29. Nyssa
Nyssa
I ran — up and up and up. I ran away from that room, from the sisters, from my fate, my choice, and that stormy-eyed god. I ran until I remembered I was not limited to how far my legs could carry me.
Shadows whipped out from my palms, and I hurled myself into their void before a doorway could even finish forming.
Home.
I materialised in the newly renovated bathroom, fully repaired after the destruction caused by Charon and Velira. Pale pink tiles gleamed on the emerald green walls — an ode to my mother’s colourful interior design choices.
My heart raced, and my lungs dragged in short, half-filled breaths until pink and green blurred together in a dizzying whirl.
A panic attack loomed — I needed to arrest it now before I lost hours to it.
I rushed to turn the bath faucets on and climbed in fully dressed, still in my ridiculous ball gown, but I did not currently have the mental capacity to reign my shadows back in. Instead, they pulsed along with my pounding heartbeat as the water rose above my legs.
It was freezing.
Maybe cold was good. Maybe it would shock my brain into focusing on something other than pure panic. The water rose higher, and I slid lower, submerging my whole head. All I could hear was the white noise of water filling the tub.
Ckshhhhhhhhhhhh.
My mind emptied, save for that sound.
I had no need for air, just a desperation to numb my mind.
The icy chill numbed my mind as well as my body, and slowly, I calmed. My heartbeat decelerated, and I could finally unclench my fists.
A flicker of purple flashed above the surface just as a presence broke through the barrier I’d unwittingly created around my mind.
Mine.
A gentle, feminine voice. It sounded like the water itself had spoken.
But that couldn’t be right… unless the sprites were back.
Mine, it said again.
The voice definitely wasn’t coming from the water. It echoed quietly from some place inside my head.
Mine!
I broke the surface with a cough, spluttering droplets into the face of my slightly-less-tiny dragon.
“Vel?” I asked softly, unsure if I’d lost my mind completely in the panic.
Mine, she purred, nuzzling my cheek.
“Vel!” I sobbed. “You can speak?!”
She hummed happily in answer.
The bathroom door crashed open again, and I experienced a weird sort of déjà vu. It was Charon, striding purposefully towards me. His eyebrows were drawn together, his pink lips pursed as he crashed to the floor beside the tub.
He reached forward, placing his palm against my cheek, brushing the sodden hair from my face in the process. Then, his forehead met mine.
“What happened?” he whispered.
“Nothing. Everything,” I sighed. “I don’t know. One moment I was fine — sure of my decision about my fate?—”
“Fate?”
I nodded, weary. Haltingly, I explained the night’s series of events to my best friend. From the ball, to the dancing, to the sisters and their trial.
“So you chose to accept it? This burden thrust upon you?” He huffed an exasperated breath as I nodded, then sighed again.
“You don’t deserve this, Nyss. You don’t deserve to have the fate of three entire realms resting on your shoulders. Six, if you include the afterlives!” He threw his hands in the air, echoing the agitation and helplessness I’d initially felt when Zeus hurled the prophecy my way.
I hadn’t wanted to believe it. But the words clawed into me, buried themselves deep within my skin, and I knew they would come to pass. I would either be the saviour of the realms, or the destruction of them.
And yet, despite fate’s cruelty, there was so much to love about my life.
I had a father who loved me fiercely, in the only way he could; a mother who sacrificed herself to save me; a best friend to grow up with, whose mother had loved me like her own; a trio of unlikely friends — from Olympus, of all places, and a fucking dragon companion who chose me .
I even had a three-headed monster of a dog for protection.
“It fell to me because I can carry it, Char. Whatever Fate has been woven, it’s mine — and my choice to accept. I would not place that burden on anyone else, no matter what it ends up costing me.”
He fell silent after that, leaving quietly when I began to shiver in the icy water.
Instead of getting out and putting more substantial clothing on, I drained the cold water and refilled the tub with water so hot it turned my skin pink. My shadows receded, flickering beneath my skin where they belonged, and I flung the tiny black shift across the floor in a sopping pile of silk.
I stayed in the warmth for a long time.
Long enough for it to cool again. Long enough to fall asleep.
I bolted awake to the imagined sound of a raucous shout—and the strange tug of something deep inside my chest.