Arise (Awakened Fate Book 4) (9 page)

Dave gave a jerky nod, while Phil simply grunted with annoyance and turned a tired glare on the scrawny cop and his behemoth companion.

Olivia didn’t move. “You’ll regret this, Robin.”

The woman smiled as if the idea amused her. “I doubt it. You heard him. Everyone else is in agreement and I’d rather not go rogue, if it’s all the same to you. I like my job.”

Olivia’s jaw tightened. She looked away, finding the man standing behind us, and after a heartbeat, she sighed.

I stared at them. I couldn’t believe this was happening.

“Okay, then.” Robin turned to the police chief with a smile. “Go on.”

In unison, the landwalker elders closed their eyes and darted in different directions like kids playing both roles in a game of hide-and-seek simultaneously.

The guys around the clearing shouted in alarm.

I stared at the elders in confusion, and then my gaze snapped to the cop and his friends.

The men were blinking or squinting at the forest. Their hands went to their faces and then flung outward, swiping at the air in front of them.

As though they were blind.

Footsteps charged us. I spun and then stumbled back when the man on the trail behind us ran forward, his hands clutching at the air as if to grab anything in reach.

Chloe and the others scattered. The man staggered past them, moving like he was dizzy or drunk, and then a root caught his foot, sending him sprawling to the ground.

We stared. Gasping, he fumbled at the rocks and branches as though he couldn’t figure out what they were. With a furious cry, he shoved away from the ground, trying unsteadily to reach his feet.

Ellie turned to us. “Go,” she mouthed desperately.

I looked from her to the chaos in the clearing, and then I snagged Chloe’s arm. Pulling her with me, I took off down the trail.

Chapter Eight

Chloe

With frantic glances over my shoulder, I ran after Noah along the path. His hand held my arm like a vice and he was moving so fast, Baylie and Ellie were having trouble keeping up. Behind them, Zeke followed with an eye to the trail, his every motion ready for a fight even if he hadn’t let any spikes come out yet.

I couldn’t blame him. Harman had sent Chief Reynolds after us, along with the chief’s nephew and a bunch of guys who looked like they belonged on a hunting reality show.

And meanwhile, the landwalker elders had superpowers.

I swallowed hard. Landwalkers didn’t have magic. That was sort of their thing. They were basically human, just with an allergy to the ocean and a really weird history. That was it.

And Mom and Dad couldn’t do that. They couldn’t do anything like that at all.

They
absolutely
would have used it on me otherwise.

A gunshot rang out behind us. I stumbled to a stop and looked back.

The forest was still and we were fine. But it sounded like someone in the clearing had gotten their hands on their gun.

“Come on,” Noah said, his voice tight.

We kept running. The trail dipped briefly and then rose again to climb higher along the mountainside. Past the dense tree cover, more mountains surrounded us, all of them appearing impossibly close. In the valley below, a river flowed like a ribbon of silver and blue. The sunlight hit us in fuller force when we continued out of the shadow of the slopes, bringing the summer heat with it.

I had no idea where we were going.

Noah seemed to have the same thought. Casting a quick look over his shoulder to the trail, he slowed. “Where to?” he asked Ellie.

The girl choked down a breath. “Mom and Dad live a few miles from–”

“Harman could be there,” Zeke cut in.

Breathing hard, Ellie hesitated. “We could hide. Olivia and the others will find us.”

“Or Chief Reynolds could,” Baylie countered.

Ellie’s desperate expression grew stronger. “I don’t know what else to do.”

Noah frowned, glancing to the trail again.

“We keep going,” Zeke said. “Circle back to the car and get out of here.”

I looked between him and Noah. Of all of us, they had to be the most exhausted, and the car was miles from here.

“The trail doesn’t connect,” Ellie said, almost as if apologizing for the path. “It… it just goes on to join up with others deeper into the mountains. You have to go back the way you came to reach the parking lot.”

I let out a breath. “Then yeah, we need to hide. Wait for those elders to find us and tell us if the coast is clear.”

Grimaces crossed the others’ faces, all of them tinged by varying degrees of fatigue or concern. Baylie hadn’t been wrong either. Chief Reynolds or his goons could find us instead. But then, they’d probably have split up by now, so maybe we’d only have to deal with one or two of them.

And that was doable.
Terrifying
… but doable.

My stomach churned.

“Is there any place safe around here?” Zeke asked.

Ellie thought for a second. “Well, the Midnight Cave isn’t too far. We could hide there.”

“Somewhere less obvious?” Baylie prompted. “The trail’s named for that. It’s probably the first place they’ll try to find us.”

Ellie looked helpless. “I-I don’t know anywhere else close. I mean–”

“Fine,” I cut in. “Which way?”

“I think…” Ellie checked around as if trying to get her bearings. “Up through here will be fastest.”

Still giving anxious glances to the direction of the gunshot, she started up the overgrown slope to the left of the trail.

We followed.

Brambles scratched my legs and caught on my shoes. Ellie murmured occasionally, pointing out poisonous plants or other hazards with her voice so low, I needed to strain to hear her. There wasn’t a path to speak of. There wasn’t anything, and when I looked back, I could barely trace our trail through the brush.

Which was a good thing, really. I just hoped we could find our way out of here if we had to keep moving after the cave.

We crested the rise. Ellie continued on, leading us around the slope and then down another, and every branch and dried leaf that cracked under our feet sounded like a gunshot in the quiet.

“There,” she said, pointing.

A strange contortion of the landscape had conspired to create a dip in the mountainside, as though a giant had taken a scoop to the slope and carved out a space. Shadows hung thick within the hollow, while a black space at the base marked the opening to the cave. Vines and tree roots dangled from the top of the thirty-foot-high entrance, though the sides were clear. When we came closer, I could see that amateur graffiti artists had taken advantage of that latter fact, opting to leave scribbles of their names along the boulders’ smooth faces. Grit dusted the cave floor, with a few cigarette butts tossed there as well. Beside the entrance, signs stood watch, warning everyone that flashlights and caution were needed for the area.

We hurried inside, and the air of the cave made the sweat on my skin cool instantly. The massive space was like a refrigerator, and the darkness was absolute.

I looked back. A narrow track ran up to the entrance. Sunlight shone down on it, though the brightness ended a few yards shy of the cave opening as a result of the strange shape of the mountainside.

“I’ll stay out of sight close to the entrance,” Noah said quietly. “Signal if I hear anyone coming.”

I glanced over and caught him watching me. I hesitated.

His brow twitched up, insistent.

I swallowed hard. “Okay.”

“Go ahead and do what you need to do to get deeper in there,” he continued. “Just don’t look toward the front till you’ve changed them back. If anyone comes this way, they might be able to spot the glow in the darkness.”

Drawing a breath, I nodded.

“Another dehaian thing,” Noah explained, glancing to Baylie. “Don’t freak out.”

She paused. “Alright…”

I let my eyes change. The darkness vanished, becoming nothing more than faint shadows and revealing a massive cavern that stretched back for hundreds of feet till a metal gate installed by the Park Service barred access to the area beyond. Water and time had worn dips and holes into the uneven cave floor, though someone had taken care to spray-paint rings around the worst of the depressions as a warning. Bulky protrusions of rock warped the cavern walls, most of them worn smooth by the same forces that had pocked the floor. Moisture dripped from the distant ceiling, staining the stone in mold-encrusted swaths.

Baylie’s breath caught when I looked over at her. Beside her, Zeke watched me, his eyes glowing brilliant sapphire blue.

“What–” Baylie started, and then she blinked. “Seeing in the dark. Olivia said–”

“Just stick close to us,” I cut in. “Okay?”

She nodded, still staring at me.

I took her hand and then glanced to Zeke. He extended a hand to Ellie. The girl hesitated, nervousness written across her face stronger than ever, but after a heartbeat, she gingerly placed her fingers on his.

We started into the cave.

“Careful,” I whispered to Baylie when we neared a dip in the floor. Even to my eyes, the hole was dark, and I could hear water trickling down from it into whatever lay beyond. A grate covered the opening, the metal bars drilled straight into the rock. “Just a bit left… yeah.”

Her shoes scraped on the dirt and gravel.

“And left again, a little more…” I continued as we passed another hole.

Ellie squeaked with fright behind me and I fought the urge to look back to check on her. The glaring sunlight outside the cave would probably hurt if I looked directly toward it, given how adjusted to the dark my eyes were right now.

“You’re okay,” I heard Zeke whisper.

A choked sound answered his words, like Ellie was trying not to cry.

I kept going, maneuvering across the pockmarked floor. I could hear Baylie breathing beside me, the sound short and tense, and her hand trembled in mine.

“Around that rock there, Chloe,” Zeke murmured.

I nodded, seeing what he was suggesting. About ten yards ahead of the Park Service’s gate at the rear of the cave, a bulbous mass of stone stuck out from the wall. Larger than all the rest, the protrusion was nearly the height of the cavern itself. We’d be utterly invisible behind it.

“Little bit farther,” I told Baylie. “There’s a rock up here. We’re going to get behind it.”

She made a noise of agreement.

I led her around the side of the rock. Nothing much waited there; just moist gravel and mold that made my nose itch. Reaching up with my free hand, I gripped her shoulder and Baylie’s breath caught again.

“It’s kind of slimy back here,” I whispered. “Just stay put. You’re fine right where you are.”

Baylie nodded. Her gaze darted across the black, focusing on nothing, and then returned to me.

“This is weird,” she told me softly.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

I squeezed her hand and then glanced to Zeke. One hand on Ellie’s shoulder and the other crushed in her trembling grip, he guided her to a stop behind the boulder. The girl’s eyes were closed and I could see her chest rising and falling in rapid gasps.

“You alright, Ellie?” I asked.

Her head moved in a jerky motion, as if she was forcing herself to nod even though she wanted to shake her head. “I-I hate the dark. I always just… if we could be like you guys… wouldn’t be so bad…”

Zeke’s mouth tightened. “You’re fine. Just keep breathing.”

The nod-shake motion came again.

I looked in the direction of the entrance, though the huge rock obstructed my view. Noah could probably hear us, but hopefully no one else could.

Though if Chief Reynolds had brought greliarans with him…

I swallowed hard.

“What was that back there, Ellie?” I whispered. “The elders?”

The furrows in her brow deepened. “I, um…”

“Just
tell
us,” Baylie snapped, her quiet voice tense.

I glanced to her, seeing the stress she was trying to hide flash across her face. My hand squeezed hers again. She took a breath, the expression fading.

“Sorry,” Baylie whispered.

An anxious smile of acknowledgement flitted across Ellie’s face.

“I thought landwalkers didn’t have magic,” I said.

“We don’t. At least, Olivia never called it that…”

Ellie’s face crumpled. She bit her lip to stop it from trembling.

I paused. “I’m sure they’re fine. Noah would have told us if it’d sounded like someone got hurt.”

Her expression cleared a bit and she nodded, accepting the words even though I was fairly certain they were a lie.

Noah would protect us from that, just like he was doing right now.

My gaze flicked to the boulder blocking my view of the cave front. It took effort to pull it back again.

“It’s not magic,” Ellie started, her quiet voice determined. “It’s like… you know that thing dehaians do? The make-people-love-you thing?”

“Aveluria,” Zeke said.

Ellie nodded. “Yeah. But they say it used to be more… complicated. Not just like those old siren myths, where mermaids lured sailors to their deaths, but more like those stories where the mermaids kissed sailors and took them down into the ocean. But the sailors didn’t die. Or, at least, not all the time.

“Some records claim the dehaians used to be able to do that. And when they split, becoming like him–” she nodded in Zeke’s general direction, “–and us, that magic thing split too. But it’s not easy for us like it is for dehaians, especially not anymore. Most landwalkers can’t do it. Can’t even hope to. And even if you
do
have the talent for it, it still takes years to master the ability; that’s why learning to be an elder takes so long. They’re the only ones with the discipline and training to use that skill. And it isn’t really like the dehaians’ thing, anyway. Avah… what you called it.”

My brow furrowed. “But what
can
you do?”

“It’s more of a mental thing. It’s not exactly magic.”

“Looked pretty magical to me,” Baylie muttered.

Ellie grimaced. “It’s just… it’s like projection. Sort of. The elder can make people be like them, in a way. Like back there. The elders all closed their eyes, kind of making themselves blind, and then the men they’d locked onto were blind as well. The elders ran, disorienting themselves, and the guys were disoriented too. It’s not like telepathy or mind-reading. It’s like… the ability to basically
project
onto that other person a… a way of being.”