by Kristen Day
"Wake up, Pasha," Finn urged me. "Come back to me."
At his serene voice my world slowed, but the nausea came back with force. I lurched to the side and felt the contents of my stomach empty.
"Oh, God." Sebastian's voice wavered before I watched his feet stumble away. I coughed and sputtered, grabbing my stomach and curling into a ball.
"Sebastian!" Finn called over my head. "Get back over here! She needs the elixir!"
"I can't..." I heard Sebastian start, before the sound of him throwing up interrupted his words.
"Your brother's a big baby," Finn whispered to me, and I heard the smile in his voice. I turned to meet his tender blue eyes and felt my mouth pull up into a smile as well. He bent down and kissed my head, sending a wave of warm essence through me. His dark hair stuck to his forehead with sweat as the unrelenting heat of the sun pounded down on the monolith. The morning light had morphed into something harsher while I'd been away, and the backs of my legs warmed with the heat of the rock beneath me.
"He likes seahorses, too," I managed with a pitiful laugh. Finn's smile widened and I surrendered myself to the line of his jaw bone, the concern in his eyes, and the strong arms that gladly supported me. I was able to pull an arm up and around his waist; a sub-par attempt at a hug. My body protested any movements and my essence was depleted to the point that I couldn't even sense Sebastian's closeness.
"I'm not cleaning that up," Sebastian's disgusted tone rose from our left.
"You afraid of a couple chunks?" Finn mocked Sebastian's weak stomach with a snicker. "I thought we might save it for later in case we get hungry..." Sebastian flipped him off before he handed him a vial of golden elixir, followed by several gurgling sounds as Sebastian tried to force down his gag reflex once more.
"You bastard," Sebastian accused him through gurgles.
"I've been called worse," Finn retorted, tilting the vial up to my lips and allowing the elixir to pour down my throat. Once the last of it was gone, its energy spread from my chest, arms, and legs; invigorating me and sharpening my thoughts. Soon I was able to sit up on my own and take inventory of our situation.
"Ew." I scrunched my nose up at the mess I caused.
"You can say that again." Sebastian laughed before turning serious. "What happened over there?"
"Did you get close to the crux?" Finn followed up with another question.
"I'm glad you woke me up when you did," I divulged. "I was just on the beach, but...the crux...it's strong. It was pulling me in."
"Did you have a chance to see anything?" Finn implored.
"Fallon!" I suddenly remembered loudly, making them jump back. "Fallon was on the beach, but I couldn't get to her. She saw me."
"What!?" Sebastian moved closer. "You... you saw her? Are you sure it was her?"
"I know it was her!" My head pounded as I fought to remember details. "She was on the beach, by herself."
"So she's alive!" Sebastian's wide eyes became frantic with hope.
"Or she's a ghost," Finn reminded him. I had filled him in on all the disheartening details of our trip last night. "If Nadia is using her, she'll be in spirit form."
"But she's here." He smiled. "She's still here."
"What was she doing?" Finn asked.
"I couldn't tell. Everything was spinning," I admitted. "But I did see Liam."
"You did?" It was Finn's turn to be hopeful, although an undercurrent of anger accompanied his optimism.
"Apparently he's the leader of Selene's army of Auras." I raised a skeptical eyebrow. "But they looked more like a motley crew thrown together a couple hours ago, if you ask me."
"So it's true." Finn leaned his head back in frustration. "I don't get it."
"They were spinning a big boulder around with their essence; practicing. Selene showed up, but it was just to check in on them. She told them they had until sunset," I said, using air quotes.
"So they have to be planning something for tonight." Sebastian stood and walked to the edge of the cliff, gazing out at the unassuming island housing the crux. "And we need to be there for it."
"She told Liam to keep an eye out, and said that she'd be expecting me soon." I stood as well and pulled Finn up with me. "Well, she said 'her', but I don't know who else she'd be expecting."
"We need to do this strategically." Finn rubbed his chin in thought. "There are several different ways we can go about this."
"A three pronged attack." Sebastian spun around on his heel, brow drawn in deep thought. His blue eyes were laser-focused as his military experience took over. He dropped to his knees and found a small rock to draw with. He sketched out a likeness of the crux's island in the centuries-old volcanic rock, followed by the monolith we currently stood on and the ship beneath the water to our right.
"We know they are slowing the crux," Sebastian thought aloud. "But we don't know exactly how."
"That's not entirely true," I said slowly. I hadn't told anyone about the visit from the blue woman, nor what she showed me. I'd wanted to keep it to myself until I could make sense of it, but it didn't look like I was making any headway in that area so I might as well share. "Last night, before Nadia paid us a visit and you guys showed up, I went for a swim near the crux."
Finn glared at Sebastian with a knowing frown, but Sebastian held up his hands in defense. "If she wants to do something, you know there's no stopping her."
"Anyway," I continued before they could start arguing about Sebastian's babysitting skills. "A woman appeared to me."
"Underwater?" Sebastian asked.
"Underwater," I confirmed with a nod. "She wasn't like us. She didn't speak, and she wasn't completely whole. It was as if she was a part of the ocean. Since she couldn't communicate with me, she decided to...show me her message instead."
"What did she look like?" Finn inquired quietly.
"She was translucent and her body had a blue-ish tint. Her hair was completely white, but her eyes were definitely the strangest part. Looking into them was like seeing into a portal."
"Thalassa." Finn's jaw dropped, barely managing a whisper as he spoke. His dark blue eyes widened and appeared to be searching his memory for something.
"She's not real." Sebastian waved his guess away in disbelief.
"Who's that?" I asked.
"Who else could it be?" Finn's shocked expression focused on Sebastian.
"Anyone else," Sebastian retorted. "There's a million different creatures of the sea that could have taken on human form."
"Who?" I said louder.
"Next to the crux?" Finn asked Sebastian. "That can't be a coincidence.
"What are y'all talking about?" I waved my hands in front of their baffled faces to get their attention.
"Thalassa," Finn explained. "The...Beacon."
STASIA
"What kind of beacon?" I looked at Sebastian expectedly.
"She's supposed to be the ocean herself. Our essence, the crux, all of it. She can take any form." A chill ran down my spine as the gravity of what he was saying hit me. "But she's been a myth for centuries. No one has ever actually seen her before. There's no proof that she really exists."
"Until now." Finn turned to face me; placing his hands on either side of my face with a grin full of wonder and adoration. "You are amazing." He pulled my chin up and kissed me gently, sending my heart fluttering.
"Hey! Don't contaminate my battle plan with your slobber," Sebastian complained half-heartedly. I knelt down next to Sebastian and inspected his drawing.
"Like I was saying," I continued. "She couldn't talk to me, so she showed me instead. She showed me the crux, inside and out. How it worked, what it looked like centuries ago, and what it looked like recently. Very recently."
"What'd you see?" Sebastian implored.
"The witches," I scowled. "They were surrounding it on the beach. Selene was on one of the ridges, but they were all chanting something I couldn't hear. That's how they are slowing it down. And it hurts. It causes her immense pain.
I felt it."
Sebastian got busy drawing out the rest of the island, with the swirling crux at its middle and a rough ring representing the beach. He drew a circle of dots for the witches and a big X for Selene. A realization hit me as I looked at his makeshift plan.
"That's what they were practicing to do!" I snagged Sebastian's rock and began making a circle of smaller X's. "The Auras! I bet they'll be in a circle, just like the witches were."
"They're going to try and stop it completely," Finn deduced sorely.
We inspected the drawing and fell into silence as the two best fighters in the world decided what our plan should be. We couldn't have been in more capable hands. Sebastian looked up at me.
"You, Olivia, and hopefully your Council and the Captains are the only ones that will be able to get onto the island, right?" Sebastian clarified.
"And you," I reminded him.
"And me," he said to himself. He began marking up the map while Finn and I watched.
"How is Selene on the island, then?" Finn pondered. "And Liam?"
"From what I've seen, they've only ever been on the rim of the island; not on the beach itself," I explained. "I've only seen Fallon and the witches on the beach...."
"And they're dead," Finn and I said at the same time. Sebastian looked back and forth at us with disdain.
"Don't do that." He shook his head. "It's creepy."
"Said the dead guy," I said again, making Sebastian snicker. I could actually see his thoughts illuminated on his features as they turned to Fallon. A frown deepened the lines on his face and created worry lines around his suddenly sad eyes.
"Maybe that's it," Finn continued, completely unaware of Sebastian's reaction to the reminder of Fallon's death. "Anyone can be on the island, but to go into its belly - into the crater - you have to either be a Nereid or...dead."
"That changes things." Sebastian tapped his chin and erased part of the map, re-drawing it from a new perspective.
"You. All three of you." We looked up at Olivia's winded voice. She climbed onto the top of the monolith, bubbling with anger and out of breath. "...are on my shit list... for the rest of eternity."
It dawned on me that my reverie escapades must have prompted her trace to flare up in warning. I jumped up and smothered her in a hug before she could cuss me out. She glared at me as I approached, but I wrapped her in a bear hug anyway. She eventually hugged me back and I squeezed her extra tightly.
"Sorry about that," I apologized.
"Likely story," she scowled. "Now hand over the elixir. Those stairs are a real bitch."
Sebastian happily produced another vial and passed it to her with a loving smile. She took two big sips before settling in beside us. I brought her up to speed so she could help us come up with our plan, and Sebastian continued working on the map as we watched in silence.
"Alright." Sebastian took a deep breath and sat back on his heels with satisfaction. "Here's my proposal: a three-pronged attack at sunset. Assuming the enemy will be stationed in these places, we'll all approach the island at the same time. The Captains will circle around the back of the island where they'll climb up and over, heading down onto the beach without being detected-"
"And how are they going to pull that off? If Selene's standing along that ridge, she'll be able to see the entire beach," Olivia countered with skepticism. When no one had a good answer, she continued ,"I'll go with them. If they're touching me, I can camouflage us all at once."
"Perfect." Sebastian grinned at her. "So the first wave will be Olivia and the Captains." He circled the letter S outside of the island and drew a line to the back of the island. "Stasia, myself, and the rest of her Council will head up the front side of the island. We can hide out near the glass building and try to stay out of sight. And lastly, Finn and his Paradigms will climb up from the side."
"Actually, my mom can take us over," Finn suggested.
"And Finn can use his cloaking ability to keep them hidden." I nodded toward him. He nodded back in agreement.
"So there will be three groups in place at that point," Finn clarified and pointed to the map. "The Captains on the beach, the Council at the glass house, and the Sons on the side."
"We'll need to act quickly, because the element of surprise will be short-lived. Once they know we're there, we'll need to be ready to fight," Sebastian warned. "The Captains will need to handle the witches. Natasha should be able to give them some direction on how to do that, being Hecate and all."
"That's a good point," Olivia challenged. "So why isn't she in on this little plan?"
"She was Hecate," Finn clarified. "She renounced her title, remember?"
"That's unfortunate," Olivia huffed.
"Anyway." Sebastian cleared his throat to get us back on course. "The Captains will handle the witches. Stasia, me, and her Council will deal with Selene."
"And Nadia," I reminded him.
"And Nadia," he repeated bleakly. "The Sons will take care of the Auras...and Liam."
"I'll take care of Liam," Finn emphasized dryly.
"When I give the signal, we attack," Sebastian informed us pointedly.
"What kind of signal?" Olivia asked.
"An earthquake," he responded in all seriousness.
OLIVIA
"I'm pretty sure I'm about to burst into flames!"
"Really? I feel more like I could jump off of a building and fly!"
"Will we be able to breathe underwater!?"
"Alright!" I heard Ruby's shrill lecture. "There will be no spontaneous combustion, no flying, and no drowning on my watch!"
A smirk formed on my face at her words, as well as the fact that no one seemed to hear them except me. It looked like the Captains were having trouble maintaining their senses after drinking just a small portion of the elixir. I walked down the cabin-level hallway towards the common area; my entire body humming to get out of this death tube and get onto the island. Sebastian closed my door and jogged to catch back up to me. He wrapped an arm around me and snuck a kiss on my cheek before I wiggled out of his grasp. I secretly loved every second I had left with him, but it also took us that much closer to the day he would have to leave.
We entered the common room just as Oliver did a back flip off of one of the couches. He landed perfectly on his feet and let out a triumphant whoop.
"Oliver!" Ruby hissed at him, clearly frustrated at the chaos unfolding around her. Vette was curling a giggling Tanis with one arm while Trevon appeared to being doing sprints from one side of the room to the other. Blythe was perched precariously in some kind of yoga position that balanced her entire body on one palm.
"It looks like the monkeys have gotten loose," Sebastian whispered in my ear. With an amused grin permanently stuck on his handsome face, he found the only couch that wasn't being used as a balance beam or obstacle course and made himself at home. All he was missing was a bag of popcorn and Junior Mints.
"They've been like this for fifteen minutes." Ruby rushed up to me in a panic. "It's like they're toddlers on a sugar high! They won't listen to anything I say!"
I squeezed her arm with sympathy. "Allow me."
Just as Oliver was throwing another backflip, I conjured a handful of electricity and tossed it in his direction. It sizzled and cracked as it connected with his back and he under-rotated, landing on his face. His limbs splayed erratically as my electric essence grounded itself into the floor and left him with a bright red face and an unamused frown.
"Who's ready to die?" I called out nonchalantly, throwing my hands up with excitement. At the sound of my voice, all of the Captains immediately stopped what they were doing and obediently found seats on the plush couches. Blythe simply remained in her spot on the floor, switching to a cross-legged pose, but turned her attention towards me. "Because that's what will happen if you aren't paying attention to your surroundings." I gave a pointed glance at Oliver.
"I'd lay off the elixir until we leave, too," Sebastian inserted with a chuckle.
&n
bsp; "We only had a little bit," Vette began to protest, but I shushed him with my hand.
"At sunset, we leave for the crux," I informed them. "That's about two hours from now. We'll scale the cliffs and head down into the belly of the island, to the beach that surrounds the crux."
"What if the elixir isn't enough?" Blythe pointed out. "What if we aren't allowed access?"
"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it, but it's our belief that anyone can access the outer ring; the cliffs and the ridge. It's the beach that may be a potential issue. So either way, we're getting on that island. And we need you to get ready."
"Are we going to go after Selene?" Blythe almost begged. I could see the undeniable fight simmering within her leaking out into her shining eyes. The need to prove herself and to find out what she was made of teetered on being destructive. I decided I needed to watch her. I didn't want her making a martyr out of herself. That was my job, right?
"No ma'am." Natasha breezed into the room gracefully. "You'll be handling the witches. All one hundred of them."
"One hundred?" Tanis gawked.
"Against just five of us?" Oliver protested.
"Nobody said this was going to be easy," I reminded them. "Natasha is also a witch, and she'll be giving you some pointers." I left out her true identity on purpose. I wasn't sure the Captains could handle more than one earthshattering lesson at a time.
"Although the witches are ghosts, they still have their powers and together are extremely powerful," she divulged.
"Excellent news," Trevon snickered under his breath.
"So you'll need to divide and conquer," Natasha continued and stiffened as she held each of their gazes with a hidden warning. "However, you will not harm them."
"But how are we-?" Oliver tried.
"You will not harm them," Natasha repeated in a tone that sent shivers down my spine. The knowledge that she used to be the Goddess of witchcraft and all things dark didn't help.
"So how are we supposed to divide and conquer?" Blythe piped up with air quotes and an ornery attitude. That girl had balls of steel.