Hearken (Daughters of the Sea Series) (28 page)

             
“What exactly do you do?” I crossed my arms and stared at him with annoyance. “I mean, when you’re not trying to ruin my life.”

             
“I specialize in ruining lives.” He smiled brightly. “But my official title is the Atlantean Historian.”

             
“The Atlantean Historian?” I scoffed. I immediately pictured him as Indiana Jones and laughed. “And what exactly does a
historian
do?”

             
“Laugh all you want.” He raised his blonde eyebrows at me, flexed one arm and kissed his bicep. “But around here…I’m kind of a big deal.”

             
“Somebody’s been lying to you.” I giggled and he narrowed his eyes at me, but the humor dancing in his eyes betrayed his true feelings.

             
“You’ll see,” he retorted with a confident smile and a wink. He held my gaze for a second too long, and shivers danced up my spine before I averted my attention to anywhere else but his scorching blue, soul-stealing eyes. I sat up straighter and cleared my throat. Before my emotions got ahead of my control, I reminded myself I probably wasn’t the first girl to get lost in those eyes. I was sure he had plenty of Atlantean girls throwing themselves at him. I wasn’t going to let him get in my head. I didn’t throw myself at anybody -
especially
not self-centered guys like Sebastian. Guys threw themselves at
me
. And I was going to make sure it stayed that way.

             
“So where exactly are you taking me?” I asked him; making certain to show him how unimpressed I was.

             
“I thought we’d start off with a romantic lunch, then a guitar serenade, followed by some heavy petting and kissing under the stars.” He grinned at me. I couldn’t decide which bothered me more - that he got under my skin, or that he
knew
he got under my skin.

             
“I couldn’t think of a worse plan.” I frowned at him, but felt my face flush. 

             
“Is that why you’re blushing?” He chuckled and my fists balled up in anger. I was just about to hit him or crawl under the seat when I felt our momentum slope upwards, slow, and then stop completely.

             
“Let the heavy petting commence,” he announced in a low voice as I stood and looked at him with annoyance. I pushed him lightly away from me and stepped out of the car, but I couldn’t ignore the feel of his chest muscles under my hand. I felt him on my heels as the doors closed, and jumped with surprise when the vessel shot back down into the water-filled canal and disappeared.

             
I stopped in my tracks and my mouth dropped at the bustling metropolis I’d just stepped into. Cobblestone streets lined with buildings made of stone sent me back to Charleston, South Carolina where my mother worked as a psychiatrist. Shops and restaurants were overflowing with Atlanteans dressed in white milling about, shopping, eating, or greeting family and friends. With no cars, buses, or motorcycles, the sounds of this city were pure, calm and friendly, and I was instantly taken aback by the beauty of it all. I was expecting thatched huts and dirt roads, so this surpassed all of my expectations.

             
“We need to get going,” Sebastian instructed and began walking down the street. I followed along clumsily while I tried to take it all in. Families, couples, kids, older people and animals freely roamed the streets; all in harmony with one another. There were no horns honking or people yelling. Just the soft murmur of people talking and having a good time with each other.

             
We made several more turns onto intersecting cobblestone roads filled with quaint shops and markets. As we rounded another corner, the ground sloped downward and something in the distance caught my attention. Slightly elevated and surrounded by water was an imposing, towering castle. Made purely of gold. I almost tripped, but Sebastian caught my arm just in time. No matter what I did, I couldn’t take my eyes off the castle in the distance. It was straight out of a fairytale, and I half expected fairies and fire breathing dragons to be flying around its perimeter. 

             
“That castle is gold,” I choked out brilliantly.

             
“And gaudy.” He scrunched his nose in distaste. “The inside is much more elegant and much less…showy.”

             
“It’s a castle for God’s sake!” I continued gawking. “It’s allowed to be as gaudy and showy as it wants.”

             
“This way,” he directed me with two hands on my shoulders, since I was no longer watching where I was going.

             
“So you’ve been inside? Does anyone live there?” I questioned him as we rounded another corner and I lost sight of it.

             
“Atlas’s wife,” Sebastian answered proudly. “She has singlehandedly populated half the island’s descendants.” I looked at him weird. That sounded exhausting. “Indirectly for the most part, of course. She begat him, who begat her, who begat him, and so on and so forth.”

             
“How old is she?”

             
“As old as the island itself,” he retorted offhandedly, and then glanced up at one building in particular. “Here we are!” I read the sign hanging in the window that said: ‘Metalliká Loutrá’.

             
“A mineral spa,” I responded flatly. Amphitrite had been serious when she said I’d be going to the spa. “I don’t need a massage, Sebastian.”

             
“You’re in for a surprise then.” He grinned as he opened the door for me.

             
“You
do
have manners.” I smiled up at him slyly.

             
“I have my moments.”

             
“May I help you?” a petit woman asked in Greek from behind a desk.  

             
“Olivia Campbell is here,” Sebastian informed her. For some reason I didn’t like the fact that he knew my last name. She stood with a polite smile and motioned for me to follow her. 

             
“See you in four hours!” Sebastian waved and walked out the door without a backwards glance before I could argue. Four hours? What were they going to do to me for four hours? Unfortunately the more relevant question would have been what were they
not
going to do to me for four hours. Apparently the first hour long massage was to simply get me relaxed enough to be able to lie still for another entire hour while they poked and prodded every part of my body. Between the facial scrub, belly wrap, reflexology, skin abrasion therapy, and tiny voodoo-esque needles to stimulate my muscles, I couldn’t believe I was only halfway done.

             
The next room of torture involved hot stones, a sauna, something gooey on my eyelids, and a foot massage. If I had to be honest, I’d have to admit I was actually beginning to enjoy the pampering as my body began reveling in the attention. Unfortunately things were about to get very weird, very fast.

             
The fact that I had been stripped completely naked never entered my mind as they led me to the second floor of the building and helped me down into a circular pool that looked like a Jacuzzi tub. The main difference being it wasn’t filled with water, it was filled with mud. I eased myself into the warm, thick mud. It folded around my body immediately, leaving me powerless to resist its soothing pressure. I leaned my head back on the edge of the tub as the rest of my body became completely submerged. My mind turned to mush and I was at the mercy of those heaven-sent massage therapists. They turned and walked out of the room, flipping off the lights as they left. Darkness enveloped me and all my senses suddenly came alive as I went on high alert. Nothing happened for several minutes, but then I noticed the mud growing slightly warmer around me. 

             
A low hum filled the room and small bright dots appeared on the ceiling. They reminded me of tiny stars far off in another galaxy, and I found myself connecting them in my mind’s eye to create shapes and words. Suddenly a light in the bottom of the small pool became lit and the mud around me appeared to glow in response. I watched as small sparks shot across the mud like horizontal tiny lightning strikes. They were mesmerizing, and for some reason they didn’t worry me whatsoever. I didn’t even think to question why my own electrical current was slowly increasing within. I felt a familiar frenzy behind my eyes and my entire body became a highway of electricity; the voltage sending my muscles into tiny spasms and lighting up the mud around me even more. The frenzy behind my eyes boiled over and I squeezed them shut. 

             
Usually my body only reacted that way when I was angry or needed to defend myself or Stasia. I re-opened my eyes and decided to focus on the faux stars on the ceiling. Without warning, the entire room lit up. Electricity began shooting out of my body and connecting with the walls and ceiling. It looked like I was in the middle of a huge static electricity ball. Mom had bought me one for my twelfth birthday, and I’d played with it for all of one week before getting bored and discarding it.

             
As I watched, my heart began to pound with adrenaline and the electric strikes followed suit. They grew stronger, brighter, and more numerous, and I worried suddenly if I was in danger of burning down the entire spa. I had a feeling the Atlanteans would not appreciate me burning down half their city. I concentrated on calming my heartbeat and steadying my breathing.

             
Finally the electrical sparks diminished until there was only one electrical strike extending from my chest to the ceiling. I focused all of my energy on it and tried to drag it to the left. Surprisingly, it did exactly what I wanted it to do. I moved it back to the right and then drew a circle on the ceiling with it. Feeling especially confident, I split it down the middle to create two separate strikes, and then twisted them around each other. They began to spit sparks before joining as one again. 

             
I experimented with my electrical essence for a while longer before the lights came back on and I was taken to another room to shower off. After my hair and makeup were perfected, I was taken to yet another room where I was given a manicure and pedicure. Both of which involved bright neon orange polish. My protests at the hideous color fell on deaf ears, however, so I resigned to taking it off when I got back to the tree house.

             
After putting my freshly washed white skirt and blouse back on, I lounged on the couch in the front office until I heard footsteps and felt a tap on the shoulder.

             
“Wake up, Sleeping Beauty,” he whispered in my ear. “Your Prince Charming has arrived.”

             
I slowly opened my eyes and then narrowed them at him as he sat down beside me. “Excellent. Why don’t you go escort him inside.”

             
“I have a better idea.” He leaned towards me with suspense. “
You
are going to take
me
out to dinner.”

             
“No I’m not,” I argued, but he’d already taken my hand and was wrenching me off the couch. 

             
“A face this handsome should be on display for the whole world to appreciate,” he continued, and grinned back at me. “It would be selfish to keep me all to yourself.”

Chapter 28

Finn

             
“You’re making a mistake,” she hissed at me. Her cool essence flared and settled around her in waves of unadulterated dignity.

             
“I don’t make mistakes,” I stated calmly and tightened the binds around her wrists. My essence showed up as a dark gray fog of light encircling the hands that were secured behind her back. “Now lead us to the crystal, Luna.”

             
“I am
not
Luna!” she claimed again with menace. Her pale hair washed over her innocent-looking face and she glared at me with cold, violet eyes full of undeniable power. I channeled more energy into the binds to make sure she wasn’t going anywhere.

             
“You have violet eyes and the gift of Revelation.” I eyed her warily. “Both telling signs of Selene’s long lost sister.”

             
Before binding her, she’d used Revelation to glimpse who I was; her slight form gaining weight and height as I suddenly became aware that I was looking at an older version of myself with fighting gloves around my hands and sweat dripping down my face. A double axe was gripped tightly in my right arm, and my skull and crossbones trace shimmered with power. The gift of Revelation was not something I’d ever encountered, and Luna was the only Goddess who was known to possess it. It made her a sort of mirror; reflecting the true being in front of her to herself, as well as to the one in question.

             
“Long lost or
banished
?” she spit at me with narrowed eyes. “I believe your history books need to be rewritten.”