Chapter Three

 

Noah

 

From the corner of my eye, I watched Ari. Sitting on the bed, she focused on Maia and Dhanya with a quivering sort of intensity, like she was trying to burn the details of everything they said into her brain by sheer force of will. For their part, they were holding it together, though Maia still looked like she wanted to cry. Jace hadn’t turned around. He stood, staring stone-like out the window.

Meanwhile, I wanted to find those judge bastards and make them remember in vivid detail exactly why they’d spent centuries hiding from the Beast.

I closed my eyes, fighting down the rage. It wouldn’t help Ari. She needed to concentrate right now.

“Noah?” Baylie asked quietly. “Can I talk to you?”

It was hard to keep from grimacing. I’d known this was coming, and honestly, I needed to speak to her too.

But that didn’t make it any less awkward.

“Yeah.”

I glanced at Jace. He still hadn’t moved.

“Outside?” I suggested, keeping my voice low.

She nodded. Her gaze darted to Ari and the others, and then she headed out of the room. I followed, tugging the now-dented door closed behind us.

Baylie walked down the sidewalk toward the SUV and then rounded on me as soon as she reached it. “Are you okay?”

I hesitated. Of all the questions I thought she wanted to ask, that hadn’t been the one I’d expected, although in reality, I probably should have.

“Yeah.”

“Really? Because I—”

“I’m fine,” I cut in, not wanting to talk about it.

She paused. “Then is that what I think it is? On Ari. That ‘swimsuit’ thing?”

I checked around to make sure none of the others had come outside where they might hear us. “Yeah.”

“She’s dehaian?” Baylie whispered. “They took her memory and made her—”

“No.”

Baylie waited.

“She’s something else,” I explained uncomfortably. “They called it strakirin. Some experiment the judges are running. I’ve never seen anything like it. But I don’t think she’s ready for her family to know that.”

Baylie looked down the length of the motel as if she could see the others in the room.

“Just keep it quiet for now, okay?” I asked her.

She hesitated before nodding.

I forced myself to continue. “There’s something I need to talk to you about too.”

She glanced back to me.

“I need to warn Zeke,” I told her. “There was a dehaian at that lab, one who worked with the judges to set Yvaria up. And he’s not the only one. Some dehaians also made it look like Zeke’s soldiers attacked a party last week and killed several ruanir. The judges said something about rallying their people against Yvaria. I think they’re trying to start a war.”

I paused. This was going to be the hard part. “Which is where I need your help. I can’t leave Ari. This connection… too much distance between us still hurts. So I need you to go back and get in touch with Chloe and have her talk to Zeke. Warn him since I can’t. Please.”

She stared at me. “You want me to… Noah, I’m not going to leave.”

“We can’t keep them in the dark about this, Baylie. I don’t know what the judges’ plan is, but Chloe and Zeke are in danger. They have to be. These guys want a war, and with what they did to Ari…” I shook my head. “They drained something from me, something they were going to keep giving to her. And since it was whatever the hell she took from me that started this whole mess, I can’t guarantee the judges won’t begin again and try this on someone else. Zeke has to know what’s going on.”

Baylie turned away.

“Please,” I pressed.

She exhaled, her teeth grinding. “No.”

“Baylie—”

“No, I’m not leaving you! Listen, you need me. If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be on that beach, probably with those enforcer things closing in.”

I fought to keep from scowling at her. I would’ve figured something out, found someplace Ari could hide until we could contact Maia or Dhanya, since both of them probably still had their cell phones. Or I would’ve convinced Ari to go back into the ocean. It would’ve been fine.

“Noah, I can help,” Baylie insisted. “I’ll call Diane. Ask her to look for the dehaians. Chloe and Zeke always leave a few people stationed on the beach these days, in case we need to get in touch with them while they’re underwater. If they see your stepmom looking around, they’ll come talk to her. She can tell them your message, okay?”

“It’ll go faster if you’re there.”

“How?”

“One less person to pass the information through. If you have to talk to Diane first—”

Baylie scoffed. “That’s ridiculous. It’ll take ten seconds to tell Diane what to say.”

“Maybe, but—”

“Maybe nothing. You’re being silly.”

“No, I just—”

“What, you think I can’t—”

“Dammit, I don’t want you to come!”

She stopped. I looked away.

“These bastards are dangerous, okay?” I worked to make my voice calmer. “I don’t want you or anyone else involved. I appreciate how you helped—and you did—but please, let me keep you out of this.”

She was silent for a moment. “What happened?” she asked, her voice carefully controlled. “Back wherever they had Ari, before you took off for the ocean?”

I didn’t respond.

“Because Noah, it felt…” A breath left her. “It felt like you were dying. Like I could feel you dying in my mind. And Ari said—” Baylie closed her eyes for a second. “You claim you’re okay, but I haven’t picked up on pain from you like that since… ever. Not even when they linked you two together. Because that wasn’t her this time, right? That was you.”

I struggled for a response. I couldn’t get into that. The judges had built a trap specifically designed to drain whatever magic Ari needed from me, and then to kill me when they were through. It would’ve worked, if not for Ari destroying the machines with her own powers.

I didn’t remember much of the rest. The part of me that was the Beast had taken over long before the cage walls came down. I remembered people screaming, remembered lifting Ari out of that place while the ceiling crashed to the ground. Everything else was a blur of rage and pain from what the judges had been doing to us.

I should’ve known Baylie would feel it all.

“I don’t want you involved,” I repeated.

She exhaled roughly, like she was holding back tears. “So I’m right.”

“We can call Diane and Dad, have them come pick you up. We’re going to be here for a few hours so that should give them a chance to—”

She turned and started back toward the motel room.

“Baylie!” I grabbed her arm. She yanked it away. “Baylie, you can’t—”

“You don’t tell me what I can’t do!” She glared at me. “I’m not leaving. You’re my family. I’m not going to simply sit at home and hope everything turns out alright.” She trembled, furious. “I had to do that last year.”

I stared at her, frozen for a moment, but I couldn’t meet her eyes for long.

“I am going with you,” she insisted.

“You—”

“It’s done!” Her voice broke. “Okay, Noah? End of discussion.”

I wanted to keep arguing. Of anyone here, she could get the most hurt. She wasn’t like me. She didn’t have magic like Ari or Jace or the others. She was human and vulnerable and I wanted to protect her.

Especially since she was my family.

“Come on.” Baylie motioned toward the motel room. “We can’t just stay out here.”

“I hate this,” I told her.

“Makes two of us, then.” She started toward the door, pulling out her cell to call Diane as she went.

Biting back the urge to swear vehemently at her, at myself, at the entire situation, I followed.