Tattoo #1: Tattoo (12 page)

fight against whatever powers she may possess" Annabelle took a deep breath. "We need to cement our plan of action before Alecca finds us" "Wouldn't it be better if she found us?" Zo asked. "I mean, if we find her, we're on her turf, but if she finds us"--Zo made a sardonic gesture toward the silver streamers--"if she finds us here, we have more control" "Are you suggesting we just stay in one place until she finds us?" Annabelle asked, her voice echo- ing in the nearly empty gym. "Sure," Zo said. "Problem," I said. "What if she doesn't find us until later?" I looked down at my feet. "What if she finds us after we've lost our powers?" I paused. "Or what if she finds the others first?" I didn't need to elaborate for them to know I was referring to the people from Zo's vision. "Okay, new plan," Zo said immediately. "We find her" "Do you have a scrying crystal with you?" Annabelle asked Zo. Zo nodded and lifted Keiri's crystal out of her pocket. "Never go anywhere without it," Zo said. "Mark the calendar," Delia said automatically. "Zo is accessorized" Zo made a face at Delia. "Map?" she asked. "Map of what?" Annabelle's question was, of course, the epitome of logic. "We don't even know for sure that she's in this world" "If I don't have a map, what am I supposed to scry off of?" Zo demanded. "Close your eyes" The direction was out of my mouth before I knew I'd given it. "Let images come to you. See the town, the world. See whatever image comes to your mind, and just really look at it" As I spoke, my voice took on an almost hypnotic tone, and Zo closed her eyes. The crystal in her hand swung in circles, gently at first and then erratically, darting left and right, front and back at an uneven pace. "The ocean," Zo said, her voice labored and her body tense. "The hotel. Another place ... I can't... it's almost there, but" The crystal flew out of her hand and shattered against the opposite wall. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as I looked around. Except for us and the balloons, the gym was empty. "I'm guessing that Death doesn't really like being scried for" Delia's voice was shaky as she tucked a strand of chestnut-colored hair behind her ear. "I almost had it," Zo bit out, opening her eyes. "I could see where she'd been. I could feel where she was, but when it came to actually knowing the answer, actually finding her, I was " "Blocked?" Annabelle suggested. Zo nodded, her face still dark. "Yeah" "S�dhe-blocked," I said, remembering the term Keiri had used. "Like my dreams and Annabelle's thoughts when she's wearing the magic barrette" I felt ridiculous for even using the phrase "magic barrette" "You think this is a magic necklace?" Delia asked, fingering the black metal choker she wore around her neck. "I got it at the same booth where you got the tattoos and Annabelle got her bar- rette" "Does it do anything?" I asked lamely. "Other than accentuate my chest, not really," Delia replied, "but the saleswoman said it was retro and cutting, and I have to agree" Zo snorted, but the next second, she was diving for her backpack. "What?" the rest of us asked at once. Zo unzipped the front pocket and took out a small white bag. Gingerly, she opened it and took something into her hands. Opening her fist, she let the dark purple crystal swing down, the nearly invisible cord held in between her middle finger and her thumb. "Another scrying crystal," Zo explained. "I almost forgot I had it, but I bought it at the mall when you guys were buying your"--Zo physically had to force herself to say the word--"accessories" "If my barrette and the tattoos are magicked," Annabelle said evenly, "your crystal may well be al- so" Zo nodded, and closed her eyes. The crystal moved, and soon it was swinging counterclockwise in a triangular motion. It whistled through the air, lightly, purposefully, and I found myself watching it. "She's near," Zo said softly. "Not in our world, but in another that runs parallel. She's watching. She's near" I watched the crystal dance on the end of the string, and slowly, the sound of Zo's voice faded from my ears. I could feel myself being pulled from reality, and after a moment, all I saw was the crystal, and all I heard was the beating of my own heart, and then there was nothing. "I've been waiting for you" Gently, he pulled me toward him. "Shall we dance?" Part of me knew it was a dream, knew it couldn't be real, but I didn't care. Here, in this place, he wasn't listening to Alex, wasn't watching her laugh. Her arms weren't around him; his were around me. The lights dimmed as his arms encircled my waist, and I rested my head on his shoulders. The mu- sic began playing, and we swayed to it. "Your hair looks like moonlight" My heart pounded viciously against the inside of my rib cage, and I could feel his beating next to mine. His hands played along my arms until his fingertips touched mine. My fingers tingled with his touch, and after a moment, he brought his hands to my cheeks. "You're beautiful" "No," I said, staring back into his eyes. "You are" He laughed then. "You surprise me," he said. "Everything about you surprises me" I could feel his breath on my face, and it made my skin heat up. "Your eyes surprise me every time I look into them and they're looking back at me" He brought his hands gently to the side of my face. "Your mouth surprises me, because you always seem to smile more with one half than with the other, like part of you knows a funny secret that none of the rest of us, not even your other half can guess" He brushed a finger over my lips, and I sucked in a breath. This was so right. It all felt so right. "You surprise me, Bailey Morgan," he said. We swayed to the music, and the tune filled my head. This was so right, and I wanted it with all of my being. Wanted him. "Do you want me?" he asked me softly. He brought his lips to mine, holding back from kissing me by just a fraction of an inch. "Because I want you" I wanted him. Wanted him. I moved forward, caught up in the moment and the music and his lips and mine. "I've wanted this for so long," I murmured. Want. Want. Want. "I know" He moved his lips toward mine, closing the gap between them in what seemed like slow motion. "I've always known you" It was perfect, and as his lips closed over mine, I lost track of everything except for the kiss, and the music swelled around me. Come. Come. Come. It was so warm, so right, that for a moment, I wanted to stay there, with him, forever, and then his words caught up with me. I know you. I've always known you. I pulled away from him and for the first time realized that even as we kissed, he was humming. I was humming. There was no music playing. We were dancing to the sound of our own humming. Come. Come. Come. I know you. I've always known you. What had Keiri said about the trio? "They were to know human life, to know humans, and through their knowledge, the power inherent in all life was to return to the S�dhe" "I know you. I've always known you. Don't you want me, Bailey?" Kane asked, but looking at him, I knew that they weren't Kane's words, that he wasn't real. "Isn't this what you wanted?" Want. Want... I shook my head, taking a step back. "I want you" His voice was soft and low, and so, so sweet. "Stop it," I said, pushing him away. "Just stop it" This wasn't real. None of this was real. Biting back tears, I pushed the sound of the song out of my head. "Stop it" "Bailey, I don't understand" Kane looked at me, longing and hurt on his face, and, oh, I wanted him. Wanted him, but it wasn't him. None of this was real. "This is what you want, what you've always wanted," the creature with Kane's face, his voice, said, and I understood why Alecca would choose a high school dance for her hunting grounds. Somehow, she preyed on desires, and everyone in high school wanted something. Even me. My eyes stung with tears. Oh, I wanted it even now, but it wasn't real. "No!" I found myself ^yelling. "I don't want it. I don't want any of it, not from you. Not ever" "Bailey--" "Stop saying my name. Stop using his voice" A single tear streamed down my face, and as it fell off my cheek and onto the floor below, I felt the music's hold on me tremble. "I don't want it, Alecca" The moment the name left my lips, the world around me crumbled into a different scene. I wasn't standing in the gym, and Kane wasn't standing with me. There were no streamers or balloons. I wasn't beautiful. "Bailey. OMG, Bailey. We thought you were a goner" I turned at the sound of Delia's voice. "Your eyes glazed over, Bay, and you just kept staring, and when you started humming " Zo trailed off and stuffed her hands in her pockets. "You couldn't hear us" Annabelle's voice was soft as she surveyed our surroundings. "One minute you were there, and the next you were gone" "Like Amber" Zo's voice was hard. "Like the boy" "I " How was I supposed to explain what had happened? All I knew was that my daydream had been something far more serious and that if I'd held on to Kane's kiss, if I'd let myself want it all for a moment longer, the desire would have swallowed me whole. "Where are we?" Zo changed the subject. I could have hugged her for it. I looked around. "We're standing on the Seal," I said softly. I'd stood here before, been here before in my dreams, but now I wasn't dreaming, and I wasn't alone. As it turned out, neither were we. "Such a pity. I do detest bloodshed" I whirled around to face the speaker, but before I could, I felt an invisible force lash out at me, and like a whip of fire across my entire body, it threw me to the floor. "Okay, fairy," Zo said evenly. "Now it's on" Onbekend "Big words from such a small mortal" Alecca's voice was painfully sweet. "Would you like to be bigger, little one?" Alecca smiled an awful smile, her bloodred lips curving beautifully on her ivory face. "No ... I know what you want, Zoe-Claire" We knew her name, and she knew ours. I had a feeling that whatever advantage calling her by name had won me, it was over now. We were on even footing, and on her turf. "You want your mother," Alecca said, and her words hit me hard. Looking over, I knew they hit Zo harder. "You want her to see you and your dad, to see that you don't need her, but sweetling, you do, and I think you know that, don't you?" "Don't talk about her mother," Annabelle said through clenched teeth. "Do you think I lie, Annabelle? Yes, I know your name, too, child. I know you all. I know what you feel. I know what you think. I know what you want, and I can give it to you" She took a step for- ward. I tried to clamber to my feet, but found myself pushed back down by the force of Alecca's gaze. "Do you know what I'm thinking now?" Annabelle asked, never backing down. "You don't" Alecca said nothing, but I couldn't help but glance at the barrette in Annabelle's hair. I caught Annabelle's gaze out of the corner of my eye, and she nodded slightly. Trying my best to remember the tentative plan of attack she'd outlined earlier, I threw my entire self into creating flame. My skin itched with the burning sensation in my blood, as emotion coursed through my body. She'd taken so much. She'd ripped the soul from the body of a child. She'd killed him, and she planned to kill more. She'd do anything to get her revenge. She'd taken Kane from me, from that sacred crush place in the back of my mind and the front of my heart. She was insulting my friends. The heat built up inside my body. It pumped through my veins and fought against my skin. I looked at Alecca standing there with her blue eyes and rose red grin, and I stopped holding the power back. I let every emotion, every worry, every bit of heat in my body flow from my hands, and fire leaped from my palm to her body. The floor in front of her burst into flame, and I could feel the earth shifting beneath me, the Seal splintering as the ground shuddered. "Zo, weakness," Annabelle called out. "Quickly" Zo closed her eyes, her hand still clenched over the crystal she'd used to divine Alecca's presence. "Weakness is mortal," Alecca said, stepping through the flames. "I am not" "Whatever her weakness is," Zo hissed under her breath, "Bailey's standing on it" The Seal. My concentration wavered, and so did the fire. I bit my bottom lip and sent another wave of heat to- ward Alecca as she approached me and the Seal. With a casual flick of her hand, she sent a stream of brilliant blue-green flame flying right back at me. "What is the expression you mortals use?" she asked, her red lips curving into a smirk. "Fighting fire with fire?" Burning heat surrounded me, separating me from my friends with a wall of angry blood green flames. Pyrokinesis. She had pyrokinesis? So much for Annabelle's theory. "I could have given you your heart's desire, could have given you all you've ever wanted" Alecca stepped through the fire. "It was beautiful, what I offered you. And what did I ask in return?" She shrugged. "Your life, your soul, your power: such a small price for a moment of true happiness" I snorted, because as long as I was snorting, I wasn't, technically, quaking in my boots. "That's your master plan?" I asked. "Give people what they think they want and while they're all wrapped up in it, you take their souls?" "I weave," Alecca said simply. "We are not so different, you and I. I do what I was born to do" Her eyes flashed. "I weave your lives, and if you get caught in a web of desires, a web of hopes and dreams and all else you mortals coddle in your heart of hearts " She sneered at this last expression. "Is it truly my fault for spinning the web? Or is it yours, for giving it to me to spin?" Her question lay heavy with me. She'd been targeting me all along. She knew what the others want- ed. She knew that Zo wanted her mother, and yet, she'd targeted me. Why? "Because, little one, blood is drawn to blood. Like recognizes like" She paused. "You're S�dhe enough to want deeply, human enough to die" I felt pressure on my neck, an invisible hand closing over my throat and pushing me back and to- ward the unberable heat of the fire. "I wanted once," she said, advancing on me even as she forced me into the flame. "Wanted deeply, wanted badly, and because of you, because I know humans, I thought I loved" So she had been in love with Valgius, I thought. The vise around my neck tightened and I choked. "I was wrong" No air. I couldn't breathe, and the heat of the blue-green fire played with my skin, tearing at it with scorching claws. I would have cried out, but there was no air, no voice with which for me to cry. "Fruit punch!" As if from a great distance, I heard Delia's cry, and the flame around me dissolved into a massive wave of fruity red liquid. For a moment, Alecca was distracted enough that her mental hold on my throat relaxed, and desperately, I breathed in, swallowing the air and choking in desperation to breathe it all in at once. Alecca frowned the way people frown when they've discovered a speck on
their carpet. She turned a mildly annoyed look on Delia. Delia stepped forward, no trace of fear on her face. "You think you're bad?" Delia asked her. "I've seen worse. I'm on the cheerleading squad; I know what real evil looks like" "If you mess with Bailey," Zo said, her voice quiet and deadly, "you mess with us all" Alecca laughed merrily. "How precious," she said. "You think you can hurt me, little one? Will you throw your crystal at me? It would take something far more ancient and far more powerful than that trinket to hurt me" My mind raced. With the Seal broken, she wasn't invincible. There had to be some way, some weak- ness we could attack. I stumbled to my feet, and Alecca knocked me off the Seal and across the room with a careless ges- ture. My head made a sickening thunking sound as it hit the floor, and pain ripped across my skull like dull, aching fire. I reached my hand to the back of my head, and when I brought it back, it was coated in blood. The world blurred in front of me, but I fought the dizziness and the unforgiving throb in my head. Alecca shook her head. "I do detest bloodshed," she said for the second time. "What a pity" Zo, furious and fearless, looked about five seconds away from telling Alecca exactly what she could do with her pity. There she was, more or less powerless, and yet pyrokinetic me was the one lying on the floor, bleeding. Alecca stepped toward me. Hoping Annabelle would catch my thought, I put all my concentration into the words: Keep her on the Seal. Annabelle nodded. "There are things that can hurt you," Annabelle said. "Ancient things. Things of power that were made to stop one such as you" Alecca stopped advancing on me and turned toward Annabelle. "There are no others like me," she said. "I alone have lived with you. I alone have felt the power of the human soul. I, and I alone" "Egotistical much?" Delia had Alecca whirling around. "Understatement of the year," Zo muttered. "I and I alone," she mimicked. Fury creased Alecca's otherwise flawless face and she turned her wrath on Zo, who stood her ground, never flinching, never moving back. Zo. She should have been afraid. I wanted to get up, to save her, but I couldn't. Luckily, Delia Cameron was on the job. "Is that your natural hair color?" Delia asked, drawing Alecca's attention. "Because I have to tell you, I think it's a bit overdone. No subtlety" As Delia talked, she pulled her choker off her neck. Alecca didn't notice, but since I knew for a fact that Delia didn't part with accessories unless under major duress, the movement caught my eye. In a single movement, Delia tossed the necklace to Zo, who looked at it as if it was a squashed slug. Annabelle narrowed her eyes at Delia, and then comprehension hit. "Zo," she said. "Throw it" Zo moved lightning fast, flicking the choker directly at Alecca, who turned to see it a moment too late. As if pulled by an invisible force, the choker latched around her throat. Alecca clawed at it, but the choker merely tightened until it cut into her neck. A thin line of blue-green blood welled to the surface of her white skin. "Something more ancient than this, huh?" Zo asked, holding up her crystal. Alecca stood, frozen to the Seal, her fingers madly tearing at the choker. "I'm guessing that's a little more ancient" Delia stepped forward. "It's ancient," she said. "In fact, I'd say it was retro and cutting, wouldn't you, guys?" Alecca's blood dripped onto the Seal, and it exploded, shattering down the center. The next instant, it collapsed in on itself. The ground split beneath the Seal, and the growing crevice engulfed Alecca. Before I could so much as blink, she was gone. Cautiously, Annabelle tiptoed over to look down at the hole in the ground that had opened beneath the Seal. "She's gone" My head swam with her words. "Bay, are you okay?" Zo asked, and in an instant, all of them were by my side. "It's gonna be okay, Bailey. It's over. You're going to be fine" I thought of Adea and Valgius, thought of the balance the Seal protected, thought of our world and theirs, and I shook my head, my whole body ringing with the motion of it. "It's not over," I said, pulling myself along the ground toward the Seal. It was then that I realized why it looked so familiar. "Our symbols," I said. "The Seal" "It's our tattoos," Delia breathed, seeing the same thing I did. "That's what you get when you superimpose all of the symbols," Zo said. "Balance" Annabelle provided the translation I already knew, and knowledge seeped over me. "I have to close it" It was what I'd been born to do. "Whatever needs to be done, we're in it together," Zo said, and she pulled me to my feet. "Lean on me" In the next instant, Delia was on my other side. "Take her to the Seal," Annabelle said softly, lifting the desire from my mind. "But, Bailey, it's broken, and no offense, but you've got to be crazy to want to step on that thing," Delia said. "It just ate Alecca" "Please," I said. Together, the three of us walked to the Seal, and Annabelle followed, her hand on Zo's shoulder. To fight, to live We two of three bestow this gift To see, to feel To stand upon the ancient Seal The words came to me, ghosts of things I'd heard Adea and Valgius say when we'd first applied the tattoos. "We're standing here," I said tiredly, my head spinning. "We're standing upon the ancient Seal. Now what?" "Bailey, you're bleeding!" Delia's voice was horrified. That wasn't exactly news to me, but as I heard her words, blood dripped off the back of my head and onto the Seal below me. It quaked beneath my feet, but I stood firm. It's in the blood. Things of power always are. And then, I knew. "My blood" I whispered the words, my voice hoarse. Adea and Valgius had given us their blood, and now I was giving the Seal mine. "To fight, to live you two of three bestowed this gift" I altered the words of the original spell to make it my own. After a moment, Annabelle picked up on my thoughts, and her voice joined in with mine. "We see, we feel We stand upon the ancient Seal " When Zo and Delia joined in, I knew that Annabelle was somehow silently feeding them the words. "From earth she came from air she breathed " The words to the spell were changing more now, but instinctively, I knew what to say, and with ev- ery word I spoke, the others echoed me. "From deep within her hatred seethed Fires burned Desires freed And as we will." I felt Zo's grip on my side tighten as we spoke the final words: "So mote it be" The words sounded foreign to my ears but felt right on my lips, and as we spoke them, holding on to each other as if we would never let go, the earth beneath us shuddered, and the Seal fell gently back into place, piecing itself together moment by moment, until it was whole. Rays of light burst from the stone markings, flooding us with warmth, and I could feel my head healing itself. In my last conscious moment, I lifted my hand to touch the back of my head, then brought my fingers to my eyes. My hand was covered in blood. Blue-green blood. Onbekend I struggled to open my eyes. "Rest, child" The voice was soothing, but I recognized the power in it, the ancientness of it, and I struggled to open my eyes. If I'd learned anything in the past three days, it was that voices like that weren't to be trusted. The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the ocean. It was all around me. I yelped when I discovered it was beneath me. I was sitting on the ocean's surface. "You need not fear harm here" The rhyme was pleasant, as was the voice that spoke it. It was a fa- miliar voice. I turned slowly toward the speaker, bracing myself against the water beneath me. "You," I said, and it came out like an accusation. The woman smiled. "Yes," she said. "Me" I'd seen her blue eyes before, when she'd sold us the tattoos. "We went back," I said, "to find you, to ask you about our powers, but the sign on the booth said that it was closed in preparation for Mabon" "A hint," the woman said. "As much of one as I could give you to draw your attention to the equinox and the events it would bring" "And the booth?" I asked. "For you and you alone," the woman said. I should have known from the blue eyes, and for that matter, it should have occurred to me that they didn't typically sell destiny-altering magical accessories at the mall. "You knew we'd be there?" "I knew the time was coming," she said. "Your Alecca imprisoned herself in my waters millennia ago. I knew the time for her release was nigh" "So you gave us the tattoos?" I asked. "Those were not of my doing," the woman said. "Adea and Valgius" I'd thought as much. The woman nodded. "It took others among the S�dhe much longer to realize that the worlds had been breached, that the trio had been broken, but from the moment she stepped foot in my waters, I knew. Her anger, her power seeped into the water like toxin, and I sought out the other young ones to offer what help I could" I stared at her for a moment. Had she just referred to Adea and Valgius as young ones? "To me, they are young," the woman said. "My tie to your world and your people predates the ne- cessity of their birth" "Oh" There didn't seem to be an appropriate response to that. "The two who remained with the Seal were in a horrible position," the woman said. "They could not leave, and they could not indefinitely stay. To venture forth from the Seal would surely rip it apart and sever the power of the S�dhe and perhaps all mortal life, but to stay meant to offset the balance: two in the Otherworld, one in this" "You're darned if you do, you're darned if you don't" I couldn't believe I'd just said that. I might as well have said "nifty" and "gee whiz" while I was at it. "Something like that," the woman agreed, "and so, with my help, they did what they could to pre- vent the collapse of the Seal. They sent their blood and the blood of the other Sister into the world, carrying with it the powers they held most dear, so that when the battle came, those who would fight it would be armed" "Us" That part was easy enough to follow. "They gave you the blood, and you made the tattoos," I said. "The symbols, that was you?" The woman smiled. "Another hint" I waited, sensing there was more to this story. "They also sent with me something of greater value, and there is little the S�dhe value more than S�dhe blood" She paused. "They sent with me the child Adea carried in her womb, the child born from their love. I took the blood and the child to the place where they would do the balance the most good" She looked at me. "This world" Wow. A fairy/Fate love child. Zo had been right all along. This whole thing was just a giant inter di- mensional soap opera. "Their hope, my hope was that the child would live among humans, would have her own children and their children after that for years and years, so that when Alecca broke free, when the power shifted toward her side of the imbalance, there would be a child on this side who could fight her" The woman looked at me. "A child who would be drawn to the blood they'd given me, a child wor- thy of the fight" She stopped speaking, waiting for me to say what was becoming more and more clear. "Me?" I squeaked. I'd just gotten used to the idea that my ancestors had been blessed by the S�dhe, and now she was telling me that my ancestors were S�dhe? "You," the woman said. "You chose the tattoos; they chose you. I guided your friends toward those items I thought could best protect them and serve them. This was never meant to be a mortal fight, so I gave them all that I could" I asked a question that had been bothering me for days. "Did I find the tattoos because Alecca was getting ready to rise, or did Alecca rise because I found the tattoos?" "Good question, child. Applying the blood awakened the power that slumbered in you, the power that had slumbered in this world for thousands of your generations, and this power shifted the balance toward this side of the Seal" "And Alecca woke up" "You could say that" The woman looked at me, lifting the rest of the questions easily from my mind. "The necklace your friend wore was forged from this sea long before Alecca spun her first human life. It is raw, pure, and contains a great deal of silver, which is poisonous to the younger ones of our kind" "And the blood?" I swallowed hard. "Her blood, I mean, and then my blood. " I wasn't making much sense, but it didn't matter. "She took herself from the Seal long ago, and by taking a human soul, she weakened it until it cracked. Her blood, when shed upon the Seal, atoned for the imbalance, and the Seal itself con- sumed her" She smiled softly. "Your blood righted things, in more ways than one. You were S�dhe enough to fight her, Bailey, and human enough to win. You are a balance unto yourself: mortal and fairy, human and S�dhe" She paused. "You invoked the Seal, and it answered your call and your blood. "The balance has been restored" Somehow, it seemed as though things had ended a little too neatly. After the three days I'd had, I was more than a little skeptical. "Alecca is gone?" I asked. "Isn't that going to screw up the whole three Fates thing?" I mean, even when the evil, ominous fairy of doom had been playing hide-and-seek in the ocean, there had still been three Fates. And now that she was gone... The woman looked at me and lifted a hand to caress the side of my face, breaking me from my thoughts. "All things said and done, the balance has a way of taking care of itself" she said. "Now that Alecca's hatred is gone from this world, things will right themselves. You will see" "Okay. Death gone," I said. "That can't be too bad, right?" The woman laughed. "Foolish child," she said affectionately. "Have you not eyes to see? Your Alec- ca was not who you assumed her to be" "No?" "No. Of Sister Life and Sister Death, she was the former. You mortals always think that Death is the enemy. Who better than the spinner of life would know how to spin your intimate desires into a deadly web? Who better than Life would understand you? Who other than Life could have known you as she did?" We'd assumed Death was the evil one for obvious reasons ...death equals bad, right? And yet, Alec- ca had matched my pyrokinesis and she'd messed with my mind, had made me see things that weren't there. Annabelle had been right. Sister Life did have the psychic and pyrokinetic powers. We just hadn't figured on fighting Life. "No one ever does," the woman said. "Enough questions, Bailey. It's time for you to return to your world, and I shall return to my sea" I looked at the ocean beneath me and ran my hands along its surface. "Who are you?" I asked, un- able to help myself. "I am S�dhe," the woman said. "One of the first. I have been known by many names. Poseidon. Neptune. Triton. Among my kind, I am called Morgan" And with that, she was gone. I opened my eyes and found myself smack in the middle of our school gymnasium. I glanced around,