Heart

by Higginson, Rachel

  Inside, we walked through more opulent luxury. Everything was as flashy and extravagant as Nix. There were subtle details here and there that reminded me of his origins. Tridents carved into a white mantle over a huge iron fireplace or sea shells on the decorative pillows.

  It was like Nix had invited a decorator in and said, “I’m the god of the sea, embellish accordingly.”

  He led me through the maze of his house. Nothing was on the same level. Each room seemed to make up its own floor so that we were constantly going up or down stairs.

  The deeper into the house we walked, the more threatening the décor became. Instead of gauzy curtains and rare paintings, tridents hung on the walls. The rooms were no longer meant for guests, their doors replaced with iron bars.

  The house lost its lavish appeal and became a dungeon for Nix’s victims.

  My stomach curdled with the realization that my friends had been locked here for a year. In a place where the chill in the air snaked around your skin and sunlight could not reach.

  There were signs that visitors had been here recently. Half-full wine glasses were left forgotten on countertops and a man’s jacked lay tossed in the corner.

  And while the visitors had left, the girls Nix kept locked up tight, remained.

  We stepped over frail, listless arms that reached out through the bottom of their cell doors. They retreated quickly when they caught sight of Nix’s sandaled feet marching along the white and blue tile. I watched them scurry to the corners of their rooms, hiding from the devil himself.

  Some rooms were occupied by four and five girls and some only had one. They were of all ages. Some too young for me to want to think about and some older than my mother. They were all shapes and sizes too, as if Nix wanted a variety of women to meet any man’s taste.

  Their eyes were all the same though. Empty. Void. Lifeless.

  I wanted to scream at Nix. I wanted to throw myself at him and claw his eyes out. I wanted to shove his face in those rooms and beat him until he understood what he did.

  He had power over these broken women that should not belong to him. They were not slaves. They were not his. They were free simply because they were human.

  Their souls had worth. Their bodies had value. Their spirits should have freedom.

  And yet he had taken their dignity and their freewill and demolished them.

  He was a destroyer of lives and nothing could save him from the fate I planned for him.

  Nothing about him was redeemable or worthy.

  We finally reached the last room. I wrinkled my nose against the rank smell. Tears immediately fell to my cheeks, not because of my own misery, but because I finally saw the reality of how my friends had lived.

  I hated them in that moment. I hated them for giving up and not coming with me. I hated them for trusting Nix to be a better alternative than death, even though they had seen what happened to their sisters.

  I hated them for abandoning me when I needed them most.

  And I hated me for letting them get away without them, for leaving them when they needed me most.

  At the same time I had never loved them more. I ached for them. My heart shattered for them.

  I could only guess at the horrors they’d faced in the last year.

  Nix pulled a key from a chain around his neck and opened the door. My friends lifted their heads from the mussed bed they sprawled out on. I watched them flinch with fear first. They saw Nix and they cowered. But gradually their attention shifted to me and I held my breath as I waited for their reaction.

  I thought they would be angry with me. I thought they might hate me for leaving them… for escaping this. I thought they would at least be bitter I had escaped this fate, even if it had been for a short time.

  I did not expect them to grieve the sight of me.

  Their faces crumpled at the same time, silent tears streaking down their dirty faces.

  “No,” Sloane whispered. “No, please, no, please, no.”

  Exie couldn’t speak. Her sobbing was strong enough to choke her. She thrust her hands out in front of her and waved them wildly.

  “I brought you a present,” Nix grinned at them. “What a happy reunion this is.” He pushed me inside with them.

  “Ivy, no,” Sloane whimpered. “You’re not supposed to be here. You weren’t supposed to get caught.”

  I wanted to tell them everything. I wanted to share my plan and give them hope, but I couldn’t just yet.

  “Now, now, Pet,” Nix chided Sloane. He lifted her chin with his finger even while she recoiled from his touch. “I don’t want to hear that you’re ungrateful. Haven’t I given you everything you’ve needed? Haven’t I taken care of you in the best ways?”

  Sloane trembled violently as she tried to turn away from him. He gripped her chin tighter and forced her to look into his eyes. Once he had her attention, he waited quietly for her to answer.

  “Y-y-yes,” she mumbled.

  “There, I can see how happy you are here.” He released her roughly and she fell back on her weak arms.

  When Nix turned to face me I saw insanity dance in his eyes. He appeared wild in that moment, completely unhinged.

  I swallowed, knowing that I had to be careful.

  Now that I was here, I was less clear on how to execute my plan. I needed to transport us to my island, but I had no idea how to do that.

  Most of all I needed time with my friends to encourage them and figure this out.

  Some of the clouded haze cleared from his expression and he spoke softly to me. “I’m going to get cleaned up. When I get back, be ready to work.”

  He moved toward me and I tried to step out of his way but he caught me by the shoulders and held me still.

  He leaned toward me, running his nose along my temple. “I have waited so long for this,” he whispered. “You’re finally mine.”

  I kept my mouth shut and stared at the wall over his head. I wanted to cry. I wanted to scream. But I couldn’t let him win. I had to hold myself together for just bit longer.

  His dark chuckle followed him out of the room and when the bars were finally closed and locked I remembered to breathe.

  “What are you doing here?” Sloane whined. She’d pressed herself against the headboard of the bed and pulled her knees to her chest. “He’s going to kill you.”

  “No,” I told her immediately. “He wants me alive.”

  “Then he’s going to do something worse than death,” Exie whispered.

  I looked down at her. She hadn’t moved from her prone position. Her fingers dragged along the tiled floor, mixing dirt in the pools of her tears.

  Something about her posture worried me more than anything else. Her shoulders were curled into her body, her spine heavy on the mattress. She didn’t lift her head to look at me or take her gaze from the floor.

  “Exie,” I asked carefully. “Are you okay?”

  She didn’t answer, she didn’t even acknowledge me.

  I looked to Sloane, who had started crying again. She shook her head helplessly. Exie was not okay.

  “I came to save you,” I whispered, hoping to instill some life back in my broken friends.

  “How?” Sloane rasped at the same time Exie said, “You can’t.”

  “I can,” I insisted. “I have a plan.”

  “What are you going to do?” Sloane scooted toward me, showing the most amount of energy I had seen from her.

  “I haven’t figured it all out yet, but I will.” Doubt clouded Sloane’s expression and so I hurried to reassure her. “First, I need to figure out how to transport. You know, like the gods.”

  “Ivy!” Sloane hissed. “You have to be a goddess to do that!”

  I cleared my throat. “It turns out I kind of am one…”

  “What?” Her voice echoed through the hallways.

  “Shh!” I quickly filled her in on the story. I told her who my father was and how dominant I could be if I ever unleashed the true nature of my powers. I
told her what Nix planned to do with me and what had happened on Olympus before I left with him.

  “So you’re going to take him to your island?”

  “Yes,” I whispered. “I’ll be in control there. I’ll be able to kill him.”

  “How?”

  I hadn’t gotten that far, but it didn’t matter. I would figure it out. I was desperate. He had to die.

  “I’ll find a way,” I promised.

  Light sparked in her eyes. It was faint and barely there, but I saw it. I saw some piece of her return.

  “Exie, I’m going to get you out of here,” I said firmly.

  She started to cry again, hiccupping sobs that stabbed at my heart. “I don’t want to go,” she wailed. “I don’t want to go!”

  Feeling sick to my stomach, I turned back to Sloane. She didn’t offer an explanation. She turned her head and stared at the wall.

  As quickly as the light had flared in her eyes, it extinguished.

  I could only pray that I wasn’t too late to save them.

  Chapter Twenty-Nine

  An hour later, I still hadn’t been able to transport. I couldn’t move my body an inch, let alone flash from here to the island.

  I knew I had the power in me, but I couldn’t manifest it into tangible action.

  I could feel it moving in my blood though, snaking through my arms and legs, wrapping around my heart. The ancient energy sung a song that only I could hear.

  I could feel Tortola from here. I could see the foaming, aqua waves crash and somersault against my white beach. I could smell the heady, salty air. I could feel the sultry sea breeze on my skin.

  I could picture myself at the edge of the tide, digging my feet into wet sand and letting the sun warm my face.

  And yet I couldn’t get there.

  The imagery was so clear, so perfectly vivid I knew I was close to figuring out how to get there.

  Just not yet.

  I should have been able to transport two places, Tortola, my home, and Olympus. I toyed with the idea of going to Olympus instead and hoping that Ryder stood ready with the god-killer, but I couldn’t risk showing up there without anyone to have my back.

  If I went to Tortola then at least I knew I would have control.

  I would be strong.

  I would be stronger.

  A crashing sound echoed down the hallway. I jumped to my feet and immediately backed up against the wall. I held my hands out defensively and prepared for what came next.

  My friends didn’t move from the bed. I was starting to worry they couldn’t walk anymore.

  After our initial conversation, they’d fallen into tense silence. Exie never looked at me and whenever I caught Sloane glancing my way, she quickly turned back to stare at the wall.

  With each passing second my heart ached more for what they had endured over the last year. Thalia was right to hate me. I certainly couldn’t blame her for wanting to hand me over to Nix.

  If Exie or Sloane were my children, I would have stopped at nothing to rescue them from this place.

  “What is that?” I whispered as the crashing happened again.

  “Nix,” Sloane murmured. “He’s coming for us.”

  I strained to hear over my beating heart. I wasn’t ready to face Nix yet.

  Panic infused my blood and sent my heart galloping in my chest. “What’s he going to do?”

  Exie finally turned to look at me. She lifted her body off the bed with weak arms and stared at me with dead, soulless eyes. “You better hope he kills you,” she stated simply.

  Nix appeared in the doorframe, fresh from a shower but disheveled. He fumbled with the key in the lock for a minute before he managed to rip the door open.

  He stalked into the room like a tiger circling its prey. His onyx eyes landed on each of us briefly before moving back to the hallway.

  When he turned back to me, resolution had settled in his jaws and forehead. He had decided something permanent.

  “Start singing,” he commanded.

  “Wh-what?”

  He lunged toward me, grabbing both of my biceps with a punishing grip. “Sing.”

  “Sing what?” His grip was so tight that I couldn’t catch a breath. My arms burned until they prickled with pain. His fingernails dug into my bare flesh and I wanted to scream at him to get his hands off me.

  “Start singing,” he ordered again. “I need you to get this entire island under your control.”

  I raised my eyebrows and gritted out, “Even you?”

  “I’ve got a high tolerance for this sideshow, Sweetheart. Don’t you worry about me.”

  I pressed my lips together to keep from proving him wrong. I knew I could influence him. I knew I could win this battle of wills.

  But instantly I knew it would cost me more than I was willing to give if I tried.

  If I gave into the power, it would demand payment. It would take pieces of me, large chunks of my soul and will, until it completely ran the show.

  I wasn’t naturally evil, but this ancient power could so easily push me past the point of no return.

  Then what?

  I didn’t want to find out.

  “Sing, Ivy,” he growled.

  I licked my dry lips and told him honestly, “No.”

  “Now.” He shook me hard enough that my vision went blurry and a headache burst to life at the back of my skull. “You’re my property now. You do as I say.”

  “Make me.” The words were daring and stupid. I should never have challenged him.

  I should never have come here with him.

  Ryder could have fought him off. Zeus could have protected me. And yet I’d put myself in this position because I thought I could handle it.

  But how? I had been an idiot to believe I could take on the god of the sea and win.

  He dropped me so hard, my knees buckled beneath me. I would have fallen had the wall not been right behind me.

  I slapped two open palms on the white-washed, textured wall and forced my legs to hold firm. I couldn’t show him weakness after all my bravado.

  “Make you?” he taunted, taking a few steps back. “I think I will.”

  I watched his eyes decide what to do before his hand ever reached out and I knew I made the wrong decision.

  I had been selfish again. I had only thought about myself, when I should have finally been taking my friends into account.

  I had already abandoned them once. I should be doing anything I could to keep them from getting more hurt. But I couldn’t seem to reason logically where Nix was concerned. I always opened my mouth first, then paid for his cruel and elaborate consequences later.

  His hand trailed over Exie’s spine in a slow, caressing manner. His fingertips pushed her thin shirt up to expose her bruised, protruding spine. I bit back a sob that threatened to wrench its way from my throat.

  His fingers brushed gently over her until they reached the back of her neck. He suddenly grabbed her so roughly she yelped and scrambled to push her body into his punishing hold to ease the pressure. He yanked her from the bed and held her like a rag doll in front of me.

  Exie appeared haunted as tears fell from her eyes and her nails scratched at Nix’s hands and arms. She started to choke as he added a second hand and began squeezing. He lifted her until only her toes dragged across the floor.

  His eyes never left mine. “Sing.”

  I took a step forward, but he pulled her back, warning me with a glance. I couldn’t hold back the tears anymore. I started to panic. I didn’t know what to do. He’d left me with two options and both were impossible.

  “Wh-wh-who am I singing for? There’s n-nobody here,” I argued weakly.

  He glanced at the cell door as if he expected people to rush through it any second. “Just sing. They’ll hear you.”

  Exie made a whimpering noise like she was trying to talk, but I couldn’t understand her. I dared to look at her, even while I knew Nix didn’t have the patience for me.

  She t
ried to mouth something, but I couldn’t make it out. Her face had started to turn purple and her once-pretty blue eyes bugged out of her gaunt face.

  “Sing!” Nix shouted, shaking Exie at the same time.

  Sloane started crying loudly. She’d pulled herself tightly against the headboard like she couldn’t decide if she should run or just give up. She rocked back and forth, whimpering frantically.

  “Help her!” she begged me.

  I opened my mouth to sing. It was more instinct to save my friend than anything else. I shouldn’t. I knew that. My blood seemed to scream it at me.

  Don’t sing. Don’t sing. Don’t sing.

  I could save Exie, but I would lose myself.

  I would give Nix everything.

  Nix shook her harder. “I’m going to kill her if you don’t start singing. Now’s not the time to weigh your options. You have none. Sing or I’ll break her neck.” His body had elongated and filled out like before. I could see the god in him swelling and taking over.

  He was terrifying. He was evil incarnate and every nightmare come to life.

  I had no doubt he would follow through with this threat. It was up to me to either sing or let Exie die.

  Obviously, there was only one choice for me.

  Exie clutched Nix’s forearms, struggling to pull herself up. Her blonde hair had become limp and matted over the last few months. It lacked the luster and shine that had always been her signature. We’d always teased her about looking just like Malibu Barbie, but she wasn’t that person anymore.

  She was a ghost of her former self. More than her beauty had faded… she’d lost so much of her soul.

  “Let me go,” she croaked on a gasp of air.

  “What was that?” Nix smiled at her. “Can you hear her, Siren?”

  He loosened his grip just long enough for her to repeat, “Let me go.”

  His voice was carefully controlled when he said, “Help her, Ivy. She wants to be let go.”

  But I knew my friend. Even though she could no longer speak, even though his grip had tightened until her eyes became glassy and her arms weakened with lack of oxygen, I knew she wasn’t talking to him.