Hearken (Daughters of the Sea Series) (15 page)

             
“What happened to them?” I prodded as the rolling fog swallowed the last of their shadowy forms. 

             
“Does it matter?” he scoffed and licked his lips eagerly.

             
“Seriously? They just died and all you can think about is getting in their pants?” I rolled my eyes at him and stepped closer to the bank. “Get your head out of your ass and come on.” 

             
“I bet they’d be up for a little girl-on-girl action. You can’t tell me it gets much better than that,” he exacted with a doubtful eyebrow. 

             
“You haven’t met my fiancé,” I countered. With a cavalier smile, I dove headfirst into the murky water below, and a vibration rippled through the water as Sloan followed my lead. He was nearly two thousand years old and arguably one of the best Leaders of the Sons. He had chosen the responsibility of escorting newly released souls to the Underworld once his time was up as Leader. Most people thought he was crazy, considering that was usually a job reserved for Scions putting in their dues or newly deceased Sons. It was far from one of the esteemed jobs such as providing security within the many realms of the Underworld, punishing the souls of Tartarus, or assisting Charon with judgment and assignment. But then again I’d always thought he simply craved an excuse to escape the Underworld on a regular basis. It wasn’t in his nature to be strapped to one existence. A born leader and one of the strongest fighters the Sons had ever known, he singlehandedly sent three Scions to their death before being overthrown. For that reason he had also been appointed the sole guard for the Book of Souls; which is precisely why I’d decided to come pay him a visit.

             
I immediately took a deep breath of water and felt my essence blossom from the rich darkness harbored within the lake’s shores. It was the place our father had called home for ages, as well as the core of the very essence that connected all Sons. It was in our blood, hearts and souls. The all-encompassing liberation I felt when submerged was beyond explanation. It felt like coming home after a long, hard-fought battle. It soothed the worst afflictions and reversed the most sorrowful moods of despair. I closed my eyes for a brief moment to revel in my inertia before pushing forward. 

After a short swim, I located the angular entrance to the underground cavern at the east side of the lakebed. It measured roughly three feet in circumference and I was able to swim through with ease. I kicked to the surface with Sloan fast on my heels, and pulled myself up onto the ledge overlooking the small pool. By sheer location, the cavern wasn’t accessible by any other means; making it an extremely appealing refuge for former leaders of the Sons.

              “So it’s true?” Sloan eyed me as he lifted himself up and sat next to me. “Thetis’s daughter?”

             
“It’s true.” I nodded and waited for the inevitable bashing. I didn’t have to wait long.

             
“Damn, dude.” He shook his head. “You’re one lucky bastard – I hear she could have whoever she wants. And she chose…
you
.” He looked me up and down; unimpressed. “On the other hand, I
have
heard you have a big-”

             
I shoved him back into the pool before he could finish and hopped up from the ledge with satisfaction. 

             
“Yacht!” he spewed with water streaming out of his mouth, along with uncontrollable laughter. “I was going to say big
yacht
!” 

I could still hear his snickering and quick-paced footsteps behind me as I ducked into one of the many passageways. He clapped a hand onto my shoulder once he caught up to me.

              “So tell me, Finnster. Who do you think could have done this?”

             
“That’s exactly what I’m hoping to find out.” I cut my eyes at him suspiciously just to see what kind of reaction I could get.

             
“I wish I could take the blame,” he admitted gravely. “Because unfortunately every video I’ve studied so far shows nothing. No door opening. No figure. No nothing.”

             
“So the Book just walked out by itself?”

             
“It just…disappeared.” He scratched his head in frustration. “You’ll see on the surveillance tapes.  It beats anything I’ve ever seen, especially with our highly sensitive security systems. We could hear a mouse fart and see the dust cloud come out of its ass from ten miles away.”

             
“Thanks for the scientific explanation,” I chastised him as we entered the security room.

             
“That’s what I’m here for.” He grinned and took a seat beside me, and then pressed a finger to one of the room’s many control pads; causing the twenty screens on the wall in front of us to come to life with a low hum. Each flat screen was dedicated to a different area of the Underworld inhabited by the Sons: the lake, the entrance to the cavern, the pool, and all of the different security and gathering rooms throughout. The only place not surveyed were the individual living quarters of the former Leaders like Sloan. 

             
He keyed in several security numbers and pressed his palm to the heat sensitive pad to his right. The room in question was suddenly broadcast across all twenty screens as one giant picture. He ran an expert finger across the monitor to rewind the footage. When he found the date and time he was searching for, he let go and the video automatically began to play. 

             
“This is the room a couple minutes beforehand,” he recounted for me. “Now watch.”

             
We both focused all our attention on even the smallest of details within the room broadcast on the screen. I knew Sloan had revisited the footage at least a hundred times, so I inspected the room with what I hoped were fresh eyes. An increase in energy would show as a reddish glow, a decrease would register blue, while the tiniest of movements would set off the motion detector. 

             
The cavern’s stone walls glimmered with a silver and copper residue that could be found throughout the Underworld, and the smooth rock floor was untouched by energy.  A locker-sized cabinet pressed against the back wall held a number of relics kept behind individually locked cubby holes. There were also three podiums positioned in the center of the room. The first held a collection of onyx jewels, collected over the centuries by Charon. To appease the ferryman, souls would bring stones with them to the Underworld when they died. Little did they know, no amount of bribery would change their destination once Charon decided upon it. But he gladly kept all the offerings under lock and key. 

One piece in particular had always caught my eye. It was a silver skull ring with two depressed onyx jewels as the eyes. My father had worn it for years until he tired of it. Menacing and alluring all at once, it was a fitting representation of the onyx itself. I was unaware of the story behind the ring, or if there even was one. Either way I made a note to not leave without it.

              Another podium held the centuries old Chalice of Ruination. The Chalice itself was made of titanium and could withstand almost anything. It held a smoky liquid so potent it could not only destroy someone’s soul, but their essence right along with it. It had only been used twice in the history of time, and Charon made sure it was not known outside of his direct descendants. The fact that someone had taken the Book of Souls and left behind the Chalice was a very compelling mystery I intended to solve. Something just didn’t add up.

             
The third podium provided the resting place for the monumental Book of Souls. It had been left open to the last page, where Charon had recorded the souls he’d ferried. Each page was a running tally of any and every soul to cross the lake, their ancestry, the means of their demise, and any abilities that could be deemed a threat. Charon didn’t trust any of the modern technology, so there was no back up, and no way of replicating the Book. 

             
After another moment of eerie stillness, the book suddenly snapped shut and promptly disappeared into thin air. I blinked several times in an effort to understand what I’d just seen. Or more accurately, what I had
not
seen. 

             
“Rewind it.” I leaned forward with concentration. “Slow it down this time.” As he did so, I still registered no change in the footage; no additional clues or energy spikes. Then I had an idea. “Rewind it again, but this time decrease the brightness almost to zero, raise the contrast as high as it will go, and de-noise the image as much as possible.”

             
He did as I asked and we both meticulously inspected the screen for any shift in movement or light. Seconds before the book snapped shut, a faint haze could be seen hovering in front of the podium. The next second it disappeared, along with the book.

             
“Wait! Did you see that?!” Sloan pointed at the screen.

             
“I definitely saw something,” I agreed. “Rewind it again.” We continued rewinding the footage, but the haze was of indeterminate origin and much too quick to identify.

             
“With no energy output it would have to be something that was inhuman or dead for a very, very long time,” Sloan interpreted. “It’s like the soul’s there, but there’s no essence attached to it.”

             
“What kind of God forsaken creature has no essence?”

             
“A demon?” he speculated.

             
“True, but it would have the smoke trails associated with all evil entities. None of that was visible.”

             
“Not visible.” He tapped his chin and considered the paused screen. “But still possible. Just because we can’t see the smoke doesn’t mean it wouldn’t be able to hide it from us if it knew we could detect certain things. Whoever it is must know a great deal about us to be able to find the Book in the first place.”

             
“And that’s what worries me the most,” I divulged, and surveyed the screen as we rewound it at an even slower speed. It could have been a trick of the light, or it could have been the video feed, but a dim flash of violet light flickered where the figure’s eyes should have been. Just as quickly as it appeared, the figure and Book disappeared once again and the violet light was gone. I turned toward Sloan and we both sat in silence for several seconds without speaking.

             
“Were those…?” he started quietly. I could see the wheels turning in his mind.

             
“Violet eyes,” I muttered. “Luna."

             
“But Luna couldn’t -
wouldn’t
do this,” he sputtered. “Not to mention, she left centuries ago…” I sighed and gazed back at the screen with apprehension.

             
“It looks like she’s back.”

Chapter 14

Stasia

             
“For the love of all that’s holy,” Carmen muttered, and then called out to Phoebe, who’d been riffling around in the commuter van for the last twenty minutes. “While we’re still young!”

             
“Quit your bitchin’!” Phoebe threw over her shoulder at Carmen’s impatience. “I’m not going anywhere without my makeup bag.”

             
“I seriously doubt there’ll be mirrors there,” Olivia groaned behind me. “We’ll be lucky if we have running water.” We were at the Wilmington airport preparing to board the Sons’ jet as our luggage was being loaded in the underbelly of the plane. With Amphitrite’s assistance, I’d made arrangements for us to arrive in Atlantis an entire week early. The Atlanteans didn’t seem too surprised at my request, which was a little disconcerting but I decided not to ask any questions. I didn’t think it would be a good idea to be difficult before we even arrived.  I was sure we’d have plenty of time to annoy the natives once we were on the island.

             
“We’re not going back to the sixteen hundreds.” I tried to dispel her assumptions and then smiled in spite of myself. “We’re just going to an invisible island that’s been cut off from the rest of the world for the last ten centuries and that no one knows exists. We’ve got nothing to worry about.”

             
“What about an airport?” Avery solicited. Her face darkened to a queasy shade of green as she continued with dread. “I can’t imagine they get many visitors. At least not in jets.”

             
“We’re landing on the island of Crete first, where a float plane will be waiting for us,” I clarified. “It’ll fly us over the Mediterranean Sea to the water around Atlantis, where a boat will take us to the island.”  I’d hoped to ease her obvious anxiety, but one more look at her face told me that might be impossible.

             
“Oh…okay. Terrific,” Avery answered stiffly. Her face paled considerably and she began to chew her fingernails.

             
“Are you afraid of flying?” I asked her in a low voice.