Let’s go.”
“Now, hold on!” Jirral protested. “You can’t leave this second!”
I ignored him and headed for the cave exit.
“Wait,” Chloe said. I glanced back. “What about Ina and Niall? You need to be here for–”
“They have the guards,” I replied. “And the Sylphaen… they’re after you.”
“But you–”
“I can take her back,” Jirral said.
“No.”
He studied me for a moment, and I could tell he knew what I was thinking. That it was good that he’d helped Chloe – helped her more than either of them were probably telling me – but he was still the last person I’d trust with anyone’s safety.
His face darkened. “Zeke, this is foolish. You can’t just go off on your own–”
“You good for travelling now?” I asked, turning back to Chloe.
“No, she’s not,” Jirral answered for her. “She needs to leave, yes, but not to race out of here this second.”
Chloe glanced between us uncomfortably. “I-I’m okay, yeah.”
Jirral made a frustrated sound. “You–”
“Fine,” I said over top of him. “Then Jirral, you tell Ina to stay with Ren. Niall too, when he wakes up. And Chloe and I will–”
“You honestly think I’m just going to let you go out there on your own?” he interrupted.
“If you want to stop Ina or Niall from following me.”
“You can’t–”
“There aren’t any guards to escort us, so don’t try suggesting it. And my friends in Nyciena wouldn’t dream of pissing Ren off by helping me. You’re not exactly in the best shape for the speed we need to travel either, so–”
“Well, neither is she!” Jirral looked to Chloe. “You may think you’re better. You may even feel better. But you’re not. Sieranchine’s effects are only as stable as the time you give them to sink in, and after what they did, that time is going to be a while. Push now, and you could tear muscles, rupture an organ, anything.”
He turned to me. “Those Sylphaen beat her, Zeke. Blindfolded and cuffed her, beat her like hell, and then locked her in a box so they could take her away without anyone seeing. She could barely move when I found her, and that was an hour ago. So you tell me, is she good to travel now?”
I froze. Chloe looked away.
“I thought not,” Jirral finished. “She’s not going anywhere. Not until she’s actually well. And neither are you.”
He took the torch from Chloe roughly and headed over to wedge it into a crevice in the wall. “You go back to Nyciena, Zeke. To the palace and you stay there. Chloe and I will leave for Santa Lucina in a few days.”
I was still watching Chloe. She wouldn’t look at me.
“Zeke?”
I blinked, remembering to breathe, and I pulled my gaze to Jirral. “She’s not going with you,” I said, trying to regroup.
“Stop being a–”
“I said she’s not!”
Shaking, I stared at him.
“You will stay,” I continued to him, each word tight. “You will tell Ina not to leave the palace. Niall too. And I will go with Chloe once she’s well enough to travel. Understand?”
He paused. “You are so like your father.”
I didn’t respond. I wasn’t sure I could.
“I’ll stay,” he agreed. “On the condition that once he’s well enough to move, I’m telling Niall where you went. And if he chooses to bring a hundred soldiers with him to guard your foolish ass and drag you back to Nyciena, so be it.”
My teeth clenched. “Fine.”
“Fine,” he agre
ed. “Then I’ll go make sure we’re still safe here.”
He looked to Chloe. His gaze ran over her, as though he was deciding what to say, and then he just turned and swam out of the cave.
A breath left me. I glanced to her as she returned to the bed of seaweed. Sinking onto the leaves, she folded her tail in front of her like a human hugging their legs to their chest.
And she never once looked my way.
I shivered, my skin crawling at the idea of what they’d done to her. How they’d hurt her. I wanted to ask if she was okay, though I knew it was a stupid question. She’d been through hell since she’d found out she was dehaian.
No one would be okay.
I grimaced and turned back toward the cave entrance. None of this was her fault. My father’s death, Ren’s stupidity, or the fact that if I could have, I probably would’ve punched a hole through the cave wall right now.
It had nothing to do with Chloe.
She was just paying for it at every turn.
And if I ever got my hands on the Sylphaen who’d caused this…
With effort, I drew another breath. I’d get Chloe to safety. I’d do it, even if I still didn’t like the idea of taking her to Santa Lucina. Then I’d get back here. I’d find Liana.
And this time I’d make sure she didn’t escape.
Chapter Twelve
Chloe
My arms around my tail, I sat on the seaweed and tried not to feel uncomfortable with Zeke only a few yards away.
I failed.
His dad was dead. Without more help from a real doctor, Niall might soon be too. Zeke’s world had gone to shambles in the space of a few hours.
And all because I was here.
I wanted to swim like crazy for Santa Lucina right this moment, if only to keep things from getting any worse.
But I remembered what Jirral had said.
My grip tightened on my tail. He had to be wrong, though. About the sieranchine, about all of it. I was fine. I may not know about their drugs, but I knew about me. And I was fine.
I wished he hadn’t told Zeke what happened, though. I didn’t want Zeke thinking he needed to worry about me. Not when everything else in his life was already a mess.
And anyway, I just really wanted to move on. Get back to land and away from the dehaians, because the Sylphaen were hiding among them.
