similar to the one my necklace had come in. She opened it and handed the contents to Priscilla.
“We need to make sure you’ re the true Anastasia before we go about killing you, now don’t we?” She sauntered toward me as her blonde hair blew in the ocean breeze, giving her an unearthly quality. I didn’t understand how someone so beautiful could be so corrupt. She wrapped her long skinny fingers around my left hand and slid the ring on to my finger. It was a stone shaped like a tear drop in a black metal setting. An aquamarine. It reminded me of a drop of pristine water the color of my eyes. It took my breath away and matched my necklace perfectly. I examined Priscilla’s face unsure as to why she was giving this to me now. She was staring intently at the ring as if waiting for something to happen. Confused, I glanced back down too. The large aquamarine stone sparkled brightly and the skin beneath warmed, slowly growing hotter. The heat spread up my hand and wrapped around my wrist to my trace. The heat turned to a burning fire and I watched in awe as the trace on my wrist began to expand. From the three spirals, the seaweed began creeping and twisting outward creating a beautiful design in and of itself. It wound back around my wrist and up toward the ring. Finally it encircled my finger and stopped. In shock, I looked up at Priscilla. She was leering at me with wicked excitement.
“Excellent.” She slowly walked back to Isadora. I stared at my newly elaborated trace with bewilderment. I looked over at Kira who was now crying so hard, her whole body was shaking. The fiery resolve cloaked my heart once more.
“Why are you doing this!?” I challenged Priscilla. She twisted around, appalled at my outburst. I thought I heard her hiss.
“
“You can’t kill me. Everyone will be looking for me. They’ll figure out what you’ve done.” I informed her calmly.
“We’re already two steps ahead of you, sweet Anastasia. We won’t be killing you tonight.
Your precious Kira will be doing the honors.” She smiled at Kira, who was now screaming and struggling against her bindings. Isadora opened her mouth and began to sing. Kira’s body went limp as she stared dumbfounded at Isadora. I immediately blocked out the song, not allowing it to enter my conscious. Priscilla smiled at me knowingly, and then slowly bent over Kira, undoing her bindings.
She ripped the tape off of her mouth, but Kira didn’t even flinch. She continued to look fixedly at Isadora. Priscilla handed her something I recognized from a previous vision. A long silver dagger.
“No! You can’t do this!” I screamed at Priscilla.
“Of course I can,” she smiled at me innocently, then allowed the evil to drip down her face.
She radiated darkness. And not the good, comforting kind like Finn. This darkness was all-
consuming, devouring anything in its path. She stepped aside as Kira got to her feet, grasping the dagger tightly. Kira’s gaze shifted to me and I noticed that her usually warm green eyes had turned into hollow black holes. Panic started to build in my chest as I watched her slowly slink towards me.
I had to concentrate. I had to think. I was the direct descendent of Thetis! I had her essence running through my veins. I was destined to be stronger than any other Tyde or Neried. But I didn’t know what to do. My essence was useless if I couldn’t figure out how to use it. I let my resolve turn back into unadulterated rage and handed it over willingly to my heart and soul. I relaxed as I allowed it to engulf me; strengthen me. I felt my necklace and ring warm as the inner glow spread outwards again, drenching every cell in my body with energy. Wind, sea, and shore. Wind, sea, and shore.
As she stepped closer and closer, I concentrated on the sand around me. I planted both of my feet firmly and drew a circle with my eyes. My imaginary circle in the sand began to tremble and I waited for Kira to step inside. She was still staring at me blankly, blade drawn and pointed directly at me. The moment her back foot breached the circle, I raised my bound hands and a wall of sand shot up around us, blocking out the rest of the world as well as Isadora’s poisonous song. Kira was instantly released from her trance and looked around confused. She gawked at the knife she was holding, then at me, and threw it down in disgust. She ran to me in a panic.
“Stasia! Oh my god! What was I about to do!?” The waterworks had started up again.
“It was Isadora, not you. Listen to me, Kira,” she tried her best to hold in her sobs and took a deep shaky breath, “I need you to untie my bindings.” She nodded and frantically unfastened the bindings around my legs and hands. I could tell that this had been an incredibly traumatic experience for her already, and I wished there was a way I could protect her from the reality of our situation.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible.
I let the sand cocoon collapse, and it came crashing back to the ground with the force of an avalanche. I immediately accessed our situation. Both Isadora and Priscilla appeared to be in shock, still trying to figure out what had just happened. The instant they realized I was free from the bindings and Kira was out of her trance, they both began singing. Unable to block them out, Kira once again fell under the guise of their songs. Even for me, it took a great deal of effort to block them out.
It felt like several hundred pounds of pressure weighing down on my entire body, threatening to crush me. In my fight to withstand the onslaught, I didn’t see Kira retrieve the dagger from the sand.
With Kira bearing down on me again, I decided to try out my other supposed abilities; I began channeling every morsel of red hot rage that had been culminating inside of me. I took a deep breath and as I projected outward, a gust of wind exploded outward from around my body, pinning Isadora against a tall palm tree. The force of her body hitting the dense bark of the tree broke her song and I quickly dodged Kira’s strike, easily knocking the knife out of her hand and into the sand. Priscilla appeared in front of me, wrapped her hand around my neck and swiftly lifted me off the ground. She tossed me like a rag doll against a jagged rock, slicing my arm open and knocking the wind out of me.
I watched helplessly as she charged Kira and threw her to the ground in a heap. Then, she lunged for the knife lying in the sand and advanced on me. I tried to move, but the pain in my abdomen wouldn’t allow it. She picked me up by my hair and flung me down in the sand. While I struggled between the need to fight and the excruciating pain, she jumped on top of me, held me down by my throat and lifted the knife in the air with a sickening smile. Squelching the pain, I channeled it into my arms instead and pushed her body off of me. She flew off of me, crumpling on the sand beside me. I scrambled back to my feet, ready to defend myself, but she was unconscious.
Free of her wind prison and eyes burning with hatred, Isadora now began attacking me and wrestling me to the ground. She pulled a second knife from her clothing and swung it down towards my chest. In an instant, she was ripped off of me and thrown against a tree by an unseen force. I rolled over and got to my feet sweeping the beach with my eyes. Priscilla was nowhere to be seen and Kira was lying motionless in the sand. Someone stepped out from the forest and I snatched the other knife from the sand, ready to attack. Her black straight hair and piercing blue eyes caught me off guard. She held up her hands, letting me know she wasn’t going to hurt me.
“Natasha?” I squinted at her, trying to figure out if it was really her. Her eyes widened.
“Stasia, move!” she yelled. I rolled to the right, just in time to see Isadora bring a dagger down in the sand where I had just been. In the same instant, an axe came out of nowhere, hitting her directly in the chest. She collapsed in the sand beside me and I watched in horror as the life drained from her flawless face. I tore my eyes away and ran to Kira, desperate to make sure she was still alive. Her leg was drooped over at an odd angle and her face was pale, but she was still breathing.
“Kira!” I called out to her, “Kira!” Her eyelids fluttered, and then slowly opened. They widened in panic and she pulled me down on top of her in a tight hug. I felt a hand on my shoulder.
“Stasia, we need to go, Priscilla is still nearby,” Natasha urged me. I inspected Kira’s leg.
“What about Kira? There’s no way she can walk,” I told her frantically.
“Of course I ca-“ She let out an ear splitting scream as she tried to move her leg. I reached out to comfort her when a familiar voice caressed my ears.
“I’ll carry her, but we need to move, Stasia.” He lifted her in his arms with lightning speed and his deep blue eyes took me in. A blanket of security instantly wrapped around me.
“Finn,” I whispered. I was so happy to see him I wanted to cry. I stood and smiled at him.
