Tide | Tide Book One (Free Sample)

Four

He didn't wait to consider it further; he sprinted ahead again, barely giving me time to make out where his shadowy form had gone. I could find my way home blind, but Edrick couldn't. I rushed to keep pace with him.

We bolted past a few stray people. I wanted to stop them, to tell them to come with us where it might be safe, but none of them gave us the chance. They hurried on their way in a mindless frenzy. I didn't let myself think about what they were doing or what they might run into. I kept going. The rain and wind grew, swelling into a storm worse than we'd had yet this summer, and I knew it was no coincidence. The rain blurred my vision, and Edrick became a murky form I had to search for every few yards. More than once I lost sight of him until he shouted my name. The buildings ceased to be landmarks; they were now dark, looming shapes that might be the tidespeople themselves. In minutes we lost track of where we were.

I stopped in the middle of the street, turning a circle and trying to find anything that would tell me the quickest way to the farm. "Edrick, I don't know where we are. Which way do we go?"

There was no answer. "Edrick?" Nothing.

Panic rose in my chest, and I stamped it down, not allowing it to settle into a fog in my head. I needed to think. I pushed dripping hair out of my face, knocking a flower to the ground. "Edrick!" I tried again, but to no avail. In the distance I heard shouting, but it was indistinct, dozens of people desperate for help. Another scream ripped through the air, and I squeezed my eyes shut as if that would stop it. I didn't want to hear what was happening.

All I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears. My voice came out thin, whipped away by the storm. "Edrick, answer me! Please!"

A growl responded instead—not the growl of an animal but the growl of something else, something that sent chills clawing down my spine. I turned, and my blood became as cold as the rain. A shadowy figure crept from between two buildings, eyes trained on me. At first, all I could see was a towering shape like a person but wrong; its legs were the wrong shape, its arms too long, its body distorted. It hunched over, but stood taller than me. Flashes of lightning lit up and let me see rough, scaly skin and jagged claws. Fangs twisted over its lips. Simple furs and leathers hung off its frame and ropes of shells around its neck. Its features were beastly, terrible and unnatural, and I choked on a scream.

I had listened to the stories and imagined the tidespeople. I had stared at the murals for hours. I'd memorized the swirling greens and blues and golds, but never had I thought of them like this. This thing was not a person at all. It reeked of rotted fish, the stench rolling off its gray-green flesh, and its eyes gleamed with nothing but bloodlust. I staggered back a step, but it did no good; it followed twice as quick.

"Please," I managed, though I had no idea if it understood. My shaking legs couldn't hold me, and I half-fell to the ground. I took the opportunity to scramble for anything I could use as a weapon—a stone or a discarded piece of wood, anything at all—but found only a few pebbles. I threw them, but they just bounced off it. It gave another guttural sound and lunged.

I shoved myself to my feet, slipping on the mud and slick stone beneath me, and before I made it full a step it caught my wrist. I screamed as its claws tore into my skin and my arm yanked back hard, too hard. I was sure something in my shoulder popped. In an instant, I was on the ground and staring at the creature.

I was going to die here. It was going to kill me.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't move. I stared and waited.

Not yet. I didn't want to die yet. Not like this.

I brought my leg up without thinking, kicking the creature's shoulder with all the force I could manage as its claws swung toward me. Its grip on my arm vanished, and I rolled away. My feet wouldn't cooperate once I got them beneath me, but I forced them to keep going. They slid, my knee touching the ground again, but worked. The slick sound of feet on wet stone echoed behind me as the creature followed, snarling its irritation at my escape.