Taken (Enchanted Gods Book 3)
Page 17
June 19 — My Apollo Beach Nightmare
How did I get here? I’ve been asking myself the same question for two days now. Everyone around me seems to have a family, a history, a place in this world, and I have nothing. I’m stuck in the same nightmare. Do I have a family out there? What happened to them? What happened to me? And why can’t I remember anything besides my first name? Grace. At least I think that’s my name. It’s the first word I spoke when I opened my eyes and saw Rose Summer standing above me with care and fear in her eyes. Such a strange combination. But she’s a strange woman. Her husband, George, is nice. He adores Rose. Their son, Paul, is another story. He hates me. He thinks I’m weird because I don’t know who I am. I wish I could look into his beautiful eyes and tell him I’m afraid. Of everyone I’ve met so far, he’s the one I want to talk to, but he won’t even look at me. Here’s to tomorrow, and the possibility of waking up full of memories of my life, my family, my home… because this place is definitely not my home.
June 21 — Weird Day
What a weird day! I had to get out of the house. The Summers are having a party, and they invited all of their weird friends. Everyone had some sort of absurd costume on. Glitter, masks, the works! They said they were celebrating the summer solstice. Who does that?
Ugh. To make everything worse, there’s still no word on where I came from or who I am. I am a nobody. While I should be crying tears of abandonment, I’m just pissed off. Why isn’t anyone looking for me? I must have family or at least friends out there where I came from. Paul has a lot of friends. They all come and go as they please, as if they live here too. Paul and his friends mostly hang out on the beach, though. Sometimes I watch them from my balcony. I watch from a distance because it’s safer that way. He’s embarrassed by me. He doesn’t see me the way he sees the other girls. He doesn’t laugh or poke me like he does with them. Why do I have to like him? All the girls like him.
June 22 — Nightmare
Last night, I had a dream I was running, terrified of a man who called to me without speaking. He slowly trod toward me with his dark eyes fixed on me. I would have kept running, but a force bigger than me caused me to lose my footing and fall hard. The dirt below me began to soften and turn to mud, gluing me to the ground. He towered above me, smiling. His smile terrified me, and he never spoke. Instead, thunder rumbled near us, followed by a strike of lightning so bright, I had to cover my eyes. When I opened my eyes, the man was gone.
August 9 — Intruder
It’s been a while since I last wrote. So much has happened that I’m not sure where to start. Rose has been digging into my past. The only thing she told me is that it’s a miracle I’m alive and that this locket I wear around my wrist was given to me by people who love me. She tells me it’s important to never remove it, not that I could if I tried. She seems to care about me. Every night, she walks me to my room and brushes my hair after I get dressed for bed. She’s always asking if there’s anything she can do to help me feel more at home. I remind her this isn’t my home. I don’t have a home. When I say things like that, I see sadness in her eyes. Does she want me to stay here forever? I’ve already intruded long enough. That’s what I feel like. An intruder.
School starts next week, and I feel as if I’m committing to this place if I actually go. Rose and George insist I attend classes until my “condition” changes. I’m a “condition”!
August 16 — Paul!
School isn’t so bad, especially when Paul drives me there and back. He even ate lunch with me today. Maybe he doesn’t hate me all that much anymore. On the way home, he asked me what I thought of Apollo Beach. I told him the truth. I think it’s the first time I’ve told anyone here the truth about how I really feel. He laughed when I said the community makes me feel as though we’re all stranded on an island, and I’m their latest prisoner. But it’s not a bad prison, not at all. It’s just that the community is so tight-knit. He opened up to me about the pressure of being a Summer and the responsibilities he’s forced to carry at sixteen years old. I’m not sure I feel bad for him, but I listened sympathetically. He’s so cute. He’s got these intense gray eyes that are halfway between a thunderstorm and a diamond. Beautiful, but incredibly intimidating. I’m not scared of him. I’m just scared of what I feel when I’m with him.
August 17 — Another Nightmare
This morning, I cried for the first time since I lost my memory, and maybe a little of my mind. The man in my dreams feels so real sometimes that even when I wake I can’t escape him. He’s always with me, haunting me with those dark, soulless eyes. Is he someone from my past? Is he the reason I’m here? These are the only explanations I can think of as to why I keep seeing him. Who is this man who calls himself Erebus, and what does he want with me?
I look up to see Johnny still flipping through photos. My heart is pounding. I’m glad he’s preoccupied, because I’m not sure what to think. This is insane. Documented thoughts of my mother’s arrival in Apollo Beach? Stories from a perspective only she can share. It’s as if she’s here with me now, telling me her story. And her story feels so similar to mine. Between the arrival in a strange new place, being taken in by strangers, then meeting a boy who didn’t see her for her truth right away. My heart is beating so fast.
I shut the journal, unable to read any more of my mother’s pain. The fact that she was having dreams of Erebus can only mean one thing. She knew him before she lost her memory. So much of our lives are connected by strange circumstance and Apollo Beach. I’m trapped in this living nightmare by my blood. Erebus’s words come back to me now: “You’ve been a part of my plan since before your birth. You’re where you are now because of me.”
Is it true? Was this his plan all along?
“What’s wrong?” Johnny has his arms around me in seconds. Suddenly, I want to explode and tell him everything Erebus told me that night of the Arctic Ball. I can’t keep it to myself anymore. It’s too much, and I don’t know what to do with the information. Maybe he can help.
“I need to tell you what really happened the night of the Arctic Ball—what happened with Erebus.”
Johnny listens to every torturous word without interrupting then waits a few more seconds before saying anything. I’m relieved to finally share my secret with someone, to speak aloud what Erebus wants me to do for him. Johnny cocoons me in his arms as if he can shield me from any more evil.
“I was afraid you were holding back. There’s a lot I haven’t told you about my trip too, but you know that. It’s just that there’s a lot I don’t understand. I’ll tell you if you promise to keep it between us for now.”
I nod vigorously. I’m not sure why I think knowing more will help, but I feel as if we’re getting somewhere. Maybe I can finally start connecting the dots.
“We’ll figure this out together, okay?” he says. “You don’t need to be scared.”
I soak into Johnny’s arms and agree without hesitation. “Okay.”
Johnny
“In the beginning, I didn’t know what I was looking for. I just knew I couldn’t let Erebus get away.”
Kat is currently cradled in my arms, listening intently, her warm cheek resting on my bare chest as I ready myself to explain the entire story of the past year and a half. She deserves to know everything and that the only reason I stayed gone was for her.
“He has this habit of leaving destruction and heartbreak in his wake,” I start, only interrupting myself for a short moment to swallow the lump in my throat. I’m already remembering the night I left Kat on that dock and sailed off toward the wake Erebus left behind like a trail of cookie crumbs. I half expected him to be waiting for me at the first port.
“For some reason I wish I could call it noble, I thought I would be the one to stop him from causing any more pain. But yes,” I admit, flicking my gaze over Kat’s frown as it creases her beautiful forehead, “revenge was also on my mind. An Equinox murdered my parents in cold blood, in front of my young, petrified eyes. Then
they left me there alone with nothing but rage and animosity in my heart, directed toward everyone who crossed my path. I blamed everyone for my pain. I resented them. I resented you.” I frown, searching Kat’s face again. Such an innocent face. Before she came to Apollo Beach, she knew nothing about this place or her heritage. She was as good as pure. Erebus stole it all, from her, from me. Rage builds up inside me as I think about it.
Her expression softens, as if she can hear my angry thoughts, then she squeezes my hand. “Keep going. Please.”
I nod. “I didn’t know who I was anymore. All I know is that choosing to finally settle down in Apollo Beach was the best decision I made, even if I didn’t know it at the time. And leaving might have been the worst.”
One and a half years ago
It took two weeks at sea for me to admit the mission I hastily scrambled to pursue was pointless. Shell Point on the Forgotten Coast was where I first made plans to abandon my asinine scheme and return home. I was tired, hungry, and lonely. I missed Kat desperately. No matter how long and far I traveled, she was my gravitational pull, my constant, the one I had to get back to… my moon.
After a quick meal and a trip to the small grocery store nearest the marina, I would be ready to head back. I could be home by nightfall if I cruised without stopping. My cart was full, but I stopped and grinned at the stand of postcards near the registers. One reminded me of Kat. A manatee in a seashell bra and a shiny mermaid tail grinned at me. I snatched it up, knowing she would love it and would hopefully accept it as one of many peace offerings I planned to give her when I returned.
As I moved toward the checkout stand, I stopped without completely understanding why. A man stood in front of me, and I examined his back and profile as he laid his items on the counter—two clear plastic tubes with wooden lids. That was it. But the items weren’t what froze me to ice. It was his maroon-and-black T-shirt and baseball cap with a familiar high school logo painted between his shoulder blades: Apollo Beach Suns.
The odds of running into someone from Apollo Beach wouldn’t be the most unlikely of situations, but the middle-aged man with a crooked smile and well-kept appearance irked my senses. It was an intuition that my father once warned me to “pay close attention to.”
Not a second later, the man’s hand twitched as he reached for his wallet in his back pocket, but he made a mistake—a mistake that wouldn’t be obvious to any Normal, certainly if they weren’t paying close attention to his every slight movement. Gold energy sprang from his palm and dipped into his back pocket to lift the wallet from his pants and into his waiting hand. And there it was—the sign I was waiting for. I knew without a doubt I was staring directly at the Serpent, Erebus himself.
My real journey began there, stalking Erebus by foot at a great distance so I would remain undetected. I carried the GPS tracker I’d purchased at the previous stop, waiting for the opportunity to plant it on his boat or car. I didn’t know what to expect.
The man back at the store had referred to Erebus as Mr. Davis. If my intuition wasn’t enough, his name alone was proof of who he was. Mr. Davis was Ava’s father. After his name clicked, his face did too. I recognized him as a regular from Island Grille. He must have gladly offered up his body to Erebus after his daughter’s brutal death.
I followed Mr. Davis to a gas station, where he fueled his car. When he went inside to pay, I used my refined homing and telekinetic abilities to place the GPS securely above his right front tire from across the lot. Traveling alone created many opportunities for me to practice magic. At least it was finally proving to be beneficial.
Back on my boat, I drifted away from the marina, studying the GPS tracker to see which direction Erebus headed. Once he got on Interstate 98 going west, I knew it was safe to guide my boat along the coast. When we arrived on the Emerald Coast, I knew my journey had just begun, and I wouldn’t be returning home for a long time—if ever again.
While I stalked Erebus, learning where I came from filled a void I’d never realized existed. I began to make connections between things from my childhood and things I’d never understood until Arabella had confirmed there was a name for what I am. If it weren’t for the insane chain of events of the previous months, I would have laughed at any Greek god reference, but it quickly started to make sense.
When my dad taught me to anchor the boat and dive, he obviously never clued me in on the fact that he could do all these same things with magic. His lung capacity was always admirable. He could stay underwater for an unspeakable amount of time. When I would ask how he did it, he would just tell me he had practiced for many years and that I would be able to do it too one day. But that wasn’t all…
At such a young age, making friends with the fish and all sorts of sea creatures felt magical, but I didn’t realize there was real magic involved. They’d swarmed me because of my light… not because I simply smelled good, like my mom had always said.
And my father’s uncanny sense for spotting injured animals and pollution finally started to make sense too. He’d kept vials filled with special solutions onboard our boat and would release a droplet at a time throughout our journeys, saying it was to keep the water balance just right. I’d jokingly called him the pool man of the sea.
As I remembered this, I opened my father’s safe, which was now in my bedroom closet, and plucked out the one remaining vial of solution. Just a single drop was left. I held it up to examine it, as if it would tell me how to refill itself. That’s when I noticed the mini notepad containing handwritten scrawl that only a marine biologist could interpret—except for one section on the back of the tube that read “SEAPOL JUICE RECIPE. INGREDIENTS: ONE DROP OF SOLSTICE ENERGY AND ONE DROP OF POSEIDON BLOOD.”
I had no clue how I would find a Solstice on my journey or how I would extract it. I wracked my brain, trying to remember something from my time with my father to solve this new mystery. I didn’t have to think about it long.
Pensacola was one of the more familiar destinations for me, one my family and I had visited often. It wasn’t a place I’d intended to visit again, but Erebus had other plans. I tracked him to an abandoned parking lot in an unkempt part of town. From there, he must have walked. A few hours later, I spotted him at the energy plant near the water, standing expressionless in front of the guard gate, like he was waiting for something to happen or waiting for a way in.
That was when I began to connect the dots between my father’s many energy plant visits and the vial burning a curious hole in my pocket. My father would bring the empty vials to the energy plants. He must have been filling them with the “sea formula,” as he sometimes referred to it.
By the time I made the connection, Erebus was long gone. I approached the chain-link fence and, without thinking, used my strength to rip the lock apart. Feeling a tinge of guilt at the vandalism, I quickly used the friction of my hands to create heat and solder it back together.
I knew what I had to do next.
“Sir.” With a nod, security opened the main door to the plant as if he already knew me. An older man in a white lab coat that matched the color of his hair greeted me with a gleaming smile.
“Mr. Pierce! It’s been too long. Please accept my condolences on the loss of your parents.” He shook my hand warmly. “You should know how pleased I am to see you carrying on in your father’s shoes. He’s been dearly missed.”
I recognized him instantly as Zeke. My parents were fond of him. Sometimes my father referred to him as his business partner. “Yes, Zeke…” I struggled. “I’m sorry, I can’t remember your last name.”
“You can just call me Zeke. Consider me a friend.” He tipped his head to the side. “Is this a business visit or a casual one?”
My mouth went dry as I looked around the busy room. It wasn’t people who made the plant busy, but pipes and machinery I couldn’t possibly understand. I knew without a doubt I was in the right place, and I would soon begin to understand my father’s role as a direct descendant of Poseidon.
He smiled. “Ahh, yes. Seapol juice. Looks like you’re running low.”
“Yes, looks like it. Can you help me?” I thought perhaps the man would be more forthcoming with information if he thought I knew what I was doing.
Zeke turned and ushered me into his office. “You know, your father was the reason this recipe was invented. A woman who works with us in Apollo Beach—she goes by many names, so we’ll refer to her as the crazy chemist—she concocted this recipe a decade ago based on your father’s request.” He held up the vial and shook his head in admiration. “Genius.”
Suddenly, guilt hit me like a ton of bricks. Who was I kidding? I wasn’t my father, and I certainly couldn’t pretend to be. I cleared my throat. “I’m not going to act like I know what I’m doing here, Zeke. I don’t know what seapol juice is, and I have no idea why I’m here. I was hoping you could tell me.”
Zeke sat and laid the vial down on his metal desk. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know, within reason. You should be aware that I’ve already heard a great deal about you. My friends in Apollo Beach informed me of your recent discovery of your heritage.”
After talking to him for a short while, I realized that he already knew everything about me, Kat, the locket I stole from her, my encounter with Erebus, and the revenge I was seeking. Someone had told him everything. But who?