by Skye Malone
This much power… it’d probably feel amazing.
I looked to Owen. “It–”
The vibration around me shifted. I turned back to the forest.
Nothing had changed.
Except I could tell that wasn’t right. Something had shifted. Birds still chirped and creatures still moved through the undergrowth… but the vibrations around me didn’t feel quite the same.
“Get the car,” I ordered.
Clay made a confused noise. “But what about–”
“I said get the car.”
I scanned the forest while Clay crunched away on the gravel, heading for the SUV. I wasn’t sure what’d just happened, but it didn’t really matter. The girl was on the other side of this, and something felt like it’d changed.
That was enough for me. Time to find that bitch and finally give me a fish to kill.
Chapter Twenty-One
Chloe
I rushed out of the room and almost ran straight into Joseph.
“Careful!” he snapped, retreating a step while I came to a sharp stop.
“Sorry.” I glanced around. “Do you have a restroom I could use?”
He eyed me balefully and then jerked his head toward the entry. “Down the hall, first door on the right.”
“Thanks.”
I fled the room. Baylie would be coming after me. Or Noah, God forbid. I didn’t want to talk to either of them. I didn’t even know what to say.
The bathroom door was nearly indistinguishable from the dark wood siding on the hallway walls. If not for the doorknob, I would’ve missed it entirely. Fumbling at the handle, I pushed the door open and then hurried inside, shutting it behind me.
Closing my eyes, I leaned back, resting my head on the wood.
I was being ridiculous. I’d known that there was a chance I wouldn’t be able to choose what I became. I’d come here anyway, because Joseph was my only shot at stopping all this.
But I didn’t want to end up a landwalker. I didn’t want this to be the last time I saw the ocean.
Or Zeke and Noah.
A breath left me, the sound ragged. Zeke couldn’t leave the ocean. I knew that, obviously. And as for Noah… I’d heard Joseph. Greliarans needed the sea too. Not like dehaians, not to the point where they couldn’t ever travel inland, but they did. Noah had said something like that once, back when he was driving me to the ocean with the Sylphaen’s drugs in my blood. He’d said it felt better to be near the sea.
Thrusting away from the door, I crossed to the sink. I turned on the tap and watched the water rush into the drain for a moment before splashing it onto my face.
I was being stupid. Nothing had happened yet. There was every possibility I could become dehaian. Sure, it was a gamble, but it was a fifty-fifty chance. Lots of people didn’t get those odds in life.
My gaze lifted to the mirror. And if I didn’t become dehaian like Zeke, I’d never see him or the ocean again, and the chance for any kind of relationship between me and Noah was as good as gone. I’d have to stay with my parents, or somewhere inland, and figure out how to live when everything remotely close to the ocean was pretty much off-limits to me.
I snagged a hand towel and scrubbed it over my face, fighting the tears burning in my eyes. This was stupid too. I could still date Noah. If he wanted to be with me, anyway. But hey, long-distance relationships… well, sometimes they worked, though probably not forever. And as for Zeke… okay, so I’d never get to say goodbye. So the thought of that made me want to throw up. So I didn’t even know where he was and I couldn’t stop worrying about what that could mean, since he really should have been here by now, and–
A knock on the bathroom door made me jump, and spikes rushed from my arms to topple a bottle on the edge of the sink. The plastic thing clattered to the ground.
“Chloe?” Baylie called.
I snatched the bottle from the floor and returned it to the counter before turning off the faucet. Drawing a breath, I crossed the small space, swiping tears away while I went.
She eyed me warily when I opened the door. “You okay?”
I nodded.
Her mouth thinned. Giving the hall a quick glance, she slipped into the bathroom with me.
“What is it?” she asked after she shut the door.
I shook my head.
“Chloe.”
“It’s dumb.”
“Okay. Tell me anyway.”
I looked down. “It’s just… the landwalker thing.”
“Maybe becoming one of them, you mean?”
I nodded.
She paused, taking a slow breath. “You’ll be dehaian,” she said with certainty. “It’ll be fine.”
I gave her a skeptical look.
“Oh, come on. If you want it that badly, I’m sure you will.”
“I lived like a landwalker for my whole life, though. Up till these past few weeks, anyway. What if that… I don’t know… did something? Made that side stronger?”
“What if it didn’t?”
I grimaced.
“You’ll be dehaian. And if you’re not, well…” She cleared her throat. “Hey, we could go to college in Colorado, right? That was the backup plan if California didn’t work out. We’ll get an apartment like we always talked about and take classes together and throw crazy parties.” She smiled, a tinge of hope in her eyes. “That wouldn’t be so bad.”
I hesitated. “Do you want me to be a landwalker?”
“What? No, of course not! You want to be dehaian. I get that.”
“Baylie.”
“What?”
My brow twitched up.
“I don’t!”
I waited.
“I want you to be happy,” she insisted. “And it’d suck to get sick like them.”
“Dehaians get sick too. I… I couldn’t come more than maybe a hundred miles inland if I was one of them. Like they are now, I mean. And I’d have to go back underwater every few weeks or so, at least.”
“Yeah, no, I-I know that,” she said with an awkward shrug.
There was something weird in her tone. I leaned back on the counter, watching her. “Baylie?”
Her brow furrowed. She reached over to fidget with the frayed edge of a bath towel. “You know how, when we were kids, we talked about how we’d have houses next door to each other when we grew up?”
“I remember we planned secret tunnels leading from one house to the other.”
Her lip twitched. “Yeah, that too.” The smile died. “It’s just, if you’re like you are now, that can’t happen. None of the things we talked about can. And if you’re dehaian… it’s the same. But if you’re a landwalker, I know you’d be miserable.”
“I’d deal,” I managed.
She gave me a pained look. “I don’t want you to be unhappy. I just…” She dropped her gaze to the tile floor. “I kind of don’t want to lose all that either.”
I swallowed. “Neither do I.”
She nodded, her attention still on the tiles.
Shifting uncomfortably against the counter, I drew a breath. “We could still get an apartment if I’m like the other dehaians, though. And take classes together and all that. I’d just, you know, have to slip off to the beach every so often. We could even have houses near each other like we wanted.”
Baylie smiled, sadness in the expression. “You’re not going to need a house, Chloe. Or some college degree. Not if you’re like them.”
I looked away.
The silence stretched.
“What about Noah?” Baylie asked quietly.
I tried to keep from grimacing.
“What’s up with that, Chloe? Noah… he really likes you. And I thought you liked him too. But now you have this Zeke guy around, and–”
“It’s not like that,” I protested. “I didn’t plan this. I’m not trying to hurt Noah. Or Zeke. I–”
“What happened?”
I struggled for words. “It got complicated.”
She waited, her brow twitching up.
I didn’t know what to say. “I just–”
A shiver ran through me, like a current of icy air had suddenly brushed my skin.
Baylie saw my expression change. “What?”
I didn’t respond, my gaze turning toward the wall and the ocean beyond while my heart started to pound. I knew this feeling. It’d been a lifetime ago, near Santa Lucina, but I’d felt this before.
It couldn’t be. Joseph said we were safe here.
Ellie said I might screw up his defenses.
“Chloe?”
I pushed past Baylie and tugged open the door. I ran down the hall, catching myself on the entry to Joseph’s laboratory.
He looked up in alarm.
“Did you feel that?” I asked.
He regarded me with annoyance. “Feel wha…” Color drained from his green skin while his mismatched eyes went wide.
“Where are Noah and Ellie?” I demanded.
Ellie walked from the other room. “What’s wrong?”
Joseph ignored me. “How? I checked everything. It–”
He rushed toward the glass panes on his wall.
Ellie glanced between us. “I think Noah went outside.”
I yanked open the front door and raced onto the porch.
Noah came running around the side of the house. “Chloe!”
I hurried down the steps. “You felt that?”
His brow furrowed. “What? No. But we’ve got to go.” He jerked his head toward the ocean and then looked to Baylie. “Keys?”
She tugged them from her pocket and tossed them to him.
He snatched them from the air. “Come on.”
I turned toward the ocean.
My blood went cold.
There was a storm on the horizon.
Only it was so much more than that.
I trembled. It wasn’t like anything I’d ever seen. The sky above us was gray as sheet metal, but miles out on the water, there was nothing but black. Lightning flashed like daggers, stabbing the ocean below, and over the distance, thunder growled like an animal. The pitch-black clouds were swirling, their motion accented by flares of light, and with every second, they drew closer.
“Chloe!” Noah shouted.
Icy wind licked at me. Fear rooted me to the spot even as my mind screamed to run.
Noah’s hands grabbed me, breaking the paralysis, and roughly, he pulled me around. My feet stumbled. Noah didn’t stop. Hauling me with him, he rushed toward the car, his grip on my arm like iron.
Joseph hurried from the house, his arms full of papers and bottles. “The outer barriers are falling and the inner ones won’t hold much longer. We have to–”
The wind picked up, stealing pages from his grip. He cried out in frustration but kept going, shuffling at high speed down the steps to the yard.
“Here, here, take this.” From the mountain in his arms, he fumbled out a cork-sealed vial of black liquid and then shoved it into my hands. “You’ll need to drink that. It’ll start the splitting. You have to be careful, though. You’ll pass out while that happens, so only take it when you’re–”
Tires rumbled on the gravel track. Two vehicles pulled to a halt, both of them fully blocking the road. Still holding onto me, Noah swore.
I stared. This was like a nightmare.
Wyatt shoved open the door of the SUV before the thing even came to a stop. Cracks cut jagged paths through his skin, all of them glowing, and his eyes were like hell. From the brown sedan behind him, Harman scrambled out. Pain showed in every tense line of his face, but his eyes were eerily bright.
“Chloe! Eleanor!” The old man beamed at us, and the expression was so fractured with psychotic joy, it made me want to run. “So happy to find you girls here!”
Chief Reynolds and Aaron managed to climb out after him, but just barely. The chief stumbled and grabbed at the sedan to stop himself from falling. On the other side of the vehicle, Aaron just stood shaking, his gaze darting from Harman to me and back.
Wyatt stalked toward us.
“Hey!” Joseph snapped, stuffing the rest of his papers and bottles through the open door of Baylie’s car. He marched at Wyatt. “You’re not allowed here, greliaran! Move out of the way!”
“Get in,” Noah ordered, pushing me toward the car. He headed around the vehicle to intercept his cousin, his skin transforming as he went.
I stayed where I was. Not looking away from Wyatt, I dropped the vial down with the papers in the back seat.
Joseph stopped directly in Wyatt’s path.
The greliaran paused, eyeing the wizard incredulously. “And just what the hell are you supposed to be?”
“Move the car, Wyatt,” Noah growled. “You see the sky back there? We don’t have time for this.”
Wyatt smirked. “Aw, little Noah’s scared of lightning. I never knew.”
He started toward Joseph.
“I’m warning you!” the wizard cried. “Get out of our way now!”
Wyatt scoffed. He moved to shove the man aside.
Joseph flung out his arm. His hand slammed into Wyatt’s chest.
The greliaran flew backward, speeding through the air. Bark shattered from the trunk of a tree when Wyatt crashed into it and I heard the branches shake hard with the impact. Limp as a rag, he tumbled to the ground.
“What the–” Chief Reynolds gasped. He fumbled for his gun.
Indignant, Clay and Owen scrambled from the other vehicle, their skin as changed as Wyatt’s had been.
“Don’t even think about it, you two!” Joseph yelled at them.
The SUV shuddered and then skidded sideways across the gravel road till it tumbled into the ditch.
Thunder growled. Wind gusted around me, tangling through my hair.
I didn’t look back. I didn’t need to. I could feel the storm getting closer. Stronger.
“Come with us, Chloe,” Harman called. “It’s not safe out here. Let us bring you home to your parents.”
“Grandpa, please!” Ellie yelled. “Get out of here!”
He didn’t even blink. “Everything’s going to be fine, Eleanor. It’s just a little storm.”
Owen and Clay stared at their vehicle and then glanced to each other. Without a word, they spread out, heading for Joseph.
“This is your last chance!” Joseph shouted. He lifted his hand. “You grelia–”
Gunshots cut his words short. Joseph stumbled, clutching his chest in shock.
I gasped, looking from the wizard to Chief Reynolds. Holding the weapon with a white-knuckled grip, the chief turned the gun toward us.
“Get in the car!” he yelled, his voice ragged.
His nephew stared at him. “Chief, what are you–”
“Shut up, Aaron!” He adjusted his shaking hold on the gun. “This ends now! Girls, get in the goddamn car!”
Joseph straightened. Every crystal of his jewelry glowed. His whole body trembled with the effort of standing upright.
The wind blew harder. The wizard swayed with it.
Chief Reynolds turned the weapon toward him again. “You stay back or I’ll–”
Clay and Owen ran at Joseph.
Noah moved to stop them.
The chief emptied the gun at him.
“No!” Baylie screamed.
I shoved away from the car, racing for Noah as he staggered and fell.
“Chief, what are you doing?” Aaron cried.
Owen and Clay raced past Noah without a glance.
Joseph raised a hand. Clay flew toward the trees.
And Owen slammed into the wizard. Snarling, he hurled the old man back through the air, and then charged after him like a dog with a toy.
I heard Joseph shout. Heard the sound cut off. I couldn’t look. The wind swirled, flinging dirt and grit up into my face while I crumpled to my knees next t
o Noah.
He was breathing in rapid gasps. With a furious grunt, he tried to shove up from the driveway.
“Stay there!” the chief yelled while he struggled to reload the gun.
“You bastard!” Baylie cried, putting herself in front of her stepbrother.
“Noah?” I grabbed his arm, but his skin was so hot, I couldn’t hold on.
At my side, Ellie dropped to her knees as well. “Here,” she said, pushing her bundled jacket into my hands. “Put pressure on whatever got through.”
Noah made a choked noise, the sound almost as angry as it was pained. He shook his head. “I’m okay.”
“You just stay down!” Chief Reynolds shouted.
“Come back over here, girls,” Harman added. “Leave that boy there. He’s not safe.”
“Chief, please!” Aaron begged. “This isn’t right!”
Noah grimaced. With a sharp breath, he pushed away from the ground and rose to his feet.
“Stay down!” the chief cried, taking aim again.
“Leave him alone!” Baylie shouted, keeping herself in front of Noah. Ellie scrambled up and hurried to join her.
“You girls get out of the way!” Chief Reynolds yelled. “I’m warning you! I don’t want to have to–”
“Dammit, Uncle Barry! Drop the gun!”
The chief looked over.
Aaron had his weapon aimed at him.
“Boy, what the hell are you–”
“I’m stopping this! Those are kids. Kids! And you’ve damn near killed one! I nearly killed one! I know those girls! I just wanted to help people! I’ve done everything you and Doctor Brooks asked but now… now just put down the gun!”
“You can’t–”
“Put down the gun!” Aaron shrieked.
The chief stared at him. Cautiously, his trembling grip eased from the weapon. Still watching his nephew, he lowered the gun to the roof of the sedan.
“Pass it over here,” Aaron ordered.
The chief pushed the weapon toward him.
“Get in the car,” Aaron continued. “You too, Doctor Brooks. We’re leaving.”
“Now, we can’t do that,” Harman countered. “Not without Chloe and Eleanor. The other girl too. The blonde one. She needs to come. It’s not safe here.”