Arise (Awakened Fate Book 4) (6 page)

Baylie’s face darkened.

At her anger, Olivia paused, a quizzical look in her eyes. “Now, I will admit,” the woman allowed, “that all those things aside, we
have
worked in favor of the greliarans in the past. We decided long ago that it was best to keep them contained on the coast. They don’t seem to react to us the way they do with dehaians, but that doesn’t mean we’re interested in having them around. Desperation could still drive them to try killing us. And they seem to prefer the area anyway. As such, we’ve used our influence to get zoning decisions in their favor, keeping them isolated and preventing humans from coming near their homes, and we’ve agreed to clean up minor crimes when their tendencies get the better of them. We’ve even helped those that
do
end up in prison by making certain they are isolated so their secret does not come out, all in exchange for their agreement to stay in coastal areas and away from us. That arrangement could be seen as regrettable and on some level, I would rather we had never created it, but,” she shook her head, “that’s still a
far
cry from what you’re talking about.”

“You’re lying,” Baylie countered.

“I assure you, I’m not.” Olivia’s hands moved in a short shrug, as though questioning why we were talking about this. “Dehaians almost never make it far enough inland to be in a place where landwalkers could meet them, and even if they do, they’re seldom in the best shape by the time that happens. It’s why children like Chloe are so rare to begin with. Only
incredibly
resilient people of either lineage can reach a location where they can be in contact for very long without one or the other of them subsequently needing to be hospitalized. And that’s the best case scenario. For someone to think they could make a deal with greliarans to bring dehaians
anywhere
, let alone here…”

She trailed off, shaking her head again as though it was too absurd to be believed.

“Zeke heard them,” I said. “Ask him.”

Olivia watched me, still seeming incredulous. I waited.

“I will,” she agreed after a moment. She glanced to Ellie. “But even if Harman was so misguided as to think that was possible, it doesn’t mean the rest of us have a similar arrangement. We don’t.”

“Maybe just some of you don’t,” I said quietly.

Olivia paused. “You can trust us. The elders I know, the ones to whom I want to take you… they would
never
agree to what you’re describing. I swear.”

I glanced to Baylie. It was still a risk.

But I didn’t know what else we could do. Olivia was still right, about Harman and my parents if nothing else. They wouldn’t stop trying to get me back. There was no chance they wouldn’t want to put me through those treatments again.

And meanwhile, Zeke’s family was still out there with that Beast thing on its way.

“Alright,” I agreed. “We’ll go meet them.”

Olivia nodded and then rose, heading for the phone.

I closed my eyes, hoping desperately that I wasn’t making a mistake.

~~~~~

With the dishes delivered to the sink, Baylie and I headed back down the hall. On the couch in the study, Zeke appeared to be asleep and, rather than risk waking Noah if he was the same upstairs, we returned to the porch and sat down on the swing.

I scanned the neighborhood, noting that most of the homes still had cars in the driveways. But then, maybe it was the weekend. I couldn’t know. I barely remembered the month anymore, let alone the day. I was so out of touch with everything, it was laughable.

And now some woman I’d just met was going to take me to a secret society that hopefully could stop what I was from destroying the world.

Really, laughable didn’t even come close.

“Chloe?”

“Huh?”

I glanced over to find Baylie studying me.

“You didn’t hear a word I just said, did you?”

I ran the past few seconds through my mind and came up blank. I winced. “Sorry.”

She sighed. “I asked if you were sure about this. And I’m going to guess that’s a no.”

I shook my head. “Not really. But I don’t know what else to do.”

“We could come up with something. I know we could. Something that’d keep your parents away and that Beast thing too. We don’t have to go–”

“We can’t just run away, Baylie. I mean…”

I looked down. The problem was the same as it had always been – where would I go? I couldn’t return to the ocean; the Sylphaen would find me, and that was if that Beast thing didn’t get there first. I couldn’t take off on land either. Olivia was right; I’d surely run into a cop sooner or later, and they’d only try to force me go home.

And meanwhile, Baylie had a life. We’d joked about running away together when we were little, but that’s what kids did. It bore no connection to reality. She couldn’t simply go be homeless with me for however long it took this mess to end.

“There aren’t really any options,” I said.

Baylie grimaced. “Maybe not
many
, but that doesn’t mean–”

The door opened and she cut off.

“You guys alright?” Ellie asked.

I nodded.

With a glance to the house, Ellie stepped outside and then shut the door behind her. “Listen, I just wanted to say I think you’re doing the right thing. Olivia can help.”

I didn’t answer. Biting her lip, Ellie hesitated and then sank down on the porch. Leaning back against the rails, she drew her legs up, hugging them close.

“You okay?” I asked.

She nodded.

I waited, but nothing else came.

“You didn’t tell her about Noah,” I said, a question in the statement somewhere.

She shifted position. “Well, he…” Her gaze twitched back to the house and a weird look flashed over her face, almost like a tremulous smile, swiftly smothered when she dropped her gaze to her knees. “Secrets, right?” she finished with a tiny shrug. “It’s not mine.”

Baylie’s eyebrows rose slightly. “Well, um… okay.”

“Thanks,” I added.

Ellie nodded again, not looking up at us.

I glanced to Baylie. Her brow hadn’t come back down.

And my own expression probably wasn’t too different. Ellie liked Noah.

I wondered if he knew.

“So,” Baylie tried. “Where are these people Olivia wants us to meet?”

“She’s setting up a place,” Ellie said, giving no sign she’d noticed our surprise. “Probably her office. They’re scattered, though. It’ll take a few hours for them to get here.”

“Office?”

Ellie shrugged at Baylie’s question. “She’s an insurance broker. She’s got an office close to downtown.”

I paused. I’d always associated insurance salespeople with being only slightly less scaly than snakes. After all, the one insurance guy in Reidsburg had always looked like he had some kind of profit-sharing deal with the used car salesman next door.

Olivia didn’t seem like that at all.

At least, I hoped.

“What do you know about them?” I asked.

Ellie hesitated. “Not a
huge
amount,” she allowed awkwardly. “Like I said, the elders are kind of scattered. They want it that way so, if anything happens like a fire or whatever, we don’t lose all the stuff from our history. The stuff that can’t be put on computers, anyway. But I mostly work with Olivia. I only started helping Grandpa this summer, and I’ve met just a few of the others. They don’t get together more than a couple times a year in person, and usually just talk online using code language and other stuff that… well, that Olivia hasn’t really taught me a lot of yet.”

I tried not to grimace. That didn’t exactly fill me with confidence.

“How’d you get involved in this, anyway?” Baylie asked. “Is it like a family thing?”

Ellie nodded. “More or less, yeah. I mean, if they think you’re smart enough and teachable enough to be worth the time to train, then it is. Mom and Dad could have been elders, easy. They just weren’t into it. Mom prefers teaching and Dad loves his job as a programmer, so…” She shrugged. “But we’d visit Grandpa for the holidays and the two of us would spend hours talking about history or looking at all the cool things in his study…” She seemed embarrassed. “You probably think I’m a total dork.”

“No,” Baylie assured her. “Of course we don’t.”

I made a noise of agreement. I was the kid with the psycho parents who’d grounded her for coming near a yard sprinkler, and I could count on one hand the times I’d had an actual
conversation
with my mom or dad – since in my book, lectures and arguments and screaming matches didn’t exactly count.

Ellie’s childhood sounded great from my perspective.

“Okay,” Ellie said, a shy smile hovering around her mouth. “But yeah, the elder stuff is mostly a family thing. I just work with Olivia because she lives closer to us than Grandpa. Her grandmother was an elder, though, and Grandpa’s uncle trained him. Your mentor keeps teaching you till they think you’re ready and… and sometimes that can take a while.”

My brow flickered down at the hint of discomfort in her tone.

The door to the house opened again. Olivia stuck her head outside.

“Ellie, your parents are on the phone. They’d like to speak with you.” She paused. “I get the impression your grandfather’s been calling them.”

“You think he knows we’re here?” I asked, tensing.

“Probably not for certain,” Olivia allowed. “Though I suspect he’ll think of it.” She returned her gaze to Ellie. “But your mom and dad are worried. They say they’ve been trying to reach you.”

The girl grimaced. “I was going to call…”

“Talk to them now. And you two,” she looked to me and Baylie, “wake your friends. We’re going to meet several of the others outside town. Harman knows where my office is located, so that’s not the safest place. We’ll head out in a few minutes so that if anyone
does
come looking, they won’t find you regardless.”

I swallowed. I didn’t want to think about the greliarans or who-knew-what-else coming after us again. I’d be happy if they all just stayed on the other side of the country forever. Or the world.

“Alright,” I agreed with a jerky nod.

Olivia ducked back inside. Ellie climbed to her feet and followed.

I glanced to Baylie, seeing the same tension on her face that I could feel on my own.

“I’ll go wake up Noah,” she said tightly.

“Thanks.”

We rose and headed into the house, the bright summer day feeling so much more threatening than before.

Chapter Five

Zeke

Consciousness returned at the feeling of a hand shaking me. I tried not to groan. I couldn’t have been out for very long. Everything in my body was still attempting to drag me back down to sleep like I was wrapped in anchor chains.

Blinking tiredly, I looked over to find Chloe crouched beside me.

“Hey,” I said, a smile spreading over my face as my exhaustion quickly became second in my priorities.

My hand reached from beneath the blankets to slide around her waist.

She tensed. “Hey,” she answered, pulling back a bit.

I stopped. Confused, I glanced around the room, noting that Noah was nowhere to be seen.

And yet she still didn’t want me to touch her. That wasn’t exactly a good sign.

“What is it?” I asked cautiously, pushing away from the cushions to rest my weight on an elbow.

“Olivia thinks Harman will figure out we’re here. She wants us to pack up and leave with her, so if he or the greliarans come by, they won’t find us.”

My brow climbed.

“Yeah,” she said, glancing up briefly to catch my expression.

She moved away from the couch, giving me room.

I pushed the blankets aside and stood. “Does she know how soon they might be here?”

Chloe shook her head.

I paused. She wasn’t quite looking at me and her gaze kept twitching to the hall.

“Chloe, I–”

The sound of footsteps cut me off. I looked up to see Noah coming down the stairs after Baylie. He appeared exhausted too, and he was blinking as if trying to clear the sleep from his eyes.

With an aborted glance to him, Chloe retreated toward the kitchen.

I saw him hesitate, watching her. Keeping myself from scowling, I followed her and, a heartbeat later, heard Noah do the same.

By a kitchen counter, Olivia was zipping up a blue cooler bag. In the corner, Ellie stood clutching the phone to her ear, more nervousness on her face than normal.

Which was saying something.

“So have any of you been to Colorado before?” Olivia asked with a smile when we came in.

I shook my head and the others did the same.

“We’re going to take the Midnight Cave trail just outside town. It’s closed right now – rockslide damage – but one of the rangers owes me a favor. It’ll make a good place to meet the others where we won’t be disturbed.”

“Sounds nice,” Baylie offered when no one else replied.

Ellie hung up the phone.

“Everything alright?” Chloe asked.

The girl paused. “He… he
is
coming here. One of his assistants is driving him.”

Chloe’s skin seemed to lose any trace of color. I reached out, putting a hand to her back.

She flinched and her head twitched toward me. Her face tightened, that same unwilling look flashing through her eyes.

I hesitated and then let my hand drop away.

“He told my parents we had a fight,” Ellie continued. “They want me to come home.”

Olivia nodded. “That’s fine. You probably should.”

Ellie’s brow furrowed with hurt. “But–”

“Actually,” Chloe interrupted, a strange expression on her face. “If it’s okay with you, I’d prefer Ellie come with us.”

Olivia paused.

“She can spot the greliarans working with her grandfather,” Chloe continued, not taking her eyes from the woman.

Olivia made a hedging noise. “There’s really no need. If I don’t recognize someone who comes to the meeting–”

“Please.”

The woman hesitated again and then nodded. “Call them back,” she said to Ellie. “Tell them I have a bit of training for you today and you’ll be home soon.”

Ellie nodded quickly. With a grateful glance to Chloe, she hurried to the phone.