Chapter Twelve
Loss & Love
Water whooshed out of my lungs. My stomach tugged in tight shooting cramps with each foe I counted.
Hairy and Tattoo-guy led a squadron of six other guys. Hairy acted like the boss leading them into the dead-end cave. The other guys trailed behind. Tattoo-guy floated closest to Hairy.
Eight against six.
I moved in front of the cipher key. The attackers might know the location but they didn’t know the encoding key. Didn’t know the importance of our find. Or the importance of some of the people they now held captive. I hoped.
To distract them from studying the princesses too closely, I asked, “Where’s Sky?”
She’d acted like their leader. Had bargained for my life and the nautilus.
“Who are you?” Maris’s confused gaze went back and forth between Hairy and me. “Who’s Sky?”
“Scylla blew us off.” Hairy raised his bayonet-like spear—the same one that had threatened me before. “She’s the only reason you got away.”
Every muscle in my body tightened. I’d been afraid at the mini golf course, but this new threat was stronger. I might not have to deal with Sky’s power, but I was underwater and wasn’t Atlantean. The burning sensation spread across my chest.
Plus, Hairy and Tattoo-guy had brought their friends and from the weapons they carried and the stern expressions on their faces, this army wasn’t going to make a stupid mistake.
Cuda moved forward in front of Maris. “What do you want?”
“We wanted the nautilus.” Hairy shot a wicked smile in Gill’s direction. “By faking its destruction you wasted our time. Now,” Hairy moved in front of me. “We want the actual message.”
“W-what message?” I raised my shoulders trying to block the flash of gold behind me.
His smile shifted into a crooked one-sided lift. Even his lips appeared evil. “The message on the gold plate behind you. I know it’s a message from Poseidon and holds the answer to winning this war.”
“Don’t expect us to just hand anything over to a bunch of Separatists.” Gill’s accusation cut across the water like a shot.
“Ten points for the ginger.” Hairy’s derision mocked Gill.
I wanted to smack the egotistical Separatist.
Separatists were the group the Royal Atlanteans fought against. They’d tried to kill Pearl, lock Coral up for life, and dissect Maris. My lungs burned hotter. The princesses would make valuable prisoners of war.
But not more valuable than the message behind me.
The burning increased like a bad case of indigestion. We were stuck in a dead end cave with eight adversaries blocking the exit. The message they sought glared from the wall scalding my back. I felt the heat of the message even though the gold plate’s touch was cold.
The message spoke of total dominance. An unfair advantage no one deserved to own. As Gill had said, even good people could be corrupted.
Gill’s gaze swung to mine.
“Tori,” Hairy gripped my chin and yanked my head up. I could see nothing but his scraggly face with the heavy beard and mustache. “What does the message say?”
My heart fluttered like the gills of the fish swimming past. I licked my lips. “I-I-I haven’t figure it out.”
“That’s not what your Atlantean friend said.” Hairy studied Maris.
My eyelids stretched open. Panic pulsed through my bloodstream. He couldn’t figure out who Maris was. I had to distract him. I tried to jerk my chin out of his tight grip. His hold was too strong.
Gill whacked Hairy’s hand away. “Don’t touch her.”
Hairy flicked his hand as if in pain. His lips pushed out in an aggressive expression. He looked like he was considering punching Gill.
“I just started deciphering the code.” The heat in my chest blazed. My throat clogged. From fear or lack of oxygen?
Hairy’s eyebrows lifted in a suggestive way. “We’ve got plenty of time, air-breather. But do you?”
The threat was clear. Decipher the code and tell Hairy or slowly drown to death. Pearl couldn’t help without giving away her identity.
Maris and Cuda were backed against the wall. Chase might be an honorary Atlantean with full water-breathing rights, but he couldn’t assist. And Gill…
Well, Hairy already hated Gill because of the earlier defeat. He’d been offended when Gill had smacked his hand. He’d hated Gill’s defense of me. If Gill made a move, no doubt in my mind Hairy would use that pointy spear.
But this wasn’t fear making my lungs flame like fire. Pearl’s power was diminishing inside of me. I wouldn’t be able to breathe underwater much longer.
“If Tori is struggling to breathe, she won’t be able to think and figure out the message.” Maris’s worry screeched across my nerves. She feared for my life.
Hairy’s head jerked in Maris’s direction. “Who are you? And…how is this air-breather able to breathe underwater?”
And I feared for Maris and her sisters’ lives. I couldn’t let Hairy figure out who they were. The princesses were too important to Atlantean society. “I’ll get to work.”
“Answer my question.” Hairy grabbed my arm. “How are you able to breathe underwater?”
“I, um, I…” I didn’t know what to answer. I didn’t know how knowledgeable Hairy was about the Lost Daughters of Atlantis legend. I didn’t know, if he knew, that a princess had the power to turn air-breathers.
“There’s a special plant that gives the ability to humans.” The lie spat out of Gill’s mouth, like he pretended he didn’t want to say anything.
“What plant?” Hairy spoke slowly as if he didn’t believe Gill.
Coral held out a few pieces of the red seaweed. “Special seaweed from Fiji.”
Hairy dropped my arm and grabbed the seaweed from Coral. He shoved it in a small bag he carried at his side. “Might come in handy.” He snarled his lip at me. “Get to work.”
Shifting, I faced the gold plate buried in the cave wall. The images stared back, engraving the meaning in my mind. I couldn’t share the message with Hairy.
The current in the cave shifted. Tiny fish swam back and forth and back and forth like a pendulum counting down the end of my life. My vision blurred. My lungs felt like a fire had been set inside, which was impossible under water.
“If we don’t get Tori air, she’ll die.” Gill’s desperate tone held a hint of despair. Even with my back to him he knew how I suffered. Knew I didn’t have much time left.
“She better work faster.” No sympathy from Hairy.
The work was done. I knew the message. A message I couldn’t share. Especially with Separatists.
A message I was willing to die to keep secret.
And the way my lungs flamed like an inferno, I wouldn’t have to wait long for death.
The decision solidified. My eyes misted. Sadness trembled through my limbs knowing this was the end. The end of me. The end of my future. The end of any type of relationship with Gill.
Maris would bring my body home. Explain to my parents.
And I’d be at peace. Taking this secret to my grave was the right thing to do. I might not get to cure cancer, but I could save the world from another type of destruction.
“Now.” Maris launched herself toward one of the captors.
In coordinated movements, Gill jumped on Hairy and Cuda took out Tattoo-guy and then went for a second. Coral and Finn swam toward the cave entrance and fought with Maris against our captors. Chase charged into the fray, too.
I rose wanting to help, but my reactions were slowed by my need for air.
Pearl ignored the fighting and dashed to my side. An attacker grabbed her and yanked her away. She’d been distracted trying to help me. Trying to save me.
“Stop, or this girl dies.” One of the attackers held Pearl around the waist. A spear gun pointed at her side.
Blame spread inside me like gossip at school, tearing me down.
Like pressing a pause button, everyone stopped fighting. The other attackers shook off my friends. Hairy got to his feet. Tattoo-guy still lay on the ground. His eyelids opened, and then shut.
Cuda and Finn appeared frozen as if afraid the one guy would pull the trigger at the slightest provocation. Maris and Coral’s expressions were similar—open mouths and wide eyes filled with horror.
Chase lunged forward. “No.”
Two attackers grabbed him and held him back.
The burning in my chest flamed from guilt and lack of oxygen. If Pearl hadn’t needed to breathe into me, she would’ve been aware of her surroundings. She would’ve fought valiantly like Maris and Coral and the other members of the Order of Atlas. I was the weak link of the group.
Gill held up his hands. “Take me and let Pearl go.”
No! I screamed inside. Terror scraped my lungs as much as the lack of oxygen. Gill was sacrificing himself. For me and the princesses.
One of the attackers grabbed Gill in a death hold.
“I plan to take all of you.” Hairy’s lip curled. “Just as soon as the air-breather tells me the message.”
A tune played in my head. A funeral march? That would be appropriate.
Because it was worth dying not to expose the destructive message.
If I died, the message would die with me. The attackers would still take everyone else hostage, but hopefully my friends would figure out a way to escape. After all, they had three princesses with special powers on their side.
Instead of concentrating on my flaming lungs, I focused on the beat of a song. An old song. One my parents use to play.
Agony struck like a discordant drum. My parents. They’d never see me again.
My gaze caught on Gill’s shiny green eyes. Tears? I understood in my heart he was terrified for me.
Love sucker punched me in the gut. I almost keeled over from the realization. I loved Gill. With all the pain I suffered, the fact I’d never get to tell him how I felt hurt the most.
I wished we’d established the special couple communication he’d told me about. But I guess the love couldn’t be one-sided for the communication to work.
Gill leaned forward as if he wanted to speak.
I greedily ogled him wanting Gill to be the last thing I saw.
I didn’t want to die. I had too many things to accomplish. I could stop a war.
I could stop this war.
Even if I died, I could help stop this war by making the message positive. By changing the words so if the two sides actually listened they’d react differently. Not battle. Not fight.
The message.
The burning in my lungs lit like an inferno as if they were filled with hot lava. The drumming in my head increased. The drumming of a song.
A peace song.
Through my burning chest and clogged throat, I mumbled, “Peace is all it says.”
Hairy snarled. His lip curled up and he lunged at me.
I shrunk back. Emotion and the waning of Pearl’s power made my body shake uncontrollably. Weakness invaded like the attackers. The water in my lungs didn’t circulate like air. It choked in my lungs. I couldn’t breathe underwater any more.
In a haze, I saw Gill elbow the attacker who held him. I saw Chase grab the spear gun held to Pearl. I saw Cuda and Finn knock two guys out. And I saw Coral and Maris use their powers to get the best of the attackers around them. I even thought I saw Tattoo-guy attack one of his own men, but I had to be hallucinating.
In all the commotion, I slipped to the ground. My blurred visions saw only images of people fighting and flaying. Of past times with Gill. Of my life passing.
The second Pearl was released, she darted to my side. She pried open my mouth and blew. Her breath swirled down my throat and into my chest like a cool breeze. The burning sputtered. Died. Like water putting out a fire.
I took a shattered breath. Water entered my mouth but no longer suffocated. I could water again. My limbs still trembled. Weakness still invaded my body. But I wouldn’t die.
Pearl signaled to Gill, and then she entered the fighting. He rushed over and swooped me up like a small doll. He swam through the fighting, past his friends and mine, and tore like a tsunami through the cave, up the hole and to the surface by the waterfall. The whirlwind of images made me dizzy and everything faded to black.
***
A hand stroking my hair brought me out of the darkness. Droplets of water splashed on my skin. My feet dipped into the watering hole. My head was cushioned from the rest of the hard ground. Warm lips pressed to my forehead.
I slit my eyes open. The waterfall crashed nearby drumming into the pond. I was out of the cave, above the water, and in Gill’s arms.
“I thought you were a goner.” Stroking my wet hair, Gill held me in his arms.
“So did I.” My scratchy voice sounded strained. I’d almost taken Poseidon’s secret message to my grave. And I should. Even if I didn’t get buried for another seventy years.
I jerked upright. “Where is everyone?”
Gill pushed me back down. “They’re by the lagoon figuring out a way to deliver the prisoners.”
“They caught them?” Relief spread through my veins, lightening the pain. Hairy and his attackers were now prisoners.
“A couple got away.”
Things were still fuzzy in my brain. “In the cave, when everyone attacked at the same time, how did they know when to act?”
“Cuda and Maris communicated on their own personal wavelength—like we’d talked about earlier. So did Pearl and Chase. And, because they’re related, the three sisters can communicate on their own wavelength, too.” Gill’s hand stroking my hair picked up its pace like a nervous gesture.
“What about you?”
“I can’t communicate with them on a separate wavelength, but we communicated with our eyes and small hand signals.” He avoided my gaze. “I let them know how desperate you were.”
My distress must’ve been obvious. Even Hairy seemed to know how close I was to dying.
One stark thing jumped to the front of my brain. “What about the message on the wall?”
“It’s still there.”
I stiffened. My heart ached with the knowing. If the message was still there someone could figure it out. “What about the nautilus?”
The shell was the key to the message.
“I destroyed the nautilus.” His words came out like staccato bullets. Fierce and ferocious. “For real this time.”
My tenseness eased. I let myself relax against Gill. “No one can ever figure out the key or read the message?”
“I thought you’d approve.” Gill’s lips turned up slowly in a shared secret smile. “Very smart to come up with that peace message.”
How did Gill know I’d made the message up? He couldn’t read my mind. My thoughts stumbled to a stop. I studied Gill’s serious face. “How did you know I’d made up the message?”
He leaned over and stared at me. His gaze connected with mine like he could see deep in my soul. Maybe he could.
“Seriously?”
The thudding in my chest was like Morse code. We didn’t need the special Atlantean communication because I thought I was reading his mind right now, but I had to be sure. “You said only committed couples have that special communication connection.”
“I did.” His eyes softened, flashed, before he lowered his lips to mine.
His tender kiss pressed against my mouth, soft and loving. A caress. Tiny sparks ignited. My skin singed. My bones mellowed. My body melted into him.
I responded moving my lips against his. Reveling in his touch. Loving all of our special connections.
“I was so,” Gill kissed me between phrases, “worried.” He ran his fingers along my cheek to my jawline. “I would’ve been devastated if you’d died.”
Agony rung with his words. As if imagining me gone would’ve broken him.
My lungs emptied of all air. “Devastated?”
He visibly shuddered. “The instant chemistry between us this summer terrified me. That’s why when I came back I disobeyed Maris’s orders and decided to retrieve the nautilus myself.”
“You were terrified of me?”
“Terrified of us.” His hand shook as he ran his fingers through my hair. “I recognized our powerful emotions. More powerful than any of Poseidon’s messages or abilities.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. Gill’s phrasing made me realize he knew the real message. He’d read my thoughts through our couple communication. And he was promising not to tell anyone.
“After my sister died I was afraid to care for anyone so deeply again. I couldn’t watch someone else I loved suffer.”
He’d almost watched me die. Had volunteered to take Pearl’s place so she could save me.
“I didn’t think I could stand to lose anyone again.” His trembling hands cradled my head. “But I can’t stand to not have you, either. Tori, I love you.”
My head spun with his confession. My heart swooshed with all my love. Recognition of identical emotions connected us like an invisible thread. I wanted to stand up and dance. To celebrate. To let everyone know our feelings for each other.
But first I had to let Gill know.
“I love you, too.” I wrapped my arms around his neck bringing his face closer to mine.
My feet dangled in the water. His face was kissed by the sun. Both of us, half-in and half-out of the water, just as our relationship would be.
We’d have issues. Decisions to make. But together we’d make this work.
Our lips touched and this time the kiss was powerful. More powerful than Poseidon’s gifts. More purposeful than any war.
Our personal battle was over. But the war under the ocean, the war for the right to rule Atlantis, had just begun.
The End
If you enjoyed Tori’s story, check out the rest of the Lost Daughters of Atlantis series, “Atlantis Riptide,” “Atlantis Red Tide” and “Atlantis Rising Tide” which are available at Amazon, B&N, Kobo and IBooks.
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