by Skye Malone
Pain raced through me, delayed by shock but only for a heartbeat. Blood clouded the water, streaming away from me as we flew along. Gasping, I looked down to see slices across my chest.
They weren’t deep. Barely more than paper cuts. They might not even scar.
But oh, they hurt.
“Liana!” Niall snapped.
The woman ignored him. “Wisdom Kirzan wants you weakened,” she said to me. “It’s up to you how weak that will be.”
Breathing in short gasps, I stared at her.
Contempt narrowed her eyes, and then she continued on ahead.
“You bleed her too much before the ceremony, Kirzan will make an example of you the way he did with that idiot, Jesse,” Niall threatened her.
The name of the bookstore clerk pulled me from my shock.
“And if she stays strong enough to draw it to her before we’re ready, what then?” Liana tossed back.
At his silence, she snorted with disgust. “You just keep her under control and let me worry about the Wisdom.”
Niall growled something under his breath that even I couldn’t make out. Tightening his grip on me, he continued after the woman.
I swallowed down a breath, trying to ignore the sting of the cuts on my scales. Jesse. Wisdom something or other. The EMTs who’d attacked me had mentioned ‘the Wisdom’ too.
Panic made it hard to keep breathing. I had to get out of here.
My hands twisted in the manacles. If I made a break for it, these things would electrocute me with a single touch to the device at Liana’s belt. It was miles back to the campsite, with nowhere to hide and no help in between. But we were moving toward a range of low hills and pockmark caves on the seafloor, and it didn’t take a genius to know I was running out of time.
A form appeared at the edge of my senses behind us. And it was racing this way.
I choked down another breath, praying it was Zeke or someone else not Sylphaen.
Niall glanced over his shoulder, the motion bringing his spikes closer to my face. I leaned away, pulling at his grip, but his muscular arm didn’t budge.
The tiny form sped closer, moving so fast it could only be dehaian.
Niall muttered a vehement curse. He looked to Liana.
“Down there,” she ordered.
He dove, bringing me in tow. Caves on the slopes of the hills passed beneath us, till he darted toward a large opening and followed Liana inside.
Darkness surrounded us.
“One sound…” Niall murmured, his spikes resting on my cheek again.
I trembled.
Over the tops of the hills, the dehaian swam closer and then slowed, as though searching for where we’d gone.
Hope made my breath catch. Zeke. Even if I couldn’t see him through the twilight of the water, I knew it was him.
My gaze twitched to the spikes touching my face. Niall couldn’t kill me. I’d thought he would, but they needed me for something first. He’d made that clear to Liana when she cut me.
He could still scar me horribly.
But he couldn’t actually kill me. Not until we reached wherever they were going, anyway. Then, I was definitely dead.
My heart racing, I drew a sharp breath and then twisted sideways and swung my elbow at his midsection.
The spikes slipped backward as he choked, the tips narrowly missing my face.
“Zeke!” I screamed, struggling to break free of Niall’s grasp. “Zeke, down–”
Liana’s fist hit my stomach, doubling me over, and then Niall’s free hand grasped my hair and yanked me back upright. I started to shriek, when his other hand clamped down on my mouth.
But I could feel Zeke diving toward us.
Liana’s face twitched with a silent snarl. She jerked her chin at Niall.
With his arm around my chest again and his hand on my mouth, he hauled me toward the rear of the cave, Liana coming after us. Large rocks hulked in the shadows, and quickly, Niall ducked behind them, dragging me down with him.
Seconds passed. I could feel his rapid breathing where my back pressed to his chest.
“Who’s in there?” Zeke called from the entrance, cold threat in his voice.
On my mouth, Niall’s hand quivered. From the corner of my eye, I saw him glance to Liana.
Spikes slid from her forearms. Fury flashed across Niall’s face as he shook his head.
Her lip curled disgustedly.
“Niall?” Zeke continued.
I felt a breath leave Niall and his muscles twitched as though barely restraining a curse. With a dark glance to Liana, he jerked his head to me and then toward Zeke.
The woman nodded. She braced her arm across my chest, aiming her spikes at my throat, while with her free hand, she clamped her palm to my mouth.
Niall slid out from behind me. Liana pressed me backward till I bumped into the rock. The tips of her spikes hovered so close, they brushed my neck with every breath.
From behind the boulders, Niall straightened.
“Zeke…” he said, sounding breathless and relieved. “No! Don’t come closer.” He paused. “They have Chloe behind me. If you don’t leave…”
I tried to pull away from Liana’s grip. Her nails dug into my cheek as her hold on my mouth tightened.
“What happened, Niall?” Zeke asked warily.
“Please,” his brother begged. “You have to go. I can handle this. Just–”
“Sure. Okay.”
My brow furrowed incredulously. I looked over, the edge of my gaze catching Niall.
He didn’t move, but I could see relief creeping through his posture.
“But one thing?” Zeke offered carefully. “Remember how they need her for some kind of sacrifice?”
Niall paused. I glanced to Liana. Her eyes were locked on Niall, her expression visibly willing him to attack Zeke and get it over with.
I trembled. My gaze dropped to the spikes at my throat, and then caught on the stone clipped to her belt.
“She’s no good to them dead,” Zeke continued. “Not yet.”
“Zeke, please,” Niall tried. “Back off. You’re gambling Chloe’s life here.”
I grabbed the tiny device on Liana’s belt and crushed it in my fists.
Pain shot through me like rapid-fire bolts of lightning. The electricity passed from me to her through her grip on my skin and sent her lurching away with a shriek, the motion ripping the stone from my hand.
The lightning vanished. My body sizzling from the jolt, I gasped and twisted away from her.
“He’s lying!” I shouted. My tail thrashed in the water as I scrambled around the boulder and tried to swim past Niall. “He’s–”
Niall’s hand caught my hair. Brutally, he yanked me backward, and I cried out, my shackled hands instinctively reaching to break his hold.
He shoved them away. His arm went around my shoulders again, the spikes returning and aimed at my throat.
By the cave entrance, Zeke froze.
“Why couldn’t you just go?” Niall whispered to him. “I tried to keep you out of this. You and Ina both. Why couldn’t you just go?”
Zeke didn’t respond. Shock and horror seemed to be having trouble deciding which would show on his face first.
From behind the boulders, I heard Liana struggle up, gasping and snarling curses under her breath.
Zeke’s gaze twitched to her and then back to his brother. The horror deepened.
“Grab him,” Niall ordered her. “Don’t hurt him unless you have to.”
Liana muttered something as she swam past, her interpretation of necessity clear in the sound.
Zeke retreated, spikes on his arms bringing Liana to a halt. “What… Niall, you…”
“I didn’t want this, Zeke. You should have left.”
“What are you doing? You… Niall…” Zeke’s brow drew down, pain in his eyes. “You killed Dad?”
I struggled in Niall’s
grip. He clenched his arm tighter on me.
“He was in the way,” Niall replied, his voice almost dead. “He wouldn’t have listened, so he had to be removed in a manner that would never let suspicion fall on me. And Ren needed to think it was an attack. He needed his fears confirmed so he’d make it simple for us to get to her.” He paused. “Ren’s easy to manipulate, and the country needs to be under our control for what’s to come.”
A gasp escaped Zeke. He looked from Niall to Liana and then his head twitched, as though he picked up on something in the distance beyond the cave.
Liana started forward. Zeke tensed, his arm moving between them. She stopped.
“Let Chloe go, Niall,” he tried. “Please. You don’t want to–”
“No.”
I winced as his spikes pressed to my neck, the tips piercing my skin.
Zeke shivered, watching us. “Why? Why would you–”
“Because the Sylphaen are right.”
Another choked sound left Zeke.
“Our people are weak,” Niall continued. “We die for… for what? Being on land? Offending some law of nature, some ancient magic that says we can’t leave the water for too long?” His fingers dug into my scalp. “You tell me, Zeke. If there was a way to change that, to change the hell that happens to little kids when they get stranded somewhere and can’t return home, wouldn’t you take it?”
My gaze slid to Niall in confusion.
“I’ve heard this before,” Zeke said, something dark entering his voice.
“Wisdom Kirzan,” Niall acknowledged.
“He the one who made you join them?”
“No one made me. I saw the truth. The Wisdom visited the west garrison, back when Dad sent me there as punishment for my time with the Lyceran ambassador’s daughter, and we talked.” He paused. “It makes sense, Zeke, if only you’d try to understand.”
“I understand you joined a bunch of psychos who murdered our father! Who want to sacrifice Chloe! Chloe, Niall! She’s our friend and you–”
“She’s an abomination.”
“Why?” Zeke cried furiously. “Because she’s half landwalker? So what?”
“She’s much more than that.”
My brow drew down even as Zeke’s did the same.
“You already know she can stay on land longer than any of us could dream,” Niall told him. “But that’s not the half of it. You have no idea what this creature will be capable of. We do. And we’re going to take that. Now, before she can stop us.”
Zeke stared at him. “Listen to yourself, Niall. Please! She’s just a girl. You can’t do this! You–”
“And you don’t know what’s coming, Zeke! Her life condemns us all. It already has. You think possessed water attacking her is bad? That’s nothing compared to what will happen. The Beast is out there. It’s weak now, but it’s going to get stronger, and when that happens, it’ll come for us all. So she has to die, and we have to take what she has or we’ll all die too. It’s that simple.”
A desperate breath left Zeke, as though all his arguments were drying up inside. A few yards away, Liana watched him.
“You can’t stop us,” Niall told him. “The guards from the camp are Sylphaen, and they’ll be here any moment. Ren won’t believe you, and Ina–”
Zeke’s face darkened. “Don’t you touch her.”
“I won’t. I’m not a monster. But Ina’s life is at stake for as long as this creature lives and I need you to understand that. You’re the one endangering Ina, not me. I’m only doing what’s necessary to help our people survive.” His hand tightened on my shoulder. “So get out of my way.”
“No.”
Niall made a frustrated noise and released his grip on my hair only to wrap his fingers around my neck. A hoarse gasp escaped me.
“I can hurt her, brother. Hurt her as much as it takes to get you to move. We need her alive for the ceremony, not unharmed.”
The muscles in Zeke’s jaw jumped. He glanced from me to Liana, and then tossed a quick look over his shoulder at whatever he felt in the distance.
Liana darted forward.
And I couldn’t make a sound to warn him.
Her spikes swung at his chest. Niall shouted for her to stop.
Zeke twisted and ducked at the cry. Her arm arced through the space where he’d been, and then he was behind her.
His spikes drove into her back.
Liana choked. Blood spread through the water between them.
Zeke’s gaze rose to his brother, and I shivered at the look in his eyes. Shocked. Pained beyond words.
And strangely satisfied.
With a shaking hand, he reached over, unclipping the stone from Liana’s belt before tugging his spikes from her back and letting her sink to the cave floor.
Niall’s grip on me tightened. Zeke lifted the stone, his thumb hovering over it and ready to smash down.
“Let Chloe go,” Zeke told him.
“You–”
“I said let Chloe go.”
Niall didn’t respond.
Zeke looked to me. The pain in his gaze strengthened.
I closed my eyes, bracing myself.
Niall’s grip disappeared.
I gasped and spun to find him floating a few feet behind me, his hands up as he watched us both.
Quickly, I swam to Zeke. Reaching out, he caught the shackles as I came near. Swiftly, he undid the locks and then let the manacles drop to the ground.
“Our people are everywhere,” Niall said. “Our mercenaries have gotten past every border, and they’re watching for her too. You won’t be able to keep her away from us forever.”
Zeke wrapped his hand around mine. “Yes I will.”
His eyes on his brother, Zeke pulled me with him as he retreated from the cave.
I could feel the guards in the distance the moment we were outside. I looked to Zeke.
His face was ashen, and in his eyes something had died. His gaze lingered on the shadows a moment more, while his brow twitched down with pain.
And then he glanced toward the guards.
“Come on,” he said to me, his voice tight. “Fast as you can.”
His hand gripping mine, we swam away from the hills and the cave.
~~~~~
The island was barely a nub of stone above the ocean’s surface, and the boulders beneath it looked like shoreline that the sea had already managed to devour. A mile beyond it, a rugged coast waited, its rocky shores backed by towering evergreens for as far as my eyes could see. The waves rolled around me, the water the color of metal and tossed by winds that had dragged a blanket of gray across the sky. At Zeke’s direction, we’d swam as hard as we could to reach this place, knowing that every moment we spent in the water just gave the Sylphaen or their mercenaries another chance to find us.
Though now that we were here, Zeke seemed to ignore it all. He’d hardly said a word since we left the cave, barring the short instruction to head this way. He’d barely even looked up from the ocean floor.
With a worried glance to him below me, I dove back down and trailed him as he swam closer to one of the boulders. He pressed his fingers to various depressions on the stone, and then moved a hand to its side and briefly closed his eyes.
My brow furrowed in confusion. I cast a look over my shoulder, searching for the Sylphaen I knew would be coming.
Light caught the corner of my eye and I turned back. In a hollow on the boulder’s face, the water seemed to shimmer and brighten, as though touched with a blue-white light.
“Work,” Zeke muttered, not looking away from the rock, and I couldn’t tell if he’d meant to say anything aloud. “Damned override, just work.”
An image of the wall of a room resolved from the glistening water, revealing shelves and the edge of a fejeria-blocked window that looked familiar.
“What the–” someone cried. Ina appeared in the image. “Zeke? What–”
“Ina, just listen to me.”
I could see fear come into her eyes at the words. At the harsh sound of them.
“Niall…” Zeke drew a rough breath. “Niall’s a Sylphaen. It was all a setup. He’s the one who killed Dad. Him and Liana. They did it to take control of Yvaria, to scare Ren, and to make it easier to get to Chloe. So you have to go to Ren. You have to make him understand that. And you have to stay away from Niall. Whatever it takes. Stay away from him.”
“Zeke, what–”
“Please.”
She stared at him.
I looked back to the ocean. The Sylphaen would be here soon. The guards had been only a few minutes behind us this entire time. We had to go.
Zeke seemed to know it too.
“Just do it, okay?” he continued. “Please. I… I’ll be home soon. I just have something I need to do first.” He paused. “Love you, Ina.”
He dropped his hand from the side of the boulder. The image wavered and vanished before Ina could say a word.
“What now?” I asked quietly.
For a moment, he didn’t respond.
“Zeke?”
His brow twitched down, and his head turned toward me though he didn’t meet my eyes.
“What?” he asked distantly.
I hesitated. “I asked what now?”
His gaze rose to mine for only a heartbeat before pain pulled it away again.
“Now we get you home.”
He turned and swam for the coast.
An ache moved through me. I wanted to help him. I wanted to fix this somehow.
But short of what we were already doing, I couldn’t think of a way.
Drawing a breath to keep me steady, I followed him toward the shore.
Epilogue
Noah
The salty air moved around me and on the horizon, storm clouds formed. The tide swept in around my feet, stinging a bit at random scrapes from the car wreck earlier today.
My cousins were gone. Pretty soon, Baylie would be too. She’d already stayed longer than she’d planned, and after what had happened with my family, she was eager to return home. Meanwhile, Dad had taken care of the cops, though I probably wouldn’t see my license again anytime soon. Maddox forgave me about the car, joking that he’d planned on giving it to me anyway. Diane claimed just to be glad I was alright, although it’d taken her several minutes of yelling to get around to admitting that point.