“Why have you regressed?” she demanded of Natasha with a sneer. “Why have you chosen not to embrace your darkness, Natasha?”
“My...darkness?” Natasha’s brow furrowed as she grasped the fire agate pendant hanging from her necklace. Carmen took a menacing step forward before crumbling to her knees, ravaged once again by the perilous screams audible only to her.
“I can’t take it!” she screeched in her own voice again, eyes squeezed shut. “Make them stop!
Make them stop!!”
At the same time, Natasha and I embraced her and somehow managed to wrestle her safely back into her seat. I swept Carmen’s hair off her neck and watched Natasha’s concerned expression as she took in the throbbing red trace.
“What’s happening to her?” I whispered frantically. Her lips pressed into a thin line as she shook her head in dismay and reached into her pocket for the vial of gray liquid. Even with the constant squirming, I was able to hold down Carmen’s arms as Natasha tried to force the sleeping concoction into her mouth. Unfortunately, half of it came back up and she bent her head down instead; clamping down onto my arm with her teeth. I automatically let go and she pushed me away with immense strength. I landed upside down on the other side of the plane, underneath a table.
“Stop it!” Phoebe pleaded as she tried to pull Natasha away from Carmen. “What are you doing to her?!”
“Phoebe, don’t!” Willow snagged Phoebe’s arm and pulled her back, just as Natasha succeeded in opening Carmen’s mouth wide enough to pour the liquid down her throat. I rubbed my leg where I could feel a bruise forming and Willow helped me back to my seat. After ensuring Carmen was out cold, Natasha sat back down and sighed with exhaustion. She met Phoebe’s distraught eyes with an unrelenting calm.
“It’s a mixture of passionflower, valerian, and chamomile with a kick. It simply puts her to sleep. It is completely safe, I assure you.”
“Then what’s wrong with her? Why does she sound like she’s possessed?!” Phoebe shouted.
We were all frightened for Carmen and felt powerless to help her, but Phoebe was infinitely taking it the hardest.
“I’m not sure, dear. It could be a number of things, but I need a second opinion.”
“What if it gets worse? What if she hurts somebody? Or herself?” Phoebe countered, her panic lessening to frustration.
“That’s where I will need your help,” Natasha disclosed with intensity, “but you will have to trust me. Do you understand?” Phoebe paused as she considered whether or not she trusted her best friend’s well being in the hands of Natasha.
“Just promise me you’ll help her,” Phoebe conceded quietly, tugging on a strand of brown hair.
“I will do everything in my power,” Natasha promised. Willow reached out and took Phoebe’s hand to comfort her.
“Just let us know what you need us to do,” Willow told Natasha for Phoebe’s benefit.
“Of course.” Natasha pulled four mugs from a cabinet and filled them for us. “I see how much you love her. Sometimes that is all it takes.” I hoped that I was the only one who could hear the doubt in her voice.
“What is this?” Phoebe peered into her cup skeptically.
“Mint tea with a touch of skullcap. The mint soothes your senses while the skullcap relaxes your muscles and calms your nerves.” I tentatively took a sip of the steaming liquid and closed my eyes as the refreshing taste of mint exploded onto my taste buds.
“So you think the Nereids will be able to help her?” I questioned Natasha.
“Not the Nereids,” she explained. “Charon. Which leads me to what I need to discuss with you. Our reasons for travelling to Cyprus are twofold. You will indeed meet your future sisters, but we also plan to execute another attempt to find Finn. Charon has already arrived on Cyprus,” she held my gaze, “and I took Finn’s body, along with Ricker, over earlier this morning.”
“Wait. Finn and Ricker?” Willow raised a scrutinizing eyebrow. “How’s that even possible?
Is that how…” She pointed back and forth between me and Natasha, putting the pieces together of how I was able to get to Finn’s fight as fast as I did, considering it was on the other side of the world.
Natasha took another sip of tea before expounding on what I had already assumed, “I transported them using conveyance.” Phoebe’s mouth dropped open and Willow’s eyes lit up.
I had experienced her incredible ability of conveyance when she had used it to take us to the location of Finn’s fight. It was an unbelievably fun way to travel. And quite convenient, I might add.
“Natasha’s a Wiccan.” I smiled at Phoebe’s now confused face, “She’s a descendent of Hecate; a witch.”
“Hecate?” Phoebe’s emerald eyes widened as they peered down at her tea. “No wonder this is so good.”
“Making tea is one of my many abilities,” Natasha claimed with a straight face and a clever twinkle in her eye.
“That’s really an ability?” Phoebe clamored. Apparently Phoebe had missed the clever twinkle. Willow shook with laughter and Natasha’s deep blue eyes crinkled as she smiled.
“Yep, she even has a pink lemonade ability,” I poked fun at Phoebe’s naïve tendencies.
“Hey, it could happen!” Phoebe held up her cup in retaliation and frowned, “I mean this is some seriously good tea.”
“But you really took Ricker and Finn to Cyprus using conveyance?” Willow shifted forward, enthralled by her ability. “That’s amazing!”
“That’s right,” Natasha confirmed. “Ricker is looking after Finn’s body until we arrive, and his presence may prove beneficial once we begin to work to heal Carmen.”
“How does it work?” Phoebe inquired. “Why didn’t you just convey us over there, too?”
“I don’t believe I’m strong enough to convey three girls and their inordinate amount of luggage all the way around the world.” Natasha tilted her head in amusement.
“It’s pretty cool! When she took me to Finn’s fight, one minute we were standing on the Fortunate Isle. The next, we were standing on a beach in Greece,” I attested.
“I’d never travel any other way. That is so cool!” Phoebe gawked. “I wish I was a witch! No planes, no cars, and you’re there in two minutes flat.”
“It definitely beats a broomstick,” Natasha snickered and took a sip of tea.
“Can all Wiccans convey?” Phoebe asked curiously.
“Yes, but we aren’t the only Order to have that ability. There are…others.” Her eyes became unfocused and her mouth tightened into a straight line at what must have been an unpleasant memory.
“So Charon will be able to heal Carmen’s mind?” Willow asked in an effort to reinforce her thoughts. The crease between her eyebrows hinted at the wheels churning within her head.
“I hope so,” Phoebe muttered gravely as she shot a sideways glance at Carmen’s sleeping form.
“What about me? I can heal bodies - maybe I can heal her mind, too?” Willow inched to the edge of seat in case Natasha agreed.
“I’m afraid I may have used an incorrect term.” Natasha’s features deviated to apologetic.
“Her mind is not technically diseased or even injured. It has been…changed or manipulated. There’s even a chance it has been hijacked. But she cannot be healed in the terms you are alluding to.”
“Oh,” Willow sighed and collapsed back into her seat in a cloud of defeat. I took another long sip of mint tea and contemplated the possibility that Carmen’s mind had been hijacked. By who? Or what? Was it possible that one of the souls from Tartarus had caught a ride to this world?