“You haven’t seen the half of it,” Her brown eyes danced with excitement.
“So, what is this place? I thought I was being sent here for blackouts and nightmares?”
“Maybe that’s just the reason they gave your parents, but things like blackouts wouldn’t really be considered unusual here at Lorelei,” Willow insisted. A sense of relief washed over me, but it was quickly followed by disbelief.
“So…does everybody here have…” I couldn’t believe what was about to come out of my mouth, “powers?”
Carmen snickered at my word choice, “Every person at Lorelei is a descendent of a sea god or goddess, including you. We’re part human and,” she paused for dramatic effect, “part sea nymph.”
“Okay, whoa.” I put a hand up to stop her. “Sea nymphs? If you tell me I’m going to grow a tail and start brushing my hair with a fork, I’m walking out of here right now.” Scenes from The Little Mermaid movie popped into my head.
Phoebe collapsed into a fit of giggles and Willow shook her head, laughing. “No dear. No forks and no tails. But, we all have sea nymph blood running through our veins, which means we have a very special connection with the ocean and marine life. We also have abilities that I guess you could call powers, but they’re different depending on which sea god or goddess you’re descended from.
We...” She swept her arm in a circle, encompassing all four of us. “…are Tydes, which means we’re descended from one of the fifty Nerieds.” Her eyes held mine, probably hoping I wasn’t about to go screaming from the room.
“Nerieds?” I wrinkled my nose, not sure if I wanted to know the answer.
“The Nerieds are the fifty goddesses of the sea, also known as the fifty daughters of the sea.”
Willow nodded toward Phoebe. “For example, Phoebe’s descended from the sea goddess Psamanthe.
She’s the goddess of sand, hence Phoebe’s abilities to control sand.”
“I also have a connection with the creatures of the sand, which is pretty cool.” Phoebe told me with pride. I remembered the conversation this morning about the crab. “But our abilities don’t reach their full capacity until we turn eighteen. So while we’re here, we learn how to control and use them.”
“So what about you guys?” I looked at Willow and Carmen. “Who are you descended from?
What are your abilities?”
“I’m descended from Laneira, so I have the ability to heal,” Willow divulged.
“Heal?” I asked, surprised, “You mean, you can heal people?”
“Yep.” She smiled.
“Wow.” This was getting more unbelievable by the minute.
Carmen leaned forward, “I’m descended from Oreithyia which is Latin for raging waves,” she grinned wickedly, “so I can control the waves.”
“Uh. More like the waves control you,” Phoebe laughed, “She hasn’t quite gotten the hang of it yet.”
“Yes I have! I just need to…practice more.” She glared at Phoebe and continued with slightly less confidence, “At the moment I can only do it when I get mad, but it’s still pretty cool.”
“We try to stay out of the water when she’s practicing. You never know when a whirlpool will form and swallow you whole,” Willow teased, and Carmen threw a pillow at her. I felt myself getting a little jealous of their amazing abilities, when I realized she included me in that whole ‘We are Tydes’ comment.
“You wouldn’t happen to know who I’m descended from would you?” It was worth a shot, but they just shook their heads. I looked down at my hands, “I don’t know what my abilities are or if I even have any.” I rubbed my thumb over my trace. If Kira had one that means…
“So do you guys have one of these like Kira? Does that mean she’s a Tyde too?” I held up my wrist and more questions than I could ask in one conversation began popping into my head. Carmen took my arm and they all dissected my trace with curiosity.
“Yep, she’s a Tyde too. Wow! I’ve never seen one like that!” Phoebe squealed.
“We learned about the different traces in class, but I don’t remember seeing this one in the book.” Willow leaned back in deep thought.
“So, what do your traces look like?” My eyes did a quick search of Willow’s pale skin.
“Mine’s an hourglass.” Phoebe piped up and threw her short leg up on the coffee table, showing me the design decorating her ankle. “The sand of an hourglass represents continual change and growth.”
“Mine represents the power of health.” Willow held up her left palm. I didn’t know why I hadn’t noticed it before. It was a single swirl with a line going through it that hooked at the top. I’d never seen a symbol like that, so I decided to take her word for it.
“See if you can guess what mine is.” Carmen frowned with contempt, lifted her hair, and pointed. Right below the hairline, behind her left ear, was a little swirl with a tail.
“A wave?” I guessed.
“Ding, ding, ding! Tell her what she’s won, Alex,” she laughed darkly, “Not very original, huh?”
“I think it’s pretty cool, actually. At least you know what yours means. I’ve got no clue about mine. I mean, I’m one big, fat mystery. I don’t know who I’m descended from, I have a trace no one’s ever seen before, and my eyes randomly changed to turquoise.” I shook my head at the ridiculousness of it all.
“So you don’t know who your real parents are?” asked Willow. I launched into the story about how I was found as a baby, grew up in the foster care system, and then adopted by the Whitmans. They were silent for a minute and my questions started flying again.
“So, is everyone here a Tyde?” I asked them.
Carmen stood up and stretched lazily, “Now that’s a loaded question. I think we might need to discuss that can of worms over a certain massive cinnamon roll.”
“Mmmm…that’s exactly what we need! Cinnabon, here we come!” Phoebe flew off the couch in search of her flip flops. Willow came to sit next to me.
“We’ll get it all figured out, I promise. At least now you’re where you belong.” I started to tear up at her words, but blinked them away and squeezed her hand.
“I couldn’t agree more.”
Chapter 8
“Oh my god, I can already smell it.” Phoebe leaned her head back and quickened her pace. I recognized the street from when Kira and I had bounced down it last night. We passed by eclectic beach shops and restaurants, but I was too distracted to pay attention. Even though I told myself not to, I couldn’t help scanning the crowds of people for a particular guy with dark hair and blue eyes. I never thought he was…real. But sure enough, he was there. And he had saved my life. I got a shiver as I thought about his blue eyes looking into mine and the water dripping off of his golden skin…
“Evil queen alert…” Phoebe interrupted my thoughts with a warning. I followed her gaze to the two girls currently on a collision course with us. If I had to guess, I’d say these were the be-
otches. They stopped in front of us, blocking our path.
“So who’s your new friend?” one of the girls purred. She had hair blacker than night, dark smoky eyes, and appeared to have Puerto Rican or Dominican blood in her. Her skin was the color of dark caramel and she reminded me of a panther watching its prey before it pounced.
“This is Anastasia, our new roommate,” Willow announced, proudly, “Stasia, this is Olivia and Cassie.” She gestured at the other girl who paled in comparison to Olivia. She had a slight figure and light brown hair cut into a long bob. She gave me a tight smile. The panther girl looked me up and down, and then laughed.
“I seriously doubt that,” she smirked at me. “From what I could see this morning, you seriously need swimming lessons.” I felt my cheeks getting hot, but Carmen stepped forward so that she was face-to-face with Olivia.