“That makes sense,” Kate said, turning to us. “Remember—all we’re doing is gathering the fruit and coming back here. Do not eat the fruit under any circumstances. If you start to feel affected by the smell of the fruit, drink the yellow energy water in your bag, and you’ll be brought back to your senses.”
“The locals should provide you with the fruit,” Hypatia reminded us. “They love the lotus fruit, so they’ll be anxious to share. All you need to do is fill your bags with as much of it as you can and return back here.”
“Shouldn’t be a problem,” Chris said. “Especially since the locals are all doped up on lotus. It sounds like they’ll have no clue what’s going on.”
“But we have our weapons, just in case.” Blake rested his hand on his gun, which he’d hidden under his jacket.
“If you haven’t returned once the sun has set, I’ll come looking for you,” Hypatia said. “Hopefully it won’t come to that. For now, one of the crew members will take you from the yacht to the beach. Once there, follow the beach around the cove to find the Lotus Eaters. Good luck, and I’ll see you soon.”
With that, we piled into the dinghy, and we were off.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
We strolled along the beach, listening to the waves crash against the shore, lost in our own thoughts. Between school, training, and homework, I barely had much time to think anymore. Could it be possible that my dad—Apollo—was watching me now? I’d assumed he was watching me back in Kinsley, since he’d known to leave that package on my windowsill. He hadn’t replied to my letter, but now that we were here, in the ancient lands, would he finally show himself to me? If he had time to leave me presents and letters, surely he could stop by for a short visit, just to introduce himself.
Then my thoughts were interrupted by hollow, rhythmic music that sounded like it came from bongos. We all stopped in our tracks, staring ahead at where it was coming from.
“Is that a drum circle?” Danielle asked.
“It’s coming from that way.” Chris pointed forward, running around the next turn. “I see them!” He came back around and motioned for us to hurry. His face was lit up with a huge smile, as if he’d discovered a buried treasure. “This way.”
We followed him around the corner, and in the distance I saw what appeared to be a giant beach party. People of all ages and heritages danced around a drum circle, played games of volleyball, surfed on the sea, and lounged around in hammocks. They didn’t seem to have a care in the world. We stood there, watching them, not saying a word.
Then a young boy who couldn’t have been older than ten pointed at us and shouted, “New visitors!”
I froze, my hand going to my bow. The others reached for their weapons, too.
The boy ran toward us, but an older woman in a kimono followed him, placing her hands on his shoulders to stop him. “We were just about to start a bonfire,” she said with a grin, as if she’d been expecting us. “Come, join us!”
“Yes, join us!” the others chorused, to the beat of the bongos. They kept repeating their request, the goofy smiles not leaving their faces. They all were dressed from different times—one man wore a dirtied toga, a woman wore a tattered medieval gown, a teen boy wore a t-shirt and board shorts, and another man wore a Scottish kilt, among many others. It was like the strangest Halloween party ever.
“What do you think?” Danielle asked, her hand still on her katana.
“They seem friendly,” I said. “And we’re supposed to talk to them to get the fruit, so I don’t think it will do us any good to walk over there brandishing our weapons.”
A little girl ran up to us, wearing a nightgown that had probably once been white under all the dirt, laughing as she kicked up piles of sand. “Come play with us!” she said, her ringlets bouncing around her face. “You can help us light the campfire.”
“I think I can help with that,” Blake said, flicking on his lighter and balancing a fireball in his hand.
The girl stopped in her tracks and looked up at him in wonder, the fire lighting up her face. “Wow,” she said, her tongue practically hanging out as she admired the flames. “Can I try?”
“You better not.” Blake closed his hand so the fire snuffed out, and the girl pouted. “You wouldn’t want to burn yourself,” he explained. “But I can definitely help you with that bonfire.”
She reached for his sleeve, tugging him towards the group.
He laughed and looked back at us. “Come on,” he said, allowing her to pull him away. “They seem harmless.”
I wasn’t so sure about that—their goofy grins and unison way of speaking put me on edge. But Hypatia had instructed us to interact with the locals, so as we made our way toward the group, I listened to Kate as she filled us in on her observations about the people here.
“They’ve all gotten lost here during different periods of history,” she said. “That’s why they’re wearing clothes from different eras. Once they’re here, they must stay the same age forever.”
“Like the Lost Boys in Never Land?” Chris asked.
“Exactly.” Kate nodded, and ran to catch up with the girl. “Hi, there,” she said, perching on her knees and smiling. “What’s your name?”
The girl paused for a second, as if she had to think to remember. “Marion,” she finally said, and then she grinned, as if proud of herself for knowing her own name. Her two front teeth were missing from her smile.
“And what year were you born?” Kate asked.
“I don’t know.” She giggled, as if the question were silly. “Come on! Let’s go play.” She took off toward the drum circle, sand flying behind her feet as she ran.
Sadness filled my chest as I watched her hurry away. Had she truly been on this island for so long that she’d forgotten what year she was born? Her nightgown didn’t look like anything modern—it could have been from a hundred years ago. Her name was old-fashioned, too.
Kate was right… it was like she’d been frozen in time. Everyone here was. Goosebumps prickled over my arms at the thought. This island was a ghost town, and we were outsiders, being welcomed in.
“This place is giving me the creeps,” Kate said once the girl was out of earshot.
“Me, too,” I agreed, glad that I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. “Let’s get the fruit, and get out of here.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“We have to act like we want to hang out with them,” Kate said as we walked closer to the drum circle. “It won’t take long until they ask us if we want to try the lotus fruit. When they do, we have to say—”
“That it smells delicious, but we’re in a hurry and would love to take some for the road,” I completed her sentence. “We’ve been over this. It’ll be fine. Like Chris said, they’re so doped up on lotus that they don’t seem to care about anything but having fun.”
When we arrived at the drum circle, Chris was already sitting down, banging on a bongo. “This is actually pretty fun,” he said, although it wouldn’t have taken a professional musician to tell that his drumming was completely off beat.
“Your friends should try, too” a man next to him, who was wearing an Egyptian headdress, said. “Come, join us!”
I loved music, but my talents were with the guitar, not with bongos. So I looked around, searching for the others. Blake was helping Marion and some of the other kids gather wood for a campfire. Danielle had grabbed a surfboard and was running toward the ocean. They both were smiling and laughing, as if they were having the time of their lives.
“I guess I’ll join the drum circle,” Kate said with a shrug.
“Wonderful!” the Egyptian man said, scooting over to make room for her between himself and an Indian woman whose arms were covered in beautiful henna tattoos.
“I think I’ll check out the volleyball courts,” I finally said. “See if they could use an extra player.”
“Have fun, dear!” A woman in a flapper outfit waved at me and inhaled on her cigarette holder, blowing smoke i
n my face as I passed by her.
I breathed it in, and the smell of the smoke was so delicious that it made me stop in my tracks. I’d never smelled something so wonderfully sweet. My favorite food had always been chocolate, but I imagined that if chocolate were put next to this delicious smell, the chocolate would be ignored completely. I took another deep breath, inhaling the lingering smoke, wanting the amazing aroma of it to stay with me forever.
“What were you saying, dear?” the flapper woman asked, blowing out more of the intoxicating smoke. I inched closer to her, savoring every bit of it. “You were going to play volleyball?”
“Yes.” I smiled at the thought of playing volleyball—I’d never played before, but it was similar to tennis, so it couldn’t be hard, right? “Volleyball sounds fun. I’ll see you all soon!” I waved to Kate and Chris, flashed them a grin, and bounced over to the volleyball courts.
I was halfway there when I saw him. He threw the volleyball in the air and served, the sun glistening off his perfectly tan body. He had silky, blond hair, and he was so gorgeous that he looked like a movie star.
Then he turned around and smiled at me. His eyes were clear blue, like the sky, and the way he was looking at me—as if I was the only person in his world—made my heart feel like it had transformed into fluttering butterflies in my chest.
“Hi, there,” he said, his accent making me melt. I didn’t know where it was from—England, maybe? “Care to join our game?”
I blinked and glanced over my shoulder, making sure he was actually talking to me. There was no one else there.
“Yes, I’m talking to you.” He laughed, and it sounded like musical bells. “I’m Ethan. That’s my twin sister Rachael.” He pointed to the girl across the net, who was equally blonde, tall, and gorgeous. “And you are…?”
“Nicole,” I answered, needing to remind myself to breathe.
“Nice to meet you, Nicole.” My name sounded beautiful when he said it. “Care to join in?” He tossed the ball to me, and thanks to my natural reflexes, I caught it without a second thought.
“Sure,” I said, flashing him what I hoped was a flirty smile. “Yes. That sounds great.”
“Perfect,” he said, smiling right back at me. “I claim you for my team.”
I bounced over to him, and he took the ball back from me, his hands brushing mine. Warmth flooded my body, as if his touch had filled me with pure, white energy.
“Have you ever played before?” he asked, standing so close to me that I could smell the same delicious sweetness in his breath that had been in the flapper lady’s smoke. I wished he would kiss me, so I could taste that same sweetness on his lips.
But I couldn’t kiss someone I’d just met. Could I?
I stepped back, trying to organize my thoughts into something somewhat coherent. “No, I haven’t played before,” I said, smiling at him and tossing my hair over my shoulder. It was something Danielle always did when she was flirting. It worked for her, so I might as well try it, too. “But I do play tennis, and I’m pretty good at sports. I’m sure I’ll have no problem picking it up.”
“Sounds like a fun challenge,” he said. “Since you’re a newbie, I’m sure that Rachael will have no problem going two-on-one.” He grinned and stepped back, tossing the ball into the air and serving it across the net. “Game on!”
I watched his perfect form, and the way he smiled at me, and it was like I was in my own personal part of heaven.
I could imagine staying here on this island, with him, forever.
CHAPTER TWENTY
I lost track of how long we played volleyball—all I knew was that Rachael beat us, and that I could barely pay attention to the game because everything about Ethan was so ridiculously distracting. I wondered if he was equally as distracted by me, too. I doubted it, but it didn’t hurt to dream.
“That was a blast,” he said once the game was over. “Now I just want to collapse in the sand and do nothing for the rest of the day.”
“That sounds tempting.” I smiled, and then plopped down right in the middle of the volleyball court. “Come, join me!”
Ethan tossed the ball over the net and dove down next to me, spraying sand all over me. I laughed, shaking it out of my hair and onto him.
“I’m going for a swim,” Rachael called over to us. “See you both later!”
“Bye!” we called back, waving to her as she ran out to the ocean.
Now it was just me and Ethan, lying together on the sand. He was watching me with so much intensity in his clear blue eyes that I nearly forgot to breathe. With the bongos playing out in the distance, and the waves lapping on the shore, this moment was so incredibly perfect. I wouldn’t want to be here with anyone but him.
“Water?” he asked, handing over a bottle.
“Thanks.” I sipped from it, needing to cool off after the game. The water was the most incredible thing I’d ever tasted. Sweet, like the smoke from the flapper lady’s pipe. “This is amazing,” I said, taking a few more sips. A drop fell down my chin, and I caught it and licked it off my finger, not wanting to waste a single bit of it.
“Save some for me.” He winked and snatched back the bottle, taking a few gulps. I reached for it to finish whatever was left, frowning when I realized it was empty.
“There’s plenty more where that came from.” He pried it from my hand, letting it fall to the ground. “We’ll get some later. For now, let’s just hang here, together.”
“Okay.” I smiled and twisted a strand of my hair around my finger, liking the sound of spending more time with Ethan. This was the most perfect day ever.
I vaguely recalled something I’d wanted to ask him before… what was it? I tried to search my mind for it, but everything felt so hazy. Oh, well. It must not have been important.
“I’m glad you’re here, Nicole,” he said, putting his arm around me and pulling me close. His skin glistened with sweat, and it rubbed off on me, but I didn’t care. Even his sweat smelled delicious. “You’re going to be fun to have around. I can tell.”
I smiled, my heart beating a million times a minute. The way he said it, in his perfect accent, made me believe that it was true, too.
That was what I’d wanted to ask him about! His accent.
“Where are you from?” I looked up at him and tilted my head, resting it on his shoulder. “England?”
“No.” He laughed, as if the question were silly. “I’m not British.”
“Where then?” I asked. “Because you’re definitely not American. No one in America talks like you.”
“You like my accent?” he asked.
“Yes.” I smiled. “I do. Is it Irish? Scottish?”
“No…” He shook his head and scrunched his eyebrows, as if it were taking him effort to remember where he was from. “Australian.”
“Wow,” I said. “I’ve never been there.”
“Most people haven’t.” He shrugged and looked out over the ocean, his eyes distant. As if he were searching for an answer he couldn’t find.
“How’d you get here all the way from Australia?” I asked.
“It’s a long story.” He ran his fingers through my hair, untangling the knots I’d gotten while playing volleyball. “I’m sure you would find it boring. Especially compared to all the fun we can have here.”
“I doubt I could find anything about you boring,” I said. “I could listen to you talk forever.”
“Forever?” He raised an eyebrow. “I doubt that.”
“It’s true!” I laughed. “So… tell me. How did you get to this island? You’re wearing normal clothes, so I guess you got here recently, right?”
“It feels like I got here yesterday…” he trailed, his eyes going distant again. “Maybe it was a few days ago? Or a week? I’m not sure. My sister and I went on a gap year program, and Greece was one of our stops. We were jet skiing, and we ended up here. The island is paradise, and our tour group will be in Greece for three weeks, so we figured it couldn’t hurt t
o stay for a bit.”
“The people who live here are fine with that?” I asked. “They don’t make you pay or anything?”
“We go on rotations to gather more lotus, but that’s all,” he said. “Anyone who wants to stay is welcome. I’m sort of hoping…” His cheeks flushed, and he looked down at his hands, twisting them together.
“You’re hoping what?” I held my breath, hoping he was about to say what I thought he might.
He raised his eyes to meet mine, trapping me in his clear blue gaze. “I’m hoping that you’ll stay here, too.”
The butterflies exploded in my chest all over again. “I think I might,” I said, excitement flooding my veins at the thought of it. “Everything is just so stressful back at home. There’s this portal that’s weakening, and all of these monsters are escaping, and I’m supposed to be able to handle it, but I’m only a teenager. And I recently found out that my bio-dad is a god. How crazy is that?”
“No way.” Ethan smiled. “My dad’s a god, too!”
“Really?” I asked. “Which one is he?”
“Zeus,” he said, sitting straighter. “King of the sky. The leader of the Olympians. But he’s only talked to me and Rachael once. Pretty lame parenting if you ask me.”
“Yeah.” I huffed, blowing some pieces of my hair off my face. “At least that’s better than my dad—Apollo. I’ve never met him. He’s left me a present and a note, but that’s it. It’s like he’s afraid to talk to me or something.”
“His loss.” Ethan leaned closer to me, and my cheeks flushed at the realization of how close his lips were to mine. “By not knowing you, he’s missing out on something pretty great.”
Then he kissed me, and he tasted so sweet that I never wanted the kiss to end. He pulled me closer, and in his arms, I’d felt safer than I had since first coming to Kinsley. Here, on this island, with Ethan, everything felt so right.
Elementals 2: The Blood of the Hydra Page 7
