Arise (Awakened Fate Book 4) (20 page)

Two more dehaians charged at me, while another rushed down from above. I jack-knifed in the water, trying to get out of their way.

Nets came at me from three sides.

I twisted, but it was too late.

Vines raced over me and then the guys were there. A fist slammed into my face, snapping my head to the side. Another plowed hard into my stomach. Tentacles pinned my arms awkwardly, making it impossible to fight back, while others climbed over my head and face, obscuring my view.

“Stop!” a man shouted.

The dehaians froze.

I struggled in the nets. Through the tangle of vines, I caught sight of more dehaians circling us. They had Ina surrounded. There were knives in their hands. I ripped at the tentacles holding me, desperate to reach her.

One of the dehaians punched me hard in the side.

“I said stop!”

Choking, I looked up. A trio of dehaians were approaching.

I recognized the bronze-scaled, dark-haired one at the center. Tiberion. One of Ren’s commanders. A black band wrapped his bicep now, the fabric stitched with metallic thread in the shape of a mountain that was underlined in stars, marking him as the captain of the guard. Other people followed him, pulling blindfolded and bound dehaians in their wake.

My gaze flicked over the prisoners. Empty sheaths for knives were strapped to their scarred chests. Welts showed on their fins where blades had been attached, the weapons now missing.

Vetorians. We’d stumbled on Ren’s people while they were capturing a group of mercenaries.

“Your highness?” Tiberion said to Ina. He glanced to us, and I could see suspicion creep into his gaze when he recognized Jirral.

“Free that one,” Tiberion ordered shortly, nodding toward me.

“Sir,” the dehaian next to me said. “He injured Leif.”

Tiberion ignored him.

The net around me loosened as the dehaians’ knives sliced through it. Tentacles pulled at my skin when the guards yanked the vines covering my face away.

Spikes appeared at my throat the moment the net disappeared.

Cold fury filled Tiberion’s eyes. “Prince Zekerian.”

The guards glanced to each other, their expressions making clear they hadn’t realized whom they’d captured.

“Tell his highness what we’ve found,” Tiberion ordered the soldier beside him.

The man darted away.

Tiberion swam closer, looking between me and Jirral. “You
were
working with Vetorian spies, just as the king said.”

I struggled in the grip of the two dehaians holding me – attempting not to cut my own throat in the process. Ina was surrounded, but the others had pulled away from her. Fear on her face, she watched me.

“We’re not with them,” I growled at Tiberion.

“Yes, I’m certain Princess Inasaria is not,” he agreed. “You and Lord Jirral, on the other hand…” His expression made his opinion clear. “Where is the female spy? The redheaded girl who conspired to kill King Torvias?”

I didn’t respond.

“Rest assured, highness,” he said. “We
will
find her. The king has ordered her to stand trial and, upon proof of her guilt to the court, she is to be publicly executed for her crimes. We will see those commands carried out. Your silence gains nothing.”

I stared at him. “
What
?”

“You heard him.”

My gaze snapped to the water beyond Tiberion.

Niall swam up, a pair of dehaians from the attack at the greliarans’ house behind him.

“Highness,” Tiberion acknowledged.

“She’s not here?” Niall asked shortly, studying the Vetorians chained behind Tiberion’s men.

“No, sire. And the prince refuses to provide her location.”

“Niall, you damned fool,” Jirral snapped. “What the hell are you–”

Jirral cut off as a guard aimed a knife at his throat.

Niall ignored them, studying me, and shivers ran through me at the cold, alien expression on his face. Till a few days before, I’d never seen anything like it from him in my life.

He turned away, scanning the open water as if searching for Chloe despite Tiberion’s words. My gaze darted to Ina. If Niall was here, there was no telling how many Sylphaen were also. And I didn’t want my sister near them. Anywhere within a thousand miles of them. Niall had sworn not to hurt her, and coming from the brother I thought I’d known, I would have trusted that implicitly.

But I didn’t even recognize the guy in front of us now.

Ina’s wide eyes met mine. Heart pounding, I twitched my gaze toward the south. The fear in her expression strengthened in response. She shook her head slightly. I tensed, my own expression becoming demanding.

“Take them back to the palace,” Niall ordered with a sigh. “We’ll continue searching.”

Tiberion glanced to his soldiers. “Chain Prince Zekerian. Lord Jirral too. We will escort them back with the others for the king’s judgment.”

“Niall, stop this!” Ina shouted at him. “Please!”

No one looked at her. The guards’ grips tightened on me and I felt the spikes nick the skin of my neck. I couldn’t move. Not without running into the blades at my throat. Another dehaian appeared in front of me.

Shackles clamped around my wrists. The spikes at my neck didn’t budge.

I glanced to Jirral. Five dehaians surrounded him, all with knives drawn, and as I watched, the soldiers closed in with shackles in hand.

“Bring the princess,” Tiberion ordered.

The guards started for her too. Tensing, she aimed her spikes at the dehaians coming toward her. They paused.

“Highness,” Tiberion said to her. “Please. No one will harm you. We only wish to take you safely home to your brother the king.”

“That’s my brother too, you ass,” she snapped, slashing her knife at one of the soldiers when they tried to come near. “The one in chains. Get your people away from him.”

Tiberion’s mouth tightened. He glanced to the guards holding me. The spikes disappeared from my throat, but from the pocket of his vest, one of them drew out a blindfold.

“Hey!” Ina protested.

I twisted, trying to keep them from putting the hood on me while I glared at my sister.

A pained look flashed across Ina’s face.

Niall spotted it. “Guards, stop–”

Ina spun, taking off between two of the soldiers.

The men grabbed for her, and blood filled the water when her spikes sliced their arms. Shouting with pain, they faltered while the others around them darted away, trying to catch her.

They didn’t stand a chance in hell.

Through the bloodied water, I felt her disappear from my senses as she raced south. The guards sped after her, but before they even reached the edge of what I could feel in the water, it was clear they were slowing, unable to keep up. Closer by, several others went to the aid of those she’d cut, attempting to staunch the bleeding of deep wounds that would probably attract any shark for miles around.

Niall swam toward me, ignoring them. “Smart,” he commented quietly. “Sending our sister out into the ocean all alone at a time like this. Ren’s sure to be sympathetic about that.”

“Keeps her away from you,” I retorted just as softly.

Niall paused. “I’m not the threat here, Zeke. None of us are. Sooner or later, you’ll see that. But until then, rest assured, we
will
find them. Wherever they hide, we’ll find them. Ina and Chloe both.”

He glanced to the man beside me.

The guard pulled the hood over my head.

Chapter Nineteen

Noah

“Okay, thank you.”

Ellie hung up the phone and looked back at us.

“That was Robin,” she said to Chloe. “Your mom and dad are fine. They’re with her and Dave. Once they reach a hospital, she’s going to stay with Olivia, but Dave and your parents will come to meet us.”

In the seat next to me, Chloe nodded, her gaze lost somewhere between the back of the chair in front of her and the crossroads we’d long since left behind.

“Is Olivia alright?” Baylie asked.

“I think so,” Ellie replied. “They just need to get her to a doctor.”

I glanced to her, hearing the uncertainty in her voice.

“Robin told me she’d call if there was any change,” Ellie finished.

Baylie made a noise of acknowledgement, her hands flexing around the steering wheel.

Silence fell over the car.

I leaned a bit closer to Chloe. “You okay?” I asked, keeping my voice low.

She hesitated, her gaze not quite turning to me. “I want this fixed. Gone.”

“This isn’t your fault.”

She nodded, though she didn’t look convinced.

I reached over, taking her hand.

She tensed and closed her eyes, her face tightening. “Please, Noah, I… ”

Fighting back a grimace, I let my hand fall away. I turned to the window, while up front, Baylie and Ellie carefully gave no sign of noticing anything.

“I’m sorry,” Chloe said.

I glanced back at her.

“I…” She shook her head, as though pushing a thought aside. “Are you okay? From earlier, I mean.”

“Yeah.”

Her brow twitched down. She still wasn’t looking at me. “They were really–”

“Things don’t hurt the same when we’re like that.”

“Oh.”

I waited, but nothing else came. Exhaling, I turned back to the window. I wanted to push for more. To know what she really felt for me now, whether there was a chance in hell for us at all anymore, and what she planned to choose if she got to decide which side of her heritage she’d become. But Baylie and Ellie were in the front, every word I said would get overheard, and Chloe obviously didn’t want to talk anyway.

My fist clenched. I almost didn’t care. It sort of made me feel like a jerk, but I really almost didn’t care. I was tired of this. I wanted an answer. I wanted to be with her. And I didn’t want to keep making a fool of myself if that wasn’t going to happen.

But I also didn’t want to push her and end up driving her away by default.

I scowled, my head starting to ache, and not just from the infuriating situation currently turning my brain into a pretzel. I hadn’t lied. Things didn’t hurt the same when my greliaran side took over. But that didn’t mean they didn’t hurt at
all
, and after spending the better part of the morning fighting my cousins, a few of the punches were really beginning to make me sore.

The country roads turned finally to a highway and Baylie headed south. It wouldn’t be more than a few hours till we reached this Joseph guy’s house; in the scope of the entire continent, he lived ridiculously close to my cousins, all things considered. At first, I’d worried that fact might mean he was connected to them in some way, except that Dad would have told us if Richard knew the guy who’d actually
made
greliarans, and who was somehow still alive after all these centuries. I couldn’t imagine that my uncle or cousins wouldn’t have let
that
slip.

It was too incredible for words, and not in a good way.

I shifted uncomfortably on the seat. I knew what we were. What we’d been created to do. It was just a thing, something we had to deal with – or not – and it wasn’t important except where it could get us into trouble.

But to meet the guy who’d actually
made
us this way…

Who’d wanted dehaians dead so much that he and his friends created an entire
species
just to wipe them out…

I swallowed. I wished there was another option besides going to see him, for so many reasons.

Following the directions Dave had relayed to her on our drive cross-country, Ellie helped Baylie navigate down the highways and then eventually back onto more country roads. The smell of salt carried through the air, growing stronger while we wound toward the ocean again. According to Dave, Joseph lived right on the coast – a fact I found disturbing. I knew why my cousins lived there. It didn’t bode well that Joseph did too.

We continued down the back roads, with trees closing in around us and gravel growling beneath the tires so similarly to the last place on the coast we’d left behind. No other side paths led off through the trees this time, however, leaving us trapped on the only trail through the forest. I eyed the woods cautiously, watching for an ambush and seeing nothing but greenery and fallen logs.

And sculptures.

I paused, my gaze catching on the short pillars dotting either side of the road, just behind the first layer of trees and undergrowth. Like survey markers, they were spaced every few hundred feet. Dotted with moisture and moss, the concrete posts looked as though they’d stood in the woods for years, to the point where I couldn’t make out much of the weathered carvings on their sides.

My eyes tracked across them as we drove past. They could be nothing.

I somehow doubted that.

The car drove on, tracing the winding gravel road.

In the seat next to me, Chloe twitched. I glanced over. She hesitated, spotting the questioning look on my face.

“Air feels weird,” she said quietly.

My brow drew down. I looked at the road ahead.

A moment passed. My caution turned to alarm.

She was right. Something was… not
wrong
, exactly. Weird was the best term. Like a warm, prickling sensation wherever the air touched me. As the seconds passed, it seemed to grow, spreading through my body and filling my mind with a heady, dizzying rush.

It made me feel so alive.

Quivers shook my muscles, and I tensed. The greliaran side of me felt stronger in this too, as though the very air fed it energy. It wanted to take over, to draw in everything of this it could. My heart started to pound harder while heat spread through my skin. I drew a slow breath, fighting to keep control.

Chloe shifted on the seat. I couldn’t stop my gaze from snapping toward the motion. Below her jean shorts, she rubbed absently at her thigh, and I could see swirls of iridescence brushing her skin.

“Hey, you guys doing alright?” Baylie called, glancing at the rearview mirror.

“How much longer?” I asked, barely managing to keep the growl from my voice.

Baylie tossed a quick look to Ellie.

“I-I think we’re almost there,” the girl answered, sounding distracted.