I shot a glare at Cal. “There are some other guys. Friends I’ve met. And no. This isn’t their fault. Just something about this town.”
I wasn’t completely lying. This town, while nice, put me on edge with its mysteries. For some reason I didn’t want to smear the guys’ names. While they were the cause of my distress, it wasn’t actually their fault and I didn’t want my dad to blame them.
“But that still doesn’t explain why you didn’t tell me, Atalanta.” Dad sighed. “I thought we were past this.”
“I was trying to handle it on my own! Despite what that ID says, I am a grown woman.” I said defensively.
He rubbed his face in frustration. “This isn’t about you being a grown woman. This is about talking to me when things are going wrong.”
“We’ve been a bit busy! Fuck, Dad. I've hardly seen you in the last month.” I said throwing my hands up.
He pointed at me. “Don’t you use that against me. I've been trying to provide for this family!”
“So, have I!” I shot back.
“Guys!” Cal shouted but we ignored her.
“I know it hasn’t been easy, Atalanta, but it won't last forever.” He growled.
“It's been eight years, Dad!” I shook my head. “Eight years of hiding all because of me, I’m tired of it.”
His face fell, the fight beginning to drain from him. “Atalanta…”
But anger burned in my chest and I wasn’t done. “For fuck’s sake, don’t call me that! It’s not my name!”
“GUYS!” Cal shrieked, her voice bordering on terror.
Our heads snapped to Cal. "WHAT?”
She wasn’t looking at us. She was staring up at the sky, her eyes wide with fear.
“Oh, no.” I gasped.
In all our fighting, we didn’t realize. The wind had picked up and the boat subtly rocked more and more as the waves became progressively more violent.
The storm was upon us.
Black clouds, huge and menacing, were baring down on us. In a matter of seconds, a heavy pouring rain swamped us before Dad and I even had the chance to get out of our seats. The boat rocked as the waves churned. Dad finally managed to undo his buckle, shouting for me to stay strapped down and for Cal to get into his chair.
He scurried across the deck and grabbed ahold of the steering wheel, turning the key over and over, shouting and banging at the boat's dashboard. My heart sank, terrified that the boat wouldn’t start, but with one well aimed kick I felt the propellers revving to life beneath me. He pushed on the throttle, trying to navigate the boat through the choppy waves as quickly as possible.
Nearby, Cal slipped and slid trying to get into the seat next to me as the boat continued to thrash this way and that. Everything was soaked as the rain continued to pour down on us in buckets.
I leaned as far as the straps would let me, holding out my hand for Cal to grab onto. She did and with all of my strength I pulled her towards me, closer to the other chair. She dragged herself into the chair and desperately tried to grab onto the straps and buckle herself in.
I heard Dad shouting from inside the wheelhouse, but I couldn’t hear him over the rain and screaming wind.
He was probably trying to warn us about the wave.
The giant wave crashed over us and swept across the deck of the boat with a vengeance. Sea water slammed into me and would have probably torn me right out of the chair if I hadn’t been strapped in. Salt water filled my mouth and I spluttered and gasped for breath when the water receded.
I looked back at Dad, who was fine within the boxed in wheelhouse, but when I turned to look at Cal in the chair next to me it was empty. Cal wasn’t in the seat, its straps swinging wildly in the wind.
I looked around frantically. She wasn’t on the boat.
SHE WASN’T ON THE BOAT!
“CAL!” I screamed.
I saw her, way too far from us, out in the water. Her small form thrashing around in the waves.
I screamed for her again, tearing at the buckles on the chair. It took far too fucking long to get them off but when I did, I was running to the side of the boat where I saw her. Scanning the water. I saw her for only a split second, at least I thought. The water was like black oil, dangerous and unforgiving. In that split second, I saw her, and she looked so much further than before.
I screamed for Cal, screamed for my father.
I quickly looked back over to him through the windows of the wheelhouse. His eyes were wide, so wide with terror as he realized what was happening that I hardly saw anything but the white of his eyes.
I grabbed the life preserver next to me, and with one last glance at my father, dove off the boat into the water.
Ice. It was like diving into a pool full of ice.
Immediately, my body seized up with the shock of it, my brain screaming:
WARNING! DANGER! DANGER!
But I had to save my sister.
With all the strength I had, I swam in the direction I last saw her. The waves were merciless, beating against me constantly, pushing me back.
I tried to keep calm, tried to keep pushing myself forward, but the sheer panic of what was going on clouded my mind.
Everything was screaming.
My mind was screaming for me to save my sister, my body was screaming from the pain of the cold water and waved bashing into me like brick walls, my lungs were screaming for the air I wasn’t getting.
They say your life flashes before your eyes when you’re about to die. But as a particularly powerful wave sent me backwards, slamming my head into something, and my body sank beneath the surface of the water like a stone, I didn’t see anything like that.
The only thing I saw as my lungs burned and my vision hazed over was a strange blue glow in the dark water.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Percy
As the five of us sped through the water, our powerful tails eating up the distance, a small drumming in my chest beat wildly and it wasn’t my heart.
A Guardian.
Something I hadn’t been called in a long time, but Jason hadn’t been wrong. Those of my pod had always been Guardians. The abilities we had from birth made us well suited for protecting others. Our enhanced strength and ability to forge bonds with people without having to mate with them were indispensable qualities.
Those bonds would allow a Guardian to always know when their bonded was in danger, acting as a literal GPS.
I had suspected I’d unintentionally bonded to Atalanta the day that I had kissed her, but seeing as I had never been bonded to a charge, I was stupid and didn’t recognize the signs when my instincts had told me to find her.
“Do you know where we’re going!?” Hip shouted, his voice carrying through the water much more clearly than that of a human’s.
“I do not have an exact location, but I know she’s in this direction,” I called back.
I was leading the five us as we torpedoed through the water in a tight V formation. The luminescent streaks that ran down the spines along my back and at the sides of my tail acted as beacons in the dark water. Not that I needed it. My light sensitive eyes made the water in front of me as easy to see through as if it were streaming with daylight.
“So that’s your ability?”
I looked back at the blond youngling. I heard that he was raised by humans, and the elders in the town were tight lipped about what they told him. Considering how confused he had been earlier, it seemed the rumor was true. Old jackasses.
“He’s deep sea.” Ajax said.