ABSOLUTION

Chapter five

Chapter Five

EQUILIBRIUM

Maya

I tie my dark hair up into a ponytail. "Okay, I'm ready," I announce, my voice echoing throughout the empty cargo area.

I stretch out my legs and arms one last time, more out of nervousness than anything else. The thin, flexible material of the suit has me feeling exposed. It cups every curve of my body, clings to my thighs and buttocks, and stretches across my chest so tightly I feel positively strangled. It's something that makes a girl like me―one who has grown up with Minoan customs where hiding a girl's assets is a priority―feel really, really undignified. Especially with Rion stacked right across from me in his stasis pod. Even though he is already in stasis, I know the minute we are awakened I will be the first thing he sees. In this ridiculous suit.

"Will you stop fidgeting?" Troy pulls my arm to inspect my pulse monitor. "Now, when the liquid flows in, it's going to be unbearably cold. I need you to suck in your breath and close your eyes. It takes about nine seconds until you are cryogenically asleep."

As he turns to gather some kind of ointment I have to rub on my hands, feet, and face to protect it from the frost, I take one last look at the row of pods inside the craft. David was the first to be induced. His pod is almost entirely murky; I can hardly make out any of his facial features. When I look at Anaya, who's positioned slightly across from me, it sends chills up and down my spine. She looks like a corpse. Her usually golden skin is pale and powdery, with an eerie blue hue to it. It reminds me of those things we saw in Enoch's chambers―the Shadow army. Just thinking of them makes me want to hurl, because I can't do anything to assist in stopping the onslaught anytime soon. And we all know they are coming.

Anaya's eyes are wide open, just staring straight ahead, taking in our situation with as much grace as she would any other daily event. Her breathing bubbles float slowly to the tube's cloudy surface. It's almost as if she is in silent slow motion, her hair swaying back and forth as the bubbles comb through her golden brown locks. Looking at her now, I can't help but think of Mom who I lost not too long ago. They look so much alike. Looking at Anaya, Tatos, Rion, and even David, I feel like I am about to lose my family all over again. It is so much like a really peculiar dream, this entire dark peril.

For now, these pods are our only way to survive the infection from the siren magic. Above our pods are small name tags Rion's little sister carved out of wood, each decorated to suit our personalities according to Enke. Rion's is decorated with a symbol for trees, a picture of a horse on the left edge, as well as a symbol for a stoat; Pebbles. The beloved pet he lost the day of the prophecy's awakening. Anaya's has a combination of dark and light wood, the dark wood is like a creeping vine of deep roses etched all around the edges; her beauty, grace, and strength blossoms in us forever. Tatos' name plaque is something different―a Minoan symbol―one I can't quite remember. It almost looks like two horns, but it's too straight and thick to be animal horns.

It's then I remember the wooden pendant he wore as a child, the one he gave to the Earth girl, Sage, before she was taken by the Magam, and then kept prisoner by the witchdoctor who mistook her for the Chosen one.

The symbol is a double-sided axe, a battle axe representing honesty as a warrior. I now understand the haunted look on Tatos' face. He feels responsible for what happened to Sage. For the prophecy foretold that a Minoan would find love in a Broken kind―a human of the Broken race. When I turn to take one last look at Rion and David, who only went in a few minutes before me, their complexions have changed drastically in color, their faces hauntingly taut. Clearly, they did not enjoy the effects of the drugs.