by Skye Malone
“Damn you, Doctor Brooks! Get in the–”
Thunder rolled, drowning Aaron’s words. The wind swirled around us, icy and tugging at me as if it wanted to pull me toward the sea.
I looked back in spite of myself.
The sky was growing darker. Winds drove the waves at the shore and sent them crashing against the bluffs. Black clouds churned and tumbled over each other as they raced toward land. Already they were nearly on top of us. No rain fell. Nothing left the storm but lightning. In blinding flashes, the bolts stabbed the sea like spears beating the water on their march toward land.
I shuddered. I wanted to run. To take off down the road – cars and guns and Harman Brooks be damned. But I could barely even breathe.
Ice sank into my skin. My body grew weak, as if the energy was being dragged from my muscles and bones straight into the roiling, impossible nightmare in the sky.
The roiling, impossible nightmare that hated me. There was no doubt. No question. I didn’t know how I could feel emotion pouring off of that thing.
I just did. As clearly as if it was snarling at me, I did.
The storm wanted me dead.
Tears burned my eyes, driven by terror. My legs crumpled, their strength gone. Noah grabbed me as I fell. His skin was back to normal and his hands on my arms felt so solid. So real.
“Chloe, what the–”
Motion on the shore caught my gaze. Almost a dozen yards away, Owen was turning from Joseph. The greliaran was breathing hard, ecstasy slackening his face, and his whole body was shaking. The cracks in his skin spread wider when he straightened. Sparks flew from them like firecrackers lay inside.
And behind him, Joseph was dead. Bloody. He hadn’t looked human before, but now…
My gorge rose. I couldn’t do anything but stare.
Owen saw me watching him. Still panting, he pulled his lips back in a rabid sort of grin.
Noah swore. “He… Joseph had magic in him. Ocean magic like dehaians, and we… oh, hell…”
He pushed to his feet, his skin changing fast while he put himself between me and his cousin.
Owen’s smile grew. He let out growl as he started forward.
And then he froze. His brow drew down, confusion on his inhuman face, and his body lurched. The cracks in his skin widened. A choked noise escaped him. Lifting his hands, he stared at them as the trembling increased and thick smoke began to pour out with the heat.
He looked up at us in horror.
Fire exploded from every crack in his skin.
Noah spun, trying to shelter me from the flames.
The heat never arrived. The wall of fire turned before it reached us, racing upward as if drawn away. Owen’s body collapsed, blackened and charred, while in a column of light, the fire curved into the sky and flew into the storm.
Where it vanished.
I gasped. The draining feeling disappeared like a cord had been cut, setting me free. His skin swiftly becoming human again, Noah grabbed me. Clutching him, I scrambled for my feet on legs that quivered like jelly.
The storm seemed to slow. The churning of the clouds stilled.
But in the air, I could feel something change.
“Oh God,” I whispered, my grip on Noah tightening.
“Car!” Noah shouted at Ellie and Baylie. “Now!”
They spun and raced for the car. Still holding me, Noah ran after them.
The wind started to pick up again, icy and scraping across my skin like it had razors inside. Overhead, the black clouds began to tumble and roll, racing for land faster than before.
“Keys!” Baylie shouted at Noah. “You help Chloe!”
Noah yanked the keys from his pocket and tossed them to her.
“Doctor Brooks!” Aaron yelled.
I looked back.
Harman was walking toward us. “Girls? Come along now. Those creatures are gone. It’s all going to be fine.”
The strange feeling in the air grew stronger. Wind blew in hard from the ocean, shoving us as we tried to reach the car.
Ellie caught herself on the door. “Grandpa, go back!”
“Get in!” Baylie shouted at her.
Harman continued closer, his expression consoling though he rocked with blasts of wind. “Now, I know it’s been frightening here. But we still have lots of work to do together, so you have to come with–”
Lightning struck the trees behind him and the world exploded into light.
I stumbled backward and hit the ground. Everything tingled. Buzzed. The deafening boom rang in my ears while stars blinded my eyes. Blinking hard, I staggered up from the gravel, struggling to see.
On the far side of the yard, a hole had been cut in the forest wall. Smoke rose from the base of it, while blackened chunks of wood were scattered across the gravel – debris from what had once been a tree.
And Harman was on the ground.
“Grandpa!” Ellie cried.
She ran for him.
“Ellie!” Noah shouted.
Aaron shoved away from his car and chased after her.
By her grandfather’s side, Ellie fell to her knees. “Grandpa, get up!” She shook his shoulders.
He didn’t move.
“Grandpa!”
Aaron dropped down beside her. He felt for a pulse quickly, and then shook his head.
Ellie sobbed.
“Come on!” Aaron shouted over the howling wind. “We have to–”
Lightning struck a hundred yards offshore.
Aaron wasted no more words. Snagging Ellie, he hauled her upright. She stumbled, still looking toward her grandfather.
“Go!” Aaron yelled at us. “She’ll be safe! Just go!”
He pulled her toward the sedan.
We scrambled to get into the car. Baylie shoved the key into the ignition while Noah and I tumbled into the back.
The engine growled. Up ahead, Chief Reynolds whipped his sedan through a tight turn and took off down the road. Baylie yanked the gearshift into place and then floored the pedal, racing after him.
I spun in the seat. The forest swallowed the view of the house and the sea almost instantly. Leaves and pine needles lashed the car while wind howled through the trees and the ground beneath us shuddered. Lightning lit the clouds in unnatural shades of bloody red and stabbed the forest with such force that the car rocked from the blasts.
But the black storm seemed to be holding position. It wasn’t spreading. It wasn’t coming after us. The churning of the clouds had stopped and though the wind still shrieked around us, we seemed to be leaving the lightning behind.
My brow drew down. Why would it stop? It was true that I didn’t feel weird anymore, and Joseph had said strange feelings were a sign the Beast knew where I was. But why would it stop searching?
Realization quivered through me, bringing horror on its heels. My gaze dropped to the road behind us. Joseph’s house. If the lightning hit his machines…
I turned to the road ahead. Chief Reynolds and the others were several hundred yards in front of us, their sedan hurtling down the path as though propelled by nitrous. Her hands clutching the steering wheel, Baylie chased them at such a speed, we were barely keeping to the gravel.
But we weren’t going fast enough. None of us were. Not if–
The world behind us went white. Stark light flooded the forest like a supernova.
And then the blast wave hit.
It was magic. It surged through the car, saturating everything, and I screamed as the change ripped through my body, disintegrating my clothes and making the air burn like acid on my skin. My legs melded into a tail instantly. My feet became a fin that smashed against the passenger seat and my lungs couldn’t find any way to breathe.
I heard Baylie cry out as the car rocked forward, tipping sharply till the rear wheels left the ground.
The magic rushed upward and vanished as though sucked away.
With a thud, the c
ar slammed back to all four wheels. Skidding hard on the gravel, it swerved and then kept going.
I gasped, fighting for oxygen. Everything hurt, from the air to the upholstery, and my tail was crammed amid the papers in the footwell at an angle that bent my fin painfully against the seat and door. My whole body felt electrified in a way I’d never experienced from the change and, for a moment, I lay paralyzed.
“Noah?” Baylie called. “Chloe?”
Choking on the pain, I rolled my head to the side, looking to Noah.
His skin was like fire and his eyes were squeezed shut. Smoke twisted up from the fissures on his arms and face. His body spasmed with every few heartbeats as though he was being shocked.
“Noah, breathe,” Baylie urged, watching him in the rearview mirror. “Fight. Don’t let it win.”
He snarled, his head shaking like her words hurt, and the sound wasn’t like anything I’d ever heard from him. Wild. Inhuman. He gave a desperate gasp, his hands clenching the edge of the seat. His fingers ripped through the fabric while muscles torn by fissures stood out on his arms.
A new fear rushed through me. If he lost control… if what Joseph said was true…
I couldn’t even move.
Baylie threw a glance to me. “Chloe, are you–” Her eyes went wide and she swore. “H-hang on, guys,” she managed, turning back to the road. “Just… just hang on.”
I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. My skin was burning. Black spots were swirling over my vision. My body wouldn’t change and everything hurt so much and…
A tiny breath entered my lungs. I lurched up, drawing in more air while the black spots melted away. A heartbeat passed and then the burning on my skin lessened. My muscles still quivered with the strange feeling of the magic’s passage, but the searing pain was fading.
My gaze went to Noah.
His eyes were still shut, but his shaking had mostly stopped. Breathing in short gasps, he shook his head and while I watched, the fissures in his skin started to close.
A pained growl escaped him as the last of the cracks faded. He opened his eyes. For a moment, they burned like red-hot coals, and then slowly they transformed back to deep green when they turned to me.
“Chloe?”
I stared at him. His brow flickered down at my fear, sorrow in his eyes.
“It’s okay,” he said quietly. “I promise.”
His hand trembled when he reached out.
Hesitantly, I let him draw me closer.
“I’d never hurt you,” he whispered as he pulled me into his arms. “Never.”
Trembling, I leaned against him. His skin was warm and like the seat and the air, his touch hurt my skin.
But the pain was fading. And his arms were still so comforting.
“Can you change back?” he asked.
I swallowed hard, looking down at my tail curled into the paper-strewn footwell.
A moment crept by. The cream-colored scales slid from me, turning to iridescent dust that vanished even as it hit the floor. Only enough of them remained to cover my body like a swimsuit above my bare legs.
I shivered, still feeling strange. Noah’s arms tightened on me, holding me close, and his hand ran down my hair, almost as if reassuring himself we were okay.
Baylie’s car bounded onto the main road. Flying after Chief Reynolds’ sedan, we sped down the country highway.
I turned carefully, wincing at the scrape of the seat fabric on my skin.
The black clouds hadn’t followed us. Even the lightning was still. Miles back, the storm hung motionless in the sky over the space where the house had been.
“It’s going to get stronger,” Noah said, his voice rough.
I nodded. Like it had when Owen died, the storm had paused.
But it wouldn’t for long.
I trembled, watching the clouds while Baylie raced the car away from the coast.
~~~~~
It took two hours before any of us wanted to stop.
“Yeah, sure,” Baylie said into the cell phone. “That one will do. I just need a minute to grab her some shoes.”
She paused, and then hung up. “Aaron on Ellie’s phone,” she explained, glancing back at us. “We’re going to pull over up here.”
I nodded, but she’d already returned her attention to the busy interstate. Guiding the car onto an off-ramp, she followed the chief’s sedan. The cars paused at a stoplight, and then traced a short path into the parking lot of a department store only a few hundred yards away.
“Back in a sec,” Baylie said as she pushed the gearshift into park. She extended the keys to me. “Bag of clothes in the trunk.”
I nodded. She opened the door and climbed out. Checking both directions quickly, she headed for the store.
Silence settled between me and Noah, and neither of us moved. We’d barely spoken since we left the forest. He’d just kept his arms around me and, every so often, I felt him shiver, like a residual charge was trembling through his skin.
It was the same for me. I couldn’t stop shaking, any more than I could bring myself to leave the reassurance his arms provided. Something hadn’t vanished with the rest of the magical blast wave and it frightened me. That hadn’t been like any change I’d ever experienced and, even now, I didn’t feel normal. From the way Noah looked, I wasn’t sure he did either. True, my skin had stopped hurting a while ago, my legs hadn’t shown any sign of scales, and I hadn’t struggled to breathe since I’d been able to change back.
But I still felt weird.
I flinched when Aaron appeared by the window, a blanket in his hands. My brow furrowing, I pushed open the door.
He wouldn’t look at me. “Ellie said you might’ve, well…” He jerked his chin nervously toward my body.
Discomfort hit me and I reached up, taking the blanket from him. Rising from the car, I wrapped the scratchy, gray fabric around myself quickly.
Aaron glanced to Noah when he got out as well. “Listen,” he said to me. “I, um… I’m sorry. For what happened to you, I mean. I never… I thought you needed help. I didn’t know everything.”
I wasn’t sure what to say. His gaze flicked up to me and then away again.
“And what Doctor Brooks did to that dehaian guy,” he continued. “I’m sorry for that too. Your friend felt pain. He did and I should’ve done something to stop it. I just…” His mouth tightened and he shook his head. “I should have.”
I paused. My gaze went to the brown sedan. By the door, Ellie stood, her eyes red from crying. In the driver’s seat, the chief hadn’t moved.
“Are you all okay?” I asked quietly.
He nodded. “We were ahead of the blast wave.”
“I mean, are you okay from the ocean? Does it still hurt?”
Aaron hesitated. “I’m fine.”
I watched him, almost certain he was lying. Tension showed around his eyes, like tiny lines where there should have been none, and now that I looked for it, I could see his hands trembling.
Reaching out, I took his wrist before he could pull away. Tingles coursed through me.
And they felt strange. Stronger. Electric. I struggled to rein the magic back again.
The tension on Aaron’s face vanished into surprise. His breath caught and he blinked at me when I released him.
“Hey,” Baylie called, jogging up to us. She spotted Aaron staring at me. “Everything alright?”
“Yeah,” I managed.
She nodded slowly. “Okay… Well, here. Best I could do.”
I took the bag. “Thanks.”
Not looking at either of them, I headed around to the other side of the car, needing distance.
Something had happened to us. Maybe. Or maybe Noah and I were just shaky from changing that fast and that’s why things felt strange. Maybe it was nothing.
I tugged the tags from the sandals, not quite able to make myself believe that. The Beast had caused that explosion, and that explo
sion had contained God knew how much magic, of God knew what kinds.
Anything could have happened.
Attempting to push the thoughts away, I shoved my feet into the shoes. Opening the door, I bent to stuff the plastic bag into the small trash bin on the floor of the car.
My gaze caught on a glint of black.
Carefully, I reached down and drew the vial from beneath the edge of the driver’s seat. Within the glass, the black liquid slipped back and forth, viscous and utterly opaque.
I heard footsteps come around the car.
“You alright?” Baylie asked. She paused. “What’s that?”
I glanced over. “Joseph’s potion to split what I am.”
Her face went still.
I looked back at the vial. I knew I should take it. Now. This moment, before the Beast became any stronger. Before it could hunt me down, even this far inland.
But I didn’t want to lose my dehaian side. I didn’t want to lose Noah. Zeke. The ocean. Everything.
I didn’t want to risk that this was the end.
“So,” Baylie asked, her voice choked. “What are you going to do?”
Epilogue
Wyatt
I opened my eyes.
Kindling and shredded branches lay across me like a tree had exploded into matchsticks nearby. Smoke carried on the air, billowing from the burning pile of wood and rubble that had been a house.
And overhead, the blackest storm I’d ever seen churned like a nightmare straight from hell.
I stared up at it. There was no rain. Barely any wind either. Everything was still but the clouds, which rolled over and into each other with a speed that should have been impossible.
And that wasn’t all.
I shuddered. I felt strange. Like my skin had changed while I’d been unconscious – something that should have been impossible. And electrified too, as if I’d stuck my finger into a socket, or maybe even my entire arm.
The wind picked up. A whisper carried on it, the words harsh and cold and sounding sort of like the bits of gibberish my grandfather had claimed were fish language.
I pushed to my feet and looked around fast, trying to find the source.
The whisper cut off.