by Skye Malone
I shivered. This was insane. It couldn’t be real. A little over a month ago, I’d finished finals. A few months from now, I’d be starting my senior year of high school.
If I survived. If what I was didn’t destroy the world first.
“I’m not sure,” Ellie replied. “But not all the landwalker elders are like my grandfather,” she continued hastily at Zeke’s expression. “I learn from one during the year. Sort of an apprenticeship, I guess you could call it. But Olivia isn’t like Grandpa. She believes in the old stories. She’ll know what to do.”
The words didn’t make me relax. I didn’t exactly have the best track record with most people who found out what I really was, present company excluded. The majority of them had just ended up wanting to kill or dissect me.
That didn’t really leave me feeling like trusting anyone with the information.
“You can’t go back to the ocean, though,” Ellie continued to me.
I looked to her. “What?”
She blinked at me. “The Beast draws on what you are. If you go back…”
I turned away. Right. I was being stupid.
My gaze found Zeke again. He glanced over, meeting my eyes.
He had to leave, though. Even more than before, Ina and Jirral would need his help now.
“Then I guess we should–” I began.
“Where is this place?” Zeke interrupted, turning to Ellie.
The girl shifted her weight nervously. “Fort Pedrosa, in southern Colorado.”
Zeke nodded. “And the best chance we have of stopping this thing is there?”
“I hope,” she answered.
He nodded.
I swallowed. I didn’t want him to leave. I didn’t know what would happen if he stayed.
But he didn’t look to me again. His face as somber as ever, Zeke glanced to the others.
“Alright, then,” he said. “Who’s up for saving the world?”
###
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Other titles
The Awakened Fate series
The Children and the Blood trilogy (published under the name Megan Joel Peterson)
About the author
Skye Malone is a fantasy and paranormal romance author, which means she spends most of her time not-quite-convinced that the things she imagines couldn't actually exist.
Born and raised in central Illinois, she hopes someday to travel the world – though in the meantime she’ll take any story that whisks her off to a place where the fantastic lives inside the everyday. She loves strong and passionate characters, complex villains, and satisfying endings that stay with you long after the book is done. An inveterate writer, she can’t go a day without getting her hands on a keyboard, and can usually be found typing away while she listens to all the adventures unfolding in her head.
Skye also writes young adult urban fantasy as Megan Joel Peterson and is the author of The Children and the Blood trilogy.
Connect with me
Website: www.skyemalone.com
Twitter: twitter.com/Skye_Malone
Facebook: facebook.com/authorskyemalone
Google Plus: google.com/+SkyeMaloneAuthor
Acknowledgements
Many thanks continue to be owed to everyone who supports this series.
To everyone who has read these books: Thank you so much for your support and your excitement about this story. I am so grateful to you.
To Vicki Brown: thank you again for beta-reading, for pushing me to get you this story in the nicest of ways, and for how much you’ve enjoyed this series.
To Tarra Peterson: thank you so much for your thoughts and input, and for all your wonderful enthusiasm.
To my mother and sister, Mary Ann and Keri Offenstein: as always, your support makes all the difference in the world. Thank you so much for all you’ve given me.
To my husband, Eugene: you make this possible. Thank you for everything.
Blurb
For Chloe, the ocean was supposed to mean safety and for a time, it almost did. She overcame the Sylphaen’s drugs. She discovered an unforeseen attraction to Zeke, one that he shares for her. A life underwater seemed possible, until she learned that nothing was as it appeared.
After an unspeakable betrayal shattered everything she thought she knew about Zeke’s world, she and Zeke have fled the ocean for the one place Chloe never expected to want to go.
Home.
But the challenge of living as a mermaid over a thousand miles from the ocean isn’t the only problem facing her. Home has changed. Enemies are waiting, ones she never saw coming. Her little Kansas town is full of surprises.
Including Noah, the guy she left behind.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Pronunciation Guide
Chapter One: Chloe
Chapter Two: Zeke
Chapter Three: Chloe
Chapter Four: Noah
Chapter Five: Zeke
Chapter Six: Chloe
Chapter Seven: Zeke
Chapter Eight: Chloe
Chapter Nine: Zeke
Chapter Ten: Noah
Chapter Eleven: Chloe
Chapter Twelve: Noah
Chapter Thirteen: Chloe
Chapter Fourteen: Zeke
Chapter Fifteen: Noah
Chapter Sixteen: Chloe
Chapter Seventeen: Zeke
Chapter Eighteen: Chloe
Chapter Nineteen: Zeke
Chapter Twenty: Noah
Chapter Twenty-One: Chloe
Afterword
Acknowledgements
Blurb
