Heart (38 page)

I jumped up before he could reach me, but he
used his power to knock me backwards through the air. I landed on
my back, losing my breath as the sword slid from my hand.

I released the power through my blood and let
it energize me. I still felt my bumps and bruises, but I was
stronger now.

I reached for the god-killer, but it wasn’t
there. I jumped to my feet, searching for it.

Nix stood five feet away with it dangling in
his hands. The early morning sunlight glinted off the silver blade,
making it shine with a supernatural gleam.

“Give it to me,” I ordered him in a singsong
voice, hoping my power would compel him to listen. I didn’t want to
give into it completely, but I needed to encourage him to
listen.

“You’re going to have to try harder than
that, Ivy.” He walked closer to me. When he lifted the sword over
his head, I thought for a second my suggestion had worked, but he
turned toward the ocean and chucked the sword as hard as he could.
With his superhuman strength, the sword sailed through the air and
dropped far into the ocean. My heart sunk with it and all chances
for winning this confrontation. “Do you see what I mean? You’ve
tried to get away from me all of your life, but nothing you can do
will ever be enough. I will follow you wherever you go. I will make
sure you are never far from me. You will never escape. You will
never be free of me. I will be with you until your very last
breath. Until I’ve decided to let you leave this world and not a
moment before.”

“No.” The word was a whisper on my lips, a
pathetic plea I wanted him to give into.

“Yes,” he said confidently.

“No.” This time it was a wretched sob from my
chest.

“Yes.” His hand brushed my shoulder. “It will
always be yes.”

I closed my eyes against the poison of his
touch and breathed in the fresh air. I wasn’t a fighter. I wasn’t a
killer. But I wasn’t a slave either.

I was just a girl that wanted to be free. And
as long as Nix was alive, I would never be free from him.

I understood Exie’s choice in this moment.
Death was better than this. Death was infinitely better than the
hell that was Nix.

With the salty air in my lungs, my power came
to life. I felt it everywhere, tingling through my blood and
vibrating in my bones. I breathed in the air, but I breathed in the
island too.

This sand was mine. These waves were mine.
This ocean that stretched farther than the eye could see was
mine.

My power built and expanded until I was
nothing but energy and control, influence and muscle. I was a Siren
at my basest, in my very center… at my very core.

I turned to look back at Nix and I felt on
fire with authority. I wasn’t the girl he had held beneath his
thumb and manipulated my entire life. I wasn’t the scared victim
that ran away and tried to hide.

I was a worthy adversary that would send him
to his watery grave.

“Let’s go get the sword,” I whispered.

I will never know if he followed after me
because I told him to or because he finally believed I was serious.
His actions could have been for either reason or maybe they were
for both.

We took off at a sprint, racing each other
for the waves. I kicked off my sandals so I could dig my feet into
the sand and find purchase. The beach was warm beneath my feet
until it turned cold and wet at the shoreline.

I hit the waves with purpose, wading through
the rough surf with my knees high and the expertise of a
veteran.

My athleticism on land was pathetic at best,
but in the water my body instinctively knew what to do.

I dove over the last wall of waves, when my
feet could no longer touch the sandy bottom.

Nix was directly to my left. His long, lithe
body cut through the water without issue. He disappeared beneath
the surface of the water and my heart beat with frantic haste to
catch up to him.

I had always kept my eyes shut tight in the
ocean before, but instinct whispered to open them. I listened
because there was no way I could find the god-killer blind, but I
was surprised to learn that I could actually see plainly under the
water.

The deeper we dove, the clearer my
surroundings became. I didn’t need the filtered light of the sun; I
had some supernatural power that made these depths my realm.

This was my world.

The god-killer floated beyond our reach. Its
heavy hilt dragged it toward the bottom, but it seemed reluctant to
go.

I kicked my legs and sped through the water.
My arms pumped with the effort to beat Nix. I had to swim faster. I
had to be better. I had to kill him before he killed me.

Tropical fish darted out of our way. Bright
colored coral made the terrain beautiful and breathtaking. But we
kept swimming without paying them any attention.

Down we went. Beyond the warmth of the sun to
the cold depths in their dark wonder. The water sluiced over my
body, the temperature only invigorating me.

When I couldn’t hold my breath any longer, I
stopped trying and found that I didn’t need to breath.

Not here. Not in this place that I
belonged.

It was strange at first. The human part of me
wanted to open my mouth and suck in a long lungful, but thankfully
instinct and self-preservation overruled.

Nix stayed with me. His robe billowed around
him in the weightlessness of the water and tangled his feet, but
his focus was only on the god-killer.

My gown was just as obstructive. I kicked my
legs and tried to work through the folds of fabric.

Nix’s elbow hit my side and knocked me in a
wall of coral. My eyes bulged with the slice of pain as my arm
scraped along the unforgiving sea rock. My dress tangled in the
abrasive plants and ripped as I pushed off with bare feet, cutting
more of my skin.

Blood trailed behind me, but I pushed harder,
swam faster. The sword danced out of our reach as we became
increasingly aggressive to get it.

I pushed him, his fist landed in front of my
face and I ran into it. The water barely slowed us down. We could
move faster down here. We were born for this.

The light in the water closest to the surface
disappeared completely. We were submerged in the darkest depths of
the ocean.

Without seeing it, I knew the sky churned
with storm clouds and lightning flashed ominously far above our
heads.

Nix became increasingly desperate the deeper
we dove. He managed to wrap his arms around me, but I wiggled out
of his hold before he could do much damage. Using the top of his
head, I pushed off and used the momentum to finally grasp the cold
hilt of the heavy sword.

Nix’s hand snatched my ankle at the exact
same time. I learned my lesson before and held onto the sword with
a permanent grip. I wouldn’t lose it this time. He would have to
pry it from my cold, dead hands before I gave it up again.

I turned around and sliced the god-killer
through the water. He let go of my foot to rear back.

Lightning flashed around him beneath the
water. I felt the surge of electricity hit my body, temporarily
debilitating me.

With strength I didn’t have, I kept my hold
on the sword. When I could finally move again, I let out a pulse of
energy that rolled through the water with devastating accuracy.

Nix flew backwards, but didn’t stay gone for
long. He torpedoed toward me, with legs elongated behind him. His
trident lit up with lightning that snapped and singed the water
around it.

He looked like the god of the sea like this.
This was Nix at his greatest.

His face twisted with pure hatred and
something deeper, something permanent. He needed me more than he
needed anything else.

But he also hated me. He loathed that he
couldn’t take over the world without me. He abhorred his own powers
for being weak… for being dependent on patrons. He detested my
strength, my absolute control.

He
hated
me.

But there was a sickness inside of him that
wouldn’t,
couldn’t
let me go.

And I wanted nothing more than to cure
him.

I tried desperately to swing accurately when
he was in arm’s reach, but I only managed to hit nick his forearm.
The blade cut through his flesh with ease and lethal precision. He
dropped deeper into the nameless abyss of the ocean, wounded and
reeling. Just as he passed beneath me, I struck at his leg, cutting
the length of his thigh, through the tender part of the back of his
knee and down his calf.

I followed him deeper, swimming through the
wake of his red blood.

We were drawing closer to the end.

He turned over, landing against a wall of
coral. His lightning trident flashed forward and struck my shoulder
before I could dart out of the way. I felt the burn penetrate my
flesh and come out the other side.

My mouth opened in a silent scream and
immediately filled with water. I spit out what I could and
swallowed the rest as I gritted my teeth through the searing
pain.

Power somersaulted through my body, hot and
dangerous. He pushed off the coral and hit me again, this time in
the thigh. I screamed again and tried not to puke from the
pain.

I had never felt anything so intense… so
suffocating with its potency. My blood mingled with his until I
could barely see him through the thick curtain of red.

When he raised his arm and struck me for the
third time, I felt my consciousness slip. I fell back and fought
the darkness of the ocean and the oblivion of the pain. My body
floated downward without effort.

I knew in that moment, as my reality became
hazy and my mind wandered to darker places, that this was my realm,
but if I lost control, even for a second, this place would swallow
me into itself.

I owned it until I couldn’t. Then it would,
without a doubt, own me.

The feeling grew until it became a palpable
force pulling me into itself. I felt the suction take hold of my
body and beckon me deeper.

My body was broken, bleeding until I felt the
frigid temperature take root in my core. I started shaking so hard
that I was certain the trembling had become seizures.

Nix appeared above me. He hovered there for
long moments as if deciding what to do with me. With his lightning
trident in one hand I watched the indecision flicker over his face.
He could take me now and keep me. Or he could let the water have
me.

He was bleeding too. He was tired of this
fight. And yet, he couldn’t give up.

He couldn’t let my potential power go.

When he started to come for me again, I knew
I had to make a choice too. I could keep fighting this losing
battle or I could become what I was meant to become and end this
once and for all.

With my last moment of clarity, I gave into
the destiny I had been fighting for as long as I had been
breathing. I let my Siren powers take over completely. I became the
ancient, terrifying creature that had sunk massive ships and sent
thousands of sailors to their graves.

I became the thing that the gods quaked in
fear of and the Fates tried to control.

I became an evil so great and terrible the
sea around me trembled in anticipation.

My body changed immediately as my mind gave
in. My arms became purposed again, my legs stretched and filled out
until there was both beauty and muscle unlike I had ever seen. My
hair multiplied around me until the fiery red mingled with the
floating blood and I could no longer tell the difference between
the two.

I floated into an upright position and
stopped falling. I felt energy sizzle through me, taking over,
taking control… taking my fate into its hands and deciding what to
do with it.

I wasn’t something the Fates could control or
Nix could own. I was free.

I would forever be free.

I sped to Nix, meeting him in the middle. His
black eyes widened as we stood off. He saw the change in me
immediately and didn’t know what to do with it.

Should he be afraid? Or should he be
excited?

He should definitely be afraid.

He swung out again with his trident, only
this time it wasn’t to kill. He only wanted to maim. He thought he
could subdue me.

But my power told me otherwise. Nothing would
ever control me ever again.

I shifted gracefully out of the way, then
again when his second hit came faster and more determined. When he
lifted his arms for a third strike, I opened my mouth and
whispered, “Stop.”

My voice traveled through the water and
wrapped around Nix completely. His arms paused over his head and
they did not move.

“Is this what you wanted?” I asked him with
all of the hypnotic power I was capable of. “Is this the Siren you
wished to enslave?”

“Ivy…” he answered. Apparently he was capable
of speaking through the water too.

“Answer the question,” I demanded. The power
reared through me, turning my mind to an abyss of revenge and
insanity. I felt lightning spark in the sky above the ocean. I felt
my connection to it and the destruction that it could wield.

“Yes,” Nix whispered. “This is what I
wanted.”

“Be careful what you wish for, Poseidon,” I
taunted. “You just might get it.” I swam closer to him, hovering
within his reach, but he couldn’t move his arms until I told him
to.

He looked at me softly, as if I were
everything he had ever wanted. His eyes danced with lust and
longing. His body heat permeated the water, warming my skin and
making me sick. “We could rule the world together,” he promised
with a deep, melodic baritone. “We could make nations worship at
our feet. We could restore our ancient power and conquer kings and
Olympus alike. The world is ours for the taking.”

Madness burned through me and I struggled to
find reasons not to have those things. The power promised that they
were mine anyway. Men were made to worship me. The world was meant
to be ruled by someone as magnificent as me.