Return (Awakened Fate Book 3) by Skye Malone Page A

care.”
    They stared at him.
    “Zeke’s saved my life over the past few weeks, Mom. He’s done it more times than I can count, even when it meant he might die.” I trembled. “Dehaians aren’t monsters, no matter what those stories say.”
    She blinked as she dropped her gaze from his. “It’s still not safe,” she persisted. “He shouldn’t even be able to be here–”
    “Everything we know says your kind can’t go much more than a hundred miles from a coast,” Dad said to Zeke, a note of challenge in his voice. “And yet here you are.”
    Zeke glanced to me, not answering.
    “I did that,” I supplied quietly.
    Mom’s brow furrowed.
    “I don’t know how,” I continued before they could ask. “I just know that it’s working.”
    She glanced to Dad, obviously seeking help. “T-that may be, but he still needs to leave. If he becomes sick at the wrong moment…”
    “If he goes, I go.”
    She looked back at me in alarm. “Chloe, you–”
    “I mean it.”
    My heart raced as Mom stared at me, her brow twitching down. I’d never gotten away with demands like this. Ever. But they weren’t acting like themselves, and this was important. I didn’t know, if he left, how far Zeke could travel before the pull of the ocean came back.
    And killed him.
    With effort, Mom tugged her gaze to Dad. “Bill?” she tried.
    Dad drew a slow breath. “Alright. Fine. The boy will stay… for now.”
    Without another word, he pushed to his feet and headed for the hall. Mom rose from the couch as well, hesitancy written all over her.
    “Well, um… in that case… are you hungry?” she asked. “I could cook something?”
    I stared at her, so taken back by her uncharacteristic behavior, I didn’t quite know what to do.
    “Uh, sure,” I answered, knowing we’d both eaten only a few hours before and could probably keep going for a day or two if necessary. But I couldn’t tell her that. She almost seemed desperate. “Food would be nice.”
    She nodded. Clutching her hands together, she started for the kitchen, only to balk at Zeke still standing in the archway.
    He stepped aside. She skirted past him.
    His brow rose as he glanced back at me.
    I shook my head in bafflement. Getting up from the chair, I walked over to him. He took my hand and I drew a breath, feeling a bit of my tension leak out just at having him there.
    “Chloe,” Dad called.
    I tensed all over again. I looked down the hall to find him at the base of the stairs.
    “You should probably get cleaned up before dinner.”
    I hesitated, reading the stern way he was watching us.
    Zeke squeezed my hand. I glanced back.
    “Be right here,” he whispered.
    My lip twitched up in a grateful smile.
    “Chloe,” Dad said again, his voice even harder.
    “Coming,” I replied.
    Squeezing Zeke’s hand as well, I nodded and then headed for the stairs.
     
    ~~~~~
     
    The steps creaked under me and when I reached the second floor, everything was still. Not bothering to look back to where I knew Dad watched me at the base of the stairs, I continued down the brown-carpeted hallway, only to pause when I came to the white wood of my bedroom door.
    My hand rose and the door swung aside at my touch. Reaching past the doorframe, I flipped on the light.
    Sterile white walls with pictures of the Sahara met my gaze. The brown quilt with its crosshatched patterns of wheat covered my twin bed against the far wall. A few snapshots of me and Baylie stood on the oak dresser, trapped in bronze frames. On the window, the heavy, tan curtains were closed, sealing out the darkness.
    I barely felt like I recognized it all. Only a few weeks had passed, but in that time I’d lived under the ocean. I’d swum with royalty through a palace the size of a mountain and fled from mercenaries God-knew-how-far beneath the sea.
    And now…
    A shaky breath left me. I stepped into the room, feeling like I was walking into another reality. The backpack I’d taken to California was tucked