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Shhh! Listen, the Crown isn’t here. But I heard him say he needs the Crown to complete the ritual. So it can’t be far.
“What? What ritual?” I didn’t mean to blurt out my surprise out loud, but it was an uncontrollable reaction.
She reached up and pulled my face to her so that I had no choice but to pull it together and focus. Her eyes pleaded with me as she went on.
To kill this goddess he’s talking about. Katrina, He isn’t human. He can transform into some type of…water shadow thing. I don’t know. But he‘s made of that dark water. He controls it..
I should have known he would know better than to leave the Crown anywhere we would be able to see it. But if McKenzie could keep him distracted long enough, and Milo and Bellamy could show up to buy us more time, we just might have a chance at finding it.
I glanced over my shoulder to see Bastian taking McKenzie from Noah, leading her away to the base of the steps leading to the stone altar table. McKenzie stayed silent so that her voice wouldn’t give her away, but I knew that she had to be terrified. They began to ascend the stairs. I had to think fast.
I quickly communicated to Milo what my mom just told me, and he responded just as surprised as I was. But he assured me that he and Bellamy weren’t far. For now, I had to find a way to stall Bastian from harming McKenzie—or worse.
“Sit, dear Atargatis,” Bastian breathed over McKenzie, trailing her collarbone with his finger. She obliged, probably unsure of what else to do. “Funny. I expected you to put up more of a fight. You certainly did all those years ago the first time I offered you my affections.”
McKenzie stared at him through hardened eyes, and Noah watched them like a starving tiger waiting to pounce in an instant. His gaze whipped over to me for a second, and I could feel the desperation to intervene raging in him just from his expression and tense body alone. But I shook my head. Not yet. Bellamy and Milo should be here any moment…
“It seems our guests have overstayed their welcome,” Bastian’s voice cut through the cold stone space, even as he addressed McKenzie. He turned in my direction, leaving her sitting on the altar. “I believe you’re no longer needed. Your mother’s clothes are by the door. You can all leave now.”
We stood, our eyes never leaving him. Things weren’t supposed to get this far. We weren’t supposed to have actually handed McKenzie over to him. Her purpose was to be a distraction, not a complete replacement. I couldn’t let Bastian actually hurt her. So I braced, thoughts rushing through my head like an unhindered waterfall of what I could possibly do to stop him.
I bit my tongue so that a tear welled up, and I started to draw up the water that had spilled out from my mom’s tank, slowly, so that Bastian wouldn’t notice. It was difficult working with water so spread out across the stone floor, trying to find all the droplets and molecules and draw them back together. I wanted to call to Milo once more, but I found my mind could only manage to be occupied by one thing at a time. I hid my controlling hand behind my back, and kept talking to hold Bastian’s attention.
“What are you going to do to her?” I spat. Any minute now Bellamy and Milo would be here…Any minute now.
“I think you know,” he hissed, drawing up his hand to reveal the serpent symbol inked onto his hand. From it, more thick droplets of dark water formed, creating a stream, defying gravity and snaking its way across the open air to Noah, me, and my mom. It wrapped around us, its strength unimaginable, and forced us backwards. Everywhere it touched felt like burning oil on my skin. My head shook with pain as it slammed us against the wall, pinning us there to face the scene of Bastian and his false goddess. “But since you insist on specifics, Atargatis cannot be killed like a mortal. At least, not permanently. Valdez’s foolishness proved that and simply returned her to her element. God knows she’ll just keep on coming back in the next life. No. She must be destroyed once and for all with the power granted her by the gods, the same way it was given.” He reached down and touched McKenzie’s head, trailing down her tresses and coiling a lock around his finger. “The Crown? Check. The tail…we’re getting to that. The things that made you a goddess must be destroyed together for you to become fully mortal..and fully killable.”
A wave of relief flooded over me. At least he wouldn’t try killing McKenzie where she stood—yet. Without a tail, she wouldn’t quite be the piece he needed. That would buy us some more time as I focused on drawing the drying water on the floor to me. It was the only weapon I could think to make.
“It’s a good thing your friends stayed after all. It’ll be exciting to have an audience.” He grinned, his eyes flashing with madness. With that, he commanded his dark water energy to crawl up my legs, slowly suctioning itself onto my leg. It crept upward, stinging my skin. As it worked its way up, the stinging became unbearable agony, burning like hot coal. “Now transform, Atargatis! Or watch your dear lover suffer.”
A roaring sound of water filled the chamber, as shadow water flooded down the corridor, spilling in through the doorway and gushing into the room with us, carrying Milo and Bellamy within. As they choked and sputtered, I cried out. I couldn’t break my focus, though. I gathered my emotions and forced myself to find the will to keep drawing the water together from my mom’s tank. It was beginning to dry, so I had to work quickly before it was gone.
The rushing black water trapped them, pushing them with a force so hard against the wall, I winced at the sound of their backs hitting the rock. The water began to take its own form, filling up the space around them, as if suspending them in an invisible tank. As the water rose, lifting them higher off the ground, they gasped, struggling to breathe against the gushing rapids pounding over them.
“Let’s find out if a siren’s kiss helps them survive that!” Bastian laughed.
“No! Stop it!” I screamed.
“What? You really thought they could sneak up on me?” Bastian crooned. “It was a brave attempt, I’ll give you that. But when you came alone, I knew better. Your lovesick sailors would never leave you to face me alone. And Bellamy? Thinking writing down his plans and sneaking around would keep me from knowing? I know his thoughts. His feelings. His every intention probably before he even knows it himself.”
I felt so stupid, so gullible. We’d tried so hard to avoid this very thing and yet we had played right into Bastian’s clutches. No matter what we could possibly think to try, his advantage was always too powerful.
The setback stole my focus, and I lost control of the water I was pulling from the ground. Did I really even think I could fight Bastian with it? His dark water would likely overpower mine with ease. And if it did, then what? My thoughts raced as I felt the water slipping from my mind’s grip. I had to at least try.
“Noah,” I said, still locked onto Bastian, “Take my mom and get out of here.”
I drowned out the sound of my mother’s protest as Noah rushed to cover her with his jacket and rushed her to the exit. The water around me pooled at my feet, siphoning to me through my sheer willpower. All around me, distractions screamed for my attention. Bastian grabbed McKenzie by the shoulders and shook her, shouting at her to change form as he threatened all of us with horrible deaths if she didn’t. Mom’s wailing faded in the background as Noah dragged her out of the room. And the water around Milo and Bellamy sloshed with a strange, looming sound as their muffled voices fought to break through it. And I was still supposed to be looking for the Crown.
I closed my eyes, trying to find solace in the sound of water trickling through my veins, the beat of my heart timing to the waves outside. As I concentrated, the water came to me all at once, the droplets combining to create a solid stream that wove around me like a lasso. And just as I prepared myself to send it lashing toward Bastian, a voice at the door stopped everything.
“Stop!” Serena’s voice rose through the air like a queen’s command. My eyes widened at the unexpected sight of her, standing tall and unmoving at the door, her water gown flowing around her and the gold woven in her hair glinting.
The silence was immediate, except for the soft swoosh of water. Bellamy and Milo dropped to the ground, released from their watery prison. I quickly eased my hold on the water I was conjuring, to keep Bastian unaware. Bastian turned to face the real Serena, the moonlight hitting half his face from the skylight above the stone table and illuminating his golden glowing eyes. His stone gaze flickered from the Serena in his grip and the one standing at the door, separated only by me standing in the gap between them.
“Well, now,” he spat. “I’ll admit, that’s rather well-played of you. I certainly never expected a look-alike. But I don’t see what benefit this brings you.” His voice rose with agitation, and a strange crack that made it obvious he was trying to hide it.
“Your quarrel is not with them,” Serena said, sticking out her chin. “Release them all and take me. Fulfill your dark destiny if you must. I can ignore the call of fate no longer.”
