Authors: Skye Malone
Diane nodded. Taking my arm, she steered me
toward the hall. “You girls go on upstairs, okay? The police will
take care of this.”
She gave Baylie a pointed look.
Baylie nodded. “Yeah. Okay.” She motioned for
me to go ahead of her.
Feeling shepherded, I fought the urge to look
back at the window as I left the room.
Noah opened the door to his bedroom as we
came up the stairs.
“Everything okay?” he asked.
“Chloe saw someone outside,” Baylie said. “He
got away, but Peter’s calling the police.”
Noah looked to me and from the way his
concerned gaze checked me over, I suddenly felt like he could see
straight through me to the spikes and scales and God knew what
else.
“You guys alright?” he asked.
I didn’t answer.
Baylie nodded. “Just going to try to go to
bed.”
“Okay…”
He was still watching me. I turned away,
heading for the guest room.
“Let me know if you need anything,” he
finished, sounding confused.
“Yeah, okay.” Baylie replied. “Thanks.”
I kept walking, and pushed the door closed
behind me as I reached the bedroom. Taking my cell from my pocket,
I thumbed on the phone and checked for messages for the thousandth
time. I’d had it in my pocket all day, just in case. But still,
there was nothing.
Behind me, I heard Baylie come into the room
and shut the door.
“Chloe,” she said flatly.
I didn’t turn around.
Making a furious noise, she strode across the
room and grabbed my arm, pulling me around.“What’s going on?
Seriously, I’m sick of this. Talk to me.”
I tugged my arm from her grip and tucked it
behind my back for fear of it growing spikes in her hand. Shaking
my head, I looked away. “Everything’s fine.”
She scoffed. “Yeah, right. You look like
you’re about ready to climb out of your skin.”
An incredulous laugh threatened to emerge. I
choked it back down.
“What’s
wrong
?”
I shivered, my gaze rising to the view
through the bedroom window. I couldn’t explain to anyone here. What
was I supposed to say? I’m a de-thing mermaid creature with
knife-like spikes on my arms?
They’d think I was nuts.
“Chloe, please. What is it?”
I looked down, trying not to wince at her
imploring tone. I
wanted
to tell her, though. Dear God, I
wanted to tell her. I’d known Baylie since we were four. She was as
close to me as a sister and we’d told each other everything for
years. But this…
A pained expression twisted my face. If
anybody would understand, and not think I was a monster or a
lunatic…
Biting my lip, I turned back toward her.
“Okay, look. I–”
Glass shattered downstairs. Someone gave a
shout, and then there was a crashing sound.
For a moment, we were both paralyzed, and
then Baylie spun and yanked open the door. I raced after her down
the hall.
Noah rushed from his bedroom.
“What the hell?” Maddox cried, throwing open
his own door.
Not answering, we ran down the stairs.
The front door stood open and the window of
the sitting room was shattered. Somebody was making a dash for the
end of the driveway, while Peter stood in the middle of the room
with Diane in the hall behind him. On the floor, a man lay below
the wreckage of a china cabinet.
I gaped.
Maddox started out the door to catch the
figure fleeing toward the street.
“Stay put!” Peter ordered, barely taking his
eyes from the unconscious man. “Noah, call the police.”
Noah raced toward the kitchen phone.
“What happened?” Maddox demanded.
“Intruder,” Peter responded. He twitched his
head toward the open door. “Get that closed.”
Maddox did as he said.
“Girls, go back upstairs,” Peter continued.
“You don’t need to be down here for this.”
“But who–” Baylie started.
He looked over at her.
She swallowed and nodded. Reaching out, she
took my arm, pulling me with her.
I couldn’t take my eyes from the intruder. He
was dressed in a black, hooded jacket and dark pants, and he looked
like he’d been thrown straight into the glass display case. Blood
dripped from a gash on his head and his arm was twisted awkwardly
beneath him. In steady rhythm, though, his chest rose and fell,
giving evidence that he was still alive.
Baylie tugged my arm harder. I trailed her
from the room.
Sirens howled in the distance as we climbed
the stairs. Baylie slowed when we neared the top of the steps and
without speaking, we both stopped at the landing to watch the first
floor.
The police arrived. A detective pulled Peter
aside to talk to him, while several officers strode into the other
room to retrieve the intruder.
Diane caught sight of us. “Girls,” she said,
hurrying up the steps toward us. “Peter told you to get to
bed.”
A chagrinned expression crossed Baylie’s
face. “Sorry. We just–”
Diane cut her off with a shushing gesture. “I
know, but the police are handling this. You don’t need to
worry.”
I hesitated as Baylie walked back along the
hall. Over Diane’s head, I looked down at the first floor. The
officers emerged from the sitting room, the man between them. He’d
woken up at some point, though he still seemed dazed. Handcuffs
trapped his wrists, and as the police led him from the room, his
gaze swept the area as if he was searching for something.
And then he spotted me.
Hatred consumed his confusion.
“Abomination!” he yelled. He lurched in the
officers’ grip, trying to throw them off. “Filthy spawn of a
landwalker whore!”
He thrashed, hurling an officer to the
ground. The cops shouted, and several more of their number rushed
over to help hold the suspect who’d suddenly gone berserk.
“You’ll never hide from us all!” He stumbled
beneath the weight of the cops wrestling him down. “You’re dead,
you hear me? You and the creatures protecting you!
Dead
!”
The police hauled him toward the door. He
twisted in their grasp, his gaze finding me again.
And for a heartbeat, his eyes glowed.
The cops dragged him from the house. Peter
slammed the door after them.
I couldn’t move.
“What the
hell
…” I heard Baylie say
behind me.
Peter paused, one hand to the door, and then
he looked to Diane. On some unspoken signal, the woman nodded and
then turned, reaching up to take my hand.
I jumped, air entering my lungs for the first
time in a small eternity, and the skin of my forearms stung.
Panic raced through me. Tugging my hand away,
I tucked my arms behind my back.
Diane’s brow furrowed in confusion.
I was shaking too hard to form the words I
needed to apologize. Looking between her and Baylie, I retreated
around them both, keeping my back to the wall and my arms as out of
sight as I could.
“Chloe, it’s okay,” Diane said, coming up the
stairs after me. “You’re safe. He was just a crazy person. The cops
have him now.”
Baylie stared at me as I moved past her and
continued down the hallway.
“You’re
okay
,” Diane assured me.
“Honey, I promise. You’re safe.”
I sped up, turning and breaking into a run as
the corner blocked me from their view. Hurrying into the guest
room, I grabbed at the door and shut it as fast as I could.
Trembling, I lifted my arms. The spikes were
retracting into my skin.
A sob choked me.
I wanted to go home. For the first time in my
life, I wanted to be home more than anything in the world.
The spikes disappeared. My skin sealed over
the spaces where they’d been, leaving no trace.
I closed my eyes.
“Chloe?” Baylie called from the other side of
the door.
I tensed. Beyond the wood of the door, I
could hear people talking, their voices too low to understand.
Seconds slid past.
“Chloe?” Baylie tried again. “We don’t have
to stay here, okay? Peter and Diane are–”
She cut off as I yanked open the door.
“What’d you say?” I asked.
She blinked, taken back. “Uh, we don’t have
to stay. They don’t want to, I mean. Everybody’s pretty freaked
out, so Peter wants to call your parents, tell them where we’re
going, and then just board up the window and spend a few days at
the family cabin till things get fixed up.”
I stared at her. “Where?”
“About an hour or so from here.”
“A-away from the ocean?” I struggled to get
the words out.
Her brow furrowed as she nodded. “In the
mountains.”
A breath escaped me. “When?”
“Soon. We only need to–”
I was already heading for my bag.
“Are you alright?” Baylie asked as she
followed me into the room. “I mean, not alright, but…”
I couldn’t answer. I just needed to get out
of here before the horrible compulsion to stay caught me and made
it impossible to leave.
At my silence, Baylie sighed. I glanced back
to see her heading for her own things.
“You can talk to me, you know,” she said
without taking her eyes from her luggage. “I’m just saying.”
I swallowed. “It’s… complicated.”
“How?” she demanded, looking back at me.
“
How
is it complicated? Did you know that guy or
something?”
“No. I just…” My fingers rubbed at my
forearm. “A lot’s happened this week.”
She waited. From the first floor, the sound
of hammering rose.
“You ever feel like you’re losing your mind?”
I whispered.
She paused. “How so?” she asked
cautiously.
“Like there are things happening to you that
you can’t control? That you don’t want… but they won’t stop?”
“Chloe, you’re scaring me. What’s going
on?”
“It’s just… you remember what happened with
the boat? Well, when I fell over, there was this guy. In the water.
And, um, I could hear him… like, talking to me and–”
I cut off as Diane came around the
corner.
“You girls ready?”
I looked to Baylie uncomfortably.
Baylie sighed. “Yeah.”
Diane headed for the stairs. Baylie picked up
her bag and followed, pausing as she passed me.
“Lots of people see things when they’re in
trouble, Chloe,” she said quietly. “It doesn’t mean you’re losing
your mind, okay?”
I closed my eyes as she left the room. I
wanted to tell her. To explain. And maybe I could, just as soon as
we reached the cabin and were somewhere the others couldn’t
hear.
Fishhooks started to bite into my skin.
Gasping, I hefted my bag and rushed for the stairs, trying to stay
ahead of the feeling.
Chapter Twelve
Hours had passed and every one of them had
been too long. The guards had changed in shifts, watching me and
smirking and holding onto their weapons without ever coming close
enough for me to do anything about the situation. Kirzan hadn’t
returned, and neither had most of the others who’d gone with him,
though the men who’d stayed looked more and more satisfied with
every shift.
And it was really hard not to worry about
what that might mean.
In all the hours I’d been here, I’d argued
with myself over what to do if I got free. I could go after Chloe
and warn her about the freaks who were hunting her, or I could go
to Nyciena.
Because everyone needed to know these psychos
were still around.
And because fact was, I’d need help to keep
the dozens of Sylphaen from doing whatever the hell it was they
planned for her. Yet, just like the last time the bastards had
tried to catch her, it was entirely possible they’d do something
terrible to her before I even got out of here, let alone returned
all the way from Nyciena.
And so I chased myself in circles, knowing
that the only solution lay in finding the nearest communication
relay station, getting in touch with Dad, and then doing what I
could to help her while hoping Ina, Niall, and Ren stayed safe.
Even if breaking free was looking less and
less likely with every goliath dehaian Kirzan sent to guard me.
I grimaced, watching the stone-faced guards.
With military precision, they’d kept their distance, giving me no
chance of grabbing them or somehow getting the key from their
hands. Every attempt I’d made to goad them closer had been met with
silence as well, and in the past half-hour, I’d nearly given
up.
A pained curse came from the tunnel, and then
two dehaians swam into the cave, one of them rubbing his arm and
tossing a glare over his shoulder at the rock walls.
My eyebrow twitched up. Unlike the pair of
men watching me now, these two were younger. Smaller. Maybe five
years older than me, or my brother Ren’s age at most. One had a mop
of brown hair, curly even under the water, and the other was pale
enough that his blond hair blended with his skin and his watery
eyes barely showed up on his pasty face. The other guards looked
incredulous and disgusted in turn at the sight of them both, and
one scoffed.
“Wisdom Kirzan sent
you
?”
The brown-haired guy’s expression turned
surly. “Yeah, well, it got complicated. He asked us to do this
while you and the rest go to Plan B.”
“
Asked
you,” the man sneered. “Right.
Just don’t screw this up too, eh?”
Barely concealed fury twitched across the
mop-headed guy’s face at the words, but he didn’t respond.
The man laughed and handed the blond guy the
key to my shackles. Together, he and the other guard left the
cave.
My brow drew down. The curly-haired guy
turned back, catching sight of my expression.
“What?” he spat.
I paused. He was already angry. If I could
rile him up enough to get him to come closer, maybe I could grab
him and make his buddy unlock these restraints.