by Kristen Day
“Maybe she’s a mud puddle nymph,” Carmen snickered.
“Or a sewer nymph,” Phoebe giggled from the bathroom where she was brushing her brown, blonde, and red multi-colored hair again. Willow just rolled her eyes at them, but I could see the wheels turning in that brain of hers.
“There are so many kinds of Nymphs, it would be hard to know for sure, but I have a feeling we can rule out sewage and puddle nymph.” Still giggling, we all looked up at the same time when there came a knock at the door. Phoebe gasped and started rushing around her room in an effort to finish getting ready. I stood, grabbed the handle and swung the door open.
Expecting Ian, my heart faltered as a pair of deep blue eyes collided with mine. The hint of a smirk played on Finn’s lips as he leaned confidently against the door frame.
“Hi there.” An amused smile crept across his face.
“Hi yourself.” I beamed up at him, while my legs promptly turned to rubber. No matter how many times I laid my eyes on him, he always managed to take my breath away. Maybe it was the way his dark hair fell into his eyes or the sexy darkness he emanated. Maybe it was the way his jeans hung perfectly on his waist or the way his shirt clung to the muscles of his arms and chest. Maybe it was the person beneath it all who would gladly risk his life for me. I’m pretty sure there was no way to pin it down. He just had that something. Plain and simple.
“Who is it?” Phoebe came sliding to a stop beside me dressed in an eclectic, bright purple asymmetrical dress. I watched as her face turned from expectant, to surprised, and finally landed on disappointment.
“Expecting someone else?” Finn teased her. She instantly turned a nice shade of bright pink, causing his smile to widen. “Don’t worry. He’ll be here soon. When I left he was fixing his hair for the hundredth time.”
“What can I say,” a rich, deep voice sounded behind Finn as Ian stepped into the doorway too. Dark denim jeans and a pale yellow polo shirt accentuated his dark skin and hair. “Phoebe deserves no less than absolute perfection.” He looked Finn up and down, and then scrunched his nose in my direction apologetically, “Unfortunately, Finn falls into the ‘less than’ category.”
He easily dodged Finn’s playful punch, but being the quicker of the two, Finn still managed to mess up his short dark hair. In an attempt to save Ian’s dignity and our suite (I had seen these two fight each other before and it wasn’t pretty), I grabbed Finn’s hand and dragged him the rest of the way into the kitchen. Ian just winked at him and clutched Phoebe’s hand, already leading her out the door.
“Don’t wait up!” she called out to us as she closed the door behind them, already giggling. Armed with a witty remark, I turned to face Finn but he gripped my waist and jerked me close; instantly erasing any words I was about to say. I breathed him in and tried my best not to melt into a Stasia-sized puddle at his feet. His blue eyes darkened and he smiled knowingly as he bent down, gingerly kissing my eager lips. A flood of tingles assaulted my spine and the only thing that saved me from losing myself in him completely was Carmen’s exaggerated sigh coming from the living room.
“What I’m about to say truly comes from a place of love,” she paused for dramatic effect, “spare us the lovey-dovey crap and go make out somewhere else.”
“You know, you really should tell us what’s on your mind more often,” I chuckled at her. In response, Finn cloaked us both; sending a sparkling net around our bodies and shielding us from sight.
“Ew. Just ‘cause I can’t see you, doesn’t mean I don’t know what you’re doing,” she shot back to the place she assumed we were still standing.
After Finn uncloaked us, I planted a kiss on Carmen’s cheek and watched her wipe it off in mock repulsion. We ducked into my bedroom for privacy, but after catching a glimpse of my disaster of a room, I instantly wished I had cleaned up that morning. My bedspread and sheets had somehow twisted into a pile of fabric at the foot of the bed, clothes were draped over every surface, and books were scattered across the blue shag rug. Thankfully Finn didn’t seem to notice. He shut the door, swept the hair back from my face, and inspected me with genuine concern.
“For a girl who’s supposedly sick, you sure are beautiful.” He raised a skeptical eyebrow at me and drew me close. The proximity of his warm body scrambled my thoughts, but somehow I managed a halfway coherent response.
“You should see me when I’m well,” I leered up at him. The corners of his mouth lifted up into a crooked grin and his blue eyes danced with amusement. His retort was a soft, slow kiss that left me reeling.
“Nothing could diminish your radiance. Not a fever,” he smiled slyly, “and especially not a fake fever.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m burning up.” I put a hand to my forehead.
“You’re definitely hot…” he reached for my hand and kissed it, then sat down on the bed. His blue eyes changed from amused to serious in a nanosecond. I sat down beside him.
“There’s something we need to talk about,” he started, eyes down.
“Okay…” My heart plummeted to the floor, fearing what he wanted to talk about. No conversation that started with ‘we need to talk’ ever ended well. It was usually followed by an ‘it’s not you, it’s me’.
“It’s about your journey to the Underworld,” he sighed in frustration, but the amount of relief I felt had me suppressing the urge to do cartwheels around the room. A discussion around my journey, I could handle; a discussion around him breaking my heart, I couldn’t bear. I forced myself to focus.
In order to fulfill my true destiny and become the leader of the Tydes like my mother, I would have to face the current, self-appointed leader, Keto, who just happened to be a Siren. But, before I could do that, I had to complete my essence in order to become a true goddess once I turned eighteen. Unfortunately, there were far more things I didn’t know about my journey than I did know. I knew I would have to die for my soul to be released and enter the Underworld. Once there, I’d have to swim in the River Styx, which would complete my essence. I knew my whole journey would be in vain if my soul couldn’t find a way to leave and return to my body. If I failed to return, my soul would spend the rest of eternity in the Underworld while my shell of a body remained trapped in this realm forever. Most importantly, I would let down my family, my friends, and all Tydes. I couldn’t let that happen.
“We have a problem. I talked to my mom today and she reminded me of something.”
“Okay…” I said hesitantly. This didn’t sound good.
“There are only four days during the year when a mortal’s soul can voluntarily cross into the Underworld.” He glanced at me with worry evident in his eyes.
“That doesn’t sound too difficult. What are they?”
“That’s where it’s going to get tricky. You have to take the journey before you turn eighteen, right? So we need to know which of those days falls before your birthday. Those are the ones we’ll have to choose from.”
“Well my birthday’s in April so…” my words faded quickly as understanding hit me like a sledgehammer. I gaped up at him with dread and whispered slowly, “I don’t know my true birthday.” I put all of my attention into inspecting a rogue string on my comforter as the gravity of the situation sunk in. When I was found on the police station doorstep as a baby, there were no records of my birth, no documentation to confirm my birth date or true age, so the doctors could only guess at my age and therefore my birthday. April 17th had been decided upon as a stand-in date, but my true birthday would forever remain a mystery. Or so I had thought.
“The next two days you could go are in November and February,” he continued.
“But it’s the second week of October - November’s too soon!” I pleaded, searching his eyes with paralyzing panic. The fear that immediately clutched my chest at the thought of taking the journey so soon had me hoping my true birthday was indeed after February. “What’s so special about those four days?”
“They’re the only d
ays of the year when the veil between the two realms is thin enough.” He watched me carefully to make sure I was following along before he continued, “So, in order to know when you’ll go to the Underworld, we have to find out when your real birthday is. If it’s before February, and you’re forced to go next month, we’ll have to start preparing you now.”
An idea occurred to me and my eyes lit up. “The Isle! If I was born there, there’s got to be a birth certificate somewhere, right?” My excitement was replaced with disappointment when he averted his eyes and his lips pressed into a straight line.
“Unfortunately being born on the Isle means you definitely do not have a birth certificate.”
“So you don’t have one either?”
“Birth certificates are only useful for government records. No one knows the Fortunate Isle exists except for our kind. And even that number is low because of its secrecy. Same thing goes for social security numbers. I don’t have one of those either.”
“So there really are no records to show I was ever born,” I concluded, disheartened.
“Records are only kept for those who can’t or won’t remember,” he supported my hand in his. “I think I know how we can find out when your true birthday is. But we can’t do it here. I have a feeling the Sirens are all watching you pretty closely.” He raised an eyebrow and beamed with excitement, “So we’ll need to go somewhere remote to practice.”
“Practice what?” His answer was a slow smile.
“You’ll see. But first you need to tell your roommates to get packed. We’re all going on a little trip for Fall Break.”
Chapter 3
“So, let me get this straight. Fall Break on the Outer Banks in a massive beach house?” Carmen’s eyebrows shot up, “Why are we still sitting here?!”
She sprinted out of the kitchen mid-bite to pack her clothes. Phoebe had returned from her date with Ian and we were perched on the bar stools sampling Willow’s newest recipe for white chocolate brownies topped with macadamia nuts; or according to Carmen: the best thing since Channing Tatum. I peered at my other roommates hoping they’d agree to go just as easily.
“You had me at ‘Ian’,” Phoebe sighed and pretended to fan herself, but the big, goofy grin on her face was anything but forced.
“What other guys are going besides Ian and Finn?” Willow asked apprehensively, “This isn’t a couples-thing is it?”
“I think he’s bringing his other roommates Ricker and Cage, along with another guy, but I don’t know his name. He said it’s a big house-“
“More like a mansion - the Sons’ beach house is crazy big!” Carmen yelled from her room.
“-so there’ll be plenty of room and it’s definitely not a couples’ thing, I promise,” I finished.
“Did you say Ricker?” Carmen had reappeared.
“Do you know him?”
“Unfortunately,” she muttered and disappeared again. I looked at Phoebe with a question mark in my eyes.
“There’s major history there,” she whispered, “But don’t ask her about it, she’ll bite your head off.”
“What kind of history?” I asked, intrigued.
“It’s kind of a love-hate relationship, but somehow they always find their way back to each other,” Phoebe explained in a low voice.
“It’s a hate relationship, end of story,” Carmen bellowed from her room.
“See? She’s a little touchy about it,” Phoebe warned me with a giggle.
“This could be entertaining. I’m in,” Willow finally conceded. Phoebe squealed, wrapped her in a hug, and then ran off to her room to pack, too. Following their lead, we finished off our brownies and retired to our rooms. The plan was to meet Finn and the rest of the guys at the marina in the morning. The Sons’ beach house was located near Cape Lookout, which was at the southern corner of the Outer Banks, north of Lorelei and Bald Head Island; only a six hour boat ride on the Sons’ yacht.
Long after I had gone to bed, I still lay awake staring intently at the ceiling above. I was secretly hoping the answers I needed would magically present themselves across its smooth surface, but after examining it for more than an hour, I raised the proverbial white flag in defeat. The only thing I had succeeded in identifying was the white paint peering back at me with the same blank stare I felt on my own face. The incident with Nadia had been pushed to the bottom of my priority list in lieu of this new development in my journey. Unfortunately, the number of the questions far exceeded my number of answers. Trepidation had begun to outweigh most of the excitement I felt about the long weekend ahead. What did Finn mean by ‘practice’? And how did he plan on figuring out my birthday on a remote island on the Outer banks? Unless the answer was hidden away in a buried chest, I wasn’t too sure how this was going to work. What happened if we discovered my birthday was before the November date, as well? Or even yesterday? Would I just be out of time and out of luck?
No wonder I couldn’t sleep. The weight of the world was growing pretty heavy on my slim shoulders. Giving up on any chance of rest, I rolled out of bed and ambled across my room. I softly touched the twelve dried black roses still hanging beside my mirror and couldn’t stop the unexpected smile that fought its way onto my face. A glowing heat spread through my chest, and the simple fact that I wasn’t going to have to do this alone immediately lightened the intense pressure on my shoulders. Finn would be with me the whole time. I didn’t know if I could do this, but maybe we could. We could figure this out together. Of that I was 100% sure. Whatever life threw at me, I would deal with it and overcome it the same way I had my entire life; with strength and courage. I fingered the triskellion charm hanging around my neck that matched my trace and felt it warm beneath my touch; reminding me of who I really was. I had faced adversity before. Not only as Hannah, but also as Anastasia. This test would be no different. As I laid back down, Finn’s words to Keto floated through my mind; She will prevail…she will prevail…
Blue. Stretching out for miles. But not just any blue. A deep indigo hue of epic proportions that captivated my soul and enriched my heart. I knew I was having a reverie, but besides that I was completely at a loss. I stood on stark white sand as fine as powder with towering limestone cliffs in the shape of a crescent at my back. The beach was in the shape of a crescent as well; the cliffs blocking any view except for the expansive sea before me. The contrast of the dazzling white cliffs and the mystical blue water had me mesmerized. Where was I? Taking in my surroundings, I had an odd sense that I was very far away from my body. I could only describe it as a feeling of extreme freedom, to the point it was frightening. I shoved the highly unsettling feeling back in my mind, trying to concentrate on why my soul would have come here. I pivoted slowly, trying to find anything that would give me a clue. Upon closer inspection, a section of cliff behind me had actually been altered. It had been chipped away to the extent that a large block-like structure had emerged from the stone. With several hollow squares that resembled windows, it could have been a five story building carved into the limestone. Suspended high above the sand, it was the perfection of camouflage. Clink…clink…clink. My head swiveled side to side, finding movement on the sand several yards away. A man. Where had he come from? …clink. He was collecting something. I held my breath, even though he shouldn’t be able to see or hear me, and moved closer. The warm air blew his gray hair and beard to the side; revealing weathered skin and sunken cheeks. Only wearing thin shorts, his body appeared starved for nourishment as well as for cleanliness. He methodically scanned the beach, bending carefully as he found a particular shell. He dropped it in a small basket with the others, causing the clinking sound I had heard. I moved closer still, accidentally stepping on a small piece of driftwood. It broke beneath my weight and the old man immediately glanced up, startled. Serene, blue-gray eyes met mine and I froze. I was overcome with a feeling of déjà vu as the world faded to darkness around me.
I opened my eyes, having returned to my darkened room. Confusion heavy on my heart,
I pushed back the covers and headed for the bathroom. I splashed refreshing, cold water on my flushed face. Where had I just been? And who was that man? I pulled my hair up into a bun, checked out my reflection in the mirror, and gasped. I quickly let my hair back down and leaned in closer. Well that wasn’t something you saw every day. Thin streaks of aqua now highlighted my messy blonde hair. The streaks shimmered slightly in the bathroom light. It was kind of pretty; ethereal almost. Unless it spread and I ended up with a head full of blue hair. I giggled at myself and jumped back in bed. If I woke up looking like Smurfette in the morning, so be it. I was too exhausted to worry about it.
~~~~~
“Seriously? Permanent highlights?” Carmen crossed her arms over her chest with disdain, “Do you know how many people would kill to have those?”
“Something tells me aqua wouldn’t be their first choice of color,” I laughed, and adjusted my bags as we left Maren Hall on our way to the marina.
“Maybe you’ll start a new trend!” Phoebe shrieked. “I can already picture the cover of Glamour Magazine: Blue highlights: Not just for sea Goddesses anymore…”
“Somehow I don’t think it’s going to catch on, Phoebs.” I couldn’t help giggling at her, but I was also secretly hoping Finn wouldn’t think they were weird. My heart skipped several beats at the thought of him. I couldn’t wait to spend an entire weekend with him, even though I had no idea what we would be doing. Of course, we could be cleaning the beach house from top to bottom and I wouldn’t care as long as we’d be together.
Once arriving at the marina, three very tan, very good-looking dark haired guys met us on the boardwalk and took our bags. Ian, his black onyx necklace and diamond stud earrings catching the light of the sun, and two guys I assumed were Cage and Ricker. Although Finn talked about them, I had never actually met them. Ian wrapped his arm around a glowing Phoebe and kissed her gently on the lips, while the other two turned toward the yacht. If I had thought it was impressive the night of the Ball, it blew my mind in the sunlight. Several times larger than Olivia’s, the Sons’ yacht dwarfed all other boats docked in the marina. From what I could tell there were four levels, as well as a large deck on the bow and stern. On the top level a smaller, more secluded deck overlooked the rest of the boat.
