by Maya Daniels
“We told Philip everything,” Jezzinta answers my earlier unasked question.
“Oh!”
“Yes. We told him because we almost lost Remi. She was...” Meda’s voice trails off and I look at Remi, who is staring at her hands in her lap like they’re something she’s never seen before. “She tried to follow you through the portal but got bounced back. You know Remi, she tried everything possible to get to you, and when she couldn’t, she started wasting away. We didn’t know what else to do, so we called him,” Jezzinta gestures towards Philip. “We know she likes him very much.”
Meda smiles at them, and I see Philip pulling Remi closer to him by her shoulders. That makes me smile too. Meda and Jezzinta start telling me what has been going on in the six months I was gone. Apparently Thomas tried his luck a few times at getting on the property by replicating the cloaking spell we had placed on him, but the idiot didn’t think he would need the blood for it to work. Unfortunately for us, he never tried it alone and whoever was with him was obviously human, so they pulled him out every time he took a few steps within the perimeter of the protection. Remi, at the beginning, was trying her hardest to cross the portal, and after she was unsuccessful, she started refusing to eat or drink, wasting away until the other girls went to get Philip in their desperate attempt to stop her from dying in front of their eyes. I was happy to hear how determined he was, as well as persistent, to get to her, and in all that, making her open her heart to him. She is just a wonderful person with so much love to give, and he’d better treat her right or he’ll have pissed-off witches on his back to deal with. I can see it in their eyes as we talk about it. From how he has been with her, according to Meda and Jezzinta, I can tell he loves her as much as we do, so I think he’s safe. They’ve been trying to figure out if they can find the potions as well while they were waiting, with no luck, but since they had nothing else to do, it took their minds off worrying about me. I’m grateful they had each other, because I don’t even want to think what could’ve happened if it was just me and Remi and I’d left her alone like that. I shiver at the thought.
“I’m really sorry. First, I had no clue it’d take that long, and second, I only had dinner with Lucifer. It was two, three hours max for me. I thought you guys would be upset that I walked through the portal, but I didn’t think I’d be gone for six months. Damn!” I’m still bewildered by that little detail.
“I really am sorry,” I repeat.
“That’s okay. It’s done and we can’t change that. But I’m dying to hear what you found out about the potions,” says Remi.
“Well, he didn’t say anything the entire time I was there, but as I was about to leave, he said if I go a few miles out into the ocean and sing, I’d be surprised at who might like my singing.” Meda claps her hands excitedly and the other two hum.
“I’m surprised, to tell you the truth, that Lucifer knew the entire time who I was but never tried to stop me from leaving.” I’m still very surprised by it. I don’t know why.
“You’re on a first-name basis with Lucifer, now?” says Remi, and I look at her to see her smiling for the first time. Things have definitely changed.
“I actually like him very much,” I tell them honestly.
“Make sure Lilith doesn’t hear you say that, she’ll scratch your eyes out!” Jezzinta says and I laugh, but I see she’s serious.
“What the hell, Jez, I like the angel. He’s actually very kind and understanding,” I tell her. “And lonely,” I add as an afterthought. I feel bad he’s so lonely.
“You want to go keep him company for another six months?” asks Jezzinta with her eyebrows up.
“Oh, hell, no! But I mean it. He is nice.”
“I know, sap. He’s Lilith’s husband,” Jezzinta throws that little tidbit out and I gape at her.
“Really?” I find this interesting.
“Truly,” she adds.
“Oh, I wish I’d known! I would’ve asked him lots of questions,” I tell them all excited.
“Mhm, and then what? We should’ve waited a couple of years for you to get your ass back here? I don’t think so,” says Jezzinta and everyone laughs.
I think she has a good point. It’s a good thing I didn’t know. We fall into silence, enjoying each other’s company for a while, sipping tea that Jezzinta made and listening to Meda humming songs. It was nice to just be.
“You know, if you need to get out on the ocean, I have a boat,” Philip says out of nowhere from the sofa where he was sitting quietly while we were sprawled on the floor together, and all four of us look at him like we’d forgotten he was there.
“You have a boat?” asks Remi, and I’m thinking you’re in trouble if you haven’t told her by now. That makes me snort, and Meda and Jezzinta join me.
“Oh, stop it, you three!” Remi rolls her eyes at us, and we start laughing.
“You’re in trouble now, Mr. Stamelos!” I tell him.
“Alexia, please. Philip will do from now on,” he says and I nod at him. I know that, I just wanted to be a smartass.
“Well, that would come in handy, wouldn’t it?” says Jezzinta thoughtfully.
She’s right. We can finally go and finish this craziness. Hopefully after that, we can go back to our somewhat normal lives. I look at all of them. Actually, I don’t think I want to go back to how it was before I came across that warlock Thomas. I like how we are now, all four of us together. Well, I don’t mind Philip either, as long as Remi is happy. We can think about it later. First we have to deal with this potion business.
“Okay, so when can we go?” I say as the front door opens.
“You’re here!” exclaims Derik, and in two steps, he’s in front of me, pulls me up by my arms like a ragdoll and bear-hugs me.
“I can’t breathe, Derik.” I’m barely able to speak, so he loosens his grip on me.
“Sorry,” he says sheepishly. I smile at him. At least he’s not running away from me screaming, so that’s a good sign.
“I’m happy to see you’re okay.”
“So am I, Alexia. Happy to see you’re okay, that is,” he explains.
“Yeah, I figured that out,” I tease him, and he smiles.
“Oh, sit down, you two, you’re making me sick,” says Jezzinta, and they all laugh.
I drop down again where I was sitting and was expecting Derik to go sit next to Philip, but he sits on the ground close to me. I smile at him again. He really is very sweet.
“I assume you told Derik, too?” I look at Remi. She nods.
“It was hard not to tell him, after he saw you strangling a man with a rope made of water and then got sent to meet Lucifer up close and personal.”
“It sounds like fun,” Philip says to Derik.
“It was, actually. Little freaky that that makes you question your sanity, but fun nonetheless,” Derik says, and they go into a conversation about how I was trying to kill a man as if it’s the most natural thing in the world to do while the four of us girls huddle together with our own conversation.
“Okay, so we go tomorrow and we get it over and done with,” I tell them. “I’m tired of all this craziness. Let’s finish it, then we can come back here and live happily for the rest of our lives.” I just had to throw that out there.
“I would love that!” Meda claps her hands.
“Actually, I was thinking the same thing, sap. I kind of like your mug too much to go anywhere else.” Jezzinta nudges me with her shoulder. I look at Remi, and she’s studying me.
“Well?” I raise my eyebrows. If she doesn’t want to stay with me, I can’t force her, but I will be heartbroken.
“You need someone to watch over you, so you’re stuck with me,” she finally says with a smile, and I jump up to hug her.
She’s a quiet presence and comes off as cold or not talkative much most of the time, but her strength and protection is something that’s constant and it makes me feel safe. I never want to lose that. We continue talking till late in the night and
all six of us end up sleeping in our living room, wherever each one found a spot. At one point during the night, Derik crawled closer to me and put his arm around my waist. I snuggled closer into his embrace, and I do believe that was the first night in a very, very long time that I had such a good night’s sleep.
“Are we ready? Do we have everything we need?” Remi asks from the porch, where she’s waiting on us with Derik and Philip. The three of us, on the other hand, run around the house grabbing things we might not even need, but just in case, until Remi tells us off and we walk out with whatever we were holding at the time.
“Geez, woman, breathe. What if we need something and we don’t have it when we’re there?” I tell her as I walk out the front door. She looks at us, packed like mules.
“You guys want to drag the house with us, too, just in case?”
We look at each other and burst out laughing. She’s right, we are acting obnoxious. It’s the anxiety. That’s my story and I’m sticking with it. We pack the stuff in Remi’s car and head off. Philip and Derik follow behind us in Philip’s truck that’s pulling his boat. It’s quiet on the drive, and we all look out the windows at the beautiful sunny day. This is it. This will be the end of our problems, I’m thinking, and I feel calm come over me. After today, no more running for our lives or messing with gods and their sticky fingers. After today, it’ll be just us, living normal, boring lives. I’ll be very happy with that. We reach the beach and start getting things out, putting them in the boat before Philip takes it into the water. We work solemnly, methodically and quietly. We go a few miles in the ocean, and an hour after we got in the boat, Philip stopped the engine and now the waves are rocking it gently.
“I think I’ll get off here and you guys can go back a little. I don’t think they’ll show themselves if we all sit here,” I tell them, and Remi and Derik are loudest in their argument why it’s not a good idea. I let them talk it out and when they stop, I repeat the same thing.
“It’s the ocean. There are sharks in there, too,” Remi points out.
“Really? That’s your best argument? I’m a water elemental, I’ll be fine with fish,” I tell her with a roll of my eyes. Sharks. Really? “Listen guys, we can sit here and argue until the end of days, but you all know I’m right. If we want to do this, for it to be over, you need to go. I’ll be fine. I’m not saying leave me here, I’m saying back off and stay out of sight...a little.” I add the last part because Remi was getting ready to argue again.
She huffs out a breath. “Fine! Do it your way!”
I look at Jezzinta and Meda. They’ve been very quiet. Jezzinta is looking at us like she’s watching ping pong, I’m guessing enjoying the show, but Meda is looking off into the distance. I was just about to talk to her when I realize her eyes have gone white. I raise my hand and wave the rest to stop talking and point at her. We all sit in silence watching her and waiting. After fifteen minutes, her eyes go back to their normal brown and she looks at me. It looks like her eyes have aged about a hundred years or so, and it gives me shivers.
“Everything okay, Meda?” I ask. She smiles but only with her lips, her eyes are not smiling like they normally do.
“Yes, of course. The visions come unannounced most of the time.” She goes quiet.
“Well, what was it?” Remi prompts her. Meda looks at Remi for a minute before she speaks.
“It was nothing, some irrelevant vision about earthquakes that will happen on the other side of the planet,” she says quietly. Looking at the others, they don’t buy it either, but we can get it out of Meda later. Right now we have things to do.
“Okay, then, off you go, people, and I go for a swim.” I stand up. “And sing,” I add, smiling.
I can never stop smiling when I know I’ll get in the water. I give them each a hug and jump in. When my body first hits the water, it feels like it’s freezing, but as soon as I’m all in, it’s beautiful. I pop my head out and wave at them. “All good!”
“All good in da hood,” Jezzinta yells back.
I laugh. She can be so silly. I watch them as they turn the boat around and head back from where we came from. I wait until I can see them as a small dot on the horizon, then splash around a little before I stop and float on my back looking at the sky. I start singing my favorite song, quietly at first, then louder and louder. I finish it, but nothing happens, no one comes. I do it again and again and again. Nothing. I’m starting to think that maybe this wasn’t what Lucifer was trying to say. I float for a minute more, and as I am about to start swimming towards the boat, I feel ripples around my body that I haven’t made. I turn in a circle but nothing. There’s nothing there. I must have imagined it. I turn around to look straight at a girl just floating there, looking at me. Her red hair is like fire glowing in the sun and her green eyes are like emeralds shining right at me. She’s really beautiful.
“Hello,” I say stupidly. What else can I say? She tilts her head at my words. “Do you understand what I’m saying?”
She keeps looking at me, nothing else. This is not getting me anywhere. I look down in the water and, yes, her upper body is human-like, but the lower part is a tail. At least I’ve found the right species, if nothing else.
“I don’t know how to tell you what I need,” I tell her. I’m lost, I really don’t know how I’m going to do this.
“She doesn’t speak.”
At the sound of the voice, I flip around to see who it is. It’s a man with black long hair and sapphire blue eyes sparkling like those of the redhead behind me.
“Hello.”
“Hi.” He smiles, so I smile back and look down in the water. Yup, there’s the tail. “Why did you stop singing?” he asks.
“Ummm. Well, I was singing because I was hoping you’d come. After a while I figured no one heard me, and I was just about to go back.”
“Oh, we heard you and we were listening. Not many people know that song,” he tells me.
I think I’m starting to understand why my grandmother sang a song like that to a child. She really was a very smart woman. “My grandmother used to sing it to me when I was young so I could sleep,” I explain.
“Interesting. Do you know how she knew the song?” He tilts his head, studying me.
“No, I don’t, but she sang it until I learned how to sing it myself, then she made me sing every night.” I start remembering those nights and I smile.
“You love her.”
“I do, even if she’s not here anymore,” I say quietly. He reaches out his hand and touches my cheek.
“I am sorry.” I can tell he really is; his eyes are very sad. It makes me want to cry but I have other things to do.
“I was looking for you because I’m hoping you will help me.”
“Us help you? In what way?”
I can tell his guard is up now. I have to explain everything, so I start telling him from the beginning the death of my grandmother, skipped the years until meeting Thomas, then the car accident, or maybe not so much of an accident, then Tiamat, Sin and I finish with Lucifer and how I ended up singing in the middle of the ocean. He listens quietly to the whole thing and then looks at the girl behind me over my shoulder. I look too, and she nods at him.
“Even if we want to help, we can’t. Not everyone can touch those potions and by the time you get there, you’ll drown,” he says and starts turning away.
“I’m Semiramis,” I tell him, and he flips so fast back towards me that the waves he makes push me into the girl. She grabs my shoulders to steady me.
“What did you say?”
“I said I’m Semiramis. Alexia Semiramis,” and as I finish talking, the girl hugs me. When I look at her, she gives me the biggest smile, so I smile back.
“The gift from the sea. I never thought I would see it in my lifetime,” he says, now looking at me like an art piece.
“Yeah, neither did I.” I try to make a joke, but he ignores it, takes my hand, and pulls it up above the water.
“We will go
down and you can have what you came for,” he says, like he has made the decision just now. I’m good with that as long as I get those damn potions and can go home.
“You can breathe under water?” he asks.
I laugh.
“No, I can’t breathe under water, but I can breathe with the water around me,” I tell him, and as he watches, I make my breathing bubble and place it around my head. He laughs at that, delightfully.
“We will get under water, and then, you can take my hand. I will pull
you with me, so we can get there faster.”
I nod at him, and all three of us go under the water. I look where he is, and as he reaches for my hand, I grab it and hold on tight. He nods at the girl and she zips past us, going fast, and within seconds, I can’t see her anymore. I guess she’s a messenger. He squeezes my hand, and at my nod, he starts swimming quite fast, pulling me with him. I have to concentrate on holding my bubble in place, so I can’t really pay much attention to where we are going. Luckily, every time we pass a dolphin, shark or whale, he slows down and places his hand on their body. Like old friends, each of them greets him by slowing down as well and coming back for a couple more strokes of his hand on them. I do the same and I’m amazed at these magnificent lifeforms. As we move along, flocks of fish move around us, curiously following us for a second or two before continuing on their way. The deeper we go, the darker the waters get. The colors change, too, from bright blues, yellows, oranges and greens, the creams and brighter reds and browns turning to mahogany and black, and it makes me feel like I should turn back, as if I’m not allowed to be here. The algae are sparse, then totally gone, and even the colors of the sea life change to darker and mysterious shades, like they want to warn an interloper to turn back. My body starts shivering, but that may also be because the deeper we go, the colder it gets, and I move my fingers, clenching and unclenching my free hand, hoping to get some blood flowing. After a while I see bright lights in the distance, making it feel like we are swimming down towards a dark sky full of stars. My ears are popping a little from the pressure. I can’t even guess how deep we are. The closer we get, the better I see. Those are not lights but buildings that are glowing. It looks like they are made of some sort of crystal that glows blue naturally, like a glow stick. It looks magical and so unreal that I shake my head, only to be sure that what I’m seeing is true. An entire city here, in the middle of the ocean. As we get closer, I see merpeople of all ages, young and old, male and female, swimming around, going who knows where. Some even stop to look at us curiously as we pass them by. I’m fascinated. I’d always thought these were just stories for little girls to dream. The closer we get to the center of the city, the more excited I am. It’s not every day you get to see this. We pass buildings, tall and low, beautiful underwater plants and flowers in bright colors, and I’m sure my eyes look like they’ll pop out of my head. I’m trying to see everything at the same time. We get to a very tall building that looks like a twisted tower and he slows down. We pass the opening and swim up towards the top. We pass doorways without doors, only arched entrances, and from what I can see, they look like classrooms, because most of them are full of merpeople, and hallways, lots of hallways. Instead of stairs, the middle is just open space where merpeople go from one doorway to the other or disappear through the hallways I see everywhere I turn my head. Halfway up, he turns left into a hallway going straight towards a doorway at the end, and we enter a big round room full of shelves of scrolls and among them, an older lady—well, older merlady. She looks up from what she was reading and her eyes go round when she sees me. Next to her is the redhead, smiling brightly at me again, and I smile back. Yes, she was the messenger. We wait where we entered, and he is still holding my hand, for which I’m grateful. The lady waves us in and we move towards her while my redhead friend waves and leaves the three of us alone. My friend who’s still holding my hand and the older lady, I think, are communicating telepathically, because they’re staring at each other and their lips are not moving. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that one.
