Her Forever
(Book 3)- Chapter 34

Willa’s POV

“Damn, took you long enough to get here,” Luke complained as I trudged up to the spring. Horus was behind me, snickering and blowing bits of smoke through his nostrils.

I did not feel like I slept a wink the night before, which I guess I didn’t. Orion had visited me in my dreams and not once was I resting while he was there. The thoughts of him kissing me, touching me, holding me gave me the only energy I had left to walk the hour walk to the spring. Please let the war be over soon. I prayed whole heartedly.

“Dear gods, what is on your neck?” My hand slapped to my neck quickly. I didn’t have any concealer to hide the large mark that Orion had put on my neck. That irresistible pleasure of him sucking, licking, and kissing could get my core wet in a matter of seconds but the aftermath left me with a large hickey the size of a silver dollar. How in goddess name it was able to show up on my body when he only kissed me in a dream was unexplainable. “Um, nothing,” I said embarrassed.

“Ah, did your king come visit you last night? Staking his claim? Gods why hasn’t he even marked and mated with you yet? Not that I really care for the guy anyway, but it’s so damn old-school.” I rubbed the mark gently and stepped up to the spring and gave him a glare. “He’s my mate and I didn’t mind it one bit. Now are we going to get going or what?”

“Geez, alright Princess,” Luke held up his hands in defense, “Don’t go all barracuda on me. There are a couple things we need to talk about first.” Luke dug in his bag that he had brought with him and held out a necklace to me as he stood on the sand.

“This is an enchanted necklace from Calista that will let you breathe underwater. We are borrowing this so don’t loose it,” he glared at me.

“Watch it, fishy boy.”

“I’m a damn man!” Luke shot back.

“Well, half of one anyway, you are still part fish.” Luke growled playfully while I shoved him.

Looking back at Horus, he was beginning to shrink, and my eyes shot open. “Horus!” He continued to shrink until he was the size of Orion’s large horse. “He’s going to let you ride on his back through the water. You say you are fast, but you don’t have fins. We need to get there quickly so I can bring you back tonight or your little fairy is going to get pissy.”

“He’s fae,” I snapped.

“Whatever, now put the necklace on,” he shoved it into my hand. It was a black iridescent shell on fishing net string. Putting it on I felt my chest grow heavy and I let out a g***n.

“Quick, in the water. You won’t be able to talk to each other so just hang on to Horus.” Horus scooped me up by nuzzling his head under my legs. The unbearable pressure on my chest started to hurt and we dove into the spring. Luke was already in his siren form looking at me worriedly. “I wish you could hear me.” I heard in my mind.

I nodded my head at him, hoping he understood. Can I communicate back? The pressure on my lungs continued as I reached for my neck. I was going to need to resurface. “I can hear you!” I projected my mind towards him, and his face was full of shock. Luke swam towards me and ripped the necklace from my neck, not thinking anything of it.

“Try and breathe!” I shook my head ‘no’ at him while unhooking my legs from Horus, but Horus held me down with his claws.

“I’m going to die!” I internally screamed as I held my breath. Luke grabbed me by the shoulders and looked at me in eyes. His eyes reminded me of a cat’s as he focused on me.

“Trust me, Princess. Take a breath. I’m right here.” Feeling the overwhelming sense of calm from him, I let go of my neck and took in a breath. I didn’t feel my lungs fill with water, in fact, it was like I was breathing normally. My heart began to even out and Horus came to look me. His nose nudged my cheek in reassurance. He knew I would be fine, I wonder what else he really knows.

“This is insane. You must have siren b***d in you there is no other way for this to be possible,” Luke stressed.

“My mother and father were human! 100% human!” Luke shook his head in disagreement and waved his hand to follow.

“How can we talk like this?” I spoke abruptly.

“All sirens can talk to each other while under the water. It’s the way we communicate. Why you can still puzzle me.” Luke’s eyes didn’t meet mine as he continued down into the caverns and into the open ocean while I continued to ride Horus.

With the water being so clear, I was able to see out in the vast ocean floor. An abundance of fish swam by and I swore I saw some looking at us as we passed. The trench that Luke had mentioned where Atlantis was hidden was just up ahead. Instead of descending into a dark gorge we were met with light. A large dome covered the entire city, many sirens would enter and leave around the same few openings at the base of the dome. Luke had us swim to the back side of the dome where there were less people.

Horus continued to look behind him to check on me, but I only nodded and petted behind his horns. Once we came to the base of the dome, I got off Horus’ back and swam close to Luke to see what he would do. Waving his hand over a certain area that had to large Dolphin like pillars and he was able to step through while holding me close to him. We were instantly pulled in, along with Horus and we became dry.

“A witch enchanted it, so we didn’t have to be wet all the time,” Luke announced as we finally walked through the portal-like structure. Horus was behind me, constantly touching me as we walked through the back streets of the city. You could hear sirens laughing at talking as we took several side streets over, not taking me to the main roads.

“Where are we going?” I whispered as I took in the view. The city was lighted beautifully, decorated with shells, blue coral and white stones. Lights lit up the street in magnificent orbs that floated in a light pole contraption. Several children were running in between their parents as they giggled and squealed. It looked like any other marketplace or city, except it was all under crystal blue waters.

“To Calista’s, she has a small shop right around the corner.” Luke grabbed my hand and pulled me close to him while Horus stayed close as well. I’m getting smothered. Several sirens saw Horus and started to stare as we duct into the shop. Opening the door shells chimed together alerting of customers. The store was darker than it was outside.

Jars and globes were covered on the shelves with various objects from seaweed, dried fish and horse hooves. I silently let out a long, “ewww,” and Luke glared at me playfully. “Calista! Come out, I haven’t got all day!”

Luke smacked his hand on the counter and waited for Calista to emerge from the back. I took a few steps forward to her bookshelf. History, science, magic, spells aligned the wall and even an old paper back book that said, “The Little Mermaid.” I started giggling until I felt a hand on my shoulder and was turned around abruptly.

The woman had hair in dreads down to her h**s, shells and pieces of coral suck out in the most peculiar places. Her face was littered with freckles even on her dark skin. Her eyes a striking violet and her scales were there to match. “I’m Calista,” she muttered and started to turn me around in a circle. I complied and did what she wanted me to do.

Up and down her eyes probed my body until she finally had me stop turning. The palm of her hand went to my forehead while her eyes looked at her toes. Calista snorted and took her hand away as she began to laugh. “What is it? What did you see?” Luke urged her to speak but she continued to laugh. I stood there not moving afraid she might fall over from laughter.

“Nothing!” She cried as she waved her hand to fan her face. “She was just so serious and did everything I wanted her to do I thought it was funny.” She snorted one more time and went behind the counter.

“This isn’t a game Calista, I need to know!” Luke urged again, losing his temper.

“Why is it so important? Why do you want to know anything about this human girl?” She laughed again as she rearranged her collection of clam shells.

“Because I am drawn to her, I know when she is in water, she sings and hell she can breathe in water! There is something different but I can’t sense her being one of us!” He pleaded. “I need to know what she is to me.”

In the short time I’ve known Luke, he never looked like the person to beg. He is a prince and could have easily commanded her to tell him. Luke was sensing something else, but he wasn’t telling me. He continued to run his hand through his hair, and I noticed had small streaks of blue under the Atlantean light.

“Maybe she is your mate, or you have a little crush on the dear?” Luke shook his head violently no.

“She is not, I have no attraction to her in that way, no offence,” he added. I shrugged my shoulders. The feeling was neutral.

“And what of you, what do you think of Prince Luke?” Calista directed to me as she continued to mix various spices and fish into the bowl.

“He’s kinda cocky, little arrogant and has ‘find the damsel in distress,’ complex but other than that he’s a nice guy. I trust him,” I said with a smirk.

“I am not arrogant!”

“Tell that to my mate,” I rolled my eyes.

“You are something else, no one would ever talk to me that way,” he laughed.

“I’m just not everyone else,” I deadpanned.

Calista finished mixing her potion and would look back and forth between us, mumbling words under her breath. Finally, she called us over and plucked two hairs from our heads, spat on them, and dumped them into the mixture.

“Please don’t tell me we have to eat that,” I asked worriedly.

“We? We are trying to figure out what YOU are, so I don’t have to eat anything!”

“No one is eating anything,” Calista growled. With a few more flicks of her wrist the concoction was completed. Calista grabbed my arm with out permission and smeared it on my arm. For a few moments nothing happened until I felt a tingle then a burn on my arm.

“Ouch! Why is it hurtin?! Take it off!” I looked around for a washrag until Calista took it off. A small smile left her lips and she put her hand on her h*p.

“Well, human I guess you aren’t human after all.” I looked at Horus and he nodded his head in confirmation.

“You’re half siren and not just any type of siren b***d, but a powerful one.” My jaw dropped and Luke brows only knotted to confusion. “I figured that, but what is she to me?” Luke growled out. Dang he’s like a shark. Chomp, chomp.

“Speak to your father, he will have the answers you seek. He’s the only one with enough power and insight to tell you that.” Calista smiled and went to the back of the store.

Meanwhile, I’m having an identity crisis. I had not moved from the same spot since she spoke those words. I was not a fully human. My birth parents were human! I have never seen any signs of them being anything but human! They didn’t care for me or each other very much but they were all in the sense of the word, human.

Breathing underwater, being able to swim well and Luke being able to tell I’m in the water were all signs that I could very well be part serine. My heart squeezed. Either my parents kept the truth from me or my mother,…

My mother was not true to my father while they were together, if they were even together at all. “Breathe, there Princess.” Luke grabbed me as I began to fall and held me up to sit me in a chair. “Are you alright? This is a lot to process, I’m sure.” I nodded my head lightly, still not focusing my eyes on him.

With in three weeks my life has changed. I knew my future; it was to be with Orion. My past I had closed the doors on not just 24 hours ago and wanted to live the rest of my life in happiness. Now the back door had been burst open again and I must dig into a past that is painful. Freaking whiplash.

“Are you going to breathe? Because it doesn’t look like you are,” Luke joked as he pushed my shoulder. Shaking my head, I stood up to find Horus look at us through the window. The gleam in his eye and the slight nod as he glanced at me gave me the reassurance I needed.

“I need to know,” I whispered.

“What?”

“I need to talk to your father, if Calista says I need to talk to him to find out who I am, I need to see him.” Luke rubbed the back of his head frustrated.

“That will be hard to do, Princess. He hasn’t been the same since my mother left to be with her true mate.” I nodded in disappointment.

Calista comes back out carrying a purple colored lay you would find on the Hawaiian Islands on Earth. “Give him this, he will come see her then.” Calista blew Luke a k**s and went back to her storage closet.

“She is a strange woman but has never steered me wrong, are you ready for this?” Straightening my shoulders back and a new determination running down to my bones I knew I was ready. I’m going to find out my true history and maybe why my parents didn’t want me.

“Let’s go fishy.”