Free Jaden (St. Sebastians Quartet #1) by Heather Elizabeth King Page B

companion, you couldn't help but not fit in. She was an outcast and a misfit everywhere she went. She didn't have the world at her fingertips. She wasn't rich. She didn't even know what she'd be doing three months from now, or even where she'd be living. She wasn't the kind of woman a man like Kenda would fall in love with. She was the kind of woman a man like Kenda would want to have fun with. As in, a one-night stand, or at most, a summer fling.
    Something brushed by her foot.
    Startled, she looked into the water. She cried out when she saw the shadow of something large swim past her leg in the water. On instinct, she drew her feet up, but she wasn't fast enough. Whatever it was, it grabbed her ankle and pulled her forward, dragging her from the edge of the pool and below the surface of the water.
    She tried to scream, but her mouth filled with water. She tried to kick away from whatever it was that was holding her, but it was too strong. She kicked and flung her arms out, but she couldn't break free.
    Her eyes started to burn from the chlorine, but she had to see. She couldn't close her eyes.
    Then, before her, the entire world changed. The water began to harden around her. She was suddenly at the bottom of a ravine. No, not a ravine. A cavern. An enormous cavern. She was down at the very bottom and couldn't see the top. And there were people. She was staring up at thousands and thousands of people, but they'd been enclosed in man-made tombs built into the rock walls surrounding her.
    Where was she? Who were those people? Why were they entombed in white sheaths?
    But that wasn't right. Instantly, she knew that was wrong. The water around her wasn't merely hardening and the people weren't entombed in white sheaths. The water was hardening to ice. And the people around her had been entombed in ice.
    This, she realized, was the White World. Somehow, she was in the White World. But she hadn't been sleeping. She knew she hadn't been sleeping.
    She screamed again.
    More water filled her mouth.
    She couldn't die like this.
    She couldn't breathe, couldn't get away from the hand that was holding her.
    One of the frozen figures jolted. Then it moved. The next moment it was flying toward her. She couldn't help it, she screamed again, swallowing more water.
    The icy figure came at her fast, then stopped inches from her face.
    She screamed again, kicked wildly, struck out, but she couldn't free herself.
    "Help us, Kesi," the figure said. "Come home to Chimera and free us."
    Something warm touched her lips. She cried out again, but this time, her mouth didn't fill with water. So she screamed again and again. She fought against the arms that encircled her, clawed at them. She had to break free.
    "Jaden. Jaden, it's me."
    The arms tightened, holding her so close that she could barely move.
    "Jaden."
    She recognized that voice.
    She wasn't drowning anymore.
    Blinking, she looked around. "Where'd they go? Where'd they go!" The entombed people were gone. The frozen figure was gone. The hand around her ankle was gone. She was back in her aunt's yard beside the pool and someone was holding her.
    "Who? Jaden. Who was here?"
    She turned to look at the speaker and nearly cried in relief.
    "Kenda." Without thinking, she wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled close to him. The warmth of his body surrounded her; comforted her.
    He was nodding and stroking her hair so gently she wanted to cry.
    "I'm here. It's okay," he told her, pulling her tight against his body.
    She looked around, making sure the world didn't change on her again. She was breathing hard, but still couldn't manage to catch her breath. The sweet taste of fresh air was too good. She gulped it down.
    "It's all right," Kenda said. "You're all right."
    She shook her head. "It's not all right. I was sitting here by the pool, right here. I was awake, and he pulled me in." She looked around again, "I don't know if it was a dream or real. But he tried to kill me, Kenda. He reached out