Hidden Realms

by Unknown

  She headed for the stairs, motioning me to follow.

  “You okay?” she asked as we left the kitchen.

  “Uh-huh.”

  She didn’t look convinced. And I didn’t really want to explain.

  “So what one are we in?” I asked as we reached the second floor. I glanced at the doorways lining the hall, trying to cover for the awkward moment.

  Baylie led the way to a large bedroom at the end of the long hall. White carpet covered the floor, the same as in the hallway, but the walls here were pale blue. Sheer curtains hung over the window that faced out onto the backyard and the ocean, and two queen-sized beds flanked it. A woven chair stuffed with pillows sat to one side of the room, while a dresser stood nearby, fashionably flaked and vintage-looking paint covering it. Starfish and seahorses were nestled in corners of the ceiling, as were fishermen’s nets, while twin skylights let the sun shine down on each of the beds.

  “Wow,” I said.

  “Diane loves decorating almost as much as cooking,” Baylie replied with a grin.

  I felt like repeating myself, and settled for nodding appreciatively. We headed for our bags, which had been set on the beds. Unzipping my backpack, I hesitated over the contents, and then drew out a sundress. A couple days in a bag hadn’t done it any favors, and I glanced toward the rest of my meager wardrobe, trying to recall if I’d stuffed anything else appropriate in there.

  My gaze caught on the window. Through the glass, I could see Noah and his brother getting the grill prepared.

  Baylie cleared her throat. I flinched.

  “Uh-huh,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  I glared.

  “What? Noah’s pretty cute.”

  There was something weird in her voice. My brow furrowed.

  Baylie grimaced. Casting a glance back to the open door, she sighed. “It’s just… Look, Noah’s great. Really. But lately…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. He’s not like he used to be. He’s… quieter.”

  I gave her a skeptical look. I couldn’t understand how that was a bad thing. At least, not to the degree that she seemed worried about it. “Quieter?”

  Appearing uncomfortable, Baylie shrugged. “It’s probably nothing.”

  Her expression belying her words, she went back to pulling clothes from her bag.

  I looked to the window. By the grill, Maddox said something, and Noah nodded, his eyes on the horizon. And then he turned, glancing directly at the window behind which I stood.

  Alarmed, I stepped back, and then scowled at myself for being so excitable. There wasn’t anything odd about what he’d just done. He’d just happened to look up at where I was standing, right when I happened to look down at him.

  Which surely was a coincidence.

  My goose bumps didn’t want to listen. Still scowling, I took the dress and headed away from the window, determined not to let a silly reaction to what had obviously been a fluke moment ruin my evening.

  ~~~~~

  “So I told him ‘Only if you take the lobster back too!’”

  Everyone laughed, though Noah and Maddox couldn’t quite hide an expression like they’d both heard their dad’s joke before. Flames crackled in the fire pit in front of us, and the empty plates from dinner still lay to the side of our deck chairs.

  “Well, I should get dessert,” Diane announced, rising to her feet. Smiling at Peter, she headed for the house.

  Silence fell for a moment, and the rush of the tide on the sands filled the quiet. My attention drifted toward the horizon, and the dark water there.

  “So you have any summer plans, Chloe?” Peter asked. “Besides this, of course.”

  I blinked, pulling my gaze back to him. “Not really,” I replied, knowing I’d probably be grounded for at least a few weeks when I got home, so there wasn’t much point. My parents wouldn’t take kindly to me coming out here without their permission. “Just hanging out, I guess.”

  Peter smiled. “Sounds like fun.” He glanced up as Diane came out, a tray of bite-sized cakes in her hands. Bringing them over, she held the tray out to each of us, letting us choose one of the fruit-topped desserts.

  “Well, I could go for some volleyball,” Peter announced as he finished his cake.

  Baylie gulped down her bite of dessert. “But it’s dark,” she countered, surprised.

  “Eh, the court has lights.” He gestured toward the sandpit on the far side of the yard. “Besides, it’s so dark beyond the court, you can pretend we have spectators watching, like at the Olympics or something.”

  She laughed as he climbed to his feet. “So who’s with me?” Peter asked us.

  I couldn’t keep the doubtful look off of my face, but the expression just seemed to amuse him.

  “Oh, come on,” he said, chuckling. “Volleyballs are stored over here.”

  “I’ll join you in a minute,” Diane offered, taking up the empty tray and then heading for the house.

  Peter nodded. Motioning to the others, he started toward the shed in one corner of the yard. Grinning, Baylie followed him, and Noah shared a humored glance with Maddox as they stood to do the same.

  I watched them go, and then turned back to the water. Pushing away from my chair, I headed for the wooden steps leading to the beach.

  The stairway ended at the base of the bluffs, and as I left the stairs, my flip-flops sank into the cool sand. A few yards away, the tide slid up the beach and then pulled back, returning to the black water that stretched out until it blended with the sky. Stars glittered like diamonds overhead, their tiny lights pushing past the ambient glow of the city, while far in the distance, clouds gathered, their shapes picked out by the moonlight. For only a heartbeat, a flash of lightning shot down, illuminating the thunderheads and revealing the line of the horizon.

  It was beautiful, and everything I’d hoped to see.

  My gaze drifting up to the pinprick stars, I walked closer to the water. At the edge of the wet sand, I slipped out of my sandals and then stepped into the gently moving tide.

  Tingles spread across my skin as the cool seawater slid around my feet. It felt so right here. So perfect and peaceful, yet filled with an energy so vast, I could only begin to perceive it.

  And if I could, I’d have spent eternity here just to try.

  “Incredible, isn’t it?”

  Startled, I turned. Noah sat on a fallen rock at the base of the bluffs, his eyes on the horizon like he was reading something in the rolling water.

  Frustration hit me, pushing back the edge of the calm that had encompassed me only a moment before. I couldn’t figure out how he’d gotten down the steps without me noticing, but I didn’t want anyone else here, taking this. Not understanding this. No one ever had, and now that I was standing here, on the edge of the deep, protecting how much it meant to me felt more important than ever.

  I shrugged a shoulder. “It’s okay,” I said, the words so neutral compared to the shivers still running through me that they almost hurt.

  He glanced to me, his brow furrowing slightly, as if that hadn’t been the answer he’d expected.

  “Huh,” he replied, a touch coldly. He returned his attention to the ocean.

  I bit my lip. My gaze twitched to the horizon and the distant storm there.

  “I love it,” I admitted.

  Looking back, I caught sight of a half-smile flickering across his face. He nodded.

  I hesitated and then walked back through the water toward him. He motioned to the large rock, and said nothing as I climbed up next to him.

  “Aren’t the others going to miss you?” I asked, nodding to the top of the bluffs and the glow from the volleyball court lights.

  He shrugged. “They have enough players.”

  The rush of water became the only sound. My gaze slid around, skirting over the ocean and the sand and trying to find somewhere to be with him only a few inches away. With natural ease, he sat on the rough stone, his feet braced on its
side and his elbows propped on his knees. Moonlight traced the edge of his face, silvering his tanned skin and casting him partly into shadow.

  I swallowed. He looked incredible. And earlier, he’d been creepy as anything, suddenly glancing up at the bedroom window like he had.

  Though that’d just been a coincidence, I tried to remind myself. I was being ridiculous to let it freak me out.

  “So you’re Baylie’s neighbor,” he said into the silence, a question twisting through the statement.

  “Yeah.”

  “Live near her long?”

  “Since we were four.”

  He paused, the timing clicking. “Oh.”

  The awkward pause stretched.

  “Yeah,” I filled in. “Her dad moved there before…”

  I trailed off. Baylie’s mother had died of cancer that next year. It was part of why Baylie and I knew each other so well. She’d spent a lot of time at my house, after school while her dad worked, before he’d married Noah’s mom.

  Noah nodded.

  “You ever been to the ocean before?” he asked after a moment.

  I shook my head. “I always wanted to see it, though.”

  A heartbeat passed as he watched the water. “You could’ve come with Baylie to visit us sooner.”

  I glanced at him. He didn’t look at me. “It’s complicated.”

  Silence returned. I swallowed, still feeling awkward. It was just the two of us for as far as I could see in either direction, and from the way he was sitting there, he seemed like one of the stones, comfortable with the idea of remaining silently by the seashore for eternity.

  Quieter, Baylie had said. I didn’t have much to go on for how he’d been before, but now… he was certainly that.

  I looked down to my legs, absently noting the drying salt from the water glistening faintly on my skin. I probably should just go back up to the house. I wanted to stay, to get as close to the deep water as I dared, but with him here…

  “I’m glad you came,” Noah said.

  I blinked.

  “Even if,” he acknowledged the words with a shrug, “it’s complicated.”

  I hesitated. “Me too.”

  He smiled and returned his attention to the water. “I always wondered what it would be like, growing up somewhere else. Somewhere away from the ocean. It’s just such a…”

  “Force,” I filled in when he trailed off.

  He looked back. “Yeah,” he replied, as though pleasantly surprised.

  I could feel heat spreading like wildfire up my neck and I turned my face away, hoping the shadows hid the blush.

  “And I can’t imagine what that’d be like,” he finished. “Not having it nearby.”

  I hesitated. I didn’t know what to tell him. I’d always wanted to come here, and now that I was sitting only a few yards from the water…

  It was like a sound you’d heard all your life, but so faintly you’d never noticed it. And now, being so close to the source, almost immersed in the amazing, overwhelming source, you suddenly realized what you’d been hearing.

  And what you’d been missing.

  “Not as nice as this,” I whispered.

  He looked over at me. I could feel the blush coming back.

  “You think everyone feels like that?” he asked.

  My mind tossed up a few shining memories of my parents. They’d thrown away every picture of the ocean that I drew in school. They’d ripped pages from books that mentioned the sea. They’d punished me for asking them to paint my room blue.

  “No,” I answered, certainty hardening my voice more than I intended.

  He paused.

  “I mean, I’m pretty sure some people don’t,” I amended, trying not to grimace and hoping he wouldn’t ask for more.

  He turned to me, and my throat choked from the way his green eyes searched my face. “But you do.”

  I swallowed. “Yeah.”

  “Yeah,” he echoed. “It seemed like you… I don’t know. Like you would.”

  His brow furrowed and he looked away.

  “What?” I asked.

  He shook his head. “Nothing.”

  I watched him, confused, but he just drew a sharp breath and then pushed away from the rock.

  “We should get back,” he said.

  At a loss to figure out what had just happened, I didn’t move.

  “But,” he continued. “My dad does have a boat. We could go out on the water tomorrow, if you want?”

  My eyebrows rose. “Uh, yeah.”

  A smile tugged his lip. “Cool.”

  Holding out a hand, he waited for me to take it, and then helped me down from the boulder. His fingers lingered on mine for a heartbeat longer than necessary, and the warmth of his skin clung to my hand when he let go.

  Still smiling a bit, he headed for the stairs.

  A quiver ran through my chest, and I blushed, looking back at the water.

  He was strange, a little disconcerting, and definitely quiet in his way, but I was still oddly glad he’d come down here. And not just because my legs felt shaky when he smiled.

  It was nice to finally meet someone who saw something I loved in sort of the same way.

  “Chloe?” he called from the base of the steps.

  “Yep,” I replied, his voice snapping me out of my thoughts. Drawing a steadying breath, I followed him to the stairs.

  Chapter Two

  Zeke

  I’d been out near the Santa Lucina coast for a few hours, ever since leaving Nyciena earlier that morning, and I hadn’t found any sign of Ina the entire time. I knew she liked to visit here – the surfers were a favorite of hers to watch – but this time, it seemed she’d tried to be a bit more conniving about sneaking away from home.

  Coming to a stop in the water, I grimaced. At this time of day, she was probably joining some tourists for a cookout on the beach or playing around with some new guy she’d spotted on the sands. She had clothes stashed everywhere, did my twin sister, and she loved an excuse to party with humans.

  I sighed and checked around briefly. This close to land, nothing below the water was much of a threat, since divers were even simpler to spot after dark and most sharks knew better than to mess with a dehaian. Fishing boats were similarly not a problem, since they were easy to hear from miles away and stank besides. Assured that in my annoyance at Ina, I hadn’t missed anything, I flicked my tail in the water and sent myself up to the surface. Air burned on my skin for the heartbeat it took my body to adjust, and I scanned the beach, my eyes compensating easily for the dark.

  It was absurd that I had to be the responsible one.

  My grimace returned. I could have been home right now, making friends with the Deiliora twins. Ina wasn’t the only one who enjoyed a party, and damn if those girls weren’t sexy as hell. And even if that hadn’t worked out, there was also the sirabal championship for all of Yvaria tonight, and I’d wagered three-to-one that the Nycienan Hammerheads would take the title this season.

  But instead I was spending the evening hunting for my sister.

  Scanning the shore, I didn’t see Ina among the tourists and beachgoers on the sand. She might’ve decided to find some cove from which to watch the storm brewing back out on the water, however, which meant she could be anywhere. Muttering a curse, I dove down again and headed farther up the coastline.

  It wasn’t even like it was my job to go after her. Dad had any number of people he could have ordered to the task. Hell, he could have sent either of our older brothers as well. But Dad also knew Ina made a game of evading them all where she didn’t with me, which meant I got pulled away from my plans and sent to chase her down.

  Again.

  The water shivered.

  I stopped, and then kicked hard up to the surface and scanned the coast.

  Everything was the same. There was no earthquake. No explosion. I spun in the water, looking out to sea, but besides the thunderstorm rolling in from a few miles away, nothing at all had cha
nged.

  Except quivers still ran through the water around me, like someone had dropped an electrical wire into the ocean.

  My brow drew down as I turned back toward the shore. A fire pit burned by a mansion up on top of the bluffs and bright lights shone on a handful of people playing volleyball. Down by the shoreline, a guy sat on a boulder in the shadows, watching a beautiful girl with auburn hair as she dipped her feet into the water.

  I paused, studying her. Moonlight glistened on her pale skin and she smiled as her gaze ran across the dark waves. She gave no sign she noticed anything strange about the water. She just radiated calm, as though in the whole world, she was right where she wanted to be.

  And her skin was changing.

  My alarm returned.

  A pale shimmer crept up her legs, the iridescence so faint that only the right angle of the moonlight revealed the alteration. My eyes narrowed, my vision sharpening enough to pick out the hint of scaling inching up from the waterline toward her calves.

  And then she turned, seeming startled by a word from the boy, and the iridescence began to swiftly melt away. She hesitated, saying something I couldn’t make out, and then she walked back toward him, leaving the waves and crossing the sand to sit by his side.

  The quiver in the water vanished.

  My brow climbed.

  There was no way she’d been causing that.

  I scanned the water, but as before, everything was the same. The storm was drifting along the horizon, the night sky overhead was clear, and the people on the bluffs still played their game.

  And meanwhile, some dehaian girl had just electrocuted the ocean.

  Which was impossible.

  I swam a bit closer, my ears beginning to pick out their words over the waves.

  “My dad does have a boat,” the guy said. “We could go out on the water tomorrow, if you want?”

  “Uh, yeah,” the girl answered, and I could hear the excitement in her voice.

  “Cool,” the guy replied with his expression twitching toward a smile.

  They got up and headed back for the stairs.

  I watched her go. She was acting like a human, which made sense. But she’d also let herself start changing in the water, which really didn’t. From what that guy had said, he sounded like he lived on land, and if she’d let that go much further, he easily could have seen her change.