understand?” Phoebe paused as she considered whether or not she trusted her best friend’s well being in the hands of Natasha.
“Just promise me you’ll help her,” Phoebe conceded quietly, tugging on a strand of brown hair.
“I will do everything in my power,” Natasha promised. Willow reached out and took Phoebe’s hand to comfort her.
“Just let us know what you need us to do,” Willow told Natasha for Phoebe’s benefit.
“Of course.” Natasha pulled four mugs from a cabinet and filled them for us. “I see how much you love her. Sometimes that is all it takes.” I hoped that I was the only one who could hear the doubt in her voice.
“What is this?” Phoebe peered into her cup skeptically.
“Mint tea with a touch of skullcap. The mint soothes your senses while the skullcap relaxes your muscles and calms your nerves.” I tentatively took a sip of the steaming liquid and closed my eyes as the refreshing taste of mint exploded onto my taste buds.
“So you think the Nereids will be able to help her?” I questioned Natasha.
“Not the Nereids,” she explained. “Charon. Which leads me to what I need to discuss with you. Our reasons for travelling to Cyprus are twofold. You will indeed meet your future sisters, but we also plan to execute another attempt to find Finn. Charon has already arrived on Cyprus,” she held my gaze, “and I took Finn’s body, along with Ricker, over earlier this morning.”
“Wait. Finn and Ricker?” Willow raised a scrutinizing eyebrow. “How’s that even possible?
Is that how…” She pointed back and forth between me and Natasha, putting the pieces together of how I was able to get to Finn’s fight as fast as I did, considering it was on the other side of the world.
Natasha took another sip of tea before expounding on what I had already assumed, “I transported them using conveyance.” Phoebe’s mouth dropped open and Willow’s eyes lit up.
I had experienced her incredible ability of conveyance when she had used it to take us to the location of Finn’s fight. It was an unbelievably fun way to travel. And quite convenient, I might add.
“Natasha’s a Wiccan.” I smiled at Phoebe’s now confused face, “She’s a descendent of Hecate; a witch.”
“Hecate?” Phoebe’s emerald eyes widened as they peered down at her tea. “No wonder this is so good.”
“Making tea is one of my many abilities,” Natasha claimed with a straight face and a clever twinkle in her eye.
“That’s really an ability?” Phoebe clamored. Apparently Phoebe had missed the clever twinkle. Willow shook with laughter and Natasha’s deep blue eyes crinkled as she smiled.
“Yep, she even has a pink lemonade ability,” I poked fun at Phoebe’s naive tendencies.
“Hey, it could happen!” Phoebe held up her cup in retaliation and frowned, “I mean this is some seriously good tea.”
“But you really took Ricker and Finn to Cyprus using conveyance?” Willow shifted forward, enthralled by her ability. “That’s amazing!”
“That’s right,” Natasha confirmed. “Ricker is looking after Finn’s body until we arrive, and his presence may prove beneficial once we begin to work to heal Carmen.”
“How does it work?” Phoebe inquired. “Why didn’t you just convey us over there, too?”
“I don’t believe I’m strong enough to convey three girls and their inordinate amount of luggage all the way around the world.” Natasha tilted her head in amusement.
“It’s pretty cool! When she took me to Finn’s fight, one minute we were standing on the Fortunate Isle. The next, we were standing on a beach in Greece,” I attested.
“I’d never travel any other way. That is so cool!” Phoebe gawked. “I wish I was a witch! No planes, no cars, and you’re there in two minutes flat.”
“It definitely beats a broomstick,” Natasha snickered and took a sip of tea.
“Can all Wiccans convey?” Phoebe asked curiously.
“Yes, but we aren’t the only Order to have that ability. There are…others.” Her eyes became unfocused and her mouth tightened into a straight line at what must have been an unpleasant memory.
“So Charon will be able to heal Carmen’s mind?” Willow asked in an effort to reinforce her thoughts. The crease between her eyebrows hinted at the wheels churning within her head.
“I hope so,” Phoebe muttered gravely as she shot a sideways glance at Carmen’s sleeping form.
“What about me? I can heal bodies - maybe I can heal her mind, too?” Willow inched to the edge of seat in case Natasha agreed.
“I’m afraid I may have used an incorrect term.” Natasha’s features deviated to apologetic.
“Her mind is not technically diseased or even injured. It has been…changed or manipulated. There’s even a chance it has been hijacked. But she cannot be healed in the terms you are alluding to.”
“Oh,” Willow sighed and collapsed back into her seat in a cloud of defeat. I took another long sip of mint tea and contemplated the possibility that Carmen’s mind had been hijacked. By who? Or what? Was it possible that one of the souls from Tartarus had caught a ride to this world?
Or worse, one of Nadia’s ghosts… It was getting difficult not to notice what was at the core of all my problems: Nadia.
“So what’s our new plan to find Finn?” I squelched the rising hope that the possibility of a new plan evoked. That precarious little thing called hope would inevitably threaten to piece my heart back together, which would only leave it vulnerable to further disappointment. I wasn’t going to allow that to happen.
“Charon hasn’t divulged all of the details to me, but he will brief us once we arrive. We’ll be flying into Paphos, which is one of the larger cities on the west coast of the island.”
“Isn’t there a descendent school in Paphos?” Willow thought out loud. “The House of Eventide?”
“Very good, Willow,” Natasha nodded. “We will actually be staying on campus for the duration of our visit.”
“Where exactly is Cyprus?” I asked, realizing I wasn’t completely sure I knew where it was located.
“Cyprus is an island in the Mediterranean Sea. It is east of Greece and north of Egypt. There is much history that has taken place there, and the Nereids have been meeting there for millennia.”
“Aphrodite’s Rock!” Willow perked up with exuberance. “That’s in Cyprus isn’t it?”
“Aphrodite’s Rock, her sanctuary, and many other sites are located all over the island of Cyprus.”
“What’s Aphrodite’s Rock?” I asked. I was picturing a rock that resembled the goddess or that had been carved in her likeness.
“It’s the birthplace of Aphrodite, the goddess of love!” Willow exclaimed with a dreamy look in her eye. I had no doubt her thoughts had drifted to her almost-boyfriend Liam. Unfortunately, Phoebe quickly transformed her dreamy look into something resembling revulsion with her next comment.
“Cronus cut off Uranus’s testicles and threw them in the sea! When the water got all foamy, Aphrodite was created.” She thought to herself for a moment and then shrugged, “It’s kind of gross when you really think about it.”
Just as I was about to ask if that was really possible, the seat belt lights blinked on and we buckled ourselves, as well as the still-sleeping Carmen, in safely to prepare for our descent into Paphos.
I peered out the window at the mysterious sea below. The nearly full moon above lit a watery runway of glitter as the far the eye could see. If only my own path were that clear.
Chapter 4
Finn
