by Diana Paz
Without meaning to, she took a step toward one of the pirates nearby. Her eyes opened. “You have it,” she whispered. She reached him and frowned, not seeing any sign of the crown. He had a bag, and the moment she touched it the mark on her arm grew warm. She tugged it off his arm and pried open the drawstrings.
There it was, along with gold coins and pearls. Even through the bag’s fabric it emanated power. Julia traced the curve of the gleaming metal with one fingertip.
She exhaled in a rush. The crown’s power was too intense. If she kept looking at it, she had the feeling she would do what it wanted instead of the other way around. The thought confused her, but she didn’t have time for deep thoughts about the magic of the jewels.
No longer afraid, she dashed back toward the mouth of the cave, tugging the strings of the bag tight and slinging it over her shoulder. Her feet splashed through shallow water as she ran around the outside of the cave and into the bright blue world of island sea and sky. She had done it! She had gotten the crown! She didn’t even mind running in her epically heavy gown, knowing soon everything would finally work out.
She rounded the rocks where she had left Angie and Kaitlyn. “Guys,” she called. “I have it. I have the crown!”
But the beach was empty.
Julia’s heart became a stone in her chest. Her head whipped from one side to the other. What the heck?
No trace of them. Not even footprints in the sand. She dragged her hands through her hair, gasping for breath in her mounting panic. Where were they?
The tide lapped against her ankles and she took an unconscious step away from shore, scanning the tree line. Had Angie woken up? Maybe they were looking for food… but why not leave her some kind of sign?
And…
...why was water lapping against her feet when the world was supposedly frozen?
She spun around. “No,” she said, watching the water ripple.
Piercing eyes rose above the surface, motionless for the time being. Julia remained still. They had seen her, there was no way they hadn’t. She needed to put on the crown.
Like watery demons, the creatures rose. Slick with dark slime, their flesh looked rubbery and toad-like. Seaweed hair spilled over their shoulders, coating the razor-sharp fins on their elbows and spines. Seeing them so close paralyzed Julia with icy terror. Their naked bodies rose from the water, red serpentine tongues slithering from between thin, sharp teeth. Without wasting another moment, she tugged at the drawstring, raising a cloud of sand in her mad dash for the trees. Corrupting or not, she was going to use the jewels.
But the bag’s strings knotted up, and she couldn’t move quickly enough in her stupid clothes.
Hissing and strange, gurgling shrieks closed in on her. Her fingernails bent painfully in her violent attempt at releasing the strings while running for her life. “Crap and balls!” Everything was going as wrong as could be. Were Kaitlyn and Angie even safe? Were they hiding somewhere, or were they already—
Something clawed at her back. She lunged ahead, held back by the most idiotic of dresses in the history of humanity. With a fierce cry she tore at the strings with her teeth, ripping apart the bag in a shower of golden coins and treasure. The crown fell onto the sand as a scaly hand clamped on her shoulder.
“No!” A stream of curses that would have made Kaitlyn blush continued past her lips. She fought past the creature, stretching her arm across the sand for the crown, but it was just out of reach.
“At last,” the creature growled, keeping her pinned to the ground.
The creature wore the clothes of a pirate, she realized. She turned her head to the side, able to make out the other demons. All of them wore pirate clothes. It was Kaitlyn’s vision from the threads of time, and it was coming true.
She shut her eyes. Ethan.
The creature dug its claws into her shoulder and flipped her around. Julia screamed at the pain, her right arm gushing blood as the creature drew its arm back.
Answer me, please!
She raised her arm as the Scylla’s blade-like fingers slashed at her face. She twisted and shoved at the solid muscle that formed the creature’s body, blood running into her eyes.
“Angie,” she cried. “Kaitlyn! Ethan!”
Another creature appeared, bringing a stunning blow to her head that tore at her scalp. It hurt so bad she couldn’t move. The creature above her bared its fangs.
There was only one person left to call.
Julia squeezed her eyes shut.
“Indira!”
The word was a scream that tasted of blood, torn from her lungs as the creature struck her hard in the chest. In that moment, everything became slow in a foggy, purple-gray world. Flashes of images seared her mind. The girls might be hurt. Ethan might be hurt. And she couldn’t fight this monster without her magic. She needed help.
Her lips parted. She turned her head aside to keep blood from running into her mouth. “Indira,” she repeated, this time a whisper. “Help us.”
A wash of pleasure flowed from Indira’s presence. You are releasing me from my hexed existence?
I am, but… but… her mind raced, her body throbbing with pain, her eyes wide on the creature above her. She had to be smart about this. The Fates had set Indira free once before, but not completely. Maybe that much was okay. If you help us, I’ll free you but you have to be trapped in your tent again. Like before.
Silence hung in the air, suffocating and oppressive as her chest filled with pressure.
Agreed, Daughter.
Julia’s breath expelled in a rush.
But, Indira continued, her voice ripping through Julia’s thoughts and making her flinch. I have a condition of my own.
A condition? That sounded a little like a trap.
I will call a favor upon you, Daughter.
No. It’s a good enough favor that you’re being set free.
The purply-gray fog immediately lifted. The creature above her came back to life, punching and clawing as the other serpent-beast leaned down with its teeth poised to bite.
It is hardly freedom you offer me, Indira continued calmly, even as Julia punched and kicked against the creatures. I am saving your life, after all. You can take my terms, or you can die.
A scream built in her chest. She thrashed viciously against the pain. Yes, yes! Your terms, a favor. Just help us!
The blissful fog descended again.
Summon me…
Julia’s body shuddered with pain. She drew a breath and choked on her own blood.
Summon me, now!
“Okay, chill,” she managed through swollen lips, her words sounding stuffed and odd. “I’ve never turned to the help of a villain before.”
Get on with it, unless you want to die.
Her heart raced. She didn’t want the fog to go away again. She wouldn’t survive another onslaught by the creatures. “By the power invested in me,” she said hurriedly, “with the… forces of evil… I now turn to the dark side—”
Fool child! What nonsense do you speak? You only need say my name, and that I am free.
That was it? Okay… “Indira,” she whispered, “I set you free.”
She swallowed, half-wishing she could take it back. For a second she felt a bubble of relief. Everything remain unchanged. Maybe she didn’t have the power to summon witches back from the nether.
A rumble shook the earth. Thunder cracked, sounding as though it came from Julia’s soul.
So much for that.
Indira burst forth in a blast of smoke and black lightning. The creatures scrambled from her, but a circle of darkness spread out from the gypsy-witch and sped along the ground, knocking them unconscious… or killing them. Julia couldn’t be sure.
Indira’s eyes widened, one normal and one solid white. They gleamed with maniacal light as a smile stretched across her face. “Free,” she rasped, lashing her arms toward the creatures and releasing streams of sizzling lightning. “Free,” she repeated, the word an echoing roar th
at rocked through Julia’s entire body.
Julia scuttled back and away from Indira, the wounds on her body making her feel like she had been run over by a truck and shoved through a paper shredder. Indira continued zapping creatures, seeming to grow larger with each passing moment. Her dark hair flew wildly around her small body. Her feet weren’t touching the ground, Julia realized. She looked terrible and magnificent, shrouded in black mist with crackling bolts of dark lightning shooting from her fingertips.
“Julia,” a voice wailed.
Julia sat up, grimacing and falling down immediately against the pain. “Angie?” she rasped, straining to see.
“What have you done,” Angie yelled above the howling wind. Her skirts whipped madly around her legs as she rushed toward Julia.
Kaitlyn’s eyes might have been made of green flames. Julia flinched at the stream of curse words she shrieked at her.
“I-I…” Julia ducked down as Indira spun around to face them. “We were going to die!”
“Maybe so,” Angie said, her voice straining against a fresh boom of thunder. “But the world would have been safer. It’s a sacrifice we have to be willing to make. Now she will get the jewels. Do you realize what this means?”
Julia could only stare in silence. Angie would have rather they died than set Indira free? How bad could things get now that Indira had all of the jewels?
Indira floated toward them, her bare toes just visible beneath the dark hem of her robes.
“You have been rescued, Daughters. Now, the favor I ask of you.”
Julia swallowed dryly, shaking her head.
Indira’s white eyes flashed. “I’ll have the crown.”
“Never,” Angie cried.
Heat sprung to the backs of Julia’s eyes. She couldn’t tell her no. She had to abide. She could feel the power of her promise inside her, and willing or not, her feet moved forward to where the crown had fallen. She stooped down and picked it up.
“Are you cracked,” Kaitlyn said viciously. “Think about Brian!”
But Julia had no choice. She had bound herself to a covenant, and with body movements that were not her own, she turned around and held the delicate coronet out to Indira.
“No,” Kaitlyn yelled, lunging forward. Kaitlyn took hold of the crown. “Julia may have been stupid enough to bargain away the jewels, but her deal has nothing to do with me.”
Julia nearly cheered at the sound of Indira’s gasp. Still, she held the crown firm. Her eyes became as thin as blades. “Release the jewels before I give your scar a sibling across the other half of your face.”
Kaitlyn roared, tugging back on the crown. Indira blasted her with dark lightning, her laughter mingling with the crack of thunder. Kaitlyn shot back, tumbling across the sand.
Angie rushed to her side as Indira placed the glittering work of curling metal on her head. It shone against her midnight hair, making her look like a queen.
Her entire body began emanating an eerie, purple glow. “Now… to deal with you three. Once and for all.”
Kaitlyn pushed Angie away and stormed to Julia’s side. “Idiot. What good is it to have her save us only so she can be free with the power of the jewels? What effing level of moronic depths have you sunk to?”
“She can’t hurt us,” Julia cried, facing Indira. “You can’t! You swore it!”
“I did swear it. But I won’t need to hurt you. The Sorceress will summon creatures to take care of you for me.”
Julia forced herself to stand straighter. “You have to be stuck in the tent like you were before. You swore that, too.”
She laughed, her body becoming a mass of shadows. “With the power of all three jewels, what will that matter?”
Her dark eye focused intently on Kaitlyn before she lifted her hands to the sky. Dark clouds swirled around her. The girls tried to blast at her, but their weak beams of magic only brought greater laughter from Indira. Darkness stretched behind her. Cracks formed along her face and arms. The creatures that Indira had knocked out earlier all fragmented into hundreds of black, glass-like pieces.
“What the heck?” Julia cried, her hands covering her ears against the building sound of howling, ghostlike wails.
“Quick,” Kaitlyn yelled. “The pirates are still frozen. Get their guns.”
The broken remains of the creatures amassed around Indira, who flew to the shore.
Angie stumbled after her, but Julia remained rooted. Her gaze fixed on Indira. The disintegrating creatures flowed to the gypsy like metal to a magnet. Piece by piece they joined her, coating her in obscurity. All of them became one massive glom of utter darkness. Above this inky well of wailing evil, the sky grew black.
Julia swallowed. Nice, she thought. Her decision to give Indira the jewels was about to cause the end of the world.
The other girls returned to her side. One of them shoved a heavy gun into her hand.
Julia trembled against the weight of the massive pirate gun. Didn’t these old-timey guns use special powder and have to be loaded with a stick?
“Shoot her,” Kaitlyn yelled. “Guide the bullet to her heart if you have to.”
“My gun isn’t working,” Angie said.
“It’s only half-cocked,” Kaitlyn said, aiming hers as though she fired guns every day.
“I pulled it all the way,” Angie said, tossing the thing aside. “I think these old guns work when the metal hammer hits against a flint and causes a spark. Time is frozen. Since the gun can’t move onto the next step, we can’t shoot.”
Kaitlyn’s brows slammed together and she pulled her trigger anyway. Julia flinched, but nothing more than a loud click sound hit the muted air.
“Damn it,” Kaitlyn muttered. “Unfreeze time, then!”
“These aren’t modern guns, Kaitlyn,” Angie said. “Even if time weren’t frozen, we don’t know how to properly use these things. Do you want to be figuring it out with both creatures and pirates attacking us?”
Julia released a tight breath, her gaze drawn to the growing darkness forming behind them. “Guys? Indira is making something kind of apocalyptic happen.”
The black fragments that had once been Indira and the creatures swirled together, appearing to collapse in on themselves as they disappeared. Dark, flailing tendrils writhed within the diminishing spot, until those vanished too.
“She’ll take those creatures with her to the present,” Angie said.
“But she’s trapped in her tent,” Julia said. “Just like before?”
“She is, but before she was trapped in the tent without the jewels. Who knows what she’ll do with the essence of those creatures and the power of the crown? She might be able to multiply their numbers, make them stronger,” Angie finished in a rush of breath. “We need to fix this, but I have no idea how.”
“No. We need to stay focused on the only issue we can control,” Kaitlyn said. “The Sorceress is going to send over creatures to kill us off.” She found a dagger almost as long as her arm and raised it toward the horizon. “We’ll have to use knives.”
Julia watched as Kaitlyn’s chest heaved and her eyes narrowed. With her lace gown pushed down around her shoulders and a knife in hand, she looked like a sexy pirate superhero. All she needed was a captain’s hat.
Her gaze remained fixed on the time-frozen ocean.
“How are we going to battle an entire army of Scylla?” Julia muttered.
“How the hell should I know?” Kaitlyn lashed out. “Indira’s free. She has the power of the Fates, and you don’t even have a way to save Ethan’s brother.”
“I know that,” Julia yelled as the ocean rippled.
“Did you ever think,” Kaitlyn said venomously, her scar twisting below heated eyes, “that we aren’t even supposed to save Brian? That if we had come here and done this mission right, sealed the portal and gone home, that none of this would have even happened?”
“Stop it,” Julia said, her voice choked and her heart feeling as though it would split in two. Serpe
nt-slitted eyes appeared above the water’s surface and she instinctively drew back. What were the Fates thinking, choosing her as a Daughter?
“Please don’t make things worse,” Angie said, coming around to stand beside Julia. “Whatever Julia decided, she thought it was the right thing. Right now we have more monsters to face, and we need a plan.”
Julia swallowed tightly. She knew Angie was upset about her decision, but she still offered her support. Guilt flooded her, even as dark thoughts ran through her mind. She was a huge jinx. First she ruined Ethan’s life, then she turned Brian into a sea monster. Now she had set Indira free on the world with the power of the jewels.
Her head dropped. She would have to tell Ethan that the jewels were lost. Probably forever, unless they could lure Indira back and somehow get them from her. That meant his brother was doomed to become a creature.
As if Ethan didn’t have enough reasons to hate her.
“Creatures are coming right at us,” Kaitlyn said, her face like stone. “Crying isn’t going to change anything.”
“Accusations aren’t going to, either,” Angie said.
The two girls eyed each other, one with barely concealed rage dripping from every inch of her rigid body, the other calm and serene, her eyes still hopeful despite everything they had gone through.
“What if we make a run for it,” Julia asked, her voice stuffed up. “We have the seashell. We can go back to Atlantis and find out what’s going on with Brian. Maybe there’s still something we can do to help.” She choked back tears as she thought of Ethan, and the devastation he would endure if his brother turned Scylla.
“Too late,” Angie said as Scylla stormed the beach, along with another type of sea creature. Monstrous and massive, with dragon-like heads that rose high above the ocean.
“Cetea,” Angie said. “We can’t defeat these. Not alone.”
“Summon Ethan,” Kaitlyn yelled.
“I can’t find him. My connection is broken. It might be because Brian already turned Scylla and maybe Ethan is—is—”
“Ethan isn’t dead,” Kaitlyn said. Before Julia could smile at the comforting reassurance, Kaitlyn added, “He’s going to die in Paris, remember?”