Rising Heroes Book Four: The Sands of Ouroboros

Chapter Twenty-One: Til' Your Lungs Burst

Disclaimer: I don't own HOO or VE

Chapter Twenty-One: Til' Your Lungs Burst

Santorini, sometime in the past

"I'm jumping in," Sal announced. He started to pull off his shoes, but stopped when he saw shadows below the surface. "Um... someone else want to jump in."

"I can't swim," Reid admitted.

"I thought your uncle knew about boats!" Milo said.

"That doesn't mean I can swim!" Reid shouted back. "Goats and water... yeah, that's a no."

"We've been on an island and you didn't think this was something worth mentioning?" Sal started to dive again, then stopped. Suddenly he noticed a rope connected to a life preserver. Throwing it into the water, they watched it float for a minute.

Then out of nowhere, a hand reached up to grab the rope.

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Ten minutes earlier...

When Nixie dove into the water, her first thought? This is a horrible mistake.

Her second? I want my parents.

The bitterness of her grief and the pain of their deaths motivated her to keep swimming.

She could see the darkness below, the tentacles of Leviathan moving towards her. Gather all the power inside her, she struck out with the strongest force of lightning she could muster.

The lightning arced out around her, frying the water and any fish unlucky enough to be caught in her path. The tentacle now sported a hefty black burn mark, and a high pitched keening rippled through the water strong enough to make her ears ache.

She thought she might be able to strike him again, to take him down, but as fast as lightning one of the tentacles snapped out again and grabbed onto her ankle. She struggled, tried to lash out with wind and lightning, but it only pulled her deeper.

Memories flashed under her eyelids. Her mother teaching her to fight; her father carrying her through the night sky. Her grandparents and great-grandparents, all with so much knowledge and also love. Her sisters, sitting with her and watching movies together, giggling when they saw cute guys and girls. Coming out to her parents; the fierce look on her mother's face when she said, "we will always love you."

She was desperate for air, but she couldn't breathe. And then suddenly a dark figure cut through the water, casting bubbles around her. Arms looped through her own and pulled.

The tentacles grabbed for the figure, but giant wings pushed him away and propelled them through the water. The tentacle pulled at her ankle, and she felt like her leg might split in half when the man pulled out a knife and sliced through the sticky flesh.

The wings flapped again, and underneath the heaviness of her eyes she could see the vague fuzziness of her father's face.

"Phoenix!" Roc desperately flapped his wings with all his strength until they finally were fully out of the water. Leviathan's tentacles waved briefly but then sank back down into the depths. Roc shook Nixie, but even though she was out of water she couldn't breathe.

"I'm sorry!" Roc yelled at her as he shook her. "I'm so sorry. I want to be a good father and I'm sorry if I wasn't. Please, give me another chance. Live!"

Nixie spit water out of her mouth, coughing and choking. "Dad?" She asked.

Roc pulled her closer, hugging her while still keeping them in the air. Her golden hair sat wet and sopping on her back, and in her stupor she tried to use her powers to assist her father.

"You're a good dad," she finally admitted. "I'm stubborn, and stupid, reckless- you were right. I can't kill Leviathan. But I can't lose you either!"

Roc cupped her face and kissed her on the forehead. "Darling girl, you've already saved us. Thanks to you, when we go back in time we will destroy Leviathan and Rhea forever. We will know that we can't imprison them, that we must kill them. And I promise, I will stay alive for you."

Nixie wanted to cry, but there was no time. Below them, the sound of a boat chopping through the water interrupted her thoughts. She looked down to see Milo at the helm of a small boat, Sal and Reid behind him. Roc dropped down just at the boat stopped beneath them, and they both fell into the ship.

"We need to go back," Roc said. "The volcano's about to erupt."

"On it," Sal reported. He nodded to Milo, who gunned the gas. They raced towards the shore when suddenly Nixie cried out. "We have to go to the island!" she said.

"What?" Milo said. Even Reid looked taken aback.

"If we took this boat, there won't be enough room for the remaining Grigori on the island," Nixie explained.

"It's ok," Milo reassured her. "We made sure to take the smallest boat. My mom said there was extra room on some anyway."

Satisfied, Nixie nodded to her uncle and then raced to the front. As Milo brought the ship to the Grigori barricade he was about to go through, but Nixie stopped him.

"I can help!" She explained. "I can use the wind against the tsunami."

"But we could get dashed to bits!" Sal yelped.

"We've already disrupted time," Roc said. "We know what's going to happen; helping them stop the wave isn't going to change anything."

Milo nodded reluctantly and brought the ship along the other ones. "What force are you?" One of the conductors asked.

"Nature wielder," Nixie shouted back.

The conductor pointed an arm and Nixie followed its direction. She joined the rows of nature wielders waiting for the wave to strike.

"If anything happens, I'm proud to be your father," Roc shouted.

Nixie squeezed his hand, then turned her attention to the giant wall of water making their way towards them.