Invictus || Book 1

C.03 - Hestia

Hestia is drowning.

And even though it doesn't make sense, even though she distinctly remembers the tremors and the railway tracks and the sensation of air in her lungs before the light had consumed her, she's still drowning.

It suffocates her lungs, seizes her throat and has her senses overloading with a persistent burning ache that makes her want to scream as the pull of the water drags her under and over on a continuous loop.

Disorientated and running out of oxygen Hestia quickly accepts that she is no longer where she once was and slackens against the undercurrent. She waits to be discarded by the force of the water and when she thinks her lungs might implode she kicks her legs against the water until her head breaks the surface, coughing up lungfuls of saltwater as her eyes adjust to the sun.

The sun.

They're not in England anymore.

"Hestia!"

Amidst the horrible ringing in her ears, Hestia can still hear the faint echo of her brother's voice across the sea. Desperate to seek it out, to draw nearer to it, Hestia swivels in the water and sure enough, she catches a glimpse of a shoreline. Of her siblings.

Having been spat out by the riptide closer to shore, Hestia rides the more manageable waves back to land, collapsing onto a spot of smooth, black iridescent pebbles as the roar of the ocean fades into a low hum.

"Are we dead?"

The sound of someone's hand hitting flesh fills Hestia's senses but she's too busy coughing up lungfuls of salty water to see who has hit who. 

"Can everyone just shut up for a second?" Hestia croaks while her fingers dig harshly into the rocky terrain beneath her.

No one is happy to be told off, but the mumbling is kept to a minimum, long enough for Hestia to catch her breath and survey their new environment.

Behind her, as the water ebbs and recedes, Hestia notes the gradual gradient from clear to turquoise. If she hadn't almost been drowned by it, she might've said it looked beautiful -but she had nearly drowned- and that's not something Hestia can forget so easily, so she turns.

In front of her, nature seems less inclined to kill her. An endless expanse of pebbles that glint under the sun's harsh glare and in the middle of it, a large crowd of disgruntled-looking people. She recognises most of the faces from the station.

"Let's go check it out." Hestia quietly suggests.

Her siblings shrug and then, to everyone's surprise, Francis sets her gaze determinedly on the crowd and is the first to make a move forward.

"Um...ok," Nakoa whispers beside Hestia.

Hestia hums, almost in agreement, but doesn't question her sister's sudden desire to follow orders. Instead, she takes it for the win that it is and gestures for the rest of them to follow behind her.

The minute the six siblings reach the outer pockets of the crowd, they're swallowed up in the chaos.

"Where are we?"

"What happened?"

"How do we get back?"

All valid questions in Hestia's opinion, but she knows it won't do any good to hound the highly strung officer for answers, given he appears seconds away from bolting towards the water to take his chances with the ocean.

"Look I don't know where we are, but we need to remain calm," the officer pleads with the crowd but despite his profession, he hasn't one commanding bone in his body.