“Good night, sweet dreams.”
I didn’t have the courage to tell him that wouldn’t be the case.
I snuck out after the guys had fallen asleep to go practice shifting. It wasn’t as dark as before, which made it much easier for me to find my way through the forest path down to the cliff edge.
I was back on the beach again. The waves were much rougher than before, the wind whipping my face, causing my cheeks to sting. But still, I was determined to try. It wasn’t as if I could drown now.
I dove into the water. It felt amazing as the water sent tingles over my body, giving me the energy to speed through the waves. I visited the fish of the coral reef again, several of them welcoming me, before I attempted to shift.
It took several attempts, but finally I succeeded. I had a gorgeous tail of purple and blue scales.
“You look beautiful, Atty.”
I spun around, and before me was another mermaid with dark skin and gorgeous forest green eyes. Her tail was a deep charcoal red with wispy fins.
“Cal? They told me you were dead,” I croaked as I studied her mermaid tail in shock and wonder.
“Oh, my dear baby sis. There’s no need to worry anymore. I’ve got you.” She wrapped her arms around me. They were so warm, and I sunk into her embrace.
“We’ll always be together. Even in death.”
My eyes snapped open and I looked up at her. “What?”
It wasn’t my sister holding me anymore, but a rotting corpse that resembled my sister. Her flesh was no longer a warm brown, but gray and sunken in. Her eyes, nothing but hollow sockets, arms skeletal.
I screamed and shoved her away.
The corpse held out her bony hands, an inhumanly wide smile gracing her face. "Together forever. That way you’ll never forget me.”
Heart racing, I turned tail and swam away as fast I could. That thing couldn’t be my sister. She just couldn’t.
“Atalanta…wake-”
Something snagged my tail. I looked back frantically, and the enraged face of my dead sister stared back at me. “What’s wrong? You don’t like my new form? It’s your fault I look like this, Atalanta. All your fault.”
“I’m sorry, Cal! I tried to save you!”
She wrapped her skeleton hands around my neck, the tips digging into my flesh. “You didn’t try hard enough.”
She shoved me down into the ocean’s black depths.
“Atalanta! Wake up!”
My eyes snapped open. I was drenched in sweat and my heart was racing about a mile a minute. I sat up and let out a sob.
Another bad dream. What had I seen? I quickly tried to grasp the fading images but they slipped through my fingers. I needed to know.
Someone was next to me on the bed, a huge form with mismatching eyes.
“Atalanta,” The man held me in his arms and crooned, trying to calm me down. “It’s okay. It was just a dream.”
Atalanta? Who was Atalanta? That wasn’t my name, my name was Kelly…No wait, Tasha?
Which one?
Which name?
Who was I right now?
Panicked, I shoved away at the man. I didn’t know him. Where was my father? My sister?
Other men came into the room. I didn’t know them either. Were they Emmanuel’s men? How had he found me?
I scrambled backwards until my back pressed against the headboard. The four men were staring at me, worry and concern in their eyes.
“Atalanta, calm down,” said the one with gray-blue eyes. His voice rang, bell tones making my mind go fuzzy.
I shook my head, trying to throw off the feeling.
The one with golden hair stepped closer to me, his hand out.
“STAY AWAY FROM ME!” I screamed.
“Atalanta,” said another voice.
My eyes snapped to the doorway and stared into familiar green eyes. Not quite my sister’s, but richer. This man was important. Something told me this man was mine.
“Jason.” When his name fell from my lips, it all spilled back in.
Yes, I was Atalanta North. We were in Washington.
I turned back to the man I had shoved away. He was Ajax. There were other men in the room with us. I looked at each one and slowly, their names floated to the top of my mind. Percy, Theseus, Hip.
My gaze slid back to Jason. As if he were some sort of anchor for my mind, the longer I stared into those eyes of his, the faster everything returned. My father was in the hospital, I wasn’t human anymore.
Cal was dead.
The image of the corpse dragging me deeper under the water sent shivers wracking through my body. I took it back. I didn’t want to know.
I curled into a tight ball, grasping my head, hoping to erase the images I kept seeing.
Jason crawled onto the bed with me and Ajax. “It’s okay. It was just a dream. You’re safe now.”
Slowly, he scooped me into his arms and rocked me back and forth. As much as I wanted it to, it didn’t make me feel better. I couldn’t stop seeing those empty eyes.
You didn’t try hard enough.
“What happened?” Percy demanded.
“She was scared. I tried to wake her. Bad dreams,” Ajax said softly.
Percy growled in response, “Yes, I can see that, but why is she like this?”
“Shock.”
“Well, do something!” Hip shouted.
“I can’t just remove this from her. It’s not that simple.”
Remove? Is that what Ajax could do? He could remove my emotions? Could he make it all go away? Those eyes.
I looked towards him, pleading. Begging him to make it stop.
“Sweetheart, don’t give me that look. Please.”
My eyes shot from him to Theseus. He could do it if Ajax wouldn’t. He could compel me to forget again.
“Atalanta, look at me,” Jason said, pulling my attention to him.
His warm hands brushed my cheeks. “It was a dream. Whatever you saw, it wasn’t real.”
But he was wrong. It was real. My sister was dead, and I kept forgetting.
Chapter Six
Jason
I had been able to soothe Atalanta back into an uneasy sleep after she had woken from her nightmare, questioning Ajax softly as soon as her breathing evened out. All he had to say was that her terror had woken him up, and when he was able to shake her awake she was extremely confused.
Hip crossed his arms. “She acted like she didn’t even know who we were until Mr. Perfect came in.”
“I don’t think she did,” Theseus added, his face almost as haunted as Atalanta’s had been.
“I have a bad feeling.” I said quietly and turned to look at Percy. “Do you think this was just disorientation after waking from her nightmare or something worse?”
Percy, who looked deep in thought, said, "I…actually don’t know. I will need to do some research.”
When he began to leave the room, my stomach dropped a little. “Wait. I don’t think we should be leaving her side.”