Chosen

by Kristen Day

  I glanced down at the yellow flower in my hand and smiled. “I want a sweet William.”

  “Maybe you already have one,” she wondered with a conspiring grin.

  “I doubt it. Plus, I don’t really want a black eye,” I clarified with a giggle.

  Chapter 21

  “I told you I would figure it out.” Nadia’s muffled voice scratched across my eardrums. “How could you have ever doubted me?”

  I groaned and painstakingly forced my way into a sitting position against the cool stone wall. The leftover lightness from my dream disappeared, and I leaned my head back in an attempt to hear Nadia’s voice more clearly. I couldn’t tell if it was coming from next door or below me. The acoustics of the stone room created a confusing echo, and made it difficult to discern the origin of the sound. At the contact of the jagged wall, my head exploded into a million shards of pain. I automatically reached up to touch the throbbing knot that Nadia had bestowed upon the side of my head, and I regretted it just as quickly. My hand came away covered in warm, sticky blood. I tried to wipe my hand on the floor, but only succeeded in spreading it across my entire hand and the floor beneath me. The thin tank top and cotton shorts I was wearing gave me a hint as to what had happened right before I woke up at this god forsaken spider web.

  The last thing I remembered was resting on my bed after a warm shower, but I didn’t recall falling asleep. Could Nadia force me into a reverie, or did she have to wait for me to fall asleep before taking me captive? Whichever her method, it was successful every time. I had to figure out a way to block her advances.

  I concentrated on the sprinkling of sand near my feet that had been tracked in by Nadia’s shoes, and sent my energy flowing towards it. I willed it to draw together and create sole pile, but not even the smallest of grains so much as moved a millimeter. Next, I concentrated on the breeze that flowed in the window. I tried to wrap my energy around it and pull it towards me. Still nothing. Had she taken all of my essence!? Was that even possible? Or had she just created a vacuum similar to the one in her cavern? The inability to draw on my essence resulted in a sharp pang of panic and a dread that hovered over my throbbing head. Although I knew I didn’t know how to harness most of my abilities, it was still comforting to know they were there. The army of spiders that surrounded me did nothing to ease my nerves. I closed my eyes and forced my ears to strain and listen.

  “Don’t crown yourself Queen of the Underworld just yet, Nadia. There is still much to be done,” a smug voice replied with contempt. A smug voice that I recognized from my vision on the plane. A smug voice that belonged to the woman with the glowing, pulsing orb…the same orbs the Auras wore around their necks. Suddenly the woman from my vision, the Auras, and the velvety voice floating up to me in that moment collided into a dizzying mass of understanding. Selene, the moon goddess. She was the woman in my vision. She had descendents at Eventide. And she was…working with Nadia? Things were going from bad to worse.

  “Selene is right as always,” purred a third voice. I recognized it, but its owner eluded me. Most importantly, there were three voices belonging to three women. My vision couldn’t be far from coming to fruition. My eyes darted toward the window, which glowed with the colors of the sunset. Night was approaching. “Tonight’s ritual will prove to be the turning point. Without the Prime’s full essence, there is a good chance this will not be successful.” Unfortunately, the speaker’s next words revealed her identity and clicked the last puzzle pieces into their final resting place; tombstone and all. “We don’t know the extent of her powers yet, so it is imperative that I am as strong as possible. I will NOT be overthrown by Thetis’s bastard child. Do you hear me!?”

  Keto. Keto wanted our essence, not Nadia. And she was going to use it against me! So the worst possible scenario had come to pass. Keto and Nadia had teamed up against me. Add the goddess of the Moon to the equation, and you’re left with one very screwed Stasia.

  Nadia’s laughter singed my ears; reheating my anger. “Which brings me to my next announcement. I have a little surprise for you.” I could picture the proud smirk on her face, and my blood boiled.

  “Oh?” came Keto’s intrigued reply. As their voices faded, I had a bad feeling I knew exactly what Nadia’s surprise entailed. Footsteps sounded outside the wooden door that sealed my arachno-prison, and I struggled against the enchanted chains around my ankles. They instantly squeezed tighter, cutting off the circulation to my feet.

  “We may not have all of Finn’s essence,” I heard Nadia’s arrogant voice outside the door as it creaked open “…so I brought us someone with an even more powerful essence. I give you…Thetis’s bastard child.”

  As they swept into the room, a shocked expression filtered through Keto’s wild green eyes, while a calculating glimmer shone from Selene’s silver ones. Each woman’s presence was magnified by their proximity. Keto wore a long, simple black dress that accentuated the green highlights throughout her hair and the scales running up her arm and neck. Selene was as ethereal and stunning in person as she had been in my vision; her pale skin standing in contrast to her dark, unruly hair. The calculating instability of her silver eyes matched the shifting layers of her silver dress. The same strips of fabric I had seen in my vision hung from her wrists and gathered around her ankles. As a cold wave of evil washed over me, I instinctively pushed back Nadia’s essence and locked my eyes onto her golden ones so she would know that I was aware of her attempted violation. She sneered happily at me as if she had been expecting my reaction. Her arrogance only angered me more.

  “Let me go!” I countered; resulting in three very toothy smiles.

  “Ugh, give it a rest.” Nadia rolled her eyes at me and regarded the other two women under her breath, “I don’t know what he sees in her. She’s really quite annoying.”

  “Go to hell,” I growled with hatred.

  “And quite rude as well,” Nadia scolded me with a smirk. “She certainly needs a lesson in etiquette.”

  “Quiet,” Selene held up her hand and sent us piercing glares. “Both of you.”

  “This is quite the accomplishment, Nadia.” Keto glided across the stone floor to stand over me with a smile. “Well done.”

  “Defeating her will be no problem if she is already under your control,” Selene added.

  “Yes – however, her essence shall not be left to its own devices. I will still require your assistance, dear friend.” She gazed at Selene lovingly, but I didn’t miss the threat in her voice. “She could prove very valuable down the road as well.”

  “You will not control me, and I refuse to let you take my essence!” I threatened her.

  “It would appear that you have already been proven wrong on both accounts.” Keto nodded at Nadia. “More. Collect as much as you can. And make sure she cannot escape. We will begin the ritual when the moon has reached the highest point in the sky.”

  “No!” I protested uselessly. With a gallant twist of their heels, Keto and Selene disappeared from the room; leaving me with the Princess of the Underworld, who clapped her hands together in delight before retrieving the now-empty syringe from the window sill.

  “Maybe when Keto makes me Queen of the Underworld, I’ll let you live in my underground room,” she quipped. “But don’t get your hopes up.”

  “The only throne you should be sitting on is your toilet,” I shot at her with venom.

  “After mother’s taken care of, I’ll decide who should and should not do what. Lucky for you, you’ll be scrubbing my throne and toilets for the rest of your pathetic existence.” She knelt down beside me and grinned wickedly. “You’re welcome.”

  As she grappled my arms and brought the syringe closer to my trace, I realized how weak I had become when my muscles wouldn’t budge beneath her hold. The last thing I remembered was the sound of her humming my now-most-hated nursery rhyme, the Itsy Bitsy Spider.

  -------

  The next time my eyes cracked open, it was to a slight knocking sound far
ther down the same wall I was leaning against. Instantly on the defensive, I instinctively searched my surroundings with my sixth sense, only to realize it just wasn’t working. All I felt was the cold stone against my bare skin and the throbbing of my weakened heart, as it strained to push blood through my constricted veins.

  The knocking commenced several feet away, more urgent this time. With every ounce of energy I had left, I scooted several inches toward the sound, and then rapped my knuckles against the wall as hard as my pain threshold would allow.

  “Hello?” A deep voice murmured from behind the wall.

  “Who’s there?” I asked hoarsely.

  “I heard you crying out. You sounded like you were…in pain.” His voice trailed off. I gently touched my face to find fresh tears. I swallowed thickly before answering.

  “Who are you? Why are you here?”

  “I’m a prisoner. Like yourself,” he answered solemnly. A vision of the group of people floating above the sand, their souls hovering above their bodies flashed in my memory.

  “How many others are there?”

  “I’m not positive,” he conjectured. “Fifteen? Maybe twenty?”

  “My vision’s coming true,” I muttered in defeat. All of those people would die. All of those souls would be drained of their essence. “Are you a Tyde?”

  “No. I’m…nothing,” he said with bitter finality.

  “Where are we?”

  “The ancient Isle of Doulos, which means the ‘Island of Slaves’ in English.”

  “Slaves…” I repeated breathlessly.

  “You have to find a way out! You must escape as soon as possible!” His voice took on a more urgent tone as his emotions rose.

  “I can’t…” I managed, the effort of talking leading me closer and closer to sheer exhaustion. “They’re draining me…I can barely move.”

  “You have to find a way!” he yelled desperately. I knew he believed I was his only hope. But at the moment, I was the one who needed rescuing. I wasn’t capable of rescuing anyone else. I heard him gasp as a door slammed. I closed my eyes as a woman’s voice yelled, and a loud thump shook the wall behind me. The door slammed once more and then…deafening, absolute silence.

  “Hello?” I whispered as loudly as I dared, fearing for the man’s life. “Are you okay?”

  After no response, I slumped down and followed the light of the moon sweep across the floor as it rose higher and higher in the sky. The silver moonbeams collided with the silk webs that cascaded from the ceiling, creating a spectacular display of nature. The bark spiders were beginning to stir; busily weaving new strands or repairing old ones. Their magnificent works of art were dazzling in their intricate designs and artistry. They worked in tandem, creating one massive web of silky death traps; just waiting for unsuspecting prey to flutter by or walk into it. My hand dropped to the floor and landed in something sticky. I groggily contemplated my blood from earlier in the day that had begun to coagulate on the floor.

  Had Finn or my roommates found my body? Had they tried to wake me up? Were they looking for me? If I couldn’t return to my body, I had no way of telling them I was in trouble. I had no way of warning them about what was about to happen or where I was. Someone had to stop this, and unless Nadia’s vacuum imploded in the next couple of hours, it would most certainly not be me. Did my body reflect the pain I was in? Could they see how dark and dull my trace had become? Could they see the bruises and the blood? I was reminded of the pain from my wounds after returning from the Underworld. Every bruise, every scratch had been visible. That was it! Every scratch was visible! My body! That’s how I could send them a message! I looked down at the smooth skin of my arm above my dulled trace, and couldn’t believe that I hadn’t thought of it earlier.

  My eyes and hands frantically inspected my surroundings for anything remotely sharp. A sliver of shell that had been tracked in with the sand would have to do. I ran my finger over it and decided that it would suffice for breaking skin. I took a deep breath and attempted to justify what I was about to do. I had a high pain threshold, but I’d never inflicted any amount of pain upon my own body. Looks like I’d be able to check ‘disfiguring one’s own body’ off my bucket list.

  I drug the shell across my skin and began to tear up right away, as an intense burning sizzled up my arm and pellets of blood beaded up from the newly opened wound. One letter down, eleven to go. Before I lost my nerve, I made three small slashes to create a lower case letter ‘s’. By the time the word ‘Isle’ had been carved into my skin, I’d balled up the bottom of my tank top and stuffed it in my mouth to stop any screams from leaking out. I leaned my head back and took some deep breaths in an effort to ease my heart beat and therefore, the bleeding.

  After eight more letters, the words ‘Isle of Slaves’ were scrawled across my forearm beneath a pint of crimson. The excruciating pain had morphed into a warm numbness that wrapped around my arm and tricked me into thinking the worst was over. I closed my eyes in relief at what I had done and prayed it would work. All I could do was watch and wait.

  Chapter 22

  A light tickling across my leg roused me from a delirious trance of hopeless exhaustion. When I tried to use my arms to prop myself up, it became painfully clear that the warm numbness I’d felt earlier was long gone. A shower of sharp pain shot down my arm, momentarily paralyzing me. I squeezed my eyes shut and fought through the agonizing pain. Every movement, every thought, every breath felt like I had been suspended in an alternate universe of perpetual slow motion.

  Unfortunately, the three spiders that were currently crawling up my right leg were moving at warp speed. They scampered forward with short spurts of movement that struck fear in my tired heart. No amount of coercion would convince my legs to move, and I watched on, helpless as they made it to the tops of my thighs. Panic exploded in my chest and raw fear took hold of me. Forced into flight or fight, my groggy mind analyzed my limited number of options. A thin line of moonlight several feet away drew my attention, and the memory of its renewing energy in the underground cavern trumped any other thoughts.

  Motivated by a primal fear I could not control, I awkwardly threw my body toward the light; landing on my side and immersing my head and shoulders in the moonlight. When I looked up to see the horrific sight of more spiders crawling in my direction, I attempted to move again. That’s when I felt an intense burning pain in my side, as one of the three spiders making their way up my torso bit me.

  The spider venom exploded under the skin; causing my muscles to shake violently and cease up. A choking panic settled on top of me, until I glanced up and became caught in the majesty of the full moon’s rays as they shone into the small window. A cool energy swirled through my mind, calming my nerves and chilling the blazing pain that racked my body. I lay there unmoving, as the spider venom spread along my stomach and back, hardening my insides to stone. As the cooling sensation washed down my body and inhabited every cell in my prone form, my breathing came a little easier and I was able to think more clearly. Very slowly, I felt the venom’s potency retreat to only a slight pulsing around the bite site.

  The fact that it did not disappear completely weighed on me, but I hoped that with the healing hands of Willow and the magic of Natasha, they would be able to remove it before any further damage could be done. The three spiders miraculously made their way back down my leg and onto their webs, leaving me relieved and exhausted on the floor while I stared up at the moon’s magical light. Why did the moonlight affect me in such a dramatic fashion? Did I have an affinity for the moon? Was that even possible? And what did that mean? My energy was somehow being recharged; my arm was healing at a fast rate and the wound on my temple was closing, leaving only a tender layer of soft skin.

  Hoping against hope, I closed my eyes and attempted to return to my body. Nothing. Whatever enchantment or vacuum Nadia had placed on the room was preventing all of my abilities, no matter how much energy I had. Crushing disappointment blanketed my heart when the
moon’s energizing light disappeared, as the Earth revolved with agonizing speed.

  I forced myself to think. I couldn’t just sit around and wait on Finn and my roommates to get here. I had no idea just how far away this island was from Cyprus. We could be in the Caribbean for all I knew! Even with Natasha’s conveyance ability, I couldn’t depend on a rescue. I had been given a sliver of energy from the moon’s light; enough so that I could try to conjure up a plan to escape. But that meant I had to act, and I had to act fast.

  As an idea, albeit nearly impossible, formed in my mind, I focused all of my attention on the enchanted chains that encircled my ankles. They were secured into the wall at an anchor point, bolted into the stone. I spun around and pressed my feet against the wall, gathering the chains in my hands. With everything I had - I pulled. And pulled again. And again. After the fifth or sixth time, I felt a slight shift and watched as one of the anchors actually budged. The effort only resulted in drawing fresh blood out of my new arm tattoo, but the little hope of victory pushed me to pull harder. After one more desperate yank I was launched backwards, landing on my butt. It had worked! The anchors clanked loudly onto the stone floor, as part of the wall began to crumble on top of them. I stared at the wall in disbelief. Apparently I’d become stronger than I realized. Evidently, using the energy I had been gifted with by the moon was not the best idea, because now a burning sensation spread across my stomach from the bite, and my arm continued to bleed. I placed a hand over it and cringed in agony.

  “That was impressive.” A gruff voice chuckled from behind the crumbling hole in the wall, temporarily making me forget about the burning hell I was in. I caught a glimpse of an eye peeking through one of the small holes that had formed.

  “Oh my god!” I scampered over to the wall, “Are you alright? What did she do to you?”

  “Don’t you worry,” he responded confidently. “It’ll take more than a metal pole to keep this old man down.”