by Kristen Day
Her piercing blue eyes and grim face were locked on Isadora. “I don’t have time for this. Get the ring.”
“Yes, Priscilla.” Isadora produced a velvet pouch from a small bag in the sand. The pouch was peculiarly similar to the one my necklace had come in. She opened it and handed the contents to Priscilla.
“We need to make sure you’ re the true Anastasia before we go about killing you, now don’t we?” She sauntered toward me as her blonde hair blew in the ocean breeze, giving her an unearthly quality. I didn’t understand how someone so beautiful could be so corrupt. She wrapped her long skinny fingers around my left hand and slid the ring on to my finger. It was a stone shaped like a tear drop in a black metal setting. An aquamarine. It reminded me of a drop of pristine water the color of my eyes. It took my breath away and matched my necklace perfectly. I examined Priscilla’s face unsure as to why she was giving this to me now. She was staring intently at the ring as if waiting for something to happen. Confused, I glanced back down too. The large aquamarine stone sparkled brightly and the skin beneath warmed, slowly growing hotter. The heat spread up my hand and wrapped around my wrist to my trace. The heat turned to a burning fire and I watched in awe as the trace on my wrist began to expand. From the three spirals, the seaweed began creeping and twisting outward creating a beautiful design in and of itself. It wound back around my wrist and up toward the ring. Finally it encircled my finger and stopped. In shock, I looked up at Priscilla. She was leering at me with wicked excitement.
“Excellent.” She slowly walked back to Isadora. I stared at my newly elaborated trace with bewilderment. I looked over at Kira who was now crying so hard, her whole body was shaking. The fiery resolve cloaked my heart once more.
“Why are you doing this!?” I challenged Priscilla. She twisted around, appalled at my outburst. I thought I heard her hiss.
“You are in our way. You are the only thing that stands between the Sirens and complete and absolute power of all Tydes. Keto is our true leader now and nothing,” her approaching steps were menacing as she stared daggers at me, “nothing is going to stand in her way.”
“You can’t kill me. Everyone will be looking for me. They’ll figure out what you’ve done.” I informed her calmly.
“We’re already two steps ahead of you, sweet Anastasia. We won’t be killing you tonight.
Your precious Kira will be doing the honors.” She smiled at Kira, who was now screaming and struggling against her bindings. Isadora opened her mouth and began to sing. Kira’s body went limp as she stared dumbfounded at Isadora. I immediately blocked out the song, not allowing it to enter my conscious. Priscilla smiled at me knowingly, and then slowly bent over Kira, undoing her bindings.
She ripped the tape off of her mouth, but Kira didn’t even flinch. She continued to look fixedly at Isadora. Priscilla handed her something I recognized from a previous vision. A long silver dagger.
“No! You can’t do this!” I screamed at Priscilla.
“Of course I can,” she smiled at me innocently, then allowed the evil to drip down her face.
She radiated darkness. And not the good, comforting kind like Finn. This darkness was all-
consuming, devouring anything in its path. She stepped aside as Kira got to her feet, grasping the dagger tightly. Kira’s gaze shifted to me and I noticed that her usually warm green eyes had turned into hollow black holes. Panic started to build in my chest as I watched her slowly slink towards me.
I had to concentrate. I had to think. I was the direct descendent of Thetis! I had her essence running through my veins. I was destined to be stronger than any other Tyde or Neried. But I didn’t know what to do. My essence was useless if I couldn’t figure out how to use it. I let my resolve turn back into unadulterated rage and handed it over willingly to my heart and soul. I relaxed as I allowed it to engulf me; strengthen me. I felt my necklace and ring warm as the inner glow spread outwards again, drenching every cell in my body with energy. Wind, sea, and shore. Wind, sea, and shore.
As she stepped closer and closer, I concentrated on the sand around me. I planted both of my feet firmly and drew a circle with my eyes. My imaginary circle in the sand began to tremble and I waited for Kira to step inside. She was still staring at me blankly, blade drawn and pointed directly at me. The moment her back foot breached the circle, I raised my bound hands and a wall of sand shot up around us, blocking out the rest of the world as well as Isadora’s poisonous song. Kira was instantly released from her trance and looked around confused. She gawked at the knife she was holding, then at me, and threw it down in disgust. She ran to me in a panic.
“Stasia! Oh my god! What was I about to do!?” The waterworks had started up again.
“It was Isadora, not you. Listen to me, Kira,” she tried her best to hold in her sobs and took a deep shaky breath, “I need you to untie my bindings.” She nodded and frantically unfastened the bindings around my legs and hands. I could tell that this had been an incredibly traumatic experience for her already, and I wished there was a way I could protect her from the reality of our situation.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.
I let the sand cocoon collapse, and it came crashing back to the ground with the force of an avalanche. I immediately accessed our situation. Both Isadora and Priscilla appeared to be in shock, still trying to figure out what had just happened. The instant they realized I was free from the bindings and Kira was out of her trance, they both began singing. Unable to block them out, Kira once again fell under the guise of their songs. Even for me, it took a great deal of effort to block them out.
It felt like several hundred pounds of pressure weighing down on my entire body, threatening to crush me. In my fight to withstand the onslaught, I didn’t see Kira retrieve the dagger from the sand.
With Kira bearing down on me again, I decided to try out my other supposed abilities; I began channeling every morsel of red hot rage that had been culminating inside of me. I took a deep breath and as I projected outward, a gust of wind exploded outward from around my body, pinning Isadora against a tall palm tree. The force of her body hitting the dense bark of the tree broke her song and I quickly dodged Kira’s strike, easily knocking the knife out of her hand and into the sand. Priscilla appeared in front of me, wrapped her hand around my neck and swiftly lifted me off the ground. She tossed me like a rag doll against a jagged rock, slicing my arm open and knocking the wind out of me.
I watched helplessly as she charged Kira and threw her to the ground in a heap. Then, she lunged for the knife lying in the sand and advanced on me. I tried to move, but the pain in my abdomen wouldn’t allow it. She picked me up by my hair and flung me down in the sand. While I struggled between the need to fight and the excruciating pain, she jumped on top of me, held me down by my throat and lifted the knife in the air with a sickening smile. Squelching the pain, I channeled it into my arms instead and pushed her body off of me. She flew off of me, crumpling on the sand beside me. I scrambled back to my feet, ready to defend myself, but she was unconscious.
Free of her wind prison and eyes burning with hatred, Isadora now began attacking me and wrestling me to the ground. She pulled a second knife from her clothing and swung it down towards my chest. In an instant, she was ripped off of me and thrown against a tree by an unseen force. I rolled over and got to my feet sweeping the beach with my eyes. Priscilla was nowhere to be seen and Kira was lying motionless in the sand. Someone stepped out from the forest and I snatched the other knife from the sand, ready to attack. Her black straight hair and piercing blue eyes caught me off guard. She held up her hands, letting me know she wasn’t going to hurt me.
“Natasha?” I squinted at her, trying to figure out if it was really her. Her eyes widened.
“Stasia, move!” she yelled. I rolled to the right, just in time to see Isadora bring a dagger down in the sand where I had just been. In the same instant, an axe came out of nowhere, hitting her directly in the chest. She collapsed in the sand besi
de me and I watched in horror as the life drained from her flawless face. I tore my eyes away and ran to Kira, desperate to make sure she was still alive. Her leg was drooped over at an odd angle and her face was pale, but she was still breathing.
“Kira!” I called out to her, “Kira!” Her eyelids fluttered, and then slowly opened. They widened in panic and she pulled me down on top of her in a tight hug. I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Stasia, we need to go, Priscilla is still nearby,” Natasha urged me. I inspected Kira’s leg.
“What about Kira? There’s no way she can walk,” I told her frantically.
“Of course I ca-“ She let out an ear splitting scream as she tried to move her leg. I reached out to comfort her when a familiar voice caressed my ears.
“I’ll carry her, but we need to move, Stasia.” He lifted her in his arms with lightning speed and his deep blue eyes took me in. A blanket of security instantly wrapped around me.
“Finn,” I whispered. I was so happy to see him I wanted to cry. I stood and smiled at him.
“Cease this disturbance!” The accompanying shockwave was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. A whole fleet of trucks couldn’t hold a candle to the force that shook my body in that moment. I felt myself fly backwards, hit the ground and heard the sickening sound of breaking bones. Dazed, I painstakingly turned my head looking around for the others. Finn stood in the same spot untouched, but Kira had been ripped from his arms. She was lying a few feet away from me, unconscious. Natasha was stirring to my left, slowly trying to lift herself up off the ground. I tried to sit up too, but my body wasn’t responding. A sharp pain coursed through my left side, leaving me breathless. A pool of thick, wet liquid was already collecting beneath me and a sudden onslaught of dizziness had me closing my eyes. I tried straightening my legs, but they refused to work as well. I leaned my head to the right as someone walked out of the shroud of the dark beach.
She was terrifyingly beautiful; the most incredible contradiction I’d ever laid eyes on. She had a commanding presence that claimed the attention of every living being. The plants seemed to falter amidst her power and the sand glistened beneath her feet. Glittering silver and green scales covered both sides of her body extending from her face down her neck, arms and legs. What could only be described as a dress of dark green kelp was draped halfhazardly around her voluptuous figure, trailing behind her. Long black and dark green hair fell around her shoulders, accentuating her catlike bright green eyes. Keto. She glided to a stop in front of Finn and he bowed his head ever so slightly to her.
“We meet again, Scion.” An amused grin twitched on her lips and I could actually see Finn’s entire body tense in preparation for a fight. Her voice hardened, “What is the meaning of this dissension?”
“Your daughters have conspired to take matters into their own hands.” I could hear the hatred seething from his voice. At this, Priscilla emerged from the forest, her blue eyes wide with panic.
She dropped to her knees. Keto looked down at her lovingly.
“Stand before me, daughter” she commanded her. Priscilla stood, raising her chin with pride.
Keto’s eyes lasered across to Kira, Natasha and finally settled on me. My skin prickled. “The child has returned,” she declared with annoyance.
“You knew about her?!” Priscilla gawked at Keto in surprise.
“Of course. Thetis was my sister. I knew this day would come.”
“And you let her come back? Why haven’t you done something about it?” Priscilla was near madness.
“Do not question my actions, daughter.” Her tone was so steely, the hair on my unmoving arms rose. She shifted her attention to Finn, “She is not yet immortal. Has she not taken the journey to the river?” I spent the next couple of minutes wondering if I had heard her right. As the blood continued pooling around me, my senses became increasingly muted and I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
“She will!” He boomed with fervor, “and she will prevail. She is the rightful leader, not you.”
Keto just smiled at him, but the malice behind it was obvious.
“I will not challenge a lesser being. Once she has made the journey, the time will come.” She looked back at Priscilla, “Return to Lorelei. It is not your place to interfere with the destiny of the Nerieds.” Priscilla shrank beneath the weight of her reprimand. Keto looked directly into my now hazy eyes and my thoughts halted under her glare.
“We will meet again, Anastasia, ” she threatened straight to my mind. A trickle of fear ran through me, followed swiftly by another bout of rage. Her dress of kelp swirled around her in a dramatic fashion as she turned to leave and she disappeared back into the darkness of the beach. Finn immediately turned and unexpectedly stopped beside Natasha first to make sure she was okay. I found that odd, since she was sitting up while Kira and I were both immobile, but I didn’t question it at the time. She was pretty dazed and badly bruised, but appeared to be fine. He crouched down beside me next.
“It’s okay, Pasha. I’m going to take care of you,” he tried to comfort me. All I could do was look up at him. I could feel the energy literally draining from my body, and I was getting weaker by the minute. He glanced up at Natasha with something I’d never seen on his dark, handsome face. Fear.
“Mom, we need to hurry. She’s… It’s not good.” Mom…Mom... My mind whirled at the word. My mom had a name now. I knew who she was. I smiled inwardly at the thought and closed my eyes. But what about my dad…Dad…Mom…
“Take her to the estuary. I’ll take care of Kira.” Natasha instructed Finn. Everything started getting fuzzy and all I could think about was going to sleep. Even breathing had become an incredibly difficult task. I had the vague sense of being carried and I heard a low voice in the distance, but the all consuming blackness was so comforting that I blocked everything else out. A numbness settled over my mind and I let it overcome me, becoming lost in its endless depths.
Chapter 35
The next thing I remembered was breathing water. It was so cold and it hurt as it expanded in my lungs. However, with each labored breath, the darkness receded.
“Come on, Stasia, breathe. Come on.” Finn. His voice was far away, but so comforting and strong. The tenor vibrated in my conscious like an echo, making me dizzy. As the water began to circulate within my body, I was able to breathe easier and the pain in my side started to fade. It dawned on me that I was now lying down and something was rubbing my hair. I tentatively opened my eyes. Finn’s face swam in my vision momentarily before clearing.
“Hey there,” he smiled down at me, and my heart melted for the zillionth time. I wondered if I would ever get used to his presence. I hoped not.
“Hey,” I croaked. My body was growing stronger, but I could tell it would be very sore. How was I healing so fast? I looked around, feeling completely out of sorts. I was in an underwater cave.
The water felt…soft. Almost like a bubble bath without the bubbles. All around me a beautiful forest of sea grass, vines, and kelp reached up from the bottom, while flowering plants blanketed the stone walls, creating a colorful, serene oasis. Rays of light filtered through the water from all directions, giving the whole cave an ethereal ambiance. I was lying on a suspended hammock filled with pillows. It hung from the ceiling high above. Also above me, I saw a small circle of light. I could tell that it led out to the outside world. The pool! Finn had brought me back to Thetis’s house. We were in the underwater cavern I had seen earlier.
“What kind of water is this?” I asked him.
“This connects to the lagoon, but its water has many purposes, healing being one of them.”
“That’s convenient,” I smiled and he chuckled at me. I cast an accusing glare in his direction as I remembered something he had said earlier.
“Oh, and thanks for telling me I’d be buying my dress from your mother.” I raised my eyebrows at him expecting an explanation, but couldn’t stop the grin fighting its way onto my lips.
&
nbsp; “Must have slipped my mind.” He shrugged his shoulders innocently. He ran his fingers through my hair as his face softened. “We used to live here. On the island.”
“You did?” I finally had enough strength to sit up.
“We did…” he clarified, “Not being able to talk to you about any of this…it’s been so hard.
We would have grown up together, Stasia.” He shook his head and crushing sadness hit me with force.
My eyes burned with tears, even as the water washed them away.
“Why, Finn?” I began to sob in earnest, “Why did they give me away?”
“To protect you,” he said softly, and wrapped his arms around me. I put my head on his shoulder and let myself cry. I cried for the life I never had. I cried for the parents I would never know. I cried for myself; for the life of pain I had endured for so many years. “They would have killed you, just like they killed them. No one knew you had been born except for a select few, and Thetis wanted to keep it that way. But she loved you so much and she talked about you all the time. It tore her apart, she cried every day.”
“But, she didn’t protect me, Finn. She gave me away to people almost as evil as Keto. Why didn’t she save me? Why didn’t she do something?”
“She didn’t know. She only knew what I told her from your brief appearances to me. It broke her heart that you weren’t able to appear to her. Only after she died was she able to see you.”
One of my previous reveries came back to the forefront of my mind. The woman on the water.
I looked wide-eyed at Finn.
“It was her. She was there in my first vision. Right before I saw you and Nicolet, I was on the beach and she was in the water. I could hear her, too” I couldn’t hide my excitement about this newest revelation, “She called my name. She’s the reason I chose Anastasia when I came to Lorelei!”