Astrid is the crown princess of Atlantis, but she barely has time to worry about the kingdom with six younger sisters to watch over, especially with the youngest coming into her powers as a daughter of the sea to navigate time. When Astrid fears tha...
Cerce lifts higher above us, the water beginning to twirl around her, though not with the same violence as the whirlpool still waiting with its yawning mouth.
Her eyes glow green, tinting the blue waters around her as her skirts and braids hover around her face. Then she opens her mouth.
"Just as I have been banished for no crime, so you will be scattered to strange lands at strange times-"
Panic rises in my throat, and I turn desperately to my sisters.
But the curse isn't complete. "Just as I have been strange to strangers, so you shall become whatever it is your new people perceive you are whenever you touch the water."
"Enough of this!" Fabio yells.
Without so much as turning to him, Cerce shoots a bolt of green lightning at him. His body writhes and his head slumps.
Colleen screams and tries to reach for him.
But Cerce doesn't pause her rant. "Just as I have been torn between two worlds and welcomed in neither, so you shall be as a human every time you touch land, pain in every metamorphosis."
Lena and Priscilla are both crying, and I want to shoot some of Cerce's lightning back at her.
But I am helpless.
"But there is hope, for there is always hope for the truly innocent."
I look up, surprised.
A sick smile plays on Cerce's face. "There is a way to break the curse and return to your true forms; to re-assume your heritage. You must win the heart of the first mortal man, high or low, who beholds you in your exile, and he must win your heart also. Only then shall you be free to tear your hearts apart and return as princesses of Atlantis."
Elspeth gasps in horror beside me, but that is nothing like the revulsion on Calypso's face. And neither have any share of the sickness in my heart as I look across at Lena. Six year-old Lena.
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