Awaken (13 page)

“Hello,” the man said in Yvarian, his voice
calm as the ocean on a windless day.

I pulled at the shackles, but the damn things
wouldn’t budge.

“I am Wisdom Kirzan,” he continued in the
same tone. “High Priest of the Sylphaen. Welcome to the fourth
sanctum of our faith. I apologize that we have to meet this way,
and that we have been forced to place you in such accommodations. I
do hope, however, that you will believe me when I say the
restraints are for your protection. We do not understand one
another yet. This may lead you to act rashly and cause the acolytes
to undertake protective measures in response. I would hate for that
to happen, as I have great faith you will see the light.”

My skin crawled as his lips curved into a
smile like he knew something about me that I didn’t.

Like he could already see me on his side.

“I know you have been taught to fear us. To
believe the Sylphaen are the monsters of old tales. Yet your
homeland of Yvaria prides itself on hearing both sides of a case,
correct? On giving fair weight to all arguments before making a
decision? So what of us? Are you not brave enough to hear
ours?”

At my silence, Kirzan sighed.

“Have you not wondered why our people live as
they do? Hidden beneath the waves, shrouding themselves with magic
for fear of notice by the human world? Has it never bothered you
that we, with such power, should cower in fear of creatures so much
weaker than ourselves?”

I didn’t answer. It was a stupid question
anyway. Everyone hated that – the worry of being found in the ocean
by humans, the reality of what could happen if we were locked up on
land and kept from the water for too long.

My family knew that all too well.

He nodded as though he’d read my mind. “It
hurts, this cost. The penalty we bear for straying from the known
path of hiding, of so-called safety. It holds us hostage, not only
to our fears for ourselves, but our fears for our loved ones. We
live all the time with the dread that a human will discover a way
through the magic that protects our cities, or that we will be
trapped on land and prevented from returning to the water. We live
in fear of our
lives
, and we are taught that this fear is
simply ‘the way things must be’.

Kirzan’s brow rose encouragingly. “Yet, what
if I told you it wasn’t always like this? And what if I told you
that things could change?”

He waited. I said nothing.

“Our people –
your
people – are lost.
It pains me to say this, and yet… do you not see it too? What
species other than
prey
hides for its life from all others
around? What other creature in the ocean – in the
world
–
has our power, yet shrinks from creatures weaker than itself?
Humans do not. Humans never would. And yet
we
are the ones
who have settled into a life of hiding, while they sink deeper and
deeper hooks into everything on this Earth. With all our knowledge
of the natural order, tell me… how is it possible that this is the
way things are meant to be?”

Behind him, several of the other dehaians
nodded angrily.

“We’ve lost sight of the truth,” Kirzan
continued, “Above the water, we blend to survive the current state
of affairs, but beneath the waves we do nothing to change this
situation. We accept this reality. We mimic the humans with our
games, with our tools, with our very language and behavior, while
never acknowledging the truth that is right in front of our
eyes.

“We were never meant to be like them. We were
meant to rule them.”

His folded hands opened in front of him.
“Look at the evidence. Our strength. Our speed. Our abilities that
far surpass any of their own. If they were meant to have been in
charge of this world, they would have the same. They would be
designed for it. But they are not.

“And yet we are the ones who hide.

“Some would say we have no choice, that our
inability to stray too far from our watery home gives evidence that
the land is for them and the ocean for us. And yet, that proves my
point precisely. Our people have forgotten their past. They have
forgotten what we were once capable of, and the powers we once
controlled.”

He paused. “But we can change that. Our
destiny is our own – more now than it has been for centuries – and
through one act, our power can be restored. It seems too simple a
solution, yet are not all profound things truly simple at their
heart? Our people can be freed. Our children can be made safe. Our
homes can be protected. All it takes is one choice.

Kirzan studied me. “Wouldn’t you want
that?”

My brow twitched down at his words.

“I know who you are, young man. All in this
room recognize you. Zekerian Ociras, called Zeke by those closest
to him. And we know the stories of your sister, too. The little
one, Miri. The one who was lost.”

Already pounding, my heart found a way to
pick up speed.

He smiled. “We are not monsters, Zeke. We
want what is best for our people, just as I know you do. We would
do anything for our loved ones, just as I know you would. And when
offered the chance to transform the world into a place of safety
for everyone we love… any of us would take it.”

Kirzan paused. “Will you?”

My jaw clenched as he waited. “What do you
want?”

“One gift,” he answered. “One creature that
has been destined for this purpose since the corrupted act of her
creation. And then we can make the world safe for dehaians once
more. I confess, we’ve struggled to find her, since we only spotted
her at a distance before the humans rushed her away. For days,
we’ve been hunting any who appeared to be her – bringing them
beneath the waves, granting them our special blend of neiphiandine
to speed the transformation necessary for the ritual and stifle
their ability to cause trouble at the same time – but they have all
been human, and so we have been forced to keep searching.”

My blood went cold. Human girls. Merciful
waves, these psychos had dragged human girls underwater, holding
them there with some messed-up version of a dehaian drug in their
system until they drowned.

I wanted to be sick.

“But you have changed that,” Kirzan
continued. “You have confirmed for us which among the humans is
actually the girl we seek. And now all that remains is to complete
her destiny. To bring her to us. To claim our birthright through
her sacrifice, so that none of these lesser beings can threaten us
any longer.”

I stared. Chloe. They were talking about
Chloe.

“You want…” I began.

His expression became pitying. “I understand
your confusion. She seems to be an attractive young woman. What man
wouldn’t find her appealing? But
you
must understand, she is
not what you think she is. Her blood is corrupt. She is not
dehaian; she is not
anything
. And yet, as all beings do, she
has a purpose. One that we can fulfill for her.”

Forcibly, I kept my gaze from sliding to the
stone table and the chains hanging there.

“You try to be a true son of the dehaian,
Zeke. I can see this in you. I know that your heart lies with
protecting your people, in protecting those like your little
sister, so that nothing like that will ever happen again. And such
a future is possible. You have the power in your grasp, young
man.

“All you must do is bring her here.”

He watched me, his dark eyes scanning my face
while behind him, the other dehaians waited.

I couldn’t feel my hands anymore. They’d
pulled so tight against the shackles that they’d gone numb. And
meanwhile, the psychos expected me to agree with Kirzan. To consent
to bring Chloe down here so they could do who-knew-what to her, all
under some mad belief that this one girl could magically change
reality.

Or that her death – her sacrificial,
butchered, twisted
death
– could change reality.

I made myself keep breathing. “No.”

Kirzan’s expression became earnest. “Do not
let this creature cloud your judgment, Zeke. Her pretense of
ignorance is just that: a pretense. It is only meant to deceive
you. She was
intended
for this purpose, destined to spill
her blood since before any of us were born. The signs are clear to
prove what she is. She changes the water with her presence. She
calls to it with her very being, just as the stories said she
would. It is so clear. So obvious. And you are not protecting what
is right by sparing her; far from it! You are refusing to accept
the gift we have been given and deciding that innocent children
should die in her place. You are offering their lives for hers,
when hers is the one that could save them. Surely, Zeke.
Surely
you wouldn’t do this. Offer Miri… for
her
?”

I couldn’t keep the rage from my face.

“I don’t mean to cause you pain,” he
implored. “I simply wish you to understand that you have the power
to change this for
all
your people, not just Miri or your
siblings who survived. All you have to do is deliver her to us –
quickly, while we can still inhibit her ability to fight – and you
will save so many from ever suffering as your sister did.”

Anger quivered in my chest like a trapped
fish, and my muscles were so tense, they trembled. My arms ached
with the desire to strike out at him for bringing up Miri over and
over again. For trying to manipulate me with her memory. So many
people had gone through hell over that, and now this bastard, this
psychotic cultic
bastard
, thought he could use that
nightmare to make me kill some girl I’d just broken the law to
save.

From them.

They’d been the ones who attacked Chloe. I
was sure of it, if for no other reason than I didn’t believe in
that
level of coincidence. They’d nearly killed her, and
definitely killed who knew how many human girls too, and now they
wanted me to finish the job.

Because of Miri. Because of the thought of
what she must have gone through before the end.

I shivered, pushing the images away.

“Go to hell,” I told him.

“Zeke–”

“I said go to hell!”

He fell silent, and from his eyes the earnest
light faded, leaving something darker and colder. “She’s driven her
hooks deep into you, hasn’t she? Convinced you of an innocence she
cannot truthfully possess?” He paused. “Who would you sacrifice to
spare her life, Zeke? Would you offer up Ina, your own twin? Or
perhaps your older brothers, Ren and Niall?”

I couldn’t breathe. “You stay away from
them.”

Kirzan smiled. “It is only a question.”

He studied me for a moment, and then looked
to the other dehaians. “Watch him,” he ordered. “Give him some time
to think. Perhaps the poison of her influence will fade, once he’s
reflected for a while.”

His gaze flicked back to me and his lips
curved again into something too cruel to be a smile. “We will focus
our efforts on retrieving her, now that we know where she
hides.”

Kirzan left the cave, most of the other
dehaians following him.

My heart was pounding. My arms pulled at the
chains holding me.

It wouldn’t take them long to find her.
Depending on wherever the hell I was, they might be able to reach
Santa Lucina in no time at all.

Or my home in Nyciena.

My muscles quivered. I had to get out of
here.

Making myself keep breathing, I turned my
focus to the two men guarding me. Both easily outweighed me, and
would stand several inches taller than me as well. In their hands,
they held net-launchers, same as the kind they’d used to catch me
earlier.

The closest one smirked when he saw me
studying him.

I looked away, my gaze falling to the
shackles of magic-preserved metal encasing the length of my
forearms and the chains holding them to the wall. I twitched,
pulling at them again.

They didn’t budge.

I closed my eyes, rage pounding through me.
There had to be a way out of here.

Somehow, there had to be.

Chapter Eleven

The sun had climbed over the horizon a couple
hours ago, and a cloudless blue sky waited beyond the window,
promising a beautiful summer day. Past the guest room door, I could
hear people moving in the hall, heading for the kitchen and the
breakfast I could already smell below.

I’d barely slept. The ocean had been there
every time I closed my eyes, sending me gasping back to reality
with my hands clutching at my legs in case they’d changed. It
hadn’t taken long for me to stop lying down, and to sit instead
with my back pressed to the headboard and my legs hugged tightly to
my chest, while my hands rubbed them intermittently to make sure my
skin stayed the same.

It’d made for a long night.

In the other bed, Baylie drew a breath and
then rolled over. Her eyes opened and came to rest on me. Her brow
furrowed.

“Morning,” she said. “You okay?”

I nodded. “Just couldn’t sleep.”

Pushing the blankets away, I climbed from the
bed.

I could feel her watching me.

“Bad dreams?” she asked.

“Something like that.”

I pulled my clothes from my bag. Blankets
rustled behind me as she moved to do the same.

“Okay,” she allowed. “Well… what do you want
to do today?”

Tugging my shirt down over my head, I didn’t
answer. I didn’t know how. Last time I went into town, I’d ended up
in the hospital, and the time before that, the boat nearly sank. My
track record in Santa Lucina wasn’t exactly great, and at the
moment, I kind of just wanted to hop into the nearest car and drive
away as fast as possible.

Though from what Zeke had said, that might be
even harder for me to do now than it had been before.

Feeling nauseated, I drew a steadying breath
and focused on tying my hair back in a ponytail. “Whatever you want
is fine,” I told her.