“I suspected as much.” Mom’s brow creased. “Tell me what you’ve found.”
I riffled through my notes, selecting the leatherbound pad where I’d compiled all the stories into one narrative, and began to read. “The Earth was born from dust and gas swirling around the young sun, shaped by collisions with countless celestial bodies. Among them was a fateful impact that formed the moon.”
“Yes, yes.” Mom folded her arms. “This matches the world’s creation as we know it. Interesting.”
I shot her an exasperated look, and she waved a hand, motioning for me to continue.
“One of these collisions brought the Star-Walkers. Celestial beings of immense power, each carried a different gift.”
I stopped to haul a breath and suck back some more of my coffee. “When they struck the Earth, they did not perish. Instead, they remained, shaping the molten world, cooling its surface, crafting the skies, and calling forth the oceans. As the earth evolved, so did they, becoming stewards of its forces.
“Four of the Star-Walkers became guardians of the sea. Enchanted by the beauty they had wrought, they chose to dwell within it, reshaping their forms to reflect their creations.
“Cetus, proud of the beasts he had summoned from the deep, gave himself the form of a man fused with a giant squid.
“Poseidon, ruler of tides and skies, adorned himself with a powerful tail, becoming one with the currents he commanded.
“Síocháin, guardian of peace, became a Selkie, able to walk as a seal or a woman and keep balance between land and sea.
“Agápe, the goddess of love and death, took a seductive and winged body to tenderly guide the souls of ocean creatures to the afterlife.”
I paused, heart aching at the thought of Skye and the beautiful aquamarine-scaled body that frightened her too deeply for her to see its magnificence. Maybe sharing these stories of Agápe with her could help her finally see what I did.
Mom was looking at me expectantly, so I continued.
“But even gods grew lonely.”
I leaned back in my chair as I thumbed a new page in my notepad and read aloud: “Each fashioned a super race in their image. These divine children—Mer, Sirens, Selkies, and Seabeasts—flourished. They interbred, even with the gods themselves, and demigods were born.
“But this star-forged world was powerful, and its creatures evolved on their own. From the tides, man emerged. He rose, and he ruled. But man was fragile. He drowned. Again and again, his body sank, and his soul wandered the depths, lost and unseen, for Agápe’s light did not reach him, as she was only the caretaker of the ocean’s creatures.
“So Poseidon forged a new god, the God of the Drowned, to gather the forgotten and rule the restless dead.”
I snapped the notepad shut, taking a long sip of my now lukewarm coffee.
My mother stood silently, her arms crossed and her brow furrowed, as she took it all in. At last, she exhaled and gripped the back of the vacant chair. “So there was no mention of the prophecy or what it might contain?”
“No.” I shook my head. “The book is all about the old gods, finishing with the creation of the Drowned god.”
“Keep this in mind when you go to the summit and observe.” Mom tapped a finger to her temple. “With Manannán’s rise, the shadows of the old gods are stirring again, pulling those tied to them into unknowingly reenacting the past.”
47
Morgana
TheThálassians and Queen Asherah had departed with a cohort of guards. This meant that Skye, Edward, Finn, Pisceon, Glacies, Aarna, and I would travel together.
We were set to leave at dawn, but it was still dark when I slipped through the waters to replenish my oxygen, the moonlight tinting the sea with silver. I broke the surface and drew in crisp air, brushing wet hair from my face as I gazed at the glittering night sky.
It was happening—a war.
Manannán had reclaimed Mortimer and had his army of the Drowned. But we had the box, and Inegar was bringing the key to the summit. If the prophecy was inside, we could stop all of this.
The water rippled beside me, and Skye emerged, grinning. “It’s not safe to swim alone,” she said, flicking her head back, water cascading in a glittering arc.
“I needed to breathe. Iwasn’t blessed with gills.”
“Oh, right, I forgot.” She ran a hand over the tears on the side of her neck, a sadness emanating from her.
