“I think you’re right … Saturnus. Atlas!” he calls back over his shoulder. Saturnus and Atlas come through from the chamber of which I crashed through the roof. And after a few moments of discussion, the general consensus is that the drawing is definitely depicting the scythe.
“What about that handprint?” Orion asks looking at it with knitted brows and a suspicious forehead wrinkle.
“That’s the weird thing … it fits my hand.” I explain looking at him cautiously.
“Show me.” He demands and I do, placing my hand into the palm shaped groove. Saturnus stands back and looks at the mural with one hand cupping his chin.
“This looks like the entrance to the Occulta Mirum, the material is similar.”
“You think song magic?” questions Atlas, looking suddenly inspired and elated at this conclusion.
“I would say so, and Callie’s in particular by the way that handprint fits her hand so perfectly.” Saturnus nods.
“That’s impossible, why would we need Callie’s song to get to the scythe? This weapon was sealed away years ago!” Orion exclaims in disbelief.
“Who knows?” I say quickly, not wanting him to pursue this line of questioning.
“But –” He begins and I cut him off quickly.
“So I just sing?” I ask feeling relieved. Blood sacrifice really wasn’t my thing.
“Exactly!” Saturnus encourages me with a smile.
“Okay … Here goes.” I place my hand into the groove on the wall. The stone is cool to touch. I part my lips, heart hammering, wondering what will happen next and sing a few bars, embarrassed by the eyes on me. At the first few notes, the wall begins to glow a bio-luminescent cyan, seeping out from the seemingly impermeable surface. The bright blue light shines deeply across the room, blinding me but I manage to spit out the rest of ‘somewhere over the rainbow’ from ‘the wizard of Oz’. I feel like reciting ‘there’s no place like home,’ wishing I was wrapped up in Orion’s arms in our bed, but even if I had feet I still lack the mandatory ruby slippers and therefore have no such luck. The dreaminess of the song is eerie in the darkness and I feel something stir in the shadows.
“Keep singing!” Orion shouts over my voice, yielding his spear from its sheath and heading back into the room behind me. My heart is in my throat, I wonder where he’s going and I watch the back of his form until he disappears from view. I look up at the mural and the entire piece, including not only the handprint but the image of the scythe and the script on either side have illuminated in this neon blue. I gasp a little as the rock cracks unevenly down the middle and the two halves slide backward and away from me revealing a passage enclosed in darkness as the bright blue light dies away, seemingly seeping into nothingness.
I float for a few moments slightly alarmed at what has just happened. “Did you see how that rock cracked? That was not normal!” I exclaim, slightly shocked at the brutal fissure that had torn the impervious rock in two.
“I know, seems slightly grand for a simple weapon. It must be important.” Orion concludes swiftly as he comes behind me and enfolds my hand within his, comforting me in the darkness that has fallen upon us once again.
“Where did you go?” I ask looking at him curiously, my heart still hammering.
“A shark got startled by all that light; it looked like it was going to get aggressive.”
“You killed it?” I ask slightly horrified.
“Yes, but only because it posed a threat.” Orion explains with a swiftness that borders on nonchalance. I frown slightly; I don’t like the idea of killing animals now that I’ve seen the ocean life up close. “Shall we?” Orion suggests sweetly, planting a comforting kiss on my cheek. I am glad Starlet is keeping watch as I flush slightly in the blackness. We begin to move into the dark, my eyes not adjusting as they usually do, this is real darkness. I look back over my shoulder before I am totally encased in the blackness, and I catch a glimpse of the shark, limp and dead on the stone floor.
We swim for several moments until suddenly I feel the corridor widen slightly and in the darkness, I feel a pull towards a single glint as my pulse starts to race. It looks to be a reflection from the end of a blade. I move toward it, wishing all the while for some light,
“I wish it was brighter in here …” I blurt aloud for a moment, frustrated, when my wish is instantaneously granted as something huge smashes through the ceiling from above. As the sand clears as though it were dust, the room is illuminated and a chilling voice can be heard reverberating through the room.
“Your wish is my command, my dear. Let me introduce myself, so rude when I know so much about you and you so little about me.” I look around frantically, feeling Orion’s hand tighten on my own. I know who it is I am hearing even before his next sentence falls in the calm but silent water between us. I scramble to see him through the water, but in an instant he emerges from the shadow behind the beam of light that falls from the partially destroyed ceiling. Black eyes, pointed fangs spread wide in a smile, pale skin mapped with black veins and dark symbolic tattoos shock me silent.
“My name is Titus, and it is lovely to make your acquaintance.”
It takes a few moments for me to process the scene before me as Titus’ lips fall still and the last of his words dissipate into silence. Now that light is shed over the hidden chamber, I take a glance around, trying to place myself. In the centre of the room is what looks like an anvil, except it is made from a transparent turquoise crystal that sparkles under the dull moonlight raining down on us from above. The truly extraordinary thing about the anvil though, is not its constituent at all, but rather the long, sleek weapon that is embedded in the crystal at an acute angle. The blade itself is awe-inspiring, the edge is tainted turquoise, contrasting against its body which glimmers in silver steel, tracing the outline of a mermaid tail, curved like a half moon, that makes the weapon look even more deadly. The handle is long, made from a kind of white marble, inlaid with aqua filigree much like the floor of the first chamber I encountered within the temple. It has a grip made from lilac tinted alloy with ridges cut into it for the user. The next thing I take in is the psiren before me. Titus. His name sends reverberations through me and I wonder how long he will taunt me before he tires and sends my nervous system screaming with agony. Perhaps his power only works like mine; through touch … maybe if I could just get close enough I could … His voice cuts my thought in half, as he is suddenly behind me with an inch movement only just perceivable to the eye. Damn he is fast. The hairs on the back of my neck rise as I watch a red haired psiren twitch as he watches me, lips spread in a lunatic grin, fidgeting with gleeful anticipation.
“Don’t you want to introduce yourself?” Titus asks simply, his voice full of painful promise.
“Why? You already know who I am.” I reply, feeling sick as the smell of blood from his breath curls around my neck.
“Who knew manners would die out in the human world after all these years?” He chuckles to himself, immediately moving around me again so he eclipses my field of vision. “Didn’t your mother teach you simple etiquette?” He asks me pointedly, I feel Orion stir at my back, simple flicks in the water allowing me to feel his defensiveness growing.
“My mother taught me not to trust strangers.”
“Your mother was right, Callie, you shouldn’t trust strangers. Especially not those who are willing to kill for what they want.”
“And what do you want?” I ask, knowing full well the answer, as a girl with an eel like tail descends through the roof.
“Well for a start, this weapon will do nicely.” Titus says, turning to face the black haired pale-skinned girl. She looks somehow familiar but I do not know how to place her face.
“Azure … Where’s Regus?” Titus demands like a snake, spitting out the words as though they were venomous.
“He has secured my sister; she tried to skewer me right through the back, would you believe? He’s subdued her and is removing her as we speak.” I can’t h
elp but tense as I realize where I know this girl’s face from. This must be Starlet’s sister, the one who became a psiren and left Starlet without a soul mate. Then I tense again, what are they going to do to Starlet? Where are they taking her? I think of Orion and Atlas behind me but dare not look around. Titus turns back to me and moves forward slightly, his tail like no creature I’ve ever seen; it’s black and violet and reminds me of a dragon. I tense my fists, my nails digging into my flesh in order to channel the fear flowing through me. His black eyes, body covered in odd symbolic black tattoos, and eerily white skin makes me want to flee, and yet I stay, floating innocuously among the anonymity in the water.
“That’s not meant for you.” I say simply, moving forward to counter him. I wonder if my gifts as the vessel will work. Do I trust them enough to take this risk? For all I know he could kill me in a moment, thrusting the barb like end of his tail across my throat and beheading me.
“I don’t see your name on it.” He counters as we approach one another. I hear spears being drawn behind me, being released from their sheaths slowly. I watch as the red headed psiren, Azure, and another psiren, perhaps the most lethal looking other than Titus, appear from the darkness beyond the beam of moonlight capturing me. This psiren has long grey hair, but unlike Atlas he does not have the gold warmth in his eyes, he has black eyes, with grey lightning strikes forking within their abyss. His tail is long, that of a swordfish, and I watch him pull a vast pointed broadsword from his back, a vest of what appears to be sealskin covers his heavily muscled torso. Everything about him is sharp, his cheekbones, his chin, even his smile, which he shoots at me subtly as he watches himself catch my attention. Titus and I are getting closer and closer as our backing parties ready for a fight. I wonder momentarily why it is me that is facing off with him; surely it should be one of the elders. Saturnus or Atlas … someone with experience. Well there’s no going back now. Titus and I are nearly nose to nose.
“So you want to fight me? For this weapon … you don’t even know what it’s for.” He mocks me, sneering. His black eyes are extraordinary, deep as anything I’ve ever known, more empty than even the dark chasms of the ocean floor.
“I know you aren’t getting it.” I say through gritted teeth, having no idea where this boldness within me has come from, my heart is racing and I’m terrified. Do I really want to die over a pretty piece of weaponry? I don’t even know how to fight. I take a deep breath and as soon as Titus sees me visibly relax, he makes his move. His tail wraps around me and he pulls my helpless form into his grasp. We are now floating above the anvil, inches from the weapon. He places both long fingered hands upon my face and suddenly I want to die.
The pain is so intense, I think my skull might explode and I’m immediately regretting my decision to fight him for the scythe. Pain is crawling like a cancer through my neurons, infecting me, multiplying in strength with each passing second. I writhe and squirm; my eyes squeezed shut. I faintly hear Titus’ voice above my own scream …
“Not such a smart idea now, is it?” I feel angry at this remark and immediately decide my only option is blind faith. I force my eyes open against my agony, which seems infinite as his arms shake and they embrace my skull. My lips part and I taste blood from where I have bitten down and mutter the four words that require all my strength.
“Smarter than you think …” With these visceral sounds I launch myself toward him, grasping his skull within my hands and breaking his grip on me.
“AGHHH” he cries. I feel his power running through my fingertips, addictive, electric, and oh-so-strong. I keep his head in my hands, his greasy black hair sliding back in the water as he becomes paralyzed from the pain he was, just moments ago, inflicting on me. The other psirens take a moment to realize what has just happened, but as soon as they work out Titus needs help, they spring forward, probably twice as fast as I’ve seen even Orion move.
The fighting begins around me in a clatter of swords and spears, grunts and groans, but all I can do is focus on keeping the connection with Titus and using his power against him. His flesh is trembling and his mouth is an open orifice of astonishment, his eyes are closed and I notice two tiny symbol tattoos etched onto each eyelid. His tail is thrashing and not in an intentional way. Titus has become like a fish out of water under his own power. I cannot help but grin. However, this grin is soon knocked off my face as something hard and warm hits me across the head, knocking me off balance and onto the floor, releasing Titus. He sinks, his body landing draped across the far end of the anvil. I look up from the sandy stone and see the red headed psiren standing over me and looking pleased with a vacant grin pressed upon his lips. In each hand, he holds a long crab claw shaped blade, they catch the moonlight and glimmer with a bloody red tint. He moves forward abruptly, quicker than lightning and I only avoid being stabbed in the chest by rolling quickly to my left and immediately pushing myself upward, swimming with all the power I can muster. Before he catches up to me near the broken ceiling, I catch a glimpse of the fighting going on below. Atlas is in a duel with the silver headed psiren just below and it looks as though he has obtained Orion’s spear, they are moving with unbelievable speed, circling each other, constantly having to be one move in front of the other to avoid being sliced in half. Orion is holding Titus, thrashing in a ball of fast moving water, using his power over air to manipulate a mini cyclone type effect. Saturnus is fighting with Azure, presumably because neither father nor brother want to fight a blood relation. She cackles, chasing Saturnus with a large leather whip strung with black and blue pearls. Saturnus uses his spear to catch this weapon and pull her toward him before using his tail to slash red marks across her chest and stomach brutally.
This is what I manage to gauge in the few moments I have before my attacker realizes I am no longer on the floor before him, and looks upward. Catching me in his sight, I see something red flash through his eyes and in an instant, just like on the day I was murdered on the beach, kissing Orion, the world around me turns to black. I cannot see anything and my heart pounds, terrified and paranoid in the darkness. I try to keep moving anyway, wafting my way through the black, as though the surrounding water has been polluted with ink or oil. I reach what I think is a wall of the chamber as I bang into something hard the darkness clears and I am looking into familiar icy blue eyes. I know what I have crashed into isn’t a wall but rather Orion. I gasp, turning around, my gills opening as I pull more water into my gullet, reviving my empty lungs. I see Titus dropped to the floor and looking pissed. I have clearly halted Orion’s attempt at containing him. He hisses like a feral animal and his tail slashes through the water, his eyes wide as they catch a glimpse of me, so clearly shocked at my turning his power into my own and using it against him. The silver haired psiren is still in a deadly dance with Atlas, and as they get closer to me and Orion, I see his gaze shift to mine again. However, this time it is not smug, but curious. It is gone in a flash. Once again, my attention shifts to Titus, whom I am now looking at straight in the eyes. I can feel the resonance of his power leaving my body. I feel fierce and, if I’m being honest, a little scary. Titus turns from me and places his hands on the hilt of the scythe, pulling with immense exertion to himself. I can see his trip to agony alley has weakened him, and certainly dented his confidence. He pulls a little harder but still nothing, no give at all. I rise, figuring out once again why there is a specific grip laid into the lilac metal.
“Like I said …” I move forward and notice the five tiny moon indents leaking blood from my palms. Remnants from the agony of Titus’ assault on my nervous system. I place my hand in the grip and hum a few bars casually. He watches as I pull the scythe from the stone, like a knife from butter. “This is not meant for you.” I smile cockily as I feel the immense power the weapon is endowed with, I swing it leisurely, cutting through the water like it were air. The blade slashes across his tail lightly.
Titus looks shocked and backs away as black blood spurts into the water, he turns quickly
and barks.
“Caedes, Solustus, Azure … we have a mermaid to torture … NOW!” They immediately stop what they’re doing, much to everyone’s astonishment, and rise, in a matter of seconds, back through the ceiling and out into the open sea.
I look out the window of my apartment once more, the light nowhere near as bloody as before we left on our quest to find the Scythe of Atargatis. White light from the world above falls on the sand below, shimmering in slivers of geometric silver. I turn, looking back into the lounge and find it propped against the thickest side of the golden harp, glimmering in a pretty yet lethal light. It makes me feel comforted for some reason, a feeling I don’t understand in lieu of what’s happening. After the psirens had left the hidden temple, I remember the silence they left behind, along with a Starlet shaped hole in Orion’s family. I feel myself tentatively, stroking the scales connecting to my waist slowly, noticing their smooth hardness beneath my touch, they could have been armour. I reach up to the place above my heart where scales line the scar left by the event that had changed my life forever, the kiss that killed me. My mind was full, full to the brim of things seemingly too complicated to compartmentalize.
I turn back to the sunset, looking out over the glimmer of the Occulta Mirum, it’s beautiful and I cannot help but wonder if wherever I am going after this life will be as beautiful. I drift over to the couch, still in shock that it is able to endure the constant torment of the water. A group of bicolour parrot fish glide through the window; I wonder if that’s the equivalent of having a bird fly unwanted into your home on land. I decide to let them be, watching them as they cautiously explore the inside of my new home. Their scales glimmer in the light and they look so beautiful as they swim. As they reach the harp, I move my tail so I am lying on top of the couch, and find myself staring once again at the scythe. The scythe that responded to my voice, the gorgeous turquoise tainted metal that curves into the shape of the tail I find completing my body. The lilac grip on the white and gold veined marble of the handle makes me want to hold it, feel it’s cool heavy weight against my skin. The door grates against the sandstone floor loudly, just as I contemplate getting up and taking it in my palm.
The Kiss That Killed Me (The Tidal Kiss Trilogy Book 1) Page 39