Hearken (Daughters of the Sea Series) (45 page)

             
“I mean, usually there’s things you tell a girl about yourself before you spend the night with her. Things like…‘I’m a Scorpio’…‘I like long walks on the beach’…‘I’m the greatest warrior Greece has ever known’…‘I fought in the Trojan war’…you know – that kind of thing.” I shrugged and peered up at him innocently. “But why would I be
mad
about that?”

             
“Olivia,” he stated plainly. My passive aggressive sarcasm hadn’t been lost on him, and for that I was glad. He deserved every bit of it. He stepped closer, but I could tell from his defensive posture that he wasn’t planning on apologizing. He’d traded out his linen pants for a cooler pair of white linen shorts. I forced my eyes away from his bare torso and the beautiful designs that now stretched across his skin.

             
“Sebastian,” I mocked his tone and then hit my forehead dramatically. “Oh, I’m so sorry! What name are you going by now? Achilles? Asshole?  I can’t remember. My memory’s so horrible these days.”

             
“I couldn’t tell you yet, Olivia.” He sighed at me and looked at the ground. “I couldn’t let anyone know until I told Anastasia.”

             
“And when were you planning to do that?” I spun around on him in anger. “Before or
after
you threw her off a cliff?”

             
“I was protecting her!” he defended himself, and his eyes hardened. “But that’s not the point-”

             
“Isn’t it?” I challenged him. “I might be several centuries younger than you, but I don’t consider tossing someone off a cliff ‘protection’.  Here in the twenty first century we like to call that ‘murder’.”

             
“She’s
immortal
,” he reminded me in an irritated tone and equally annoyed look.

             
“Nuances.” I stared him down angrily. He stared right back.

             
“I couldn’t allow her to hurt her Council, thereby hurting herself.”

             
“I’ll be sure to nominate you for sainthood right after I figure out how to kill you.”

             
I twisted on my heel and attempted to walk off, but only made it a couple steps before he grabbed my arm and spun me around to face him. His jaw flexed with anger and he yanked me closer without uttering a word. The traces adorning his skin flexed in unison with his tensed muscles, and the heat coming off of his hand threatened to burn my skin. His bright turquoise eyes flashed with anger, and I knew without a doubt I’d succeeded in making him mad. 

             
I raised my eyebrows at him with fervor. I didn’t
care
how mad he was - when it came to a pissing match, I always won. I had more pride than a gay parade, and I intended to use it against him as long as possible. He made a fool out of me! I should have known something wasn’t right! I should have known he was hiding something! Finn sensed it the first time he met him, but I continued to stand up for him like a damned idiot! Embarrassment sparked my temper and I tried to snatch my arm away from him to no avail. His fingers gripped my arm so hard I felt the bruises beginning to form beneath. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of knowing that, though.

             
“I have fought countless enemies and watched with a morbid satisfaction as the life drained from their eyes. And if there was any question to their doomed fate, I twisted the sword in deeper until they bled out in my hands,” he warned in a low voice that shook my soul.  His grip lightened slightly on my arm. “If I wanted Anastasia dead, she would be dead.”

             
“Finn wanted you dead,” I accused him defiantly. “You could have killed him instantly, or allowed me to disable him. But instead you deflected my essence. You chose to protect the same person who was trying to destroy you. Doesn’t that go against what you stand for?”

             
“I wasn’t protecting Finn.” His features softened and he let go of my arm. “I was protecting you.”

             
“Me?” I breathed with surprise. “From what?”

             
“From yourself.”

             
“What are you talking about?”

             
“You will be immortal. Your Elysian is immortal,” he informed me plainly. “You will quickly learn that a Warrior must not only protect people from their enemies, but must also protect people from themselves…when they can’t.”

             
“From themselves?” I asked quietly.

             
“It is not the physical body of an immortal that needs protecting.” He stared right through me and into my soul. “It is their heart. Their soul. Their
essence
. That’s what must be protected. Once darkened - once tainted - it cannot be undone.”

             
“But Finn was going to kill you!” I cried. “I couldn’t let that happen!”

             
“And you acted heroically, but there was never a threat to my life. There was no reason for you to hurt him. I know you didn’t
want
to hurt him. And it would have eaten away at you; the same way you find it hard to look at my own fading scars. The fire within you – it’s bright, it’s strong, it’s…good.” His eyes searched mine. “There was no reason for you to darken your soul for me.
I
couldn’t let
that
happen. You mean too much to me.”

             
For the second time that week, he left me speechless. As I stared up at him, I watched the armor shielding his heart shatter into a million pieces and shine from his eyes straight into mine. The world around us disappeared and I felt my own world click into place. He reached up and brushed my cheek with his hand before moving closer.

             
“Olivia! Sebastian!” Natasha called to us. “We need to go!”

             
A devilish grin pulled at the corner of his lips and he leaned in to kiss me. It was gentle. It was soft. It was fleeting. And it was the most meaningful kiss I’d ever had. An itching in my palm brought me back to reality and I held up the evidence to Sebastian. He smirked down at me and his eyes sparkled with anticipation.

             
“Let’s go kick some ass.”

Chapter 48

Olivia

             
The world around us flickered, disappeared, and was suddenly replaced by another one altogether.  As we looked around at the new island, my hand began to burn hotter…before it turned into a raging inferno and I could do nothing except drop to my knees in agony.

             
“Olivia!” Natasha knelt beside me.

             
“Apparently it’s not this one,” I sputtered out between moans of pain. I fought to stand, but the muscles in my hand contracted and quivered as a sharp pain shot up my arm. I screamed out and felt Sebastian’s arms catch me before I fell again.

             
“This is killing her!” I heard him growl at Natasha and Finn. “It’s not working!”

             
“If only their connection had been established…” Amphitrite thought out loud.

             
“Well it hasn’t,” Sebastian snapped at her. He adjusted his arms around me and I leaned into his shoulder. “Unless you have any better ideas, I think its Finn’s turn.”

             
“I’ve been attempting to reach her through her thoughts, or even feel an ounce of her essence,” he shook his head in defeat. “But it hasn’t worked either.”

             
“That’s because…” I winced. “We’re searching…for the wrong person.” They all turned to me in surprise.  “Stasia isn’t alone, right? So, I have an idea. I don’t know if it’ll work, but…it’s worth a shot.”

             
Sebastian helped me stumble over to a nearby boulder beneath several palm trees. The island Natasha had taken us to was beautiful, with white sand and lush forests beneath an imposing volcano. But it wasn’t the island Stasia was on. Nor were the other four we’d visited. The normal pull that accompanied my Paladin abilities was non-existent; the inner compass that would tell me which direction to find her had gone silent. Doing a sweep of every island in the Mediterranean would take months, and we didn’t have that long. Stasia didn’t have that long. I glanced up at Sebastian, Finn, Amphitrite and Natasha, and fought to pull my fingers down flat in order to see the trace that was in the process of scorching half of my body.

             
“My connection isn’t established fully with Stasia, but maybe that can work to our advantage. Her essence pulls me to her – usually – so what if there was someone with a similar essence? If it’s even remotely close, I should be able to hone in on that as well.”

             
“Fallon,” Finn breathed in thought, once he realized what I was saying.

             
“I’ve never seen anyone else with violet traces and violet eyes. It might just work,” Sebastian agreed. Amphitrite smiled approvingly at me and Natasha clasped her hands together.

             
“So what do we have to do?” she asked.

             
“I’m not sure.” I stared down at the skin that
used
to be my palm. The trace had almost charred over – black skin bubbling on the surface with a blue fire burning underneath. I saw vein-like fingers of blue energy snaking up my wrist and arm. I didn’t know what would happen if I never found Stasia, but I didn’t want to find out.

             
I shut my eyes and concentrated on sending all of my energy, all of my essence, and all of my emotions to my palm. I pictured Fallon’s pale face, her white-blonde hair, and the violet hue of her eyes. She was blurry and far away, but she was there.  I envisioned her speaking and the sound of her voice.  Her face became clearer and closer, until I could almost reach out and touch her.

             
And then Sebastian touched my shoulder. My thoughts immediately shifted to him and his touch; eliciting a peculiar reaction in my palm. Suddenly the pain disappeared, the burning was snuffed out, and when I opened my eyes the trace had minimized itself to a shimmering blue that only itched slightly.

             
“You found her?” Natasha placed a hand over her mouth in disbelief. I sighed and narrowed my eyes at Sebastian.

             
“Not quite.” I put my hands on my hips. “I found the
other
person who shares a similar essence to Stasia’s…her brother.”

             
“But he’s not - oh.” Finn chuckled as he remembered who Sebastian really was. Sebastian just shrugged and gave me a breathtaking smile.

             
“It’s not my fault you can’t take your mind off me,” he accused smugly.

             
“Go stand over there,” I instructed him sternly, while pointing to a palm tree nearby. Unfortunately there was no chance of hiding the smile trying to surface.

             
“Yes ma’am.” He bowed to me and walked several yards away to lean against the palm tree I chose for him.

             
I shook my head at him and closed my eyes again. The absence of pain in my arm and hand made it infinitely easier to concentrate, which was a plus. Now if I could just find the right person…

             
After picturing Fallon once more and allowing her image to grow closer and more detailed, my hand began to burn again. I heard someone gasp, so I peeked out of one eye and saw that my trace was now glowing violet instead of blue. It was working! I returned to the Fallon image in my mind and reached an arm out to touch her. As I did, she dissipated in a cloud of violet smoke and my arm exploded with fire. I cried out in pain and dropped to my knees.

             
“Don’t touch her!” I heard Natasha instruct someone. I clenched my fist tightly and fought to open my eyes. That’s when I felt it. The pull. I immediately looked to the east.

             
“She’s that way.”

             
After several whoops and yells of celebration, they finally seemed to remember the Paladin writhing in pain at their feet and helped me up. They gathered around me, Natasha muttered something I couldn’t hear, and the world around us flickered and blinked into oblivion.

             
I noticed the feel of soft sand pressing against the soles of my feet and looked around. We were standing on a small strip of land, with the ocean at our backs and a massive towering white cliff in front of us. As everyone turned around and tried to get a sense of our bearings, I dropped to my knees one last time. The unbearable burning in my hand had lessened from eighth degree burns to a fire ant bite in less than a second. I opened my palm and saw the trace lightly glowing a violet color.

             
“She’s here,” I whispered as tears of relief sprung in my eyes. “She’s here.”