by Skye Malone
Breathing hard, I looked back, but the other two were gone, sinking toward the seafloor.
And their bodies were collapsing.
I stared in horror. Like hollow shells with the air sucked out, their skin and bones pulled in on themselves, drying up and crumpling the bodies till nothing dehaian or human in appearance remained. As they hit the seafloor, the decay continued, compressing them even as they merged with the grit and sand.
“We’re magic,” Zeke explained quietly. “We have it in our bodies, our bones. It keeps the pressure out, enables us to survive outside the veils, but when we die and it fades…”
I swallowed. Nausea tried to argue, determined to rise back up my throat, and it took everything I had to keep it down.
He looked over at me. “Thank you.”
I hesitated. I wasn’t sure how to respond. He could have been killed. What else could I have done? Even now, there was a slice on his chest where a mercenary’s knife had grazed him, and it hurt to see it. “You too,” I answered.
He gave a small shrug, seeming calm if not for the fact his skin was abnormally pale.
Silence fell between us, heavy and awkward.
“I’m sorry, though,” he continued uncomfortably. “You know, about…”
His hand twitched toward my arm.
I looked down. A trace of blood still clung to my spikes.
Shivers raced through me, whether from revulsion or fading adrenaline, I didn’t know. I’d just wanted to stop them. To keep them from using their knives on Zeke.
And I’d killed someone.
Again.
The trembling grew stronger.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Zeke reach for me and then catch himself. Regret on his face, he drew his hand away.
“It’s not the first time,” I whispered.
His brow furrowed.
“The Sylphaen who injected me. I… I killed the first one who tried. I didn’t mean to. He just… we were in an ambulance and he grabbed me. He was choking me. Trying to stick the needle in my neck. I was so scared.” A shaky breath left me. “And the spikes came out.”
Zeke was quiet for a moment. “They want you dead.”
I glanced over at him.
“You’re their sacrifice,” he said. “Their goal is for you to die.” He gave another small shrug. “Instead, you stayed alive.”
I didn’t know what to say.
His gaze dropped to the bodies now lost in the sand of the seafloor. “We should go. Get the bag and get out of here before that other one brings back friends.”
I nodded. We swam back between the boulders, and when we reached the cave, he slid inside to retrieve the bag without a word. Just within the entrance, I hovered, watching the water for fear of the Vetorians and painfully aware of Zeke behind me.
Seconds passed. Besides a few scattered fish in the distance, the ocean near the cave was empty.
The bag slung over his shoulder, Zeke came back toward me.
“Here,” he said, tugging out the sieranchine.
I took the jar and scooped out a small amount. My skin tingled with the contact, and when the gel touched my scales, the sensation spread. The pain of the knife slice lessened while, beneath the glistening medicine, the edges of the cut drew together, becoming only a thin line on my tail.
Wordlessly, I handed the jar back to him. He applied a bit to his chest and then returned the medicine to the bag.
From the corner of my eye, I watched the wound on his chest fade, and then I dragged my gaze back to the sea. It was hard to be here, only inches from him again with the adrenaline of the past several minutes gone. I wanted to reach out and touch him.
I wanted him to go away.
“So,” Zeke started, his voice tight. He took a breath and glanced around, the motion putting more distance between us. “Where do you want to go now?”
My brow furrowed as I tried to focus. I hadn’t really thought about it.
“I… I have a friend who might still be in Santa Lucina.”
“Santa Lucina?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Baylie. She’s Noah’s stepsister.” Worry flickered through me. I pressed on. “But she… she won’t be like him. We’ve been friends since we were four. She’s from Reidsburg too.”
“Does she know about all this?”
I paused. “No.”
Unless Noah had said something.
And God knew what he would have told her.
Pain moved through me at the thought that less than an hour ago, Noah talking to Baylie never would have been something to fear. At least, not in this way. He’d talked to his stepmom and brother, after all, and they’d seemed so fine with everything. Supportive. Understanding.
Just like him.
I drew a breath, pushing the hurt away. It didn’t matter. I’d made a mistake, trusting him. I’d made a mistake a few minutes ago with Zeke, and I’d made a mistake ever leaving Reidsburg as well. This whole thing was a mess from beginning to end, and now I just needed to get out of here, go back to Kansas, and start over again.
Or something.
“It’ll be okay,” I continued determinedly, praying I was right. “I’ll come up with an explanation.”
He didn’t answer for a moment. “You can’t go back to that house.”
I hesitated. “So I’ll call her from somewhere. Ask her to come pick me up and drive me out of town right away.”
Zeke’s face tightened.
“She’ll do it,” I pressed, not remotely sure if that was true but hoping he’d believe me anyway.
I needed to get out of here.
Zeke sighed. “Alright.”
A heartbeat passed.
He swam out of the cave.
Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and then followed him.
~~~~~
The tide pulled at us as we approached the coast, and beyond its rushing, I could hear the distant sounds of laughter and people splashing in the water. Bright sunlight shone through the waves, making me feel painfully exposed after the darkness of the deeper ocean.
And a few yards away, Zeke swam.
We’d barely spoken in the time it had taken us to return to shore. We’d hardly even come within a dozen feet of each other. I couldn’t bring myself to look at him for long, and when I did, discomfort drove me to put even more space between us.
This wasn’t how I’d wanted to say goodbye. I didn’t really know what I’d wanted – I hadn’t thought that far ahead – but whatever it had been, this wasn’t it.
“Chloe,” Zeke said.
I drew a sharp breath, his voice snapping me from my thoughts. I looked back.
His tail was gone and dark swim trunks had taken its place. His eyebrow rose.
Irritation made me grimace, while embarrassment took the opportunity to turn my face red. All this time worrying about people finding out what I was, about them looking at me like a freak, and my own distraction nearly made me swim into the midst of a bunch of strangers in full dehaian form.
Brilliant.
A shiver ran through me as my legs returned and the healing knife cut became a thin red line down the side of my right calf. My scales melted away, leaving only an iridescent and vaguely scale-like swimsuit. Zeke’s gaze lingered on me as I changed, and my embarrassment turned to frustration as I looked away.
He was not making this easy.
Though given the way he’d been holding me, I didn’t know whether he wanted to.
Shivers spread through me for an entirely different reason, and forcibly, I shoved the memories aside. We were coming up on humans. I needed to focus.
The seafloor rose into view as we continued on. Ahead, I could see swimmers’ legs kicking to keep them afloat, while surfboards cut through the waves closer by. Ducking low, we gave them a wide berth as we headed for a spot a few hundred yards away. Keeping an eye to the swimmers, we swam onward till the ground sloped up to meet us and
the water became too shallow.
Reluctantly, I let my head break the surface. The air took only a moment to become breathable and the burning on my skin passed quickly as well. Just a few people occupied the sand ahead of us, though farther to my left, it was a different story. Children shouted and ran along the beach, while dozens of sunbathers lay on towels beneath the bright summer sun.
I swallowed, hoping no one questioned how we’d suddenly come from the water, or why Zeke had a bag hanging from his shoulder.
“Where are we?” I murmured to him as we walked toward the shore.
“Mariposa Beach,” he answered, his voice equally low. “About twenty miles from that guy’s house.”
We left the waves. Hot sand scorched my feet for less than a heartbeat before a shiver went through me and the pain faded.
I glanced down at my feet. Nothing visible had changed.
We headed through the crowds. A cluster of kids sped past us, racing for the water with their parents jogging behind, while a group of guys played Frisbee nearby. A lifeguard sat in a watchtower several hundred yards off, his attention thankfully focused on a group of swimmers some distance away.
“Over here,” Zeke said quietly.
I followed him toward a trio of blonde girls sunbathing on red-striped beach towels.
“Hey,” Zeke called to them. “Sorry to bother you, but would you happen to have a cell phone we could borrow?” He gestured to the dripping bag hanging from his shoulder with a chagrinned expression. “Mine sort of took a bath.”
Squinting in the bright sunlight, the nearest girl propped herself up on her elbow and then shielded her eyes with a hand. “What?”
“A cell phone. Could we borrow one? It’ll only take a second. She just needs to call our ride.”
He nodded to me. The girl looked between us and then glanced to her friends.
“Uh, okay,” she allowed. “Sure.”
She reached over and fumbled her cell from her bag. Extending it to him, she studied him cautiously.
“Thanks,” Zeke said, taking the phone and then handing it to me.
We retreated till a few yards separated us from the girls.
Her gaze tracked us.
I swallowed uncomfortably and then dialed Baylie’s number. Moments passed while it rang.
“Hello?”
“Baylie?” I let out a breath, nervous and relieved to hear her voice at the same time. “It’s Chloe.”
Silence answered me.
“Baylie? Are you there?”
“Uh, yeah. Hey, Sandra. What’s up?”
My brow drew down in alarm at her stepmother’s name. “Sandra? It’s–”
She laughed, the sound tight and forced. “That’s great. Listen, I can’t really talk right now. What did you need?”
I paused. “Are you okay?” I asked carefully.
A heartbeat passed. “Sorry, the connection’s bad. What’d you need?”
I hesitated. “A ride.”
She didn’t respond.
“Baylie? Baylie, please. What’s going on?”
She gave a small chuckle, the sound even more forced than before. Rustling came from the other end, like she was moving. “And, uh, where was that again?”
I exhaled. Several feet away, Zeke watched me, his body practically radiating caution.
“Mariposa Beach.” I glanced around, looking for a landmark. “Maybe a half mile from a pier. Baylie–”
A nervous cough came from the other end of the line, cutting me off. “Okay, well, uh… yeah.” The laugh returned, the noise so unlike her that it made my skin crawl. “Look, I, uh…” The rustling sounded again. “I’ve got to run, but I’ll get you those souvenirs I promised just as soon as I can, alright? Bye.”
The line went dead.
I lowered the phone.
“What happened?” Zeke asked warily.
I shook my head. Glancing to the girls on the beach towels, I pushed a smile onto my face and then walked over to them.
“Thanks,” I told the blonde girl, handing her the phone.
She nodded.
I turned away, heading back toward Zeke.
“Chloe?” he pressed.
I continued walking. “Something’s wrong.”
“Wrong how?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
My brow furrowed as I dropped my gaze to the sand. She’d said she couldn’t talk. She hadn’t wanted anyone to know it was me.
“Was that guy there?” Zeke asked.
I blinked and glanced to him.
His eyebrow twitched up.
I looked away, my stomach churning at the way he’d put words to my fear. But Noah wouldn’t hurt her. At worst – really, stupidly worst – he’d only be mad she was speaking to me.
Though that was completely deranged. He couldn’t keep Baylie from talking to her friends.
Even if they were ‘scaly, scum-sucking fish’.
Anger shivered through me at the memory of his words.
“Did she say she was coming to get you?”
Distantly, I nodded.
“Did he hear that?”
I didn’t answer, staring unseeing at the cars in the crowded parking lot. This was dumb. Noah may have decided he hated me, though God knew why, but he wasn’t a monster.
At least, not that kind of monster.
“Chloe?”
Blinking, I looked to Zeke and shook my head. “I-I don’t know.”
His mouth tightened. “We need to get out of here,” he said flatly.
I grimaced.
“Chloe, we can’t risk–”
He cut off as a young couple strolled past us.
“We don’t have a choice,” I replied, keeping my voice low as the couple walked away. “I need to get away from the ocean, Zeke. Baylie’s my best shot. She knows where I am, she has a car, and she said she’d get here just as soon as she could.”
Frustration twisted his face. “And maybe he’ll follow her.”
I looked away. There was that chance, ridiculous as it was.
But I’d already disappeared on her once before. I’d promised I wouldn’t, that night I came back on a bus after my distance from the ocean had nearly driven me insane. But I had.
And the water wasn’t safe either. The ghost of a knife slice on my leg proved that.
Zeke sighed. I glanced over at him.
“Or we could watch for her,” he relented, though he sounded grudging about it. “Make sure.”
A grateful smile pulled at my lip.
He shook his head at the expression. “From someplace a little more out of sight, though,” he insisted with a dark glance to the crowds.
I nodded.
Still looking reluctant, he turned and led the way from the beach.
Chapter Twenty-One
Noah
Footsteps pounded on the stairs. I glanced away from the book I couldn’t remember a moment of reading.
Baylie rounded the landing and then ducked into my bedroom. “Can I talk to you?” she whispered.
My brow drew down. It’d been days since she’d wanted to be in the same room with me, let alone talk. Cautiously, I set the book aside and swung my legs off my bed. “What is it?”
She cast a nervous glance over her shoulder and then shut the door. “Chloe just called.”
I froze, my blood pressure spiking. “Is she alright?”
Baylie nodded. “I-I think so.”
Remembering how to breathe, I dropped my gaze to the floor as my senses stretched out, searching for the other greliarans in the house.
Everyone was downstairs. Maddox was in the kitchen. Dad was on the patio with Richard. And my cousins…
“She needed a ride,” Baylie continued.
“Was anyone around when she said that?” I asked distantly, focused on the four of them. They were all together, in the front room from the feel of it, and that w
as worrisome.
Typically, they stayed spread out at the back of the house to keep a better watch for dehaians.
Baylie made a negative noise. “I stayed as far from everybody as I could and didn’t let on that she’d called. I don’t think anyone heard.”
I hoped she was right.
And I wondered why in the world Chloe wanted a ride.
“Noah…”
I looked back up at Baylie.
“What’s going on?” she asked, desperation in her blue eyes. “I know the… the thing about you, Maddox, and Peter. But Diane, she wouldn’t tell me anything about Chloe. She only said Chloe was involved with that somehow, and wasn’t missing like you guys told the cops. She just had to go away for a while.”
I tried not to grimace. Diane and her respect for people’s privacy. It was wonderful most of the time.
Except for ones like right now.
“But,” Baylie continued, “she also said that these cousins and uncle of yours… she told me to stay away from them. Made me swear not to say a word about Chloe around them either, like maybe they’re a danger to her or something. I don’t understand what’s happening, Noah. You’re…” She searched for a term and failed. “And then there’s these other people no one seems to want around. My best friend’s disappeared and nobody will tell me why, even though they swear she’s okay. And now she just calls from Marip–”
I rose quickly, holding up a hand to silence her. She flinched back, a terrified look on her face like she thought I’d do something to her.
It made me feel sick.
“Please, Baylie. Don’t say where she is.”
She nodded jerkily.
I let out a breath, checking downstairs again. No one had moved, and thus they probably hadn’t heard.
Hopefully.
“Look,” I tried, refocusing. “I swear to you that you’re safe around me, alright? I would never, in all my life, ever hurt you. And neither would Maddox or Dad. We’re still the same people we’ve always been. So please. Please try to believe I’m not a monster?”
She made a desperate noise. “I don’t–”
I stepped forward and she flinched again.
Chagrin colored her face.
“Sorry,” she whispered.
I nodded.
