Arise (Awakened Fate Book 4) Read Free Page B

the hallway, a bright glow spilled through the arched entrance. A metal-legged table stood in the middle of the kitchen, while an old, white-enameled gas stove waited to the right with a tea kettle getting ready to whistle on its top.
    Olivia crossed to the stovetop and removed the kettle quickly. Turning back, she motioned for us all to take seats around the table. Her ever-present worry still in her eyes, Ellie ghosted over to the cabinets and retrieved a box of instant cocoa and several mugs.
    I pulled back a chair, wincing at the scrape of the metal legs across the checkered tile, and then sat down next to Baylie. Zeke and Noah paused, and then Zeke sank into the chair at my side.
    The muscles of Noah’s jaw jumped. He took a seat next to his stepsister.
    I looked away.
    “So…” the woman began while Ellie opened a packet of hot chocolate mix. “Like Ellie said, my name is Olivia.”
    Baylie glanced to me. “I’m Baylie,” she replied warily.
    “Chloe,” I said.
    “Noah.”
    “Zeke.”
    The woman paused and then cast a quick look to Ellie when nothing more came. “I take it you all had a… well, how was your trip?”
    No one answered while Ellie set the mugs down in front of us.
    “We need your help,” Ellie said.
    Olivia waited.
    Ellie’s gaze twitched to me. “I didn’t know what to say on the phone. It’s just… things with Grandpa got bad. Complicated bad. He…” She exhaled. “You know how you told me he sometimes can take a hard view on things?”
    The woman nodded.
    Ellie glanced to us. “He… well, he did. And he, um… he hurt them. Because Chloe and Zeke are dehaians.”
    Olivia’s brow climbed. Her gaze went back to us.
    “Well, Zeke, really. And Chloe… she’s half-landwalker. But also dehaian. She survived the change.”
    The woman’s brow rose higher as she stared at us. I tried not to fidget under the scrutiny.
    “Grandpa tried to take that away from her, though,” Ellie continued. “Well, I mean, her parents wanted – her landwalker parents, that is. Sort of. They adopted her. I think that’s what Grandpa said. Her mom was the sister of the man who raised her, and then she died so he and his wife adopted her. Or…”
    Ellie’s tangled explanation failed her and she looked to me.
    I hesitated briefly and then nodded.
    She exhaled, echoing the motion. “Yeah, so they wanted him to take the dehaian stuff away. But Olivia, she survived . She actually became one of them.”
    The woman didn’t respond. I couldn’t read her expression. Without taking her eyes from me, she accepted a mug of cocoa from Ellie and stood holding it for a long moment in silence.
    “You saw her change?” Olivia asked Ellie.
    My face darkened at the implication.
    “Well, she…” Ellie looked to me. “Could you, like, maybe show your, um…?”
    She gestured haltingly to my forearms.
    I hesitated again before making the spikes come out.
    A breath pressed from Olivia’s chest. She glanced to Zeke. “And you?”
    Zeke didn’t respond.
    “He’s full-blood dehaian,” Ellie supplied in a tiny voice. “And Grandpa… he wanted to do testing.”
    Olivia paused for a heartbeat, and then her gaze returned to me.
    I couldn’t stop myself from shifting under her study this time. It just didn’t seem to end.
    “What about your friends?” she asked finally, her focus moving to Baylie and Noah.
    From the corner of my eye, I saw Noah tense while Ellie opened her mouth to speak.
    “Just friends,” I answered.
    Ellie closed her mouth, appearing uncomfortable.
    I didn’t look away from the woman. There wasn’t anything particularly important about keeping Noah’s greliaran identity a secret – except that if Olivia turned out to be a threat, having someone around whom she’d underestimate might save our lives. She’d already gotten more information from us than we’d gotten from her, and there was no telling what she’d do with it all.
    A shiver moved through me. I couldn’t believe