Awaken (3 page)

He turned to me, and my throat choked from
the way his green eyes searched my face. “But you do.”

I swallowed. “Yeah.”

“Yeah,” he echoed. “It seemed like you… I
don’t know. Like you would.”

His brow furrowed and he looked away.

“What?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

I watched him, confused, but he just drew a
sharp breath and then pushed away from the rock.

“We should get back,” he said.

At a loss to figure out what had just
happened, I didn’t move.

“But,” he continued. “My dad does have a
boat. We could go out on the water tomorrow, if you want?”

My eyebrows rose. “Uh,
yeah
.”

A smile tugged his lip. “Cool.”

Holding out a hand, he waited for me to take
it, and then helped me down from the boulder. His fingers lingered
on mine for a heartbeat longer than necessary, and the warmth of
his skin clung to my hand when he let go.

Still smiling a bit, he headed for the
stairs.

A quiver ran through my chest, and I blushed,
looking back at the water.

He was strange, a little disconcerting, and
definitely quiet in his way, but I was still oddly glad he’d come
down here. And not just because my legs felt shaky when he
smiled.

It was nice to finally meet someone who saw
something I loved in sort of the same way.

“Chloe?” he called from the base of the
steps.

“Yep,” I replied, his voice snapping me out
of my thoughts. Drawing a steadying breath, I followed him to the
stairs.

Chapter Two

I’d been out near the Santa Lucina coast for
a few hours, ever since leaving Nyciena earlier that morning, and I
hadn’t found any sign of Ina the entire time. I knew she liked to
visit here – the surfers were a favorite of hers to watch – but
this time, it seemed she’d tried to be a bit more conniving about
sneaking away from home.

Coming to a stop in the water, I grimaced. At
this time of day, she was probably joining some tourists for a
cookout on the beach or playing around with some new guy she’d
spotted on the sands. She had clothes stashed everywhere, did my
twin sister, and she loved an excuse to party with humans.

I sighed and checked around briefly. This
close to land, nothing below the water was much of a threat, since
divers were even simpler to spot after dark and most sharks knew
better than to mess with a dehaian. Fishing boats were similarly
not a problem, since they were easy to hear from miles away and
stank besides. Assured that in my annoyance at Ina, I hadn’t missed
anything, I flicked my tail in the water and sent myself up to the
surface. Air burned on my skin for the heartbeat it took my body to
adjust, and I scanned the beach, my eyes compensating easily for
the dark.

It was absurd that
I
had to be the
responsible one.

My grimace returned. I could have been home
right now, making friends with the Deiliora twins. Ina wasn’t the
only one who enjoyed a party, and damn if those girls weren’t sexy
as hell. And even if that hadn’t worked out, there was also the
sirabal championship for all of Yvaria tonight, and I’d wagered
three-to-one that the Nycienan Hammerheads would take the title
this season.

But instead I was spending the evening
hunting for my sister.

Scanning the shore, I didn’t see Ina among
the tourists and beachgoers on the sand. She might’ve decided to
find some cove from which to watch the storm brewing back out on
the water, however, which meant she could be anywhere. Muttering a
curse, I dove down again and headed farther up the coastline.

It wasn’t even like it was my job to go after
her. Dad had any number of people he could have ordered to the
task. Hell, he could have sent either of our older brothers as
well. But Dad also knew Ina made a game of evading them all where
she didn’t with me, which meant I got pulled away from my plans and
sent to chase her down.

Again.

The water shivered.

I stopped, and then kicked hard up to the
surface and scanned the coast.

Everything was the same. There was no
earthquake. No explosion. I spun in the water, looking out to sea,
but besides the thunderstorm rolling in from a few miles away,
nothing at all had changed.

Except quivers still ran through the water
around me, like someone had dropped an electrical wire into the
ocean.

My brow drew down as I turned back toward the
shore. A fire pit burned by a mansion up on top of the bluffs and
bright lights shone on a handful of people playing volleyball. Down
by the shoreline, a guy sat on a boulder in the shadows, watching a
beautiful girl with auburn hair as she dipped her feet into the
water.

I paused, studying her. Moonlight glistened
on her pale skin and she smiled as her gaze ran across the dark
waves. She gave no sign she noticed anything strange about the
water. She just radiated calm, as though in the whole world, she
was right where she wanted to be.

And her skin was changing.

My alarm returned.

A pale shimmer crept up her legs, the
iridescence so faint that only the right angle of the moonlight
revealed the alteration. My eyes narrowed, my vision sharpening
enough to pick out the hint of scaling inching up from the
waterline toward her calves.

And then she turned, seeming startled by a
word from the boy, and the iridescence began to swiftly melt away.
She hesitated, saying something I couldn’t make out, and then she
walked back toward him, leaving the waves and crossing the sand to
sit by his side.

The quiver in the water vanished.

My brow climbed.

There was no way she’d been causing that.

I scanned the water, but as before,
everything was the same. The storm was drifting along the horizon,
the night sky overhead was clear, and the people on the bluffs
still played their game.

And meanwhile, some dehaian girl had just
electrocuted the ocean.

Which was impossible.

I swam a bit closer, my ears beginning to
pick out their words over the waves.

“My dad does have a boat,” the guy said. “We
could go out on the water tomorrow, if you want?”

“Uh,
yeah
,” the girl answered, and I
could hear the excitement in her voice.

“Cool,” the guy replied with his expression
twitching toward a smile.

They got up and headed back for the
stairs.

I watched her go. She was acting like a
human, which made sense. But she’d also let herself start changing
in the water, which really didn’t. From what that guy had said, he
sounded like he lived on land, and if she’d let that go much
further, he easily could have seen her change.

Which, really, was just about the most
dangerous thing we could do in front of a human.

And then there was whatever she’d been doing
to the water, and why.

I glanced back to the waves, frustration
hitting me. I wanted to go up there. To find a way to talk to her
and figure this out. But as much as I’d like answers, I couldn’t
just stay here. There was still Ina to consider, and Dad would be
furious if I gave up on looking, regardless of the reason.

Above the bluffs, the guy and girl were
joining the others, cheering them on as they played their game.

I could do both, I decided. Keep an eye on
this girl and look for my sister – assuming Ina didn’t just make
her way home before I even found her. But whoever this girl was,
she had to head back into the ocean eventually, which would give me
a chance to ask her what she’d done to the water without risking
the humans hearing.

But I’d stay close to the shore, regardless.
Something weird was going on; something unlike anything I’d seen.
And I wanted to figure it out.

After all, as Ina always said, it wasn’t like
I didn’t have a curious streak.

Chapter Three

Water lapped at the white hull of the boat
and the craft rocked as we climbed on board. The bright morning sun
had already heated the deck and the plastic seat was warm beneath
me as I sat down. All around us, other boats filled the marina,
some of them occupied like ours, and the voices of the passengers
carried strangely over the distance.

“Try to have the boat back in by sunset,
okay?” Peter called to us from the dock.

I looked back as Noah grinned.

“We will,” he replied. Behind the wheel,
Maddox just nodded and then turned on the engine.

A shiver ran through the boat. On the dock,
Peter undid the moorings with quick motions. Tossing the ropes to
Noah, he waited till everything was stored safely and then raised
his hand, waving to us as Maddox steered the boat away.

And just like that, we were on the water.

Wind pulled at my hair as we sped beyond the
confines of the marina and the salty spray misted my skin and my
swimsuit. Baylie laughed as we bounded over the waves, and I
grinned at her, thrilled beyond the ability to speak.

Finally.

That was the only word I could think to
describe it. More even than last night, it felt like some sort of
switch had been thrown, releasing a pressure that had been building
inside over the years without me realizing it. Tension I hadn’t
known existed just seemed to flow out of me as we left the marina
and raced onto the open water. We probably weren’t even going as
fast as a car in the city, but with the wind rushing around us, I
felt like we were flying.

“You like?” Noah called over the noise of the
wind.

I could only nod.

A few minutes later, Maddox slowed the boat,
killed the engine and then lowered the anchor. At least a mile off,
the shore was a mosaic of green mountains and white buildings
below. Puffs of clouds drifted over Santa Lucina, but out here,
only the barest wisps hovered in the brilliant blue sky. Baylie
leaned back on her seat, a smile on her face, while Daisy just eyed
the water as though trying to figure out how the demented humans
could possibly think this was a good idea.

“So…” Noah started. “Anyone want to go for a
swim?”

I smiled. My parents being so psychotic and
all, we didn’t even have a bathtub in the house, just a stand-up
shower the size of a broom closet. I’d never been able to teach
myself how to hold my breath underwater, let alone swim.

But that was going to change, starting
now.

“Well, um,” I began, feeling a bit reckless
with excitement. “If you wouldn’t mind teaching me?”

His eyebrows climbed. “Uh, no. I mean, sure.
I–”

The boat jumped.

“What the hell?” Maddox cried as the rest of
us grabbed at the guardrails.

“Did we hit something?” Noah asked, scanning
the water.

Maddox shook his head. “I don’t–”

The ocean around the boat began to bubble and
roil.

Noah swore. “Get us out of here!” he called
to Maddox.

His brother didn’t need the encouragement.
Quickly, he scrambled back toward the driver’s seat and turned the
key in the ignition.

The engine wouldn’t respond.

Shudders shook the boat, while all around,
the ocean’s surface began to foam like the calm sea had suddenly
become a boiling pot on a stove. Waves surged from every direction
at once, growing more violent by the second, and on all sides the
water darkened, as though a shadow was spreading below us.

“What’s happening?” Baylie cried.

No one could answer. As if shoved from
beneath, the deck tipped up at a sharp angle and then just as
quickly rocked back, wrenching us hard as we fought to hang onto
the guardrails. The lurching came again, throwing us forward and
back.

My grip broke. The metal rail hit me,
knocking the air from my lungs.

And then came the water.

I didn’t even have time to scream. Waves
closed over me, choking my instinctive gasp and tossing me so hard
that, in only a heartbeat, I lost all sense of up and down.
Flailing, I tried to reach out and find something, anything, to
grab onto as the water pummeled me like it was a prize fighter and
I was its punching bag.

Strong hands caught me. Steadied me. Pulled
me from the maelstrom into a space of calm. I clutched at them,
thinking Noah had managed to find me in the chaos.

Eyes like brilliant sapphires met mine.

“You’re okay,” a boy said, gripping my
shoulders. “You’re fine.”

I stared at him. In the impossibly black
water, I could see nothing but his face and his arms, both pale as
though he’d spent his life out of the sun. He seemed only a year or
two older than me, and his features were angular, carved like they
came from stone, and strangely mesmerizing. In the darkness, his
eyes shone like deep blue jewels, simultaneously seeming to reflect
light and yet glow from within.

But we were underwater. We should be
drowning. And instead, I could hear him as clearly as if we stood
in the open air, and the oddest sense of peace was settling over
me.

I wondered if I was dying.

His brow furrowed and he ran his gaze over
me, as though he couldn’t figure out how I was there either.
“Who–”

Suddenly, his eyes went wide and his hold on
my shoulders vanished. Other hands grabbed me, snagging my arms, my
hands. I struggled, confused and disoriented, as an arm wrapped
around my chest and yanked me backward.

My head broke the surface and I coughed,
struggling to breathe. Twisting, I saw Noah behind me, holding me
while he swam hard for the boat. The white-hulled craft had
capsized and Baylie clung to its side, one hand holding Daisy’s
collar to keep the sodden dog from swimming off. By her side,
Maddox was hanging onto the boat as well, though he was stretched
out, trying to catch Noah as he swam closer.

But the water had stilled. Waves lapped the
upturned hull and pushed us back toward the land.