Descend (Awakened Fate Book 2) (2 page)

“Nice,” Niall commented at the sight.

The man pulled up by the ocean floor. With fast motions, he removed the fish from the hooks and then cleaned them with a small knife. Reaching back into his bag, he drew out a brown bowl and quickly set to cutting the fish apart, trapping the pieces in the bowl as he went.

Zeke smiled at me as the man brought the fish over to us. “You ever had…” He glanced to Niall. “What do they call it again?”

“Sushi. Or sashimi. That’s the one without the rice.”

“Right. That?”

I shook my head. Like water, pictures of the ocean, and the color blue, sushi had been on my parents’ list of things they’d get furious about if I came near.

“Okay, well, this is basically the same thing. Minus the rice.”

I nodded, though I couldn’t keep the dubious expression from my face. I waited as Zeke and Niall drew pieces out with their fingers, and then I did the same. Trying not to wince at the odd feeling of the fish, I lifted it up and took a cautious bite.

It tasted amazing.

I looked to Zeke.

He grinned. “You–”

Niall made a tense noise, cutting him off as the glowing stones by the base of the veil went red. Brow furrowing, I followed his gaze upward.

From the gloom above the campsite, a dozen dehaians emerged. Straps crisscrossed their chests, with stone knives in slots along both bands, and belts with long swords encircled their waists. Vicious scars puckered their skin and scales, and one wore an eye patch beneath his fiery hair. I swallowed at the sight of them, my heart pounding.

In silence, we watched them swim past, and it wasn’t till they disappeared into the shadows again that I remembered to breathe.

“Mercenaries?” Zeke said, his quiet voice incredulous. “What the hell are they doing east of the Prijoran Zone?”

Niall shook his head, still studying the direction in which the dehaians had gone.

Another moment crept by and then Zeke let out a breath. “Weird,” he commented idly.

Niall glanced to him, meeting his gaze for a moment. “Yeah, no kidding,” he said, his tone the same.

They went back to eating.

I looked between them, knowing what they were trying to do.

“Are we in danger?” I asked, keeping my voice down.

Niall shook his head dismissively.

I watched Zeke.

He twitched his head toward the dehaians around us. “These guys… well, let’s just say they’re
very
good fighters.”

“And we’re not half-bad either,” Niall added between bites of fish.

Zeke scoffed at his brother, and then gave me a smile. “We’ll be fine. It’s just unusual for Vetorians to be around here. But they won’t mess with us.”

“Because they didn’t even see us,” Niall pointed out.

“And we’ll be home tomorrow.”

I nodded, trying to take the reassurances at face value. Zeke had said the dehaians with us were guards, though he’d been vague on what exactly it was they typically guarded. They didn’t have any weapons that I could see – besides their spikes, anyway – and their only uniform seemed to consist of a black armband with a strange, mountain-like symbol stitched in glistening blue thread on the side. But regardless, the men did appear able to take care of themselves; there wasn’t a one of them whose muscles weren’t practically chiseled onto their torsos. For that matter, Zeke and Niall were making a good show of being unconcerned too, and hadn’t glanced at the water overhead again.

Which was nice. Those guys had still looked terrifying, though.

I swallowed hard and picked up another piece of fish, trying to force my appetite to return. I didn’t know what I’d expected upon coming down here, though safety from people who might want to hurt me had probably been on the list.

And maybe that could still be the case. Maybe once we reached Zeke and Niall’s home, I’d finally stand a chance of being someplace mercenaries and Sylphaen and God knew what else couldn’t find me.

At least, I hoped.

Chapter Two

Zeke

“So what do you think those mercenaries
were
doing here?” Niall asked me quietly. “The border patrols should have stopped them ages ago.”

I didn’t answer, watching Chloe while the guards swam around us, getting ready to leave. Curled on the sand, she slept, the blue-white light of the fire flickering against the iridescent sheen of her cream-toned scales. Currents twisted through her hair, which was redder than it had seemed on land, and occasionally the gold-dusted skin of her brow furrowed, as though she was fighting something in her dreams.

And all around her, a faint hum quivered through the water, like the ocean was ever-so-slightly electrified.

Niall said something, and I blinked. “What?”

His lip twitched. “I said the change looks good on her. Or wouldn’t you agree?”

I glanced back at her. “Uh, yeah, I guess.”

“You
guess
?” He looked from me to Chloe and then scoffed. “You feeling alright?”

“Fine.”

“Uh-huh.”

I gave him an irritated look. “What?”

“Oh, nothing. But if you’re not going to make a move on her, you better be sure I will.”

“No, I–”

I cut off the hurried response, uncertain what I’d planned to say. But Niall just paused.

“Wait,” he said. “You’re not…”

“Not what?” I asked when he trailed off.

Niall cleared his throat. “You’re not like actually
falling
for her, are you?”

“Huh?”

He paused, a weird look on his face, and then he suddenly let out an incredulous chuckle. “Well, I… damn that’s, um…”

“That’s what?” I demanded. “Niall, give me a break. I barely know the girl.”

“Yeah, and yet you wanted all these guys to come to Santa Lucina to rescue her.”

“You know it wasn’t like that.”

His amusement grew. “Uh-huh.”

“Oh for pity’s sake, Niall. Do you feel the water around us? Feel how it’s different with her in it?”

“It’s different, huh?”

“I will kick your ass, you keep this up.”

Amusement still tweaked his expression, but it lessened. “Okay, the water.” He glanced around. “It’s… I mean…” His brow furrowed.

“See what I’m talking about?”

“Are you sure there’s not just a storm topside or something? I know you said strange things happened with the water when you saw her before, but maybe…”

“You ever felt a storm do this?”

“No,” he allowed. “But… come on. She can’t really be–”

“It’s happened every time I’ve seen her. Something similar, anyway. And the second she leaves the water, it stops.”

I looked back at Chloe. She gave a soft cry in her sleep and I hesitated, wondering if I should go wake her. But after a moment, she seemed to calm down.

“Maybe it was a coincidence,” Niall tried.

I met the words with a flat look. “
Every
time? And that’s not the only thing. The second time I saw her, she was attacked. By water. Black, frigid water like you’d find deeper than Nyciena, but off the Santa Lucina coast.”

He paused. “Okay, now you’re just making stuff up.”

I shook my head.

Niall’s brow drew down and he looked away. My gaze returned to Chloe.

She seemed to be sleeping better now. And the strange feeling in the water remained. It wasn’t quite the same as when I’d first seen her – then, it’d been unmistakable for miles around. Now, it was fainter. Almost diluted, though that made little sense. It seemed like something was dampening it, keeping it from being as…
clear
… in the water as it had been before, to the point where if, like Niall, I hadn’t been waiting for it, I might’ve missed the feeling.

I scowled. Maybe the difference was caused by the drug the Sylphaen had given her. Or something else I wasn’t aware of. Before Chloe had come along, I’d never felt anything like this. And now, anything was possible, since what she was doing
shouldn’t
have been.

And she didn’t even seem to know it was happening.

“So what do you want to tell Dad when we get home?” Niall asked. “Assuming he agrees to talk to us, I mean.”

I turned back to him. “The truth?” I hazarded.

“No, seriously.”

“We have to tell him about the Sylphaen. And the best chance we have of keeping her safe from them means she stays nearby.”

“She doesn’t have any family at all down here?”

“None she seems to know of. She said she grew up on land. She wasn’t even aware dehaians existed until I told her.”

“Wow.” Niall watched her a moment and then sighed. “Even so, he’ll want to put out a search. See if she has relatives to take her in. You know, for propriety’s sake.”

I grimaced. Dad and propriety. With kids like us, minus Ren anyway, I knew he would insist on finding her family and making certain who she was. Scandals were the last thing he needed.

Though that didn’t stop it from being annoying.

“If he puts out word that she’s in Nyciena, the Sylphaen might hear,” I argued. “He’ll understand keeping it quiet.”

“That’s
if
he believes the Sylphaen are real.”

I gave Niall an exasperated glance.

“What?” he protested. “I’m just saying, he’s not the most believing kind.”

“So help me convince him.”

Niall looked at me tiredly. “Of course I will.” He paused. “Maybe if we got Ren to believe us, this’d go better.”

“He’s worse than Dad.”

“And Dad knows that. If Ren believes us, Dad will listen, no questions asked.”

I sighed. That, at least, was true. It wasn’t the way I wanted to go about this, though – Ren was stubborn as hell, and if he got it in his head we were lying, it’d be almost impossible to change his mind. But Niall was still right. If we could convince him, things with Dad would go much more smoothly.

Hopefully, anyway. Kindness and sympathy weren’t exactly Dad’s strong suits.

“So who do you think she is, really?” Niall asked, watching Chloe again. “Or, you know… what.”

I shook my head. “No idea.”

“Have you told her about us?”

I paused, and then shook my head again.

His amusement returned. “Seriously? You didn’t even
try
playing that–”

“I’m not chasing her, Niall.”

He eyed me for a moment, still appearing amused. “If you say so.”

I scowled, looking back at Chloe. It wasn’t like that, whatever Niall thought. I hadn’t said anything about my family because there hadn’t been time, and because there’d been bigger issues at hand. Issues like powerful and dangerous drugs. Like electrified, possessed water.

Like the fact that nearly every time I’d seen the girl, a psychotic cult had been trying to kill her.

“How about we see if the guards have figured out the best way back yet, now that the Vetorians are around?” I suggested, unable to keep the annoyance from my voice. “You know, get home before they spot us?”

He grinned. “Okay,” he agreed, a touch indulgently. “If you’d rather talk about that than–”

“Niall.”

He laughed.

I shook my head in exasperation. I knew him. He wasn’t going to let up on this. Not when there was the chance of some entertainment at my expense – no matter
how
wrong he was about the whole thing. Chloe was intriguing, yes, but because of the mystery surrounding what she did and the question of why the Sylphaen were after her. And she was attractive as well. She’d been beautiful before this and the change looked amazing on her now. I wasn’t blind.

But none of that was the point. Chloe wasn’t just another girl to pursue. Even in the incredibly short time I’d known her, that’d become clear. With Chloe, it was… more complicated. She hadn’t grown up dehaian and she wasn’t like us. Not really. She didn’t know about our world, about her new form, about any of it. And to ignore all that just to get her into bed with me… I couldn’t. The thought was vaguely nauseating, since it’d feel too much like manipulating her and taking advantage of how confusing this all was for her right now.

And no matter what Ren or others in Nyciena thought, taking advantage of girls had
never
been my style.

Besides, I’d seen her with that other boy. The human, in the surf moments after her body transformed for the first time. She hadn’t wanted to leave him. And yes,
if
I’d cared to chase her, that would’ve just been a challenge to overcome.

But it wasn’t like that. Not this time.

Chloe was different.

Chapter Three

Noah

The front door slammed.

Sitting on the couch, I didn’t look up. Around the living room, my four behemoth cousins leaned on the walls with their overly muscled arms crossed in front of them, looking for all the world like the near-identical, sadistic meatheads that they were. Watching me and the ocean beyond our windows alike, they made no secret of their disgust for me, or their anticipation for what they’d try if the dehaians returned.

“Noah?” my dad called.

“In here, Peter,” Richard replied.

Silence followed the words, and then I heard his footsteps coming down the hall.

Dad walked around the corner, taking in the five of them and me seated in the middle.

“Are you alright?” he asked me.

“He’s fine,” Richard answered before I could speak. “Except for having a fling with a scum-sucker, that is.”

Dad paused. “What happened?”

“Your son–”

“I asked Noah.”

Richard snorted, derision in his dark brown eyes, and then he gestured for me to go ahead.

“Nothing,” I said, not wanting to get into it in front of the others. “She’s gone.”

Dad regarded me for a moment.

“He let her go, he means,” Richard inserted. “Kissed her goodbye and let her swim away.” He rounded on Dad. “This is what I’ve been warning you about. You, and the way you raise these boys. You can’t keep–”

“This isn’t the time, Richard,” Dad countered.

His brother scoffed. “You called me, remember? Even you can see how dangerous this is. That
thing
was staying with your family, for pity’s sake! And now you’ve got scale-skins breaking into your house. What’s next?” He shook his head. “What’s it going to take, Peter? Are you really going to risk your sons, just to hang onto your pathetic principles?”