“Cease this disturbance!” The accompanying shockwave was unlike anything I’d ever experienced before. A whole fleet of trucks couldn’t hold a candle to the force that shook my body in that moment. I felt myself fly backwards, hit the ground and heard the sickening sound of breaking bones. Dazed, I painstakingly turned my head looking around for the others. Finn stood in the same spot untouched, but Kira had been ripped from his arms. She was lying a few feet away from me, unconscious. Natasha was stirring to my left, slowly trying to lift herself up off the ground. I tried to sit up too, but my body wasn’t responding. A sharp pain coursed through my left side, leaving me breathless. A pool of thick, wet liquid was already collecting beneath me and a sudden onslaught of dizziness had me closing my eyes. I tried straightening my legs, but they refused to work as well. I leaned my head to the right as someone walked out of the shroud of the dark beach.
She was terrifyingly beautiful; the most incredible contradiction I’d ever laid eyes on. She had a commanding presence that claimed the attention of every living being. The plants seemed to falter amidst her power and the sand glistened beneath her feet. Glittering silver and green scales covered both sides of her body extending from her face down her neck, arms and legs. What could only be described as a dress of dark green kelp was draped halfhazardly around her voluptuous figure, trailing behind her. Long black and dark green hair fell around her shoulders, accentuating her catlike bright green eyes. Keto. She glided to a stop in front of Finn and he bowed his head ever so slightly to her.
“We meet again, Scion.” An amused grin twitched on her lips and I could actually see Finn’s entire body tense in preparation for a fight. Her voice hardened, “What is the meaning of this dissension?”
“Your daughters have conspired to take matters into their own hands.” I could hear the hatred seething from his voice. At this, Priscilla emerged from the forest, her blue eyes wide with panic.
She dropped to her knees. Keto looked down at her lovingly.
“Stand before me, daughter” she commanded her. Priscilla stood, raising her chin with pride.
Keto’s eyes lasered across to Kira, Natasha and finally settled on me. My skin prickled. “The child has returned,” she declared with annoyance.
“You knew about her?!” Priscilla gawked at Keto in surprise.
“Of course. Thetis was my sister. I knew this day would come.”
“And you let her come back? Why haven’t you done something about it?” Priscilla was near madness.
“Do not question my actions, daughter.” Her tone was so steely, the hair on my unmoving arms rose. She shifted her attention to Finn, “She is not yet immortal. Has she not taken the journey to the river?” I spent the next couple of minutes wondering if I had heard her right. As the blood continued pooling around me, my senses became increasingly muted and I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.
“She will!” He boomed with fervor, “and she will prevail. She is the rightful leader, not you.”
Keto just smiled at him, but the malice behind it was obvious.
“I will not challenge a lesser being. Once she has made the journey, the time will come.” She looked back at Priscilla, “Return to Lorelei. It is not your place to interfere with the destiny of the Nerieds.” Priscilla shrank beneath the weight of her reprimand. Keto looked directly into my now hazy eyes and my thoughts halted under her glare.
“It’s okay, Pasha. I’m going to take care of you,” he tried to comfort me. All I could do was look up at him. I could feel the energy literally draining from my body, and I was getting weaker by the minute. He glanced up at Natasha with something I’d never seen on his dark, handsome face. Fear.
“Mom, we need to hurry. She’s… It’s not good.” Mom…Mom... My mind whirled at the word. My mom had a name now. I knew who she was. I smiled inwardly at the thought and closed my eyes. But what about my dad… Dad…Mom…
“Take her to the estuary. I’ll take care of Kira.” Natasha instructed Finn. Everything started getting fuzzy and all I could think about was going to sleep. Even breathing had become an incredibly difficult task. I had the vague sense of being carried and I heard a low voice in the distance, but the all consuming blackness was so comforting that I blocked everything else out. A numbness settled over my mind and I let it overcome me, becoming lost in its endless depths.
Chapter 35
The next thing I remembered was breathing water. It was so cold and it hurt as it expanded in my lungs. However, with each labored breath, the darkness receded.
“Come on, Stasia, breathe. Come on.” Finn. His voice was far away, but so comforting and strong. The tenor vibrated in my conscious like an echo, making me dizzy. As the water began to circulate within my body, I was able to breathe easier and the pain in my side started to fade. It dawned on me that I was now lying down and something was rubbing my hair. I tentatively opened my eyes. Finn’s face swam in my vision momentarily before clearing.
“Hey there,” he smiled down at me, and my heart melted for the zillionth time. I wondered if I would ever get used to his presence. I hoped not.
“Hey,” I croaked. My body was growing stronger, but I could tell it would be very sore. How was I healing so fast? I looked around, feeling completely out of sorts. I was in an underwater cave.
The water felt…soft. Almost like a bubble bath without the bubbles. All around me a beautiful forest of sea grass, vines, and kelp reached up from the bottom, while flowering plants blanketed the stone walls, creating a colorful, serene oasis. Rays of light filtered through the water from all directions, giving the whole cave an ethereal ambiance. I was lying on a suspended hammock filled with pillows. It hung from the ceiling high above. Also above me, I saw a small circle of light. I could tell that it led out to the outside world. The pool! Finn had brought me back to Thetis’s house. We were in the underwater cavern I had seen earlier.
“What kind of water is this?” I asked him.
“This connects to the lagoon, but its water has many purposes, healing being one of them.”
“That’s convenient,” I smiled and he chuckled at me. I cast an accusing glare in his direction as I remembered something he had said earlier.
“Oh, and thanks for telling me I’d be buying my dress from your
“Must have slipped my mind.” He shrugged his shoulders innocently. He ran his fingers through my hair as his face softened. “We used to live here. On the island.”
“You did?” I finally had enough strength to sit up.
“
We would have grown up together, Stasia.” He shook his head and crushing sadness hit me with force.
My eyes burned with tears, even as the water washed them away.
“Why, Finn?” I began to sob in earnest, “Why did they give me away?”
“To protect you,” he said softly, and wrapped his arms around me. I put my head on his shoulder and let myself cry. I cried for the life I never had. I cried for the parents I would never know. I cried for myself; for the life of pain I had endured for so many years. “They would have killed you, just like they killed them. No one knew you had been born except for a select few, and Thetis wanted to keep it that way. But she loved you so much and she talked about you all the time. It tore her apart, she cried every day.”
“But, she didn’t protect me, Finn. She gave me away to people almost as evil as Keto. Why didn’t she save me? Why didn’t she do something?”
“She didn’t know. She only knew what I told her from your brief appearances to me. It broke her heart that you weren’t able to appear to her. Only after she died was she able to see you.”
