I could hardly hear Jason as he clutched Atalanta’s unconscious form against his chest.
“She’s not w-ing -p!”
“What!?” I shouted and cupped my ears to try and hear him better.
“She’s not waking up!”
I came closer and touched her cheek. I wasn’t gauging much from her, but that wasn’t unusual from someone who was knocked out. I moved my hand over her mouth.
“She’s not breathing!” I shouted.
“What?!”
I cursed to myself and pulled Jason—still clutching Atalanta—beneath the surface. Away from all the rain and the chaotic sounds.
“Ajax, what are you doing?” Jason yelled, pulling against me as we dove.
“She’s not breathing, Jason. And we can’t help her if we can't hear each other.” I reasoned.
“We need to pull the water from her lungs.” Jason said.
Percy’s head swirled around. “Where’s Hip? He might be able to do it.”
Guilt crept in with the panic and I said, “I sent him after her sister.”
“We are wasting time,” Jason blurted before pulling her back to the surface.
I followed, my ears hurting from the deafening sounds. Above, Jason had his mouth over Atalanta’s. Instead of breathing into her lungs, he appeared to be sucking in, his cheeks hollow. I watched as his gills opened wide and I think I saw water pour out of them. It was hard to tell in all of the rain. Percy and Theseus were on either side of them, trying to keep them steady and above the surface as the waves thrashed.
Jason removed his mouth from Atalanta’s after switching from pulling water to breathing in air. He patted her cheek, but she wasn’t moving. I held my arms out and gently took her. Putting my head up to her chest, I could hear her heart beating but only faintly with all of the other noise. Her pulse only confirmed what I heard, and that was not good.
I looked to the other three. “If we don’t get her help—and soon—she’s not going to make it.”
“We are miles out from land, there’s not going to be any help!”
This came from Theseus, who had been quiet the whole time, his disability making him pretty useless in situations like this where visibility was low.
A few moments later, the blond head that was Hip came tearing through the water, halting in front of us.
“I wasn’t able to find her sister. Are you sure she fell? What's wrong? Is she okay?” He asked, his voice frantic.
Jason and Percy ignored him and shared a look.
Percy shook his head and I hardly heard when he said, “She might not survive, Jason.”
“She’s probably not got to survive anyway!” He shouted, the desperation on his face mirroring everyone else's emotions including my own.
“This is your decision. I can’t subject her to—” his voice cracked.
Jason nodded, and his desperation morphed to determination. Gripping Atalanta tightly, he dove back under the water, the four of us following after him. He dragged her body far below where the current stopped churning.
Hip was almost in a rage as he tried to get to Atalanta, not understanding what was going on. Percy, with his Guardian strength, held the young man back. After whispering something in his ear, Hip settled.
I was worried. I had an inkling of what was happening, and I didn’t know if I should let it happen or stop it.
My fears were confirmed the moment Jason pulled down her pants to just below her hips.
I raced forward. “Are you sure?”
He nodded. “If it will save her.”
“You’ll be sentencing her to a hard life.”
“I’ll make that life worth living,” He murmured, stroking his thumb against her face.
Slowly he reached down, his hand running down along his tail.
With a sharp tug, he pulled out one of the thick blueish-purple iridescent scales.
Holding up the scale, he looked each one of us in the eye before saying, “Embrace the sea and become one with it.”
He shoved the scale into her flesh just at her hip.
After a few moments, nothing happened. The space around us was silent, the only noise coming from the storm above.
But then it happened.
Atalanta’s eyes flew open wide. Her once beautiful brown eyes we now mismatched like mine. One, her original brown, while the other, a brilliant green.
She opened her mouth, inhaling water into her lungs.
We all let out a collective breath.
And then she let out a horrid scream.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Jason
As soon as she opened those beautiful eyes, one of them now matching mine, a spark of hope flickered in my chest. But when a moment later she let out a dreadful cry, I couldn’t help but cringe and grip her tighter.
“We need to get her on land,” Ajax said, the urgency in his voice confusing me.
“But won’t the transition go smoother if we keep her in the water?” I asked.
He shook his head. "Not in that condition. Her body won’t be able to handle it. We need to get her warm.”
I stared at Ajax’s own multi colored eyes and conceded. He would understand what she was about to go through more than any of us here.
I looked back at the woman in my arms. Her eyes were rolled back into her head and she was beginning to shake violently as if she were having a seizure. She was breathing, though, and that’s what mattered.
I clutched her close to my chest and turned towards the shore. “Let's get going!”
We sped through the water, with myself in the lead this time. My tail kicked furiously and every few moments I looked down at Atalanta. Her eyelids had fallen shut and scrunched tightly. I longed for her to be conscious, to be looking at me with that little smile she got when she thought I was acting too ‘perfect’. I knew I wasn’t perfect. I had one hell of a temper and the insecurities of a thirteen-year-old girl but for some reason she thought I was this Disney movie near flawless person.
Most of the school thought I was like that, but at least Atalanta wasn’t afraid to call me on my shit.
It took far too long to finally reach land.
Atalanta had gone from shivering to full on writhing in my arms as the scale did its work, the magic rushing through her, altering her very DNA. She was still freezing and in danger of hypothermia while she remained partially human.
My little spark of hope was burning away in the terror I felt.
The five of us rushed up the shore and practically flew up the cliff to her home. We had to get her out of this cold! Pulling the door open, Ajax and Percy made quick work of starting a fire while Thesis whispered to her, singing softly, his siren voice coaxing her, keeping her as calm as possible. Hip rushed through the small cabin. I could hear him smashing around before coming back out with arms full of blankets.
Gingerly, I laid her down. “Sweetheart, we need to remove your clothes. Do you understand?”
For a moment I didn’t believe she heard me, until her hand came up and gripped my arm with the force of a python. Her eyes wide she shook her head vigorously, begging me. I apologized profusely, but I needed to take these clothes off of her.
As quickly and as gently as we could, Hip, Percy, and I made quick work of taking off her clothing, while Thesis crouched by her head, singing even louder to her. Her pain and confusion were almost too powerful to hear him.