by Kristen Day
"Mom?" I attempted to wipe her tears and send her some calming essence. Her essence overflowed with remorse and heartbreak, and my heart broke watching her crumble in my arms. I just wanted to fix it. Make her smile again. "It's okay, it's okay."
"We must talk, sweetheart," she primed me, her voice cracking with emotion. I helped her into a chair and retreated behind the counter to find the pot of coffee. I refilled her cup and settled in beside her, holding her hand in mine and giving her my full attention.
"Uh, guys?" Olivia interrupted, staring at her palm with disbelief. A relieved smile found its way across her face as she held it up. "I think she's going to be okay. For now."
Her now latent trace gave me solace and I closed my eyes briefly, allowing my nerves to still. She was safe. She was okay. We still couldn't get to her fast enough, though. I needed to hold her. See her. I felt as if a part of my soul was missing; lost.
"I should probably leave." Olivia cleared her throat uncomfortably before Mom gestured for her to remain seated.
"You should hear this as well, Olivia."
"What's going on, Mom?" I prompted. "Why did you lie to her about who you are? You know how much trouble you could be in if-"
"I wasn't lying," she cut my concern short, holding my gaze emphatically. "I am, in fact, Hecate."
"Mom, seriously..." My words trailed off as the pleading in her eyes intensified. If not for her obvious emotional vulnerability, I would have laughed outright. But nothing came out, not even a nervous giggle. Stifled by the shock I felt, I simply sat there staring at Mom's solemn expression, failing to find the words I wanted to say. Thankfully, Olivia never had that problem.
"You can't be," she stated plainly. "I've seen pictures. Hecate's more... well..."
"Dazzling? Flamboyant? Beautiful?" Mom chuckled lightheartedly but I caught the sadness in her tone. "Indeed. I used to be infinitely more dramatic."
"Used to be?" I caught her use of the past tense. She sighed and squeezed my hand.
"When I was pregnant with you, I had to make a choice. Your father and I...we agreed on your future. As the direct male descendant of Charon, your destiny was clear. Mine, however, was not."
"I don't understand," I pressed.
"You are, and will always be, my priority. To prepare you for your future, you needed to grow up in this realm with your brothers," she explained. "Unfortunately, Persephone would not allow me to leave simply for your benefit. My soul belonged to the Underworld. My only option was to give up my station, sacrifice my essence, and become mortal. It was the only way."
"You're telling me you were Hecate...and you threw it all away?" I gawked at her. "For me?"
"You gave it all up? For Finn?" Olivia's eyes widened in fascination as she unknowingly repeated exactly what I just said. I narrowed my eyes at her.
"For my son," Mom clarified as fresh tears spilled onto her cheeks. "My only child. For you, I would sacrifice anything."
"But you go back," I considered out loud slowly, as if that would help me understand faster. "Five times a year."
"It was the only reprieve gifted to me by Persephone. I was grateful to receive that much."
"And you've kept this from me... my whole life?" I grasped for anything resembling logic. Instead, I sputtered incoherently. "All these years...? I thought... But you... So I'm a direct descendant of Hecate?"
"Not quite," Mom cringed. "When my essence was stripped, left with only enough to qualify as my own descendant, it was taken from my unborn child also. Which is why you are limited in those types of abilities; a sacrifice I was forced to choose for you as well."
"Damn," Olivia blurted out.
"For me...?" I muttered with double meaning. She gave up her identity, her essence, for me. For my future. She shouldn't have done it. It was too much. She sacrificed everything. For me.
"It was kept quiet," Mom continued. "The witches. I...abandoned them. This they know, but they were not aware to what extent. My Council members were the only ones privy to this knowledge, besides Persephone and your father. If anyone found out that the Order was without a Leader, it would descend into chaos."
"Nadia," Olivia considered with a gasp.
"I fear she has somehow learned of my renouncement and is taking full advantage," Mom admitted.
"But how did Arabella know?" Olivia asked. "How do you know she's not Nadia in some kind of ruse?" I hadn't thought of that. I stared at Mom with alarm.
"Her mother was on my Council." Mom grinned at the memory. "She always did have trouble keeping secrets."
"Wow," was all I could say. Everything I thought, everything I believed about myself - my life - was wrong. My Mom wasn't who I thought she was. I inspected the curves of her face, suddenly not recognizing her. The same dark eyes searched mine. The same lips pressed into a thin line with worry. But I didn't know her anymore. Betrayal slammed into me so hard, I lost my breath. Her sacrifice, her willingness to abandon her Order for me was trumped by my inability to reconcile who my mother is and who I thought she was. My trust was splintered in a way that blindsided my thoughts and poisoned my perception. I needed time to think. I needed to be alone. I stood, unable to move my legs at first.
"I need to think," I spewed my thoughts out loud. "I can't..." I didn't finish my sentence. As my chest heaved with overwhelming exhaustion, I finally persuaded my legs to take me from the room. I continued walking as I heard my Mom - Hecate, I now knew - calling my name.
The dim light of my cabin matched the flickering bleakness in my heart and I sat numbly on the end of my bed staring out into the vast blackness of the ocean I knew lay beyond the wall of windows. When I tired of staring at nothing, I laid back motionless with closed eyes and a locked heart. I willed my thoughts to clear and my emotions to straighten themselves out. I wanted to talk to Stasia. I wanted to look into those eyes. They contained a vast ocean filled with the secrets of a thousand years, and I needed the endless supply of hope she possessed; a promise that there was always a way. I needed that right now. I needed her.
I had just convinced myself to sneak out of the boat's claustrophobic walls, immerse myself in the openness of the ocean, and go find Stasia when the cool mist of an oceanic rain shower settled upon me. It was like a glass of ice water on a scorching summer's day. It was her essence. I tumbled out of the bed and walked toward the windows, but all I could see was a void. She wasn't out there. She was nowhere close to us. She was out there, facing demons I couldn't protect her from. I fell to my knees with overwhelming exhaustion and cursed the world. How could nature possibly create anything that could so closely resemble Stasia's essence and then torture me with it?
STASIA
"How long can you go without the elixir?"
"Eight, nine hours at the most," Sebastian mumbled and looked up at me numbly. "Maybe longer, I don't know."
I crouched next to him amidst a particularly strong wind gusting around the top of the monolith and wrapped a comforting arm around his shoulders. The news of Fallon's death had yet to sink in, but I harbored doubt about what Nadia said. Fallon could still be alive and well. I didn't put it past Nadia to use everything possible against us. And if she knew the how close Fallon and Sebastian were, she wouldn't think twice about taking advantage of that to weaken him. But I had no ground to stand on. It was just a thought; one of many swirling in my head.
He gazed out to the horizon before speaking again. "You didn't really believe that Fallon would be helping Selene did you?"
"No," I admitted with conviction. "Selene can make anyone believe what she wants them to believe. I'm sure she made sure Olivia believed Fallon deceived her. After letting Olivia go, Selene wanted to make sure we wouldn't come looking for Fallon."
"So she could kill her," he growled. "She was destined! Selene knew Fallon would be her downfall, but without obtaining her full essence yet...Fallon never stood a chance."
"Maybe our fate isn't as set in stone as we thought," I mused slowly. While Fallon's death was inc
omprehensible to me, it was just another piece of the puzzle that clicked into place for Selene. She enjoyed playing the puppet master because in her mind, she was unstoppable. Unfortunately, recent events were proving her right.
However, in the pit of my stomach, her untimely passing actually provided a sliver of hope that my fate could be altered, even though I knew that was selfish. I knew it was in vain, but that small piece of hope continued to hang on. I hugged Sebastian's neck and reminded myself that Sebastian had been much closer with Fallon than I was.
"I'm so sorry, Sebastian," I consoled him. He fixed his angry blue eyes on the horizon and rocked back and forth. His voice became eerily steady and the clenching of his jaw gave away the rawness of his emotions.
"In this realm, death is seen as the ultimate end, but there is a worse fate possible. Death in its truest form is actually freedom; freedom for our souls and the freedom to spend eternity with those that we owe our lives to. To spend eternity in the safety of the arms of family." His faraway gaze flitted to my own and I recognized an enlightenment there I had seen before...in Mom's eyes. I was momentarily mesmerized and waited for him to continue.
"I saw the Elysian Fields," I admitted and then clarified in short spurts of emotion. "Just the outskirts. I saw Mom. I saw beauty. I saw freedom."
"She told me." He grinned at me lovingly, but it was soon replaced by indignation once more. "I don't grieve Fallon's death. Her death should have been a celebration. A new beginning. That is what has been stolen from her. Not only her destiny, but her eternal life as well."
"Nadia wants to steal that from us too," I blurted out, and then realized what he was trying to tell me. He nodded and then repeated his first words, dripping with significance.
"In the Underworld, there are worse fates than death."
My heart collapsed upon itself as I considered what he said. Death for Fallon should have simply taken her to the Underworld where she would spend eternity in the Elysian Fields, the divine resting place for those souls containing essence. A place Sebastian had been to before. A place he left in order to return to this realm, and where he hoped to go back to on the next full moon. Unless Nadia had her way.
"To be a servant to the Reaper is a burden no soul should bear, especially not one as pure as Fallon." Sebastian gritted his teeth and tossed a rock off of the cliff to its death. "She'll own half our family by the time she's done."
"If she's successful..." I contended. "If she did, in fact, script our names and secure our souls for her collection..."
"...All three of us will be doomed to an eternity of servitude and torture."
"...While the Nereids die off and our Order fades away forever," I finished for him gravely. He suddenly turned to face me with a curious gleam in his eye.
"You saw your name in the Book. You told no one?"
"I told Olivia," I divulged. "Apparently what I thought was the end of my prophecy...wasn't."
"It said your name would be scripted and your soul stolen by the Reaper?"
"In not so many words," I muttered.
"Mother should have warned me." He considered the news for a minute and then frowned at me. "You should have told me."
"I didn't want you to worry. Or anyone else, for that matter," I sighed in defeat. "And I didn't want to take anyone down with me."
"Looks like Nadia's taking care of that for you." He chuckled darkly. "Three souls for the price of one."
"There has to be a way to alter our fate!" I declared. Unfortunately, I didn't know if that was true. I simply wanted it to be true. And until it was proven otherwise, I would hold on to that hope.
"Says the Chosen one," he laughed at me. "You guys never cease to amaze me... always forgetting how lucky you are."
"'You guys'?" I stared at him in disbelief. "What's that supposed to mean?"
"The Chosen ones," he air quoted with a teasing grin. "I always thought life would be so much easier if I knew I had a specific purpose. And to have a fancy prophecy on top of that?"
"Are you serious?" I gawked at him incredulously.
"I still have no idea what my fate is supposed to be. And I'm already dead! I'm just floundering around blindly hoping I don't screw things up too bad."
"Easier?!" I continued staring at him, my blood pressure rising with each word that came out of his smirking mouth. "You think it's easier to be shackled to a fate you didn't get to choose?"
"I always wished I had a prophecy I could check and see what was coming next," he continued wistfully, blissfully unaware of my growing disgust.
"Why don't you take mine, then!" I bellowed at him. Finally realizing how upset he was making me, he faced me with an apologetic smile, but I was already raging. "Since my life is so damn easy!"
"No, no." He gripped my arms, which flailed around with irritation. He was genuinely surprised by my reaction. "I didn't mean it like that!"
"How else could-" I stopped mid-sentence as a realization hit me. "Wait. Weren't you Chosen?"
"Me?" he snickered. "Not even close."
"But you're no different than me," I reminded him. "Same blood, remember?"
"Same blood," His features softened with tenderness. "But I'm nowhere near your level in every category that actually matters." He began ticking off on his fingers, "Bravery, essence, strength, stubbornness, leadership..."
"You're Achilles," I reminded him, my tone deadpan.
"And you're Anastasia," he countered with a crooked grin before continuing. "You're the Chosen one, 'lil sis. My claim to fame is my skills with a spear and this ravishing physique. In the essence department I was merely immortal."
"Except for your heel," I mentioned quietly, unsure if the legend was actually true.
"How'd you know about that?" His eyes widened in surprise.
"Everyone knows that."
"Everyone knows what, exactly?" His eyes narrowed with suspicion.
It quickly dawned on me that he didn't realize his story was in history books all over the world. To prove it, I went on. "Mom made you immortal by submerging you in the River Styx when you were a baby, but since she had to hold on to your heel, it was your only weakness. I learned about it in school. Everyone did."
"Dad thought she was trying to drown me." He smiled wistfully in remembrance. "At least that's how he tells it. I can't believe anyone would think that was history lesson material. What about my victories? My men?"
"We learned about that too, but I honestly don't remember that part."
"It's good to know where your loyalties lie." He raised any eyebrow at me.
"I didn't know you were my brother!" I pushed him lightly. "At that point, you were just some ancient dude who led armies."
"Just some ancient dude?" He held a hand to his heart like I'd hurt his feelings.
"Plus, I always found it strange that you owned two horses but always seemed to be riding around in a chariot. Why didn't you just ride the horses?"
"A chariot?" he groaned in disgust. "I detest those things! They're dreadfully slow and fall apart in the blink of an eye." He began to grin smugly and then peeked at me from the corner of his eye. "I might need to do some light reading... You know, just to make sure they got it right."
"There is one other thing," I started with a teasing smile. If he was shocked they put him in the history books, he'd be blown away by this next tidbit. He leaned forward with anticipation. "The humans named a body part after you."
"A body part?" He stared at me with cynicism before his eyes lit up and he kissed his bicep. He kept it flexed in the air while he waited for my answer with a bold smile. I rolled my eyes at him and scrambled forward to grab his left ankle. He tried to move it out of my way, but I caught it just in time. Just as I suspected, adorning the back of his heel was an unassuming, circular scar.
"The Achilles tendon." I grabbed the thin length of tendon playfully.
"Tendon?" He inspected where I was grabbing. "Is that what this is?"
"It connects your heel to your leg
," I explained. "That's how your ankle moves."
"Strange," he chuckled. "I have so many other great assets other than my...tendons."
"It's the place of your greatest weakness. And...what ultimately killed you." I treaded carefully in case it was a sore subject. I know my own murder would be, if I were him.
"I see the irony wasn't lost on them." He smiled down at me and gazed back out onto the horizon. He peered at me with a challenging smirk. "So, Anastasia, Leader of the Tydes. Which body part did they name after you?"
"They didn't name one after me," I muttered, knowing I had just opened a door I wouldn't be able to close.
"Exactly," he affirmed and then lifted his chin with a sarcastic lilt. "Try not to be jealous."
"I'm not jealous."
"Of course you are."
After several shoves and one hellish Indian burn that made Sebastian surrender, we finally settled back and decided to force ourselves to get some sleep. The surface of the rock we were perched upon suddenly felt much colder and incredibly barren, while the infinite sky above stretched to every horizon; adding to the isolating reality of our current situation. Our hushed voices and the waves below were the only sounds that could be heard for miles. My eyelids became just as heavy as the rest of my body felt, and the impending downslide of my health shot to the forefront of my mind. How was I supposed to defeat Selene, save Sebastian, myself and the Tydes from sure annihilation, if I could barely stand? I put my palms against my closed eyes, searching for a loophole I hadn't thought of yet.
"I sent her to Tartarus once," I declared.
"Hmm?" Sebastian mumbled incoherently. I continued thinking out loud. Something about speaking my problems to the sky above soothed me.
"I can do it again."
"Your essence is low." Sebastian lazily turned his head in my direction. "My essence is low."
