Chosen

increasing in size, some of which were breaking the surface above. Finn moved toward one in particular and shot up along its side. I followed him until his feet disappeared from the water completely. When my head broke the surface, I realized why. He was now perched on top of the massive rock that extended up from below. Using my sub-par rock climbing skills, I clumsily maneuvered my way up the limestone wall and settled in beside him with shaking arms.

“This is Aphrodite’s Rock?” I asked as I inspected our underwhelming sitting spot. It was only about eight feet wide and rose maybe ten feet off the surface of the water.

“No,” Finn chuckled and pointed off to the right, “that’s Aphrodite’s Rock.”

“Oh,” I breathed in amazement. Two crescent-shaped white beaches joined together, creating a point where a massive white limestone rock looked out over the sea. It was a rough half dome about the size of a five- story building, its vertical cliff facing the sea. With the tide in the process of coming in, the entire back half of the rock was still visible sitting atop the rocky shore. Behind it, the shore gave way to a rocky hill sloping upward towards a road that followed the winding coastline.

Unable to tear my eyes away from our amazing view, I struggled to shift my body off of the broken piece of rock that was valiantly trying to puncture my leg. My hand slipped when I experienced a sharp, cold sensation at the back of my neck. A flashback of being rendered helpless within Nadia’s cold, dank, cave hit me and my eyes swept the area. Instinctively, I sent out feelers with my ‘other’ sense to make sure that no one was waiting for the perfect time to attack.

“Did you feel that?” I asked Finn, zeroing in on the strong positive energy that rolled off of Aphrodite’s Rock in swells.

“No,” he refuted as his body tensed in preparation for whatever I was sensing. “What did it feel like?”

“I don’t know…” I answered, beginning to doubt myself. Just because I felt something cold blow across my neck didn’t mean our lives were at risk. “I think it was just the wind.” Finn’s eyes focused and his trace shimmered as he sent feelers out for any danger or evil.

“Yep,” he agreed and rubbed his arm, which had stopped shimmering. “Probably just the wind.”

“Do you think Nadia would have followed you back here?” I wondered uneasily.

“No,” he shrugged casually. “If she does, I’ll feel her before she can get within ten miles.

That’s the only good thing about being evil; she might as well put on a glow-in-the-dark orange jumpsuit,” he chuckled at himself.

“She has a way of just…popping up, though,” I countered, not feeling nearly as assured as he seemed to.

“There is one thing I’ve been trying to figure out, and it’s something that you definitely need to be aware of,” he explained nonchalantly. “Keto showed up in Nadia’s underground travelling circus of torture.”

“Keto?!” I almost fell off the rock.

“I could tell that they were planning something, but I kept going in and out. I couldn’t ever stay awake long enough to hear an entire conversation. It was slightly annoying.”

“Do you think Keto is going to help her infuse your essence into her soul?” Why would Keto be helping Nadia? She had to be getting something valuable in return.

“I know for a fact that Keto doesn’t have the ability to perform the essence infusion ritual.”

“How do you know?” Apparently, my detective skills needed some work.

“The process of infusing essence requires a great deal of energy, pulled from a source such as the sun or the moon…neither of which Keto is affiliated with. If I had to guess I’d say Nadia is helping Keto, not the other way around. But don’t think you are the only thorn in their sides,” he poked me in my ribs playfully. “There’s a good chance that this has absolutely nothing to do with you or the Tydes.”

“So, you don’t think that Nadia could convince Keto to confront me before my birthday?”

“Keto is not one to be coerced.”

“I need to find out for sure,” I squirmed. “Not knowing is worse than anything else.” It was then that I decided I needed to find Nadia, or even Keto through a reverie. I couldn’t just sit around anymore. If they were planning something diabolical, I couldn’t let them take me by surprise. And I had to practice! I still didn’t know what all I was capable of! Not to mention that I still needed to get an understanding of what Keto was capable of.

“I could sit here forever,” Finn mused happily, voicing the exact opposite of how I was feeling. He closed his eyes and leaned his head back, soaking in the sun with a smile. His body was completely relaxed, and I got the feeling that he didn’t have a care in the world. Meanwhile I was a ball of nerves - two seconds away from a panic attack.

“How do you do that?” I asked; a little annoyed at his cavalier attitude.

“Do what?” he asked, peeking out at me from the corner of his eye.

“That!” I gestured to his relaxed stature with contempt. He sat up and threaded his fingers through mine tenderly.

“If you were sitting beside you, you wouldn’t have a care in the world either.” He grinned and I gave him a ‘be serious’ look. He twisted his body toward mine, providing me his full attention. His handsome face darkened and a steely hardness entered his eyes.

“Stasia, listen to me. I am Prime of the Sons. I can kill and have killed without blinking an eye. I have the most powerful essence, only second to my father. Not to mention, I have an army of Sons behind me.” I held my breath at the conviction in his voice and the strength of the darkness that now surrounded us. “I fear no one.” His eyes melted and dropped to our intertwined hands, “Except you.”

“Me?” Yeah, right.

“It’s true. You scare the hell out of me.” His voice wavered slightly as he began to run his finger over my trace, sending tingles up my arm.

“Yeah, right,” I whispered my thoughts, attempting to brush his words off.

“I’m not me without you,” he vowed adoringly. “The possibility of losing you was almost too much for me to handle. I compromised your trust and risked both our safeties by foolishly believing I could handle it all on my own. But, I can promise you right now, I’ll never underestimate you again.”

“I just feel so much pressure,” I sighed. “Not only do I have to fight my way to become the leader of the Tydes, I have to somehow prove that I’m worthy of being a Nereid - and I have no idea how I plan on doing either of those things! I need to practice. I need to get stronger. I need to come up with a plan. And to top it off, Nadia and Keto are now best friends! I just don’t think I can-“

“You’re not alone in this, Stasia. I won’t let anything or anyone hurt you. Whatever comes our way, we’ll handle it. Together.”

“Together,” I repeated quietly. It had been so ingrained in me that hardships and trials were something I stumbled through alone, that now I had a hard time seeing it from a different perspective.

“But by my calculation we have twenty-four hours before we have to leave this paradise, and I intend on making the best of it. What do you say?”

“I think I can handle that,” I said and allowed myself to smile.

“Good. But can you handle this…?” he raised an eyebrow at me, stood valiantly and did a back flip into the water, ten feet below. Not one to shy away from a challenge, I stood shakily (note to self: no more rock climbing) and pivoted, backing up so that my heels were hanging off the rock. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath and flung myself backward.

Chapter 16

Unfortunately for the tender skin of my stomach, that feeble attempt at a back flip turned into more of a half flip-half flop. Finn, of course, was several feet away doing nothing to contain his laughter. My wounded pride burned inside of me and I chased after him. I finally caught up to him at the bottom of another rock structure. I followed quickly as he disappeared around a corner, and I realized with fascination that the sea had carved out a tunnel that ran the length of the rock; leaving about six feet of air between the ceiling and the water. But Finn was