Series: Awakened Fate (Book One)
Author: Skye Malone
Genre: Young Adult Paranormal Romance
Publisher: Wildflower Isle
Publication Date: June 3, 2014
Running away from home was never Chloe Kowalski's plan. Neither was ending up the target of killers, or having her body change in unusual ways. She only wanted a vacation, someplace far from her crazy parents and their irrational fear of water. She only wanted to do something normal for once, and maybe get to know her best friend's hot stepbrother a bit better at the same time.
But the first day she goes out on the ocean, strange things start to happen. Dangerous things that should be impossible. Things to which 'normal' doesn't even begin to apply.
Now madmen are hunting her. A mysterious guy with glowing blue eyes is following her. And her best friend's stepbrother seems to be hiding secrets all his own.
It was supposed to be a vacation. It's turning out to be a whole lot more.
Purchase:
99¢ for a limited time!
Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback | B&N | iTunes | Smashwords
----------------------------------------------------------------
Excerpt
Zeke
I’d been out near the Santa Lucina coast for a few hours,
ever since leaving Nyciena earlier that morning, and I hadn’t found any sign of
Ina the entire time. I knew she liked to visit here – the surfers were a
favorite of hers to watch – but this time, it seemed she’d tried to be a bit
more conniving about sneaking away from home.
Coming to a stop in the water, I grimaced. At this time of
day, she was probably joining some tourists for a cookout on the beach or
playing around with some new guy she’d spotted on the sands. She had clothes
stashed everywhere, did my twin sister, and she loved an excuse to party with
humans.
I sighed and checked around briefly. This close to land,
nothing below the water was much of a threat, since divers were even simpler to
spot after dark and most sharks knew better than to mess with a dehaian.
Fishing boats were similarly not a problem, since they were easy to hear from
miles away and stank besides. Assured that in my annoyance at Ina, I hadn’t
missed anything, I flicked my tail in the water and sent myself up to the
surface. Air burned on my skin for the heartbeat it took my body to adjust, and
I scanned the beach, my eyes compensating easily for the dark.
It was absurd that I
had to be the responsible one.
My grimace returned. I could have been home right now,
making friends with the Deiliora twins. Ina wasn’t the only one who enjoyed a
party, and damn if those girls weren’t sexy as hell. And even if that hadn’t
worked out, there was also the sirabal championship for all of Yvaria tonight,
and I’d wagered three-to-one that the Nycienan Hammerheads would take the title
this season.
But instead I was spending the evening hunting for my
sister.
Scanning the shore, I didn’t see Ina among the tourists and
beachgoers on the sand. She might’ve decided to find some cove from which to
watch the storm brewing back out on the water, however, which meant she could
be anywhere. Muttering a curse, I dove down again and headed farther up the
coastline.
It wasn’t even like it was my job to go after her. Dad had
any number of people he could have ordered to the task. Hell, he could have
sent either of our older brothers as well. But Dad also knew Ina made a game of
evading them all where she didn’t with me, which meant I got pulled away from
my plans and sent to chase her down.
Again.
The water shivered.
I stopped, and then kicked hard up to the surface and
scanned the coast.
Everything was the same. There was no earthquake. No
explosion. I spun in the water, looking out to sea, but besides the
thunderstorm rolling in from a few miles away, nothing at all had changed.
Except quivers still ran through the water around me, like
someone had dropped an electrical wire into the ocean.
My brow drew down as I turned back toward the shore. A fire
pit burned by a mansion up on top of the bluffs and bright lights shone on a
handful of people playing volleyball. Down by the shoreline, a guy sat on a
boulder in the shadows, watching a beautiful girl with auburn hair as she
dipped her feet into the water.
I paused, studying her. Moonlight glistened on her pale skin
and she smiled as her gaze ran across the dark waves. She gave no sign she
noticed anything strange about the water. She just radiated calm, as though in
the whole world, she was right where she wanted to be.
And her skin was changing.
My alarm returned.
A pale shimmer crept up her legs, the iridescence so faint
that only the right angle of the moonlight revealed the alteration. My eyes
narrowed, my vision sharpening enough to pick out the hint of scaling inching
up from the waterline toward her calves.
And then she turned, seeming startled by a word from the
boy, and the iridescence began to swiftly melt away. She hesitated, saying
something I couldn’t make out, and then she walked back toward him, leaving the
waves and crossing the sand to sit by his side.
The quiver in the water vanished.
My brow climbed.
There was no way she’d been causing that.
----------------------------------------------------------------
About Skye
Author Biography: Skye Malone is a fantasy and paranormal romance author, which means she spends most of her time not-quite-convinced that the things she imagines couldn't actually exist.
Born and raised in central Illinois, she hopes someday to travel the world – though in the meantime she’ll take any story that whisks her off to a place where the fantastic lives inside the everyday. She loves strong and passionate characters, complex villains, and satisfying endings that stay with you long after the book is done. An inveterate writer, she can’t go a day without getting her hands on a keyboard, and can usually be found typing away while she listens to all the adventures unfolding in her head.
Skye also writes YA urban fantasy as Megan Joel Peterson and is the author of The Children and the Blood trilogy.
